This blog was originally started to track our progress as we regenerated a derelict Victorian house in Dublin. We turned an old crumbling ruin in to our dream house! If you wish to read through the trials and tribulations of the house build it is best to start at the oldest blog post and read in date order. The blog then evolved in to being all about my life in Dublin, Ireland and then life in Malaga, Spain with artist "PIGSY" and now back in Dublin
I hope you enjoy reading it!
Eurovision 2022 will be one that I will remember for a long time.
Not only was it a hugely strong competition with so many brilliant songs but it was ultimately the year that all countries came together in solidarity with Ukraine and voted them as winner in a nailbiting final.
For me, I had selected Sweden as my favourite after hearing it in the semi-final.
However, the minute I heard the UK entry I immediately changed my mind. Sam Ryder's Space Man was a winner to me.
Ultimately, the UK came 2nd, Sweden came 3rd after the 1st place Ukraine. I was very happy with that result.
And for your listening pleasure, the UK entry is below
"Everything Bagel Seasoning" in Supervalu Rathbourne
I'd seen mention of "Everything Bagel Seasoning" on different American forums and I really liked the sound of it. I considered trying to buy some online and also planned to buy some on my next trip to the States.
However, I was pleasantly surprized to find it on sale in Supervalu Rathbourne today. They have a whole shelf full of non-Irish food from different Eastern European countries along with some products from USA (Hello JIF peanut butter!).
And there it was in the USA section - "Everything Bagel Seasoning"!
I was also tempted to buy "Liquid Smoke" but left that for another day.
On the train home from Rathbourne (I was visiting my parents) I decided that I would bake some Keto Bread (recipe here) and would top with the seasoning.
OMG - it tastes so good!!
And even better was when I smeared a big load of cream cheese on the bread and topped with more seasoning. So delicious!
"Everything Bagel Seasoning" gets a big thumbs up from me so do try and get your hands on some if you can.
And at the same time I'm watching classic Aer Lingus ads on YouTube.....they don't make them like they used to.....
You've got to love everything about this ad. From the beautiful instrumental version of "True Colours" to all of the varied characters representative of life.
I had to smile to myself at the "runner". A long while ago, before I started my career as a librarian, I worked for Aer Lingus as a boarding agent. Whenever, we had a passenger who had a checked in late, we would receive a call from check in with an update for us. They would tell us that a passenger was on their way and to look out for them before we closed the gate - the passenger would have been told they might make the flight if they could RUN. We would then refer to this passenger as a "runner". As in we might say to the gate agent "we are all boarded, bar a runner who we are giving 1 more minute to get here before we close". Of course a runner would generally not have checked in bags because the check in desk wouldn't let them check in if they had bags because they might make it if they ran but their bags would not. Given that it was over twenty years ago when I worked for this airline, the majority of people checked in bags because of course at that time baggage was not charged for. So it was a rarity for people not to have checked bags - except for, of course, business people heading over on an early flight to London with a return that evening.
So I really related to the Cabin Crew member who gave a great big smile when she saw the runner. As a boarding agent, I would have given the passenger a great big smile like that when I saw them run up to the podium!
I went down a Youtube rabbit hole this evening and landed on a programme all about the biggest hoax on British TV which was "Space Cadets".
I remember watching this show live and literally watched it through my fingers for a lot of it. It was a total cringe fest at times, literally I felt so bad for the contestants as the whole show evolved. I also felt that the TV company took advantage of the vulnerabilities of the participants.
Aside from feeling so bad for the contestants, I was wowed by the lengths that the production crew went to in order to make the hoax seem so real. For example, I seem to recall that as well as feeding the participants real life actual Russian food, they placed pieces of litter on the site - and the litter was packaging from Russian products!
Have a look at this video which explains and shows the full concept of the show.
Thankfully when the "Space Cadets" show was broadcast there was not so much social media so the participants seem to have been forgotten and went back to their normal lives without much attention.....I hope!
Do you remember the show, did you watch it - let me know in the comments below.
I've been wanting to grow wildflowers for some time now and after our CE gave all staff a token gift of wildflower seeds at Christmas, I decided this was the year to do it.
I've only got a small border in my front garden so there is not much space to grow a lot. However, there is a piece of wasteland at the end of our cul de sac with a large oak tree and some wild garlic growing, so I decided to put down some wildflowers there too.
