Monthly Cinema Pass

After considering it for years, I finally signed up for a Monthly Omniplex Cinema Pass which gives you access to every movie release in the Omniplex Rathmines for a flat rate of €17.99 a month. It is a no-brainer really, given the amount of cinema visits I make every month.

So after having my pass for a few weeks I have gone to the following films:

The Social Reckoning

Digger

Sense & Sensibility

Street Fighter

Forever is now

As you can see it is a mixed bag of all of the films that I have watched and out of them, I probably woudn't have gone to some of them except for having the pass. The first one I possibly may have given a miss would have been "Digger" given the reviews. After seeing it I can say that it is a weird whacky doozy of a movie. 

The next one that I wouldn't have gone to would have been "Street Figher". Another bad film and this one had very few actors that I recognized. Two people got up and left the cinema which tells a tale in itself.

And then the final one that I might have given a miss except for the pass was "Forever is now". This was actually really good but the reason I might not have chosen to see it if I was paying for a full price ticket was because it is a documentary and I knew that it was going to be a heavy watch. It is a film about the last 18 months of Green Party Leader Eamonn Ryan's time in office. A good film but not light entertainment which is generally what I go to the cinema for.

For me my favourite of all of the films above was "Sense & Sensibility" and absolute delight of a film with Jane Austen's story standing the test of time.

So which film is next for me?! It's "Verity"....this afternoon because I have a random day off work so it seems like a great thing to do!

Postcards from Shanghai

 As you know from reading my blog, one of "my things" is to send postcards from the different countries that I visit.

Well my recent trip to China was no different and one of the first things that I did when I arrived to Zhujiajiao was go to the old post office which dates back to the Qing Dynasty.  It was quite the experience and I loved writing my postcards out on the back porch facing the water and then posting them in the ornate dragon decorated postbox. They even had a selection of ink stamps that you could stamp your postcard with before you mailed it.

Here's a few photos of my postcard session.

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.