At the Symphonie

 On Friday night we had the most amazing time with a pre-theatre dinner in Ovedoble and then on to Teatro Cervantes for a symphony performance.

Ovedoble is located right next to the Roman ruins. It's very busy as this is the heart of the tourist area in Malaga. However, that doesn't stop this restaurant serving the most creative tapas dishes.  We were a group of 5 and we shared 4 different dishes between us. I love this as it allows you to taste dishes that you may not have ordered if you were only getting one plate of food in front of you.

I only took one picture which was toasted black noodles with Malaga squid. So flavourful and fun to look at too!

And after dinner it was on to Teatro Cervantes to see the Philharmonic Orchestra of Malaga. Nothing in Malaga is a far walk and the theatre was only about 5 minutes away from the restaurant. The symphony was spectacular and the theatre setting is fantastically atmospheric - I'd go back even to just look at the painting on the ceiling of the theatre.

Unfortunately someones phone went off during the performance, and I've never seen this before but on the second time the musicians were put off and stopped playing. The conductor then turned and addressed the audience asking everyone to turn off their phones and then restarted the piece of music that there were in the middle of. Thankfully they were supremely professional and the performance went on without a hitch after that.

Jose Maria Moreno conducted while the soloist was Cello Player Senja Rummukainen with both being  spectacularly good.

Here's a few pics before and after the show.

As we entered, some of the musicians were settling in on stage

A view of the ceiling from the floor beneath where we were sitting

A view of the theatre from the first floor

A The view from my seat. Ciaran was meant to sit beside me but a friend who was sitting at the edge of a row on the other side of the theatre switched out his seat so that Ciaran could stretch his knee out. Space was tight so I don't think he could have actually sat in his assigned seat with his injured leg, so he gratefully accepted the offer of an alternative seat.

Cooling down in Malaga

After a week of the most beautiful weather in Malaga, clouds have arrived with lower temperatures. 

We have swam in the sea every morning since we arrived, however it was way to windy and choppy for a swim today. However, we still walked to the beach which is about 20 mins there and then back.

I've been remiss in taking photos as I am trying to have a digital detox and am not bringing my phone with me at all times. So here's a few pics for you, but unfortunately no photos of our favourite lunch spot where we have a small portion of peel and eat Tiger Prawns with a small drink. Ordering the prawns is interesting as you order and pay by the 100 grams - and needs to be done all in Spanish! It was intimidating the first time but now I am fine with it!!

Photos below are in no particular order...

Here's the most amazing cheesecakes that were swerved to us by a friend in her home. She bought 4 different flavours and they were all divine: Chocolate, Original, Bluecheese....and for the life of me I can't remember what the 4th was. But either way they were all great and I will be seeking out the cheesecake shop in Soho that she got them from.

Walking home from dinner a few days ago we passed by the Cathedral. It was dusky so it was the perfect time to take a photo and you can see the moon at the top of the pic.

This photo was taken today and as you can see there is no blue sky, just cloud. I am actually wearing trousers right now to stay warm!

Here's one of my favourite places, Constitution Plaza. It's pedestrianised so am not sure what the car is doing. This square was quite close to where we lived in Malaga in 2020/21.

We visited Recycleo Cafe and Bike Shop and got a great "Solo" coffee. Great location near to where we are currently staying and a good cup of coffee which we are always seeking out in Malaga.

Check this tray of Empanadas out! They were served to us by our friend before she offered the chessecakes above - so so good!! And accompanied by an incredible bottle of champagne. We felt truly spoiled!

Tonight we are going to an orchestral performance in the Teatro Cervantes which is an incredible space and during the week we also visited the Carmen Thysson Museum, so we are getting up to lots of cultural things as well as eating out and going for early morning swims. Ciaran of course is really busy in his Art Residency and then there is lots of meeting up and socialising with friends to be done. 

One other fun thing I did was go to an outdoor "Bachata" dance class. This was a lot of fun dancing in the outdoors was new to me and I got to dance with people from all over including from Greece, Argentina, Bulgaria and Denmark.

So it has been a quick week in Malaga but am looking forward to having lots more great experiences.....and I will do better with the blogging.

Hasta luego!

We made it to Malaga!

We are in Malaga - us and all our 5 bags!!!

After a hectic day of final packing and organizing on Thursday, I was up early on Friday morning (4.30am) to do further work before going to the airport for our 11am flight.

We had planned to get the Blue Aircoach which has a stop that is only a short walk away from our house. However, after adding a last minute extra bag to our booking and given Ciaran's injury we decided a taxi was a better option. Also we were travelling at rush hour so the taxi gave us the option of taking the tunnel to the airport which helped us get there with no delays.

After we got all of our bags checked in (which included 2 fold up bikes in hard cases which needed to be brought to the oversize drop off) and getting through security fairly promptly we were able to relax. First point of order was to have a double espresso from Butlers and then we decided to have a "last drink" in Dublin so went to the bar and ordered beer and bubbles.

