Hols over - back home in Ireland

After a great trip to Key West, I am now back in Ireland.

It's always strange how in the last days of your holidays, time seems to speed up and the days fly in. Happily, I got to do a few things on my list of definites that I wanted to get done. These were, get out fishing, have a Dairy Queen Ice Cream and visit the Green Parrot for a drink.

So on Sunday I went fishing on the Salty Goat Boat.  This was probably one of the highlights of my holiday. I had a great day fishing (it's a long fishing trip from 9am until 2pm) and caught 4 keeper yellowtail snappers and 1 keeper grunt with a fair few throw backs including two small strawberry groupers. As usual there were some people on their boat not taking their fish so I was able to walk away with extra fish which made for a great fish dinner in Amy's house. 

And then on the last day I crammed in my other must do's with a stop off in the Green Parrot after a visit to the Gap Store (pictured above) and Banana Republic on Duval Street. The Green Parrot is a chilled out bar with cool air flowing through the open doors and windows and it was great to sit at the bar and listen to music and the general chat of others at the bar. Of course there was also the quintessential experience of a chicken walking through the bar!!

After the Green Parrot, I cycled home for a shower and then met my mother in the Southernmost Cafe on the beach for Happy Hour eats and more drinks. The food was good and the view was incredible. I was glad that we made such a good choice for our last day's happy hour!

And after HH I made a diversion to Dairy Queen on United Street. It's a seriously cute building which has been there since the 1950's and I got in line along with other families and couples who were waiting to order their ice cream. For my selection on this visit, I chose a Small Royal Ultimate Blizzard with Brownie and Fudge sauce.  Boy was it good but I paid for all the sugar with a bad night's sleep!!!

Unfortunately there was one thing I wanted to do that I didn't get to do and that was to swim in the sea. With stormy rainy days the opportunity ran away from me.  

Guess I will need to plan a return visit in order to ensure that I get my swim in the sea done soon!!!

Stormy days in Florida - Hurricane Season 2022 is here

 June 1st is the start of Hurricane Season in Florida and so I shouldn't have been surprized when a tropical storm made it's way to Key West on 3rd of June.

Amy was catching a flight to Ireland from Miami on the 4th of June. However, as a precaution she caught the bus to Miami on the 3rd - this turned out to be a good thing with the bus getting cancelled on the 4th which would have meant a missed flight. She got up to Miami yesterday afternoon and checked in to an airport hotel close to the airport and hunkered down and waited out the time til check in today.

And down in Key West, my mother and I, along with Amy's cat Buddy hunkered down and drank wine and waited out the storm. It was a little sureal having to sand bag the doors in preparation for the rain and wind but luckily it turned out that they were not needed.

This morning the end of the storm passed through with heavy rain til about 11am with it gradually clearing up by the afternoon and the sun coming out then.  

With the change in weather I plan to go fishing tomorrow.  I'll see if I the Salty Goat are going out and will go out on this half day boat trip.

Here's a few pics of what we got up to before the storm, with Amy and I taking a visit to Effusion Gallery on Duval Street to see the PIGSY art on view.

Hemmingway House visit in Key West (Whitehead Street)

Hemmingway House, Whitehead Street

Having visited the Hemmingway House numerous times over the years, and knowing what a good tour it is, Amy and I visited again yesterday afternoon.  If you do a search on this blog you will find past visits.

Every tour guide brings a diffferent thing to each visit and I generally learn something new on each visit. And of course there are the cats! On my last visit I recall the guide introduced us to Humphrey Bogart while on this tour we met Shoeless Joe Jackson asleep on the dining room table.

Typical AH cat behviour here - Joe presumably read the sign and then deliberately went to sleep on this table

Amy nearly bought a cat from the gift shop while perusing the t-shirts!

Here's Hemmingway's writing studio where he wrote 70% of his total work while living in Key West.

Check out those big paws with the extra digits which all come from the line of Ernest's polydactyl cat Snowy.

Hemmingway House

I hghly recommend a visit to the Hemmingway House if you are in the area. It's very interesting, both about Hemmingway but also in regard to life on the island along with a good view of the lighthouse which is just across the road. Let me know if you are planning a visit!

Hello Key West!

Finally made it to Key West after setting off from Dublin at 7.30am on Friday morning. Our travel woes started with me seeing a bus pass just as I got to the stop.  I then had a long wait for another bus (the longest I've ever waited) and then there was a lot of traffic so the bus was VERY slow getting to the airport.

Queues were long in the airport and it took over three hours to do bag drop, security, US security and then US customs & immigration in Dublin airport. 

Then when we got to our gate we discovered our flight was delayed due to the late arrival of the inbound plane. Beyond this our flight to Newark was diverted to Boston with hours to wait for a new crew to take us back to Newark and then on to KW with this flight time being pushed out and out which unfortunately meant we overnighted in the airport. On about the third flight change we could then see that we would miss our KW connection if we stayed on this flight so we then got rerouted to Washington with a different connection to Kew West, eventually arriving to KW at 4pm on Sat which is 9pm Irish time. So you can do the maths and see how long it took us to arrive to get to Florida - spoiler alert it's well over 30 hours.

So....when we arrived we were fairly tired but we perked up when we met Amy in the airport who sorted getting our luggage and loaded it up in her car and took us to her house in minutes. From there we went straight out to Thai Island for sushi and wine and then off to bed when we got back. I was in bed by 8pm and slept through til 5pm - the jet lag / sleep deficit had definitely got me.

As I was up early I went to my favourite coffee spot and got myself my longed for coffee from Cuban Coffee Queen.

