Playgrounds all shut up

Well these pics say a lot.....

 

Playgounds all over Ireland are locked up and families are prevented from entering and playing in them.  The playgrounds are closed in order to stop the spread of Covid19 and along with schools were one of the things that were closed very quickly early in the pandemic. I guess the thinking is that children need to very much stay in doors away from others as they can be vectors for the virus as well as being symptom free and of course children of a young age would not understand the concept of social distancing.

This time has been tough for children and parents. They can't see their grandparents, schools are closed and their routines are gone and then some are confined to very close spaces with many families living in very small apartments in Ireland with no balconies. Children are resilient though, they will get through this. 

Ranelagh Park was very quiet - we walked through it in order to give the dog a bit of a run on the way to the shops this morning. But when busy at times, the council has spray painted handy reminders on the ground in order to get the message of social distancing across to park visitors.

Saturday night is movie night

Saturday was slow.  We got up and went out for a cycle in to Dublin City (less than 2km away from our house). Ciaran rode his Brompton fold up bike while I was on my electric bike. We cycled to Fallon & Byrne on Exchequor Street where I bought some freshly made bread and some Ranch Dressing (this seems to be the only place that I have found in Dublin that sells this type of dressing!).  I also bought a 50% off Easter Egg that includes mini peanut butter eggs inside - can't wait to taste those!

We then did chores around the house (my kitchen could not be any cleaner and we are on top of all of the laundry).  Ciaran did a video lesson with his Spanish teacher at 4pm while I did an online class at the same time. It felt really productive to do that and I will do another class today.

Later on we decided that we would pick up dinner from Dillingers which would be our normal Friday or Saturday haunt (we sit in the exact same spot at the end of the bar, every time we go, yes that is how regular we are!).  We walked up to Ranelagh Village and visited Dillingers to get our order in.  They have it set up that they have the door open and then it is all blocked off to the actual restaurant. In order to comply with social distancing we stood at the door and spoke to the manager with space between us all and then gave in our order.  He told us to call back in about 10 minutes and it would be ready then.  While we were waiting for our food, we walked up the road to Redmonds Beer & Wine shop and bought some supplies there.

We walked home fairly smartly in order to keep the food warm.  Look how good it was......so tasty! Hearty American style food at home - what can beat that?!
I had Ribs while Ciaran had Hot Wings and then we had a side of Chilli Fries. 

 

And so for the movie selection......we watched.....wait for it...."Contagion"

Oh my gosh what a film. We had seen it before a couple of years ago but jeez what a different perspective watching it while we are living in a real life pandemic.  Seriously scary.......

And that was our Saturday with us heading to bed about 11.30pm - how did your Saturday go? Hope you had a good one! 

What I do be doing these days.....

Here's some of the things I've been getting up to or as we might say in Ireland "What I do be doing"!

Shopping locally:
We walked to The Village Butcher in Ranelagh after both working from home on Friday. On Captain Gerry's (our friend that we sail with) recommendation we bought wings and I also got some BBQ sauce and beef dripping.

I can report that the wings tasted great after cooking them for over an hour later on that evening.

We've been eating Rhubarb Tart very kindly baked by our neighbour. In exchange we will buy them the Sunday newspapers and leave them on their doorstep first thing tomorrow morning. When the tart was handed over it was done with the correct social distance, a text arrived to say our neighbour had something for us. Ciaran went out the front and the tart was placed on the wall and then our neighbour stepped back and Ciaran stepped in and took it. They then spoke to each other from a distance.

Seriously, is there anything nicer than a present of a homemade bake?!

I was very recently introduced to The Felice Brothers and I'm really enjoying listening to them.

Life on lockdown......

How are you finding lockdown?

For extroverts it is quite a difficult time but many introverts are loving the shutdown and the going out ban - their natural habitat is indoors away from others!

For me, I found it very difficult to work from home on Tuesday so I was glad to get in to the office on Wednesday and Thursday (I am working on an essential service community helpline) but will be back working remotely from home tomorrow.

