After a lovely few days over Christmas, I'm enjoying a strong coffee after a somewhat early night and an 8 hr sleep. I'm fresh and rejuvenated and have lovely memories of the loveliest Christmas.
It's been a busy few days with an early start to buy the Christmas day food before work on Wednesday. Then it was a dash from work on Thursday to get my booster covid shot (hallelujah) and then on to the hairdresser. The next day was Christmas Eve where we had a Christmas lunch with friends which we started with a pre-lunch cocktail in our house before heading over to the club across the road.
Christmas Day started with a glass of champagne in hand while we opened presents with a cheesy Christmas movie playing in the background. We followed this by watching Casablanca for the first time - wow what a great movie.
Dinner on Christmas was a wonderful affair. Ciaran had selected a boned and rolled Turkey and Ham from James Whelan Butcher. The meat was stuffed but I made additional stuffing too (you can never have enough stuffing in my opinion!) and we had lots of sides including roast potatoes, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cheesy cauliflower along with a carrot & parsnip mash mix. Along with a bottle or red wine we had a very tranquil and quiet dinner. Music was played on Ciaran's new wireless speaker (Santa was good to him) and all in all it was just perfect.
And what's next on my agenda you ask.......well it is to enjoy some homemade pate (thanks Gerry!) on crackers with a glass of prosecco......well it is still Christmas after all!
Blog written 21st Dec - posted 25th Dec
Omicron has taken hold in Ireland. It's expected that there will be 4th wave with a peak in January. For the moment there is a drive to get everyone boosted while new restrictions have been introduced with restaurants and pubs closing at 8pm every evening until January and a vaccination cert needed to enter certain places such as gyms.
For me the restriction won't have much impact. On Christmas Eve, after visiting both sets of parents in the morning, we are doing a lunch in Ciaran's squash club and then we will have a quiet Christmas Day just the two of us at home.
But in more important news - we are getting boosted this Thursday with an appointment at 4pm! I feel lucky to be able to get my booster jab, Ireland has high vaccination take up and a systematic well run government led vaccination programme. It will hopefully get us through all of this.
Tomorrow evening, we are hosting a small Christmas cocktail meetup for two friends. I'm looking forward to it and it will be casual, relaxed and safe. We have been very careful about socialising for the past while and we will continue to be careful over Christmas.
The latest government campaign is RSVP. This stands for Risk - Symptoms - Venue - People> and it is meant makes people think about what they are doing and where they are going and make an assessment
Stay safe everyone and have a great Christmas!
One of my favourite things this time of year is to enjoy all of the different Christmas ads which are generally really sweet, sentimental and inspiring. In past years, I've favored the John Lewis ads (remember the fox on the trampoline!) but this year my fave is the Supervalu "Share the Magic" ad featuring Aoife and a bunch of children who believe Santa's reindeer can fly.
The ad is charming and has an authentic feel of an Irish Christmas. Here for your enjoyment is the longer version of the Supervalu ad - let me know what you think!
I've a few days off work this week which has been great. Unfortunately I was due to visit my sister in The Netherlands but I decided to cancel my plans with changes to travel rules by the Irish government recently. From early December, nightclubs are now closed in Ireland and no large group bookings are allowed in restaurants. Another change is that a negative PCR test is required when arriving in to Ireland. As I was going on Wednesday afternoon and returning on Friday afternoon, I decided to cancel my trip for two reasons (1) the hassle of getting tested upon my return seemed too much given that I would be there for less than 3 days in total (and I was also concerned that I might test positive and have to stay on for 10 days) and (2)presumably the Irish Government introduced the test in order to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant by only allowing those with negative tests return to the country with no further restrictions imposed on them and also to stop those travelling for non-essential reasons. I probably fall in to the second category. And while I would love to see my sister (it's been 2 years since I last saw her) it probably is best to hold off at this time. Travel is really just not on the cards at the moment.
Anyway I had a lovely time being off work for 3 days this week and got lots done!
In PIGSY news there are now 9 PIGSY artworks being showcased in an art gallery in Florida.In other PIGSY news, we tidied up a few loose ends together in the studio yesterday and got a packaged artwork mailed to its new home in County Galway. There's always something to do in regards to his art so it sure was nice to have the time to do it.
