Good Friday with A Few Good Men

Good Friday this year started with an early morning walk around Ranelagh where we picked litter up as we walked the dog. If everyone took a few minutes every few days to clean up outside their house, we could find ourselves with lovely clean streets when lockdown finished.  I got my litter picker in Dealz but I am sure they are available in other shops too.

Other than that we had a fairly quiet day. Ciaran did a bit of work on an artwork proposal for a government initiative to support artists and encourage creativitiy during the pandemic.  
We both also did Spanish classes online and I signed up for an additional language app to support my language learning.

We went for another walk about 6pm and wandered around Ranelagh (always sticking to no more than 2km from our house and also ensuring we socially distanced from other walkers as we passed them) and then when we came home Ciaran had a Zoom meetup with a gang of friends.

Zoom has been quite the life saver in these times. On Thursday, Ciaran was in Zoom meetings pretty much all day with clients and also staff.....later after work he then did a Zoom work out with trainer / physiotherapist Derek Ryan and a group of guys that he plays squash with.  Technology is great!

At one point about 4.30pm I was on a Teams online meeting with the Library Finance Team and Ciaran was in one of his meetings and to be honest it just felt like the strangest thing ever. It's like we have advanced ourselves so rapidly in the last few weeks. I guess it is one of the good things that has come out of the pandemic.

And then it was on to our evening.  I cooked the nicest steaks with really great hasselback potatoes to go with them. I wish I took a picture as they were so good!

After flicking around Netflix and regular TV we finally settled on a film we could both watch. It was an oldie but a goodie - A Few Good Men! 

I put the below up on my Facebook and my twin sister commented from the States that she wished she could be there to watch it. Lol!

Let them eat Bread!

After days searching for yeast and plain flour (I had Self Raising flour in my press) I finally was able to source same and bake bread!!

I got the yeast in Lidl and the plain flour in Supervalu. The flour is Odlums brand which I see from the packaging has been milling in Ireland since 1845!

 I followed the "Jenny Can Cook" recipe which I have put a link to down below.

It's ridiculously easy - the only difficult thing about it is the amount of time that you need to give to the initial proof - but that's only 3 hours.

While it was on the second proof - about 40 mins or so, I put my Le Creuset "Dutch Oven" in to the oven to heat up. I barely use this pot - I think the only thing I cook in it is roast chicken, so I was glad to use it to make bread.

Here's the result of my efforts!!

Gorgeous tasty bread which was effortless to make.  I will definitely make it again soon.
And of course you can imagine what I topped it with......Yup, a big smathering of Kerrygold butter!

If you want to make your own bread, here's the recipe I used (and Yes, that is Jenny of Jenny Jones fame!)

Click below to watch the YouTube tutorial

On my next bread making adventure, I am thinking I may add some extra ingredients to the bread - sun dried tomatoes perhaps, or maybe something like rosemary to make herb bread or perhaps even cheese?! Hmmmm I'll have a good think about this!

Spring has sprung

Before we started working from home this morning we took a little walk in Ranelagh Gardens which is a couple of minutes away from our house. It was bright, quiet and there was the cutest little family of ducklings swimming along with their mother. I shared a live video on Facebook and not only was it cute to look at but the sounds of the duck quacking and birds tweeting in the background was so lovely.

During the day my sister who lives in The Hague texted a quote from the Dutch Prime Minister where he said he thought there was zero chance of things returning to normal soon and that people should get used to the "new normal" until Summer at least. 
And then a little later I saw the news that Debenhams had gone in to liquidation and their shops in Ireland would not be reopening. Desperate news with a loss of many jobs.  Debenhams had some stores in prime sites in including Henry Street and the Blanchardstown Centre and I often stopped in to the one in Blackrock on my way home from work and bought items that I had reserved online before visiting.

After work, we walked to Ranelagh and did a mini beer run in Redmonds. We were served by a friendly guywho was wearing a Sierra Nevada neck scarf which I admired. He said it was perfect for in these times and indicated how he could pull it up over his mouth! 

And so Thursday leads us in to what is probably going to be the strangest Easter ever. 

Stay safe, stay well and stay at home.

Vet Visit no.2

Bones was back at the vet today at 10am to go under a general anesthetic for the removal of the two epulis in his mouth. Along with this he got a cyst removed from his neck and additionally the vet discovered on close inspection that 3 teeth needed to be removed. That's some amount of work on the poor fella.