I got a little teary as we walked past the old Dublin airport terminal. It felt like such a momentous thing to be saying goodbye to Dublin for a year. But very exciting to see what awaits in Malaga.

When we arrived in Malaga it was so bright!! We had to dip our head as we emerged from the airport. I thought it was just me but when I said it to Ciaran he was in complete agreement.

We got another taxi at this end too - in Spanish we were able to tell the guy directing the taxis that we needed a big taxi because we had so many bags. And then when we got in to the taxi we managed to give directions for where we were going in Spanish too.

And then when we arrived to our AirBnB we discovered (1) it was above our favourite cafe bar Te-Piko but that our favourite coffee shop El Mortal has closed and is now a pub.  Ah well things never stay the same.

It was amazing how quickly we got back in to the swing of things, with Ciaran calling straight to the guys in the gallery and then walking with them to his studio space where he then got the keys. 

And later we went for some tapas in a 2 favourite places, one being Te-Piko followed by an early night by Spanish standards - after a long day for me, I was asleep by 10.30am!!

Here's a few pics of what we ate on our first night and also the view of the plaza from our balcony.

Tunnock's Tea Cakes

For Christmas this year Ciaran gave me a Monika Crowley Tea Cakes print.  He then got it framed after Christmas and we hung it recently in the kitchen area of the house. 

I adore it!!

I love the fact that art can resonate so personally with each viewer.  When I look at this print it brings me right back a few years ago to a time where, along with 2 other staff members, I worked in a small library in Fingal. One of my colleagues brought in a box of Tunnock's Tea Cakes in to the library and we all tucked in......and thenbecame hooked. We each brought box after box in to the library and then some relief staff started bringing a box with them when they were sent to cover in the library.There were stacks of boxes of Tunnocks Tea Cakes like a shop. We literally turned in to the Tunnock Tea Cake Library branch!!

And then when one of our original team was leaving the library, I decided to make a "Tunnock Tea Cake Mountain". I bought a load of Tunnock's Tea Cakes and took them out of the box and piled them high. It was quite the sight and a lot of fun!!

So when I saw Monika's artwork and her print of the two Tunnock's Tea Cakes, it brough me right back to that fun time when I worked in that library that I loved. Good times and great memories!

The Good Neighbour, Rathmines

The Good Neighbour is now open in Rathmines across from the Swan Centre.

This afternoon, I took a wander to Rathmines in order to drop off two bags of donated clothes to the Oxfam Charity Shop. 

Afterwards I popped in to the newly opened Good Neighbour store (it is where The Source used to be located).  It's a zero waste shop that allowes you to measure out exactly what you need of any item and fill your own container, or use a brown paper bag that they have available for use there in the shop.

I bought some Onion Powder along with a selection of seeds in order to make some Seed Crackers. I had Chia Seeds and Psyllium Husk at home so I only needed to buy some mixed seeds which includes sunflower, pumpkin and linseeds. I also got some seasame seeds.

And here's the seed crackers that I made!

They are easy to make and taste great - and are perfect with cheese or butter. They kind of remind me of a ryvita cracker and it is awesome to be able to make crackers at home rather than buying commercially made store bought ones. I highly recommend them and with seeds available just about everywhere it's easy to source the ingredients (especially if you visit The Good Neighbour, which I highly recommend too1)

Happy St Patrick's Day!

 All the best to you, wherever you are, on St Patrick's Day

It's a quiet one here in Dublin for us, we had a brunch of rashers and eggs while we watched the Dublin Parade on RTE1. 

In past years I've cycled in the parade with the Dublin Cycling Campaign but they aren't taking part this year.

In fairness, it's a fine day here in Dublin with no rain. About the best you can hope for in Ireland!

So wherever you are in the world - have a great day.

Bank Holiday chores

 I was up early this morning to start on a big chore - cleaning my oven....which had not been done, let's say "in awhile".

I started the cleaning at about 7am by applying "Oven Mate" to all of the surfaces in the oven that had baked on grime. This was pretty much all of the sides and the door on the mini oven that we use the most and just the bottom of the regular size oven that we generally only use at Christmas time or when we have friends over for dinner.  Along with the two ovens, there is also the built in microwave but I cleaned that the other day. 

I bought Oven Mate in Supervalu and looking online it got lots of good reviews, so I was interested to see if it would work.  If it didn't work, I was going to go with Plan B which was to get a professional oven cleaner in to do the job.

After I applied the gel, I had to leave it for a few hours (or it can be left overnight if it is really bad) so I headed off to my parents house for a visit. I drove over to their house after booking a "Go Car". This was my first time to use a Go Car and my first time to drive in since about 2020!!  

When I returned home after a few hours, I started on the removal of the Oven Mate gel which had turned to a disgusting brown gunge.

Here's the oven before I cleaned off the gel:

And the results speak for themselves, here's the after!

It was a dirty messy job and it took ages (and a lot of paper towels). But I was very pleased with the results and I highly recommend this product for the job.

Next time I won't leave it so long!!