It's stopped raining!!!

Hello Sunshine!

While there was record snowfalls up in Madrid there a deluge of rain here in Malaga. I guess we can blame Global Warming which is bringing about massive climate change. However, after 7 days of heavy heavy rain the sunshine came back yesterday. Along with the heavy rain we had low temperatures which pushed us to order a heater from Amazon and then while we were waiting for it to arrive we went and bought a small one from Carrefour. Along with this two hot water bottles were called in to action. Yes it was that cold!

But that's all changed now and for the next 10 days or so we will have sun with a temperature of 14 degrees today going up to 18 degrees over the next week.  I will gladly take it!!

Yesterday when the rain broke we got out for a walk and checked out some architecture in Malaga. Pictured above is a small courtyard that you get let out to as you exit the ~Picasso museum. It's a very calm place and if you ever come and visit me in Malaga I'll take you for a look!

Back on curfew here in Spain

Restrictions in Malaga

After loosening restrictions for Christmas and 3 Kings celebrations here in Malaga, the authorities have now put restrictions back in place that will see us on a 10pm curfew with restaurants and bars closing at 6pm. 

We haven't been out in ages preferring to eat on our balcony with just the two of us. However, this weekend we did eat out in two restaurants - El Meson de Cervantes and Casa Lola.

El Meson de Cervantes

We had eaten in El Meson de Cervantes back in February before there was any major talk of Covid and restrictions when we first visited Malaga in order to find and rent an apartment for the year. We both really enjoyed our first visit to this restaurant, it had a great ambiance and the food was excellent. We probably over ordered on our first visit because we were unused to eating tapas style but on this visit we knew to order a few small or medium tapas and then add more if we needed.

One of the really interesting dishes we had was this black pudding one with sweet potato - really good!

But this was my favourite - battered prawns with treacle. Oh dear lord, so so good!!

Casa Lola

Then the night after we visited our favourite Casa Lola where we had our usual order of Russian Salad along with a few other tapas including Prawns Pil-Pil which were amazing!

And now we are in a restricted situation so it's nice to have the memories of these evenings out.......and of course as the vaccination is rolled out across the population restaurants will open up again in the evening and we will get back out for nice meals. It's something to look forward to!

Quizzing times!

Let's get Quizzical - online Quizzes with DLR Libraries

 

So here's something fun that I've been getting up to!

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown are currently running online quizzes for both children and adults. On the night after Christmas night, they ran a big bumper one that was Ireland themed. I took part in this one here in Spain, along with friends in Dublin and also a friend in Washington DC! It was great fun with Ciaran helping me out on all of the sports questions and more.

Online Quiz

Then last night there was another quiz which was 80's and 90's movie themes. This was also a lot of fun with a nice easy opening question about the character Baby in the film Dirty Dancing. What was her name? Out of 4 choices, it was of course "Frances" or Frances Houseman to be exact!

Connecting virtually through trivia

For this quiz I played along with friends in Dublin (who are currently on lockdown in D6 and also in Waddelai) and some of us texted each other during the quiz to see how we were all getting on......and there was some good natured slagging too in regards to who was beating who!!
There was about 100 people quizzing and I was happy with a mid table result of ending in 43rd place!

Join in on the next Quiz

There will be future quizzes so if you want to join in the fun, send an email to libraryquiz@dlrcoco.ie and you will be sent the link to join in the fun. 

In all honesty it is a great lock down activity and even if you aren't locked down due to Covid, it is the perfect thing to stay in and stay safe doing on a Saturday night from anywhere in the world!

Zooming in to the New Year!

Malaga Marina 31st Dec 2020

Happy New Year!

I can honestly say that I have never been happier to see the back of a year. 2020 was generally good for me but even still it was a terror of  a year that has caused so much misery the world over. For me, there were challenges but they were mainly able to be over come (i.e. my move to Spain for a year was set back by a few months) but I still felt like I was floundering many times due to everything that living in a pandemic brings. It took me awhile to realize that once you get to the fact that something is going to be bad, you then have to come to the conclusion that in reality it will be way worse than you thought. It will also go on lot longer than you thought. I don't think I was alone in thinking that things would be getting back to normal in Summer of 2020. And boy was I wrong!!

But there is a lot to look forward to. Things will get better and mass vaccination is on the horizon for the world. We will overcome Covid 19.

New Year Celebrations by Zoom

We met virtually with friends on New Years Eve which meant that here in Spain we could celebrate the new year with friends in Ireland. The two couples we met with had planned to have dinner together but that was cancelled due to the heightened Covid situation in Ireland. However, the couple that were due to host, still went ahead with their plans to cook a special dinner and dropped it around to the others. Here in Spain we got to see the lovely food that was made and were told about how it was made. We had eaten our seafood dinner and cheese and charcuterie canapes so we enjoyed hearing about what they were eating and enjoying. There was also bubbles being enjoyed in both countries with Bollinger being drank on Moyne Road with a sparkling cava mixed with OJ to make a mimosa being drank here. All in all great fun and a few hours with great company passed very quickly! We wished each other Happy New Year about 11.30pm Spanish time and then Ciaran and I had our own little celebration when the clock struck 12 here. We went out on to our terrace and took in the sights and sounds of the city celebrating with fireworks going off around us.

It was a very different celebration of the New Year but it was one that kept us all safe and we will remember it forever.

And thankfully it is good to end this bad year knowing that all of my friends and family are safe and well and hopefully will stay this way well in to 2021 until we are all vaccinated.

Happy New Year to you all!

My facebook post just after midnight

Christmas 2020

Christmas 2020 was great!

It was lovely and quiet and consisted of very little bar relaxing, eating, watching movies and a little swim on Christmas Day.