We cycled in to town yesterday and had a wander around Drury Street area and Grafton Street. I'm sorry to say that I thought it was very quiet. Too quiet for 9th of December. In fairness being so quiet, it made for a pleasant afternoon for us, but you have to feel for the retailers who probably need to make bumper sales in order to get them through the whole Covid situation we have been experiencing for coming up on two years.
While in town, we decided to get late lunch and made our way to Pitt Bros for some barbeque. It's been awhile since we were both there (I ate here about 2 months ago with one of my sisters) and it was super tasty along with good music playing and friendly staff assisting us with our order. We enjoyed it immensely and split a 3 meat combo meal between the two of us.
And after our trip in to Dublin City, I settled in for the evening to watch the reboot of "Sex and the City". There were two back to back episodes of "And just like that....." on Sky Comedy and boy was I glad of that after the big shock ending of the first episode! At first while watching it I wasn't feeling it and I thought there was a bit too many mentions of ageing and also a very poor writing out of Samantha. However, once that was done it was right back to business and it was as good as Sex and the City ever was. Personally I liked it but was always a fan of the original series (don't mention the movies!) and it will be a regular thing for me to watch it for the next few Thursday evenings.
My Christmas package to my sister arrived in the States this week and it was quickly unpacked in order for her cat to pop herself in to it. What can I say, Cats will do as Cats do!
Thanks to An Post for the prompt delivery.......but I wonder where the envelope that I sent about 10 days previously is?!
It's in a new position this year. I took the cushion off the conversation pit and positioned it in the front window. I love it!
I also started setting out my Christmas crockery and tableware. It all adds up to a very merry festive feeling in the house. Just lovely!
It's hard to say which is my favourite Christmas decoration on my tree. I love my tropical ornaments that I picked up on holidays all over the world - I have a shiny green turtles that reminds me of the time that I swam with turtles in Tobago Cay on my sailing trip in the Caribbean. And then I have tons from Key West which always bring back great memories as I hang them on the tree. There's a little reindeer wearing a blue raincoat that always gives me a kick as I hang it (it was a gift from my twin sister) and I I always love hanging a decoration with a year on it as I think back to all of the exciting things that happened that year. It sure does make me happy to set up my Christmas tree because of the happy feelings each decoration brings as it goes up on the tree. Even my tree skirt makes me happy - it's 20 years old, I bought it while on honeymoon in Key Largo!
As I cycled home from work about 6pm on Friday, I realised how much I love cycling all over Dublin. It was a particularly mild evening and I got off the train at Pearce Street and cycled to Wishbone on Hatch Street to pick up some wings for dinner (if you are looking for wings in Dublin - these are the best ones!).
From there I cycled up Harcourt Street and then towards Ranelagh turning off on to Northbrook and then on to Leeson Park. It was on Northbrook Road that my cycle became even more enjoyable. On this street there are huge big old Georgian houses with the most beautiful trees and Christmas lights. It was a delight to cycle by them! It reminded me of the time that my twin sister and I went on a cycle to Ailsbury Road, a few years ago, to look at the Christmas lights on this street. So nice!
But I digress, the main thing that I love about my bike is that it gets me all over the place in no time at all. Dun Laoghaire to Ranelagh on a bike/train combo takes me just over 35 mins.
Then on Sunday, Ciaran and I both cycled to his art studio to pack a painting that will be heading off in the mail to it's new home in County Galway. Again, it was such a lovely cycle. We both really enjoyed it so much as it was a fresh bright December day - just perfect for a short cycle (about 15 mins or so) to his studio. After we left the Studio we stopped in Butlers in Rathmines for a coffee. We sat in the bright (but cold sun) on a bench outside the cafe. Then we stopped in to a stationery store to buy a roll of brown paper and then continued on our way to the supermarket where we stopped for food for dinner. I also found an Argentinean Malbec with 35% off so I bought 3 bottles......I also popped two mini bottles of prosecco in to my basket!
As we unlocked our bikes outside the shop after clicking our bags on to their carriers, I couldn't help saying to Ciaran, "Hey, how great are bikes?!"
