Day number ??

So I've lost count of how many days we have been on lockdown, however I have to report that I am not finding every day to be the same. I think I am lucky with my work that I am working remotely bar one day when I am working from the office. The day in the office tends to keep all of the other days straight.  My office day is Wednesday which I think is a good one as it is slap bang in the middle of the week and gives me a break in the middle of two days from working at home. Also on my office day I have an 8am start which I really like as it gets me up and out early.

So other than working, what else have I been doing?

Well the dog is still recovering from his operation and he has been needing a lot of minding. He is still very mopey and I have been dosing him with painkillers and antibiotics. 

But aside from that I have been writing letters and cards! 

So keep an eye on your letterbox you might receive a note from me in the future!! 

On my walk on Tuesday evening in Ranelagh I spotted this beauty. Very nice indeed:

 And yesterday I chilled in the garden with a good book and a Brandy Alexander, which with the good weather, brought me right back to where I was introduced to Brandy Alexanders. It was on the second last night of my Caribbean sailing trip where we landed in Marigot Bay in St Lucia and after dinner, Patricia made the suggestion that the perfect chaser would be a Brandy Alexander - well she sure was right!

It certainly is nice to think of trips past and great holidays at this time - click here to read about our most recent sailing hol.

Since I had my first "Alex" I made it my mission to introduce them to lots of others - you can see here!

Easter Monday

Before the Easter break, I was thinking that I didn't need or want time off work because I couldn't go anywhere or do anything. But looking back at the last couple of days I have to say I had a really nice break and in someways probably because we didn't plan anything and we took a complete break and did very little and we weren't rushing around like we generally are over a Bank Holiday.

Easter Monday started with a little cycle over to the Swan Centre in order to get dog food for the young man. We called in to Barking Mad Boutique and picked up some of their own brand food which Bones is very keen on.

We chatted to the shop assistant and he told us that they are doing free delivery to the local area and that we can ring him in order to arrange.  That's a great service and we may take them up on the offer the next time we need food.  
Their phone number is 01 - 496 8544

This is Bones favourite selection!

Bones came with us to Rathmines - he traveled in the panniers of my electric bike. He loves this mode of transport with the wind in his face and looking at all the sights. He is easily pleased!

And really that was the extent of what we got up to on Monday, bar doing another online Spanish lesson and also watching "Ford vs. Ferrari" with Christian Bale and Matt Damon. Its a great film, I really recommend it.

Speaking of Matt Damon, it seems that he is on lockdown in Dublin, in of all places, none other than Dalkey.  He has been spotted around town and there are a few tweets about what he is getting up to, including going for a swim in the sea locally - doing the most Irish of things, bringing his towel in a Supervalu plastic bag. Love it!!

 

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was far chillier than the day before and the dog was feeling very off so we decided not to take him out for a walk and to have a chilled day instead.  We planned to get dinner from Rasoi and watch the movie "Parasite"

And that's what we did!

Rasoi was really good and I ordered enough to have leftovers for today also.

"Parasite" was just brilliant. What a storyline it fascinated me and held my attention for the whole time.  It was definitely an Oscar worthy winner. It had so much going for it, it was funny but then so despicable in parts and kind of charming too. Along with the bizarre twists it was quite the watch.

In the afternoon, treated myself to a coffee with Brandy and Creme de Cacao (hey, it was Easter after all). It was a sort of mash up between a French Coffee and a Brandy Alexander and was a nice little pick me up!

I was seriously moved by the 1916 Rising commemorations that were shown on the RTE news. You can see more about it here.
Something really got to me when I saw a solitary President and Mrs Higgins laying a wreath in Aras an Uachtarain and by the time the stripped back ceremony in the GPO Courtyard was shown, I was in tears. 
The enormity of the situation gripped me so strongly and apprehensions of how we would ever get going again and back to where we were, played so heavily on my mind. It was difficult to see it ending well. But I pushed through and made myself see the positives.  

We will do it, we will get through this and we will overcome.

Busy Bunnies

So our Easter was surprisingly busy and not as quiet as we expected.

Here's what we got up to over the weekend on Easter Saturday.

Along with bringing Bones back to the vet (he got more pain, meds, antibiotic cream and also oral antibiotics) I got to do a video chat with my twin sister and our bestie Alice. It was such fun and for a change the weather was good in all 3 places - Ireland was particularly sunny on Saturday while Florida had usual Florida weather. 

While Pigsy painted in the garden, I sat out and enjoyed a drink and a Summer read by Diane Chamberlain (she's my new go to as I have read all of Elin Hilderbrand, except for her latest book which was released Oct 2019 - I'm still waiting for this book and I have on reserve from the library) 

Shout out to Dillingers for another great dinner on Saturday night - it was Ribs & Wings again, but we also got Mac & Cheese which is soooo good. I think their Mac & Cheese may be the best I've tasted in Dublin!!

And then later that evening we lit up the house for #ShineYourLight at 9pm

Here's Sinead O'Connor singing Snow Patrol's "Run" as part of this RTE event. It was very moving - Ciaran was more moved then me, I was affected by watching the Easter Rising commemorations the next day on Easter Sunday, I'll tell you about that in my next blog.

  

Easter Doors!

Happy Easter everyone. It is an Easter unlike any other the world over. But it's good to see that some things can be easily done to mark the celebration and spread good cheer.

All over the place, doors are dressed with wreaths for Easter to welcome this event.

Check out my family's decorated doors:

 My door

 My twin sisters door

 My older sister's door

 My parent's door

I love them all and can't pick a favourite! They sure do bring a smile to my face and some cheer in to my life today. And boy do we all need cheer at this time.

Stay safe and well friends!

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!