But we picked him up at 6.30pm and he was in ok form all considering.

Once we got home he hopped in to his basket snuggled up and went straight asleep.....except for a little walk in to the kitchen to beg Ciaran for some ham - which of course he obliged!

 Across from the vet clinic is an interesting mid century modern building. It's the former Irish Nationwide Building (which was originally built for the Carroll's Tobacco Company) and was designed by Robinson Keefe Devane.  It is currently undergoing some refurbishment but hopefully it won't change too much.

I wonder if the Devane is Andrew Devane who designed the Irish Life Building on Talbot Street.  I'm sure my sister may know as she worked for Irish Life for nearly 20 years.

A funny story about my sister working for this Insurance company was that prior to starting working with Irish Life she worked as a proof reader for a company that produced numerous magazines and publications. An American friend of hers was visiting her and rather than heading from the airport to meet my sister at home after work, she decided to head in to the city to surprise my sister at her place of work.  
So she headed in to the city and not knowing where Amy's actual workplace was she called in to the tourist office for help. And it was there that she told the tourist office assistant that her friend worked for "Irish Life Magazine" and could she direct her to the building where the magazine was based. 
Well the assistant helped as best she could but she told T. that there was no magazine called "Irish Life" but that there was an insurance company.  
And then it was at this point that T. uttered the best statement ever and 20 years later my twin sister and I  still laugh about
"Oh no, Amy would NEVER work for an Insurance Company"

Hope that little story gave YOU a laugh!!

Emergency Vet Visit

Trust Bones to need a vet visit during a pandemic!

The other day when I was brushing Bones hair near his face I noticed that he winced. This happened again yesterday and once again I noticed that he did it again today.  

So I knew something was up and started investigating. Ciaran picked him up and I had a look in his mouth. Straightaway I saw a growth of some kind and reckoned he needed to go to the vet.

I rang our vet to see if they were open. Normally they don't operate an appointment system but they gave me an appointment time of 6.10pm and instructed me to ring the clinic from outside when I arrived.

So I popped Bones on the lead and walked down to Charlemont Street which is about 15 minutes away. 

When I arrived, I rang to let them know I was outside. They asked me a few more questions and said there were a few patients ahead of me but they would take Bones in when it was his turn.

There were people waiting with pets in cars and the vet staff came out and took different animals in and dropped animals back out to their humans with instructions on how to care for their pets and how to give them their medications, etc. The staff were decked out in full PPE.

And then it was Bones turn. He was in for about 10 mins when I got a phone call from the vet who explained what had been found and what she recommended.  Basically he has what she thinks is a benign growth that needs to be removed and sent off for analysis and at the same time as doing this she will clean his teeth and remove any bad ones (I'm not surprised by this - his teeth are dire) along with removing a cyst from under his chin. While I was on the phone, she looked up the diary and booked him in to be operated on tomorrow at 10am.

I am in the office doing essential work tomorrow (answering the Community Call Line) so Ciaran will take him down to the clinic for his op (he needs to fast from midnight).

From my description of how the consultation was handled, you can see how the vet practise was adhering to social distancing.

Along with the usual Covid19 signage in the window there was instructions on what to do on arrival.

While we waited outside, Bones pulled on the lead as if to say "C'mon Enid, we don't need to go in there!"

 

I love this retro sign on the Vet clinic!

Bones is in good hands.  I'll let you know how the op goes tomorrow.

A tale of two leaders

Yesterday there was two very different pieces of news about the leaders of two neighbouring islands.

In Ireland, it was announced our Taoiseach (Prime Minister) has rejoined the Medical Register. Dr Leo Varadkar will join the frontline and work one day a week for the Health Services Executive.  Good man Leo!!

While on the nearby island of Great Britain, a different news story emerged. Their Prime Minister Boris Johnson was sadly taken to hospital with a high temperature after testing Covid19 positive about 10 days ago and still suffering from symptoms. As of today he is still in hospital and may be kept in for another night, although it is reported that he is working away from his bed.

The above indicates that the Corona Virus does not discriminate against anyone and why we need to STAY INSIDE and flatten the curve!

It's a lovely bright day here in Ireland. I got out for a walk with the dog this morning before working from home and will now get out for an evening walk with him.

Edit>>  
At about 8.30pm here in Ireland, news came through that Boris Johnson was moved to Intensive Care due to a worsening of his condition. I hope he recovers. He is in the best place and will get the best of care from the NHS. Get well soon Boris.

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.