What I wore last night!

Here's what I wore last night:

 

A Tommy Hilfiger black and navy shift dress (top was black, the skirt was navy - how unusual to pair these colours!)

Black Clutch from Benetton

 

And shoes from Zara

 

Here's a pic of a model wearing the dress.  You can see the navy and black pairing in this dress along with the band detail around the waist.

Bonne Appetite!

Here's the menu from the Wine Dinner Event we attended.

Grilled Fillet of Turbot on a White Wine Bean Cassoulet and a Field Mushroom Velouté 

Breast of Wild Mallard Duck with a smoked bacon boxty potato, apple and raisin chutney and crispy sage

Roast rack if lamb with ratatouille of vegetables, gratin potatoes and tarragon sauce 

Selection of French Cheese

1996 Chateau Calin Segur "St Estephe" - served in a balloon glass - all at the table agreed that this was the best tasting wine we had during the evening.

 

Christmas jumper time!

It's coming in to Christmas Jumper season!

 

Have you got yours yet?!

 

I spotted these in the window of Penneys (Primark)

I like the navy one in the middle row.  It's not too unstylish all things considering and it is quite Nordic looking - not the worst looking Christmas Jumper.

 

I'm not a fan of deliberately choosing the ugliest Christmas Sweater. I think Christmas time is the perfect time to wear good looking warm snuggly jumper that says "Winter time".

 

The wearing of Christmas Sweaters has just taken off in Ireland in recent years and there are lots of pop up shops around town with a large selection for sale.  The other alternative is to browse online and order from home.

 

I like to wear my Christmas Jumper in to work on the last day before we break for Christmas.  Most of the staff wear a jumper or a hat and we take a picture of us all in front of the large Christmas tree.  The photo is then put up on Facebook and we wish all of our customers a Happy Christmas!

Above is my twin sister and I in our Christmas jumpers - fun!

Good morning!

I normally start work late on Wednesday and work until 8.  Today I'm working on the early shift as we are having a large event in work this morning.

I decided to go to M&S for breakfast as it will be a busy morning so I need coffee and breakfast to set me up.

Everything is half price before 10am for the whole of this week in Blanchardstown.

I got a salmon & egg bloomer with a cold bottle of diet coke (love the retro bottle).

Look at this adorable shortbread biscuit (cookie) that came with my cappuccino!

My breakfast was delicious - a perfect start to the day!

Pets in your bed

Do you allow your pets to sleep in your bed?

 

Bones sleeps with us.  Normally he sleeps at the end of the bed but on colder nights he cuddles up between the two of us.  I woke about 6am this morning and felt a big lump beside me who was hoarding all my covers.  Wow he was some weight to move him and drag out the covers.  He was out for the count and he did not like being woken up. 

 

In fairness, dogs need to sleep about 18 hours a day and given that Bones goes to work with Ciaran he probably badly needs his sleep at night time day!

Here's two things I saw on the way to work this morning.

 

The first was this great advertising for McCafe.  It was a real eye catcher.  Is it a mug of milk??

 

The next thing of interest I saw was a Christmas Tree - first one I have seen this year!

Traffic this morning was brutal.  There are major road works around St.Stephen's Green and it caused terrible tailbacks to Donnybrook.  I had set off early because I wanted to meet my mother in Starbucks for coffee before work. 

I never made it to Starbucks though - what normally takes me a half hour to drive took me an hour and 15 mins.  I will have to drive a different way tomorrow.

New laptop

 

Ciaran got his new laptop today.  It's huge!!

 

I'm just getting used to it.  Straightaway I find it to be very fast.  Hopefully I will blog more regularly - it is way easier to blog on my tablet so already I am loving it!

Good morning!

This morning I'm having Honey Nut Cornflakes and milk from Adare Farm.

Do you need instructions how to open cardboard cereal boxes?!  

I'm currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book "David & Goliath: underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants".  I really enjoyed The Tipping Point so I hope I enjoy this book as much.  Gladwell has a great way of explaining everyday occurrences and his theories have such practical uses.

Parkland

Today we went to an 11am(!) showing of the new JFK film "Parkland".  Wow what a movie! Incredibly moving.  The movie tells what happens after President John F Kennedy was shot and brought to the Parkland Hospital.  Starring Zac Ephron and Paul Giamatti along with Billy Bob Thornton, this is a must see film.

It was a good weekend to see this film as yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the death of JFK (the film was obviously timed to be released for this event).  Kennedy is an extremely popular character in Ireland.  There is a JFK museum in his family's birthplace of New Ross in Wexford.

