Commemorating Fr Pat Noise!

Well I had heard about the hoax plaque commemorating Fr Pat Noise for a few years, and today I actually stopped on O'Connell Bridge and had a good look at it, as well as taking a picture.

What is this hoax plaque you might ask?!

Well the story goes way back to the late 1990's where an installation was commissioned by Dublin City Council. It was a digital clock screen that was placed in the River Liffey and it was going to count down to the Millenium.

Unfortunately the clock did not do well in the river water and became covered in algae and other material. In Dublin, there is a history of naming our public installations and statues (you might know the Molly Malone statue, otherwise known as "The tart with the cart") and the clock garnered the unfortunate name "The time in the slime".

The clock didn't last long and was removed by DCC, before it got to the Millenium, leaving a hole in the bridge where the controls of the clock had been.

So what happened next is that a few years later in 2024 a plaque commemorating "Fr Pat Noise" was placed in this empty hole. Placed by who is the big mystery!!

When it was brought to Dublin City Council's attention, they promptly removed the plaque. 

And well, you can imagine what happened next......yes another plaque arrived in place!

The second plaque got a reprieve and it has been there for about 20 years, brightening the days of Dubliners when they find the plaque and look in to who Fr Pat Noise was.

You can see the plaque in my photo below and read more in detail about the saga here

Spidey Sunday!

So Sunday....

I got a lot done between packing for China and also doing a few other chores, as well as buying a few things needed for work this week. All done in Rathmines, where I also went to the cinema to see the new Spiderman movie.

The movie was shown in one of the Maxx screens which is always a good experience. Seemingly Irish people go to the cinema a lot, some figures say we are the highest cinema goers in Europe. I wouldn't disagree after seeing the full cinema today for the earliest showing of Spiderman and with perhaps 5 more showings of it later!

Honestly it's been nice to take it easy this Sunday because I've had a lot of socialising over the past 3 weekends so I am enjoying just chilling this weekend.

Tomorrow I will get in to town early where I need to buy a small gift for someone and I also want to see if I can get a light pair of PJ's to wear in Shanghai. If I can't find something suitable here I will buy them when I arrive to China.

The other thing I will do in preparation for my trip is start to go to bed earlier and set my alarm for earlier than usual. By the time I get on the plane next weekend, I hope to be getting up perhaps an hour or two earlier than usual......this is all being done to try and counter the effects of jet lag. Will it help? I don't know, but it is worth giving it a try!

Bank Holiday in Dublin!

Friday started off great when I found a postcard from PIGSY in my letterbox. Check this out - it's the third one that he has sent me from China and I think this is my favourite.

And after work I headed to Dublin City to meet up with the I Bike Dublin Crew for a Critical Mass cycle or BikeBop as it is known also. I was slightly delayed getting on the train so I skipped the first part of the cycle and headed to Dame Street to join in with them when they got to here. It was a great cycle and it felt particularly poignant to cycle down Drury Street as Glen Hansards "Falling Slowly" blared out of the big speakers on the leaders cargo bike.

On Saturday I got up early and headed to Yoga in YogaYard for a 9.30am class that was gifted to me by my twin sister - thanks Amy! 

I was close to missing it, having slept through my alarm and waking up at 8.40am but I promptly got up, slung my gear in my bag and cycled quickly to Ringsend. It was so worth it because there was only 4 of us in the class so it was as good as a private class. 

And then afterwards I went on the train to Dalkey where I browsed the Charity Shop and bought a dress that I had seen yesterday and regretted not buying. I also saw these skates and considered buying them for a hot second. But considering I haven't skated for a long time (see here) I put them back on the shelf for someone else to buy!

I then took the train to town and pottered around as well as getting some Chinese Yuan in preparation for my upcoming trip. Exciting!

I exchanged my euro in the Westmoreland Street branch of No1Currency and I highly recommend them. They are very efficient and friendly and centrally located in Dublin city. For my last trip to Mexico they helped out with my pesos and I was happy to return to them for my yuans.

Twin visit!

I have finally got around to posting my twin sister's recent and very unexpected visit to Dublin, a little while back. Having sourced a great last minute deal, my twin sister made a very short impromptu visit to Ireland. It was a quick fly in and fly out long weekend visit but boy did we pack a lot in - I like to describe it as a curated weekend for her and indeed she let me handle all of the restaurant reservations and bookings.

Here's some pics of what we got up to.

To start it was wings with Alice in The Canal Bank. I can only imagine how jet lagged Amy feels in this pic but it was smiles all round as we took this fun picture of us all wearing our reading glasses. It was great to have this gang all back together and we even began to nail down some plans for our next trip to celebrate a big birthday that is approaching next year.

Friday night brought us in to town where Dublin was hopping. The weather had not hit our recent heatwave highs but it was extremely pleasant and only a light jacket was needed. 

I had to work on Friday but I made a booking for L'Gueuleton on Fade Street for 6.30pm. However as I left Dalkey I experienced train delays so I was able to go online and push back the reservation to 7.15pm.

We had the Steak Frite which was just perfect with a glass of red wine.

Instead of a starter, at Amy's suggestion we opted for a glass of prosecco and some smoked almonds. What fun!

The ambiance in L'Gueuleton was everything we had hoped for and we got a great window seat facing out on to Fade Street where I was even able to point out to Amy where PIGSY held his last solo exhibition.

Virtuously on Saturday, we went to early morning yoga in Yoga Yard ,where we took a hot yoga class with Jenice. Yoga Yard is the most incredible studio I have ever visited and I convinced Amy to go with a promise of a "spa like " experience. Well while not quite spa like(!) it is a beautiful studio and we had a great class with a cool down afterwards in the garden just off the studio.  Amy loved it!

