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!
We were spotted in the Herald by a friend. Check us out in the top right corner at the Isle of Dogs preview in the Lighthouse Cinema.
The Lighthouse Cinema has now added lots of Dog Friendly screenings of Isle of Dogs over the Easter weekend due to popular demand. The #DogFriendlyIreland movement is starting!!!
What a fun morning at the cinema! We were up early (after losing an hour due to the clocks going forward) to take Bones for a long walk to calm him down before a special event. The Lighthouse Cinema were holding a dog friendly screening of the new Wes Anderson movie the Isle of Dogs which we were really excited to have got tickets to. Bones got his own ticket and it was really exciting to walk up to the cinema and see lots of people with dogs heading on in. Bones was a little nervous at first because there were so many other dogs and big crowds but before long he was making friends with other doggies.
When we took our he seats he just chilled out and then proceeded to sleep through the whole film.......which is no reflection on the movie as we thought it was brilliant!!
Before the screening there was coffee and pastries with dog biscuits and water provided for the VIP guests.
Here's the obligatory selfie in the cinema
It was a lovely visit to the cinema and if dog friendly screenings become more common it is something that we definitely would do again. There were a lot of dogs at the screening so I was expecting some bad behaviour but amazingly there was none! Just one big bark from a large dog when the film started and then a little howling when the dogs in the movie howled!! But the best thing was there was nobody checking their phone or chatting through the film! The dogs were definitely better behaved than humans at the cinema ;-)
And after the cinema we went and had a very tasty full Irish breakfast in The Third Space in Smithfield
You can read more about this dog friendly movie screening on the Daily Edge here
St Patrick's Day 2018 was wonderful! I set my alarm to give myself an early start and get the dog walked and get myself organised and on my way to my sisters place. I then had a tasty full Irish with my twin sister in her apartment. Thanks for the great hospitality Amy!
Afterwards we cycled (rather quickly as we were a little late) in costume over to Constitution Hill to meet up with the Dublin Cycling Campaign who we were parading with with. Our group was made up of 100 women on bikes dressed as Suffragettes to celebrate 100 years of the vote for women or "Votáil 100" as it is known as gaeilge. Our cycle was led by Senator Ivan Bacik and Meterologist Joanna Donnelly. Unfortunately even though we had a weather woman among us we were not favoured with the weather - it was cold, cold, cold. Luckily Amy and I wore layers upon layers so were not too bad and we warmed up quickly once we got cycling.
There were lots of different costumes but we all wore homemade sashes - some in the purple and green of suffragettism and some in the Irish colours as Irish suffragettes were very much aligned with the Independence movement.
Here's the pair of us ready to get going.As you can see we started without hat scarves but it was so windy that they were badly needed so we whipped them out and tied them around our hats.
Artist Laragh Pittman created the phenomental signage along with Freedom Machine coordinator and creator Donna Cooney.
You can check out more pictures by looking up #FreedomMachine on Twitter.
Here is meterologist Joanna Donnelly up the front and leading the way. Joanna is a regular cyclist and often cycles in to RTE to present the weather forecast.
Here is Amy in old fashioned clothes in front of the classic Gate Theatre carrying out a very modern day activity - going live on Facebook!!
It was so much fun cycling through the main streets of Dublin from Northside to Southside.
Here we are at the end of a marvellous parade with the brilliant Senator Ivana Bacik. What a pleasure to have our photo taken with her.
From the end of the parade, we rushed to McGrattans to watch Ireland beat England and win the Grand Slam and the Six Nations. This made our St Patrick's Day! Bones even got in the spirit :-)
Later that evening we went for Tapas and a glass of wine in La Bodega which was a really nice atmosphere and very tasty.
Amy then stayed the night with me and today we got up and took the dog for a walk in the snow and then made another full Irish for brekkie. Afterwards we chilled out in the hot tub and then had coffees and watched retro TV of Highway to Heaven starring the very watchable Michael Landon. What a blissful Sunday!
Quite a lot of snow fell all night but it thawed today and seems to be all clear for the bank holiday Monday tomorrow. With the snow gone we can have a nice day tomorrow to finish out the holiday weekend!
For St Patricks Day 2018, I will be cycling as part of the Freedom Machine which is 100 women dressed as suffragettes celebrating Votáil 100. Here is my outfit including a Votes for Women sash that I made myself.
Amy is deciding between three different outfits (which do you think is best - 1,2 or 3?) ,
Cousin Kasey will be joining us on the cycle too. She is currently getting her outfit together. She says she has a hat and she also has these amazing badges courtesy of her mother!