Here's a few suggestions of what to do if you are cocooning at home and staying safe and well indoors away from risk of exposure 

• Play cards
• Bake a cake
• Learn a language (courses available for free through Irish Libraries)
• Study online
• Paint
• Sew bunting and hang out in your front garden for neighbours to enjoy
• Blog
• Enjoy art 
• Download an eBook or eMagazine (check out your library website and get these items for free)
• Rearrange your book shelves - but them in size or colour order
• Virtual meetups with friends through apps like Zoom - why not organize a brunch, afternoon tea or themed meetup - 80's themed sounds fun!!

Light a candle and relax and enjoy

Or maybe the most useful of all thing to do is to volunteer.  Even if it is just a case of calling to elderly neighbours and volunteering to do a bit of food shopping for them.

Can you think of anything else you could do? 

One thing you certainly shouldn't do is attempt to cut or dye your hair yourself at home.  Don't do it folks!  Just wait until the hairdressers reopen......

Put a little Joux in your life!

Introducing "Joux"

This is my sister Lydia's cat.  He lives in The Netherlands after travelling from Muscat, Oman with Lydia in the cabin with Turkish Airlines.

He is an indoors cat and never ventures out.  His only experience of the outside is looking out Lydia's apartment window and chattering at birds. He is quite adorable and makes the funniest little sound when looking at the birds. 

Other than that he sleeps.....a lot......and then wakes up and begs for treats and food.

Quite the indulged little guy but an absolute gorgeous fur ball and great company.

Weekends are for Takeaway!

Since all of our favourite restaurants have closed we have been eating at home every evening. I've been cooking simple items like meatballs, chicken, baked broccoli and cauliflower cheese. I generally have cooked one night and then eaten the same meal over two nights. It makes sense to do this when cooking only for two and it saves on the clean up.

Here's some of the items I cooked......and I also bought some L'Or coffee for my coffee maker - I'm saving a fortune by not buying takeaway coffees!

The below are puff pastry with cream cheese, tomato puree and chorizo. Delish!

However, when the weekend came it was time for a takeaway!  We got Rasoi last weekend which is an Indian takeaway restaurant in Ranelagh and it does amazing food. So tasty and travels well in comparison to some takeaway food.  I had biryani for the first time and it was delicious - I'll definitely order it again.

This weekend we plan to order from Dillingers which is were we would generally be found of a Friday night.  So if we can't go to Dillingers it will come to us!

Working from Home

When this Covid-19 pandemic ends, it is going to be a changed world. 

Never could I imagine a few months ago that I would be in a position where I would be working from home. Starting out working in libraries over 20 yrs ago, I generally saw myself  as working in Librarian positions that meant I would be based in a Library branch . However, over the years I moved around and worked in different areas of library services that meant being based in Library HQ and not just branches. The roles were varied and I always thought that there were elements that could be done remotely. My current role is very much desk based in Library HQ and so with the spread of the Covid19 virus and the shutdown of the country I found myself today in the situation where I worked remotely from home for the first time.

I'm sure many companies have found themselves suddenly in the position where they may not have been set up for remote working but they quite quickly had to get set up. It's heartening to see and it is great to see technology being embraced and utilised to allow this to happen. It means that industy can continue while workers are kept safe and hopefully will lead to a flattening of the curve.  Ireland is still a few weeks away from the peak of this so time will tell whether all of our efforts will work.  And when this is all over, we will probably have a changed work landscape and some may not return to the traditional work office setting......time will tell on this one also.

Here's a few pics of my desk set up at home

This was where I set up my desk firstly but then moved to the other side of the room to give me a better view facing out to the stairs

First task of the day was to make a cup of coffee!

 

Working girl!

My view from the studio

For posterity - my sisters  in their homes in The Hague Netherlands, Galway Ireland and me in Dublin 31/03/2020

A fun fact about the picture of the 4 of us - we are all twins!!
Guess which twin goes with which twin!