Here's some pics including how my border looks currently. I'll up date when some of the plants start to flower as it is early days yet. It will be interesting to see if the flowers bring bees or butterflies to my garden which is why I was interested in growing them.
I planted a few ready grown plants in order to give my garden an instant lift. I then put wildflower seed around the plants.
Another ready grown plant in the border - I planted 5 in total and then surrounded them with wildflower seeds.
Here's the seed I am using along with the wildflower seeds gifted by my CE. I've never grown flowers from seed so am interested to see how it all turns out.
Early days - here's some green shoots. Seemingly wildflower patches are not at their best the first year but get better year on year. There is a mix of annual and perennial flowers in this patch.
I've moved away from the concept of perfectly manicured gardens and I really hope that my garden begins to look wild and natural as the flowers grow. I also reckon that a more "wild" garden will be easier to start and then maintain overall.
I also started some seedlings in little pots - these are annuals and are starting to shoot. I'll plant them in the ground shortly.
You can find lots of videos of how to grow wildflowers on youtube if you are interesting in cultivating your own wildlife supporting patch or border. Do let me know if you start growing wildflowers!
Here's the wasteland at the end of the road where I live
And the white flower is the wild garlic growing in abundance - it smells amazing!
It's a nice piece of scrub with a gorgeous old tree in the centre and a newly planted one to the left. Let's see if the wildflowers grow here and what wildlife (bees and butterflies) it brings to the area.
I love reading your comments - let me know what you are up to in your garden these days!
On Saturday evening we had our Spanish teacher for dinner with her boyfriend. A few weeks previously we had a lovely evening in their apartment and so we were happy to return the favour and have them over in our house.
When we visited them it was bucketing rain and although we planned to cycle (they live near the docks) it was far to wet so we went to get a taxi but struggled as it was so wet and everyone in Dublin was trying to get a taxi somewhere rather than getting wet! And then for them this Saturday, it was raining too! But they managed to get here by taking the Luas and then walking to our house with umbrellas.
So after getting up early and cycling to Rathmines to the Swan Centre to buy all of the food (we brought 2 biks bags and one backpack with us) for dinner, we served a Spanish - Irish mix up. For drinks, we had to go to Supervalu later in the day on a beer run as we had no room in our bags after shopping in Dunnes. On the beer run, we picked up Guinness, Heineken, Malbec wine (for me!) and some tonic for gin.
For food, we started with a charcuteries of meats along with Spanish (Manchego) Cheese and Irish Cheese (Cheddar) and also some blue Stilton. Our Spanish teacher had given us some Membrillo (Quince) which was homemade in Spain by her boyfriend's mother and we served this with the cheese. So delicious!
We also had olives, hummus and sundried tomatoes which was just lovely with arrival drinks.
After these starter nibbles (which I named "Snibbles" in my head!) we moved in to the kitchen where I served a Wedge Salad with blue cheese dressing topped with bacon bits and tomato. I used the Serious Keto dressing recipe for the base and then added blue cheese to it and it worked out well. The first time I had this wedge salad was in Santiago's Bodega in Key West and it's a big favourite of mine. Unfortunately I didn't take a phot this evening but it literally is a wedge (a quarter) of an ice berg lettuce, topped with dressing and extras.
For main, we had Spanish meatballs with some sides. Sides included Cous Cous and twice cooked hasselbeck potatoes which were divine.
Postres / Desserts were a few small brownie bites, strawberries & cream and I also made an "Irish" version of tiramisu using choc chip brioche instead of ladyfingers (which were impossible to find) and Baileys instead of Marsala wine.
All in all it was a lovely evening with great company (and great to talk Spanish socially......or in our case, to try) and a nice thing to do on a Bank Holiday rather than go do our usual of a dinner in Dillingers!
So that was my Saturday night, do let me know in the comment box below what you got up to :-)
Here's the direct link to the Serious Keto dressing video - it's super easy if you want to give it a go, and you can mix it up and add different flavourings if you don't want to do blue cheese.
Edit -
A week later I received a photo from my Spanish teacher of the Hasselbeck potatos that she cooked on Saturday night, with a note in Spanish to say she was making potatoes the way I did. I thought that was a great compliment!