Unfortunately my phone died so I only have photos that I had uploaded to social media - but they give a small sampling of how Christmas was.

Christmas Day Swim in Spain

A few days before Christmas we decided we would go for a Christmas Day swim. In fairness if there are swimmers getting in to the cold waters of the Irish sea at the Forty Foot there should be no excuse for us not to do it in the somewhat warmer waters of Malaga. It's also been something that I always said I would like to do on just about Christmas that I was in Key West for. But for one reason or other I never did it.

So this Christmas day, I packed a flask of coffee and put some Baileys Irish Cream Liquor in a hip flask and went to the sea for a swim along with a large bar of Cadburys Dairy Milk for afterwards, 

Cold Water

I won't lie the water was fairly cold but as we were getting out I said "let's get back in for a minute" and we did go back in, and it was fun, and it made me shout out loud and feel ALIVE!!!

Chilled out Christmas

After our swim we enjoyed a walk on Calle Larios with Bones to enjoy the Christmas lights and then went home to enjoy some cheese, charcuterie (Hello Iberian Ham!) and some Christmas Canapes. I made bacon wrapped dates on the bbq which were divine......and then I melted a little blue cheese over them which made them even better!!! I enjoyed these so very much with a mimosa and Christmas music, just a lovely combo!

We followed all of this food later with a surf and turf dinner - but a few brussels sprouts managed to sneak on to the plate too!

On the day after Christmas on St Stephens Day I was volunteering in the Charity Shop again so I headed off for there first thing while Ciaran went off for a coffee in town and a little walk with the dog. We then got up to very little really bar sitting in the sun and doing a little Spanish lesson on our phone. However later that evening after dinner we had a great time partaking in the DLR Library online quiz. We finished mid table after making a few too many silly mistakes on some questions, I had put the details up on Facebook so one Facebook friend in Washington DC signed up and joined in the fun along with another Facebook friend playing along with her family in Dublin. We all finished up near each other but here in Spain we had fun keeping an eye on where they were in relation to us during the quiz. I also kept an eye on my good friend and work colleague who went on to top the leaderboard out of 93 participants and win the quiz!  Good for him!!!

And now it is a case of looking forward to 2021 and a better new year......which I am unbelievable thankful for as it can't be any worse than 2020!!!

It's Christmas week in Spain......and it is oh so quiet

 A quiet Christmas 2020

It's been an unusual year and it is turning in to an unusual Christmas. All over the world people are not having the Christmas that they probably expected at the beginning of 2020. But as we all know as Covid took hold all our plans for big events and holidays fell to the wayside.

Literally in the last 24 hours, many people in the UK have had the rug pulled from underneath them as a new fast spreading strain of covid has caused lots of countries to close their borders to travellers from the UK. This probably has most impact on Irish people as many live and work in the UK but had intended to get home for Christmas...but now unfortunately this is not to be.

For my family there has been some changes to Christmas celebrations this year with my younger sister in The Netherlands cancelling her plans to travel home while my twin sister in USA and me in Spain, never even seriously considered travelling back to Ireland given the unfolding situation over the past year. And so it will be a quiet day in my parents house with just my younger sister travelling from Galway to stay with them. My sister works in IT so has been working remotely even before Covid, so it is very safe for her to visit with my parents. And they will then go to my older sisters house for Christmas dinner with her family. 

A quiet safe Christmas for all of the family and hopefully then we can all see each other next Christmas time in 2021.

For the two of us here in Malaga we have been having a quiet time enjoying such things as the lights on Larios and taking the dog for walks in the city in the mild weather. It's been blissful but at times does not feel like it is Christmas. 

On Saturday I went for a "Christmas Lunch" with two of my colleagues from the Charity Shop that I volunteer in. I really enjoyed this and I have to say it felt very normal.

Christmas Plans

We've also been planning what we would like to get up to and what we want to eat on Christmas day - let's just say given the year we have had my number 1 plan is to start the day with a mimosa so tomorrow I will go buy a bottle of proseco and some orange juice!

Yesterday we stopped off for a coffee in nice spot on Calle Larios. We had a lovely time, chatting away and people watching. I love these small pleasures in life!

Feliz Navidad to y'all and stay well!!

Well being with "Ground"

Well being

Spa specialist Peigin Crowley has just launched her range of wellbeing products that I can only describe as A-mazing! They are made in small batches in County Cork in Ireland and are mainly vegan and organic. They are now available from Brown Thomas and I think are perfect presents for those hard to buy for people this Christmas.

Body Oil

The two products that I have started using are the sleep body oil and the face balm. I have very dry skin on my legs that tends to get way worse once the colder weather sets in. However, my dry skin is completely gone now after using the body oil after having a shower. It's incredible stuff, smells fantastic but not overly oily and a little goes a long way. I also use a little bit of it when I get ready for bed - I just rub a little over my chest and shoulders and I find that the lavender really helps me have a restful sleep (or as printed on the bottle "codladh" which is the irish word for Sleep).

Face Balm

The other product that I am using is a face balm that is lime and blackseed flavor. I adore anything with lime and this is just gorgeous and it certainly makes me feel alive or "beo" as also printed on the packaging. Check out the image of the little wooden spatula that comes with the balm - how adorable! The balm is semi sold but it melts quickly when warmed and rubbed on the skin. I've been using the balm on my forehead where I have particularly dry skin. Works like a charm and smells so good!

These are gorgeous Irish products. The packaging is beautiful and there are little details that make it really special - again, look at that little wooden spatula with the balm.....seriously cute!! 

Check out the Brown Thomas site for further details and Ground products.

Read the full story about the range here on the Ground website.