After yoga it was on to O'Doheny & Nesbitt for the two things that Amy was hankering for - a full Irish breakfast and a Bloody Mary. Both well deserved after the early energetic start having completed both the yoga class and the 15 minute cycle to Ringsend and then a further cycle in to town from the studio.

Next up was a family meet up and then the Take That concert in The Aviva which I had long made plans for but Amy was able to snag a ticket for at short notice. I sat with my friends and she sat alone - but not really alone because she was surrounded by perhaps 50,000 Take That fans!

On the way to meet our family we stopped off in Stephens Green and explored the park, discovering parts we never had seen before. Here we are pictured at the little lake with a water fall and we also found a small area/amphitheatre known as "The Mount". This is well worth a visit and we really enjoyed seeing it.

At Aviva Stadium we had to go our separate ways to enter, even though we were not seated too far away from each other.

What a great Saturday in Dublin!

Followed by a wonderful Sunday with an evening dinner in the newly opened.....Dions

As I mentioned, Amy was happy to leave all of the reservations and restaurant selections to me. However, there was one spot that she absolutely wanted to go to and that was the newly opened Dions on the roof of the old Central Bank Building (designed by Sam Stephenson) in Temple Bar.

With 360 views of Dublin it is a stunningly stylish restaurant that is a must go destination for everyone - at least just once anyway!

We had a fantastic night taking in the views and enjoying great chats over a nice dinner.

Check out this amazing view of Dublin - what a great sight!

We even went for dessert which was divine!!

It was back to work for me on Monday, but I was able to book the afternoon off because Amy and I had big plans for more fun stuff which included going to get our hair done in a salon just off Grafton Street, And then on to The Shelbourne for a much anticipated seafood platter. 

Look at this platter - it was sensational!

I am off oysters so we asked for them to leave some off which they very kindly did and substituted crab salad which was sooo good.  With the relaxed atmosphere in The Shelbourne and the good food, this was a highlight of the weekend - out of so many great experiences.

You may be noticing a theme in some of the pics - Amy was on a serious search for the best Bloody Mary in Dublin ;-) 

For some reason or other, I felt like we needed a little something before the seafood platter so I ordered a sausage roll. While very tasty it was entirely unnecessary because the seafood platter was huge!!

All in all it was the greatest busiest best weekend - a gorgeously curated selection of the best of Dublin which I was treated by my twin sister. What a great experience and super memories!

And Amy blogged about the trip too - you can read it here

Shattering Saturday!!!

 Mini disaster this morning

I smashed my favourite espresso coffee cup :-( 

As I was getting ready to go to work, I was also double jobbing and emptying the dishwasher. So of course I was trying to get this done as fast as possible and as I put my cups back on the shelf on the bar/coffee dock, I dropped a cup.

And when I looked down as I heard the noise of the cup hitting the floor I saw that it was my favourite Key West cup. I am so sad. Drinking from that cup gave me such joy. It even got a mention on my blog before - see here.

I didn't rush to clean up the cup and had a coffee before I swept it up. Even though I was devastated that I had dropped my KW cup, I enjoyed my coffee in my 2nd favourite cup!

So I hope you had a better start to your day than I did - but in fairness I had a good day after this. And there are high temperatures expected here in Ireland (not as bad as the intense temperatures being experienced on the continent - Bonjour Paris with it's 40 degrees!!) so the weekend will be great.

Paddington Bear Glow Up

My vintage Paddington Bear, made by Gabrielle Designs, has been through a lot over the past 40 years.

He lost his hat at some point, his boots never went back on properly like when he was just out of the factory and he has now recently lost the toggles on his coat.

I had a plan to bring my original Paddington and his friends in to work for a Paddington Themed exhibition to mark Paddington's Birthday on the 25th of June. So I asked my mother (Paddington's current caretaker) if I could take a lend of them. We met today in town and she passed them to me.

So as I mentioned, Paddington has lost some of the toggles on his coat so I replaced them by sewing new toggles on.  You will also notice that he has a smart red hat which my mother bought for him in Penneys - a perfect fit!

The plan for the exhibition is to have Paddington on display along with a selection of Paddington books......and also jars of marmalade!

The marmalade will have a custom label and a tag that says "Please look after this marmalade".

Our patrons will be encouraged to take a picture of the bears and the marmalade and share it to our Social Media and also take a jar of marmalade home with them. 

I'll also have my Paddington Teapot on display too!

Such fun!  Let me know what you think - would you take part in the Paddington Bear fun and share a picture of yourself to social media?!

Summery Sunday

It was a lovely day here in Dublin, so I was up early and decided to do a litter pick on my way to Nicks for a coffee.  I had a seen loads of beer bottles littering in Ranelagh Park the other day when walking to the shops so I did those.  In total I picked three bags!

I left the bags of litter that I picked beside the public litter bins and they will be taken away by Dublin City Council.

I always enjoy this activity on Sunday mornings. It is surprisingly meditative and I generally end up chatting to a stranger  or two about the litter picking. Last time I did it I spoke to three people including one man who told me that he goes out and picks litter up himself!

And then after coffee I headed home and had a call with Ciaran (he is in China) and following the call I  got my shopping trolley and went on the bus to Rathmines where I called to the hardware shop in the Swan Centre for a bag of compost which I needed for transplanting some tomato plants to a bigger pot. The trolley was needed because the weight of the 25 litre bag of compost. 

Here's the tomatoes in their small pots that they came in (a friend gave them to me)

And here they are in their new larger home

And after these pieces of work, it was off to meet up with friends for lunch which turned in to a long lazy chat in a sunny beer garden with good chats, good food and nice wine. Just perfect and it felt so good to sit in the sunshine in Dublin. A great Sunday!