It was super to cycle down Duval Street (thanks for the bike Amy!) and I even stopped and saw PIGSY art on view in Effusion Art Gallery!

After unpacking and getting acclimatised we spent the afternoon on Duval Street in Coach and Banana Republic.  Stormy weather came in so we abandoned plans to do happy hour in Alonzos and instead ran in the rain to Lost & Found which is next to the Green Parrot. After great food we headed home on the bikes with the rain having stopped.

And then yesterday, I cycled to new town with mam and Amy driving.  Mam and I had a browse in TJ Maxx but I had to stop myself buying clothes that could only be worn in Florida!! The heat does that do you!

And then after an afternoon of sunning myself by Amy's pool, it was off to Alonzo's for gorgeous food including oysters!

I'm still getting over the jet lag so again it was another early night to bed for me - asleep by 9pm and now awake at 6am, drinking coffee and writing this blog!

Keep an eye out for more blogs over the next few days where I will update on what I am getting up to on my Florida holiday.

Latest PIGSY video is now online!

Behind the scenes: PIGSY video

What a busy weekend spent working on the latest PIGSY art video. After Saturday morning on Capel Street we then spent the afternoon recording footage and then Ciaran got down to editing it. At about 6pm we went for a burger in Bunsen and then it was back to more editing. 

The next day it was all about, you guessed it, more editing!

Here's the finished result which Ciaran published to Youtube this morning:

PIGSY Art Video footage

I'm also happy to share some of the behind the scenes views - along with our special helper who doesn't do a whole lot except keep me company by sleeping by my side!!

You can see me recording video footage of me talking about PIGSY's art in these photos. And then the photo at the bottom is a photo of Ciaran editing the video on Sunday.  Great to have photos of the process and how we created this video. Always good to have a record for posterity!

Capel Street is now Dublin's longest pedestrianised street

Capel Street is car free!

Capel Street has now joined Dublin streets like Grafton and Henry street when it was opened as a pedestrianised street on Friday morning. This morning, I set off from Ranelagh on my bike to check it out and visit some of the shops on this street. It was a timely cycle as this week is Bike Week in Ireland so it felt good to cycle a little bit further then my usual trek to Rathmines or Baggot Street on a Saturday.

I planned to two things on Capel Street. The first thing was to visit Lenhans hardware store to buy some multi-surface cleaner while the second thing was that I wanted to stop off for a cup of coffee in Camerino Bakery, which interestingly enough is taking part in a Dublin City Council subsidised cargo bike trial for businesses, and makes deliveries of cakes by electric cargo bike. Check out Bleeper Bikes for more info about this trial pilot scheme.

Ciaran however planned to visit Evans Art Supplies which is just off Capel Street.

So off we cycled with our plans to stop off at a few places on the newly pedestrianised street.

A Taste of Spain on Capel Street

So when we got on to the street we saw a shop that we didn't realise was on this street. It was "A Taste of Spain" so of course when we saw this we had to go in and have a little browse. It's a well stocked shop full of Spanish food products and also Spanish wine! When I went to pay for my purchase (Duck Pate) I spoke a little Spanish to the guy working on the til. He spoke Spanish but when he totted up at the til he said the total in both Spanish and English which I appreciated. He then picked up the card machine and in English said - Credit Card? And then I said, No......and after searching for the word said, "Effectivo" and then handed over my cash!

A great shop and it felt good to get a little Spanish speaking practise done on a Saturday morning.

 

Lenehans Hardware

Then it was on to Lenehans but unfortunately they didn't have what I was looking for (Tech 7 Multi-Cleaner) so I will buy it in my local hardware shop in Ranelagh

Evans Art Supplies

We stopped in to Evans and Ciaran got the few things that he needed. After that we decided we would go for a coffee. Evans is slightly off the beaten track and if you don't know it is in the area, you are unlikely to find it. They seem to do well with the people who know it is there as they don't seem to advertise. But all businesses should be seeking out new audiences so I think it would be prudent for them to promote that they are steps away from the pedestrianised Capel Street.

There are some other interesting shops and buildings on Capel Street including The Black Sheep pub, Dublin City Comics along with Musashi and other sushi restaurants. Pretty much something for everything with other stores like McQuillans tools and Charity Shops (Thrift Stores) too. 

Here's a few pics - I especially like the window detail above the nail salon.

Camerino Bakery

And then it was time for a coffee and a pastry. And no better a place to enjoy this than at Camerino Bakery where it was a brownie for me and a scone for Ciaran. So good - and for these pastries alone, I would recommend a visit to Capel Street!

Camerino Bakery is also on Merrion Square where I believe it has a sit in cafe, however, on Capel Street there is only a small outdoor seating area. It was a fine day so we were happy to sit outside and enjoy our coffee while people watching all that was going on in Capel Street.

Quiet Dublin - a liveable city

All in all it was a great morning spent on Dublin's newest pedestrianised street. I highly recommend a visit to this car free spot and I look foward to going back soon. It's chilled out and quiet, oh so quiet, with lots of interesting shops and also an interesting mix of places to get a bite to eat. There are probably improvements to be made (I'm not a fan of the white picket fences outside some eateries) but it's great to know the move to being car free has started and I look forward to seeing how it works out and progresses. It will be interesting to hear how the businesses find it. There have been reports from other countries that indicate that pedestrians and cyclists spend more than car drivers (which makes sense because car drivers are generally passing through rather than stopping and spending money) so hopefully they will see increased business and revenue.

Next up we need to get Parliment Street pedestrianised to really begin to make Dublin a truly liveable city!

And the dust settles on the Eurovision....

Ukraine is the winner!

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