Afterwards we watched the Ireland v. New Zealand game.  Rugby is a cruel sport.  Ireland came within a hairs breath of beating the All Blacks and denying them their perfect season.  It would have been a historical win - it has been over 100 years since Ireland has beaten the All Blacks.  Truly heartbreaking.

Kodaline

On Friday night I saw Irish band Kodaline on the Late Late Show.

Then after Bikram on Saturday morning Amy and I saw a huge crowd outside Golden Discs on Grafton Street.  We could hear singing but could not see who it was as there was so many people.  We asked a lady who it was and she said it was Kodaline.  

We squeezed in further.  The band were singing with no amplification so it was hard to hear.  Here's a few photos I took.

I guess the band were in signing copies of their new album.  Album signings used to always take place in the large HMV store across the street but it closed down awhile ago.  The old HMV shop is currently being redeveloped with a new store going in to it - a men's clothes shop, I believe.

Have you heard of Kodaline?  Maybe you will in the future if they become big stars!

First Christmas Fair

Amy and I went to a Christmas Fair of Irish Crafts yesterday. It was on in the Ranelagh Multidenominational School.

Lots of lovely things for sale including felt covered soaps by Sheena.  These soaps are covered in pure wool and as you use the soap the wool softly exfoliates the skin.  I bought a grapefruit flavour.

My bar of soap was €4 and I can't wait to use it!

The last bar of grapefruit soap I had was bought in the Wine Cottage on Eaton Street in Key West.  It was a great soap - I hope this one is just as good!

Pen Pals

Do you have a pen pal? Do you still communicate by letter?

When I was in school I had a pen pal for a few years.  Crystal, from Kentucky, and I regularly wrote letters to each other for a few years.  

I would imagine Crystal was quite disappointed when she read my letter when she got to hear of the mundanities I was getting up to in Ireland, in comparison to her own life which seemed very exciting to the 15 yr old me.

She sent me a photo of herself in one of her letters.  Posing at a party with a red party cup in hand with a crowd of boys in the background.  Tanned and relaxed looking, I was impressed by her, what I thought, was sophistication!

 I also was impressed by her disposable red cup.  Partyware in Ireland was a lot more basic and duller in comparison at that time.   Party cups came in one colour (white) and were about a third the size of a red cup!

So anyway with the advent of texting, email, Skype and what's app, etc I put the question to you do you still write letters to pen pals?

Moscow Mule

I was watching an old Oprah Show - the one where she goes camping in Yosemite with her friend Gail. Anyhoo, as they sat down for dinner, Oprah made her favourite cocktail the "Moscow Mule".  She said it was made up of Vodka, Gingerbeer and Lime.  Sounded delicious to me!

On Friday after dinner in Dillingers we went to the Speakeasy above Kinara Kitchen for a drink.  I asked the barman did he know how to make a Moscow Mule.  He did!

It was delicious and look at the mug it gets served in!!

 

Born on the 4th of July

Watching the Tom Cruise movie "Born on the 4th of July" the other day made me glad to be born in Ireland.  

Based on the life of the now anti-war activist Ron Kovic, it's a film that makes me very sad.  The 20 something year old Kovic is played by the then 26 year old actor Tom Cruise.

This film was made in 1989 and looking at it now makes me reflect how young Tom Cruise was when the film was made and furthermore how very young all those who were sent to fight in Vietnam were. It brought tears to my eyes.

Coming from a neutral country and as a pacifist, I look at this film with thoughts of what a wasteful thing to do with the resource of all of the country's young people.

I have huge respect for all who fight for their country and for their country men and know that they are braver than I will ever be.  I also know that if we were not a neutral country and we went to war, that as a 20 year old my husband would have rushed to sign up. 

But ultimately when you see the product of war, that is young people getting killed or maimed, I feel sad sad sad.

After watching this film, I was moved to search on YouTube for the Donovan song of peace "Universal Soldier"

Have you seen this film?  What did you think of it?

Date night in Dillingers

Through an Irish Times reader offer (a bit like Living Social/Groupon deals) I got a voucher for Dillinger's in Ranelagh.

The voucher consisted of €120 worth of food for €68.  

We booked a place at the bar and when we arrived we were presented with a special menu because we were using the voucher.

Here is the menu which I thought there was plenty to choose from

We chose to drink red wine - a Cotes du Rhone (Gonnet La Julia) which was very drinkable!

For starter I had the quail while Ciaran had the alphabet soup (how fun!).  The soup was great but the quail (as always) was hard to get meat from.  I saw a lady pick it up and eat it with her hands (eeek) but I ate with my knife and fork.

For main, I chose duck while Ciaran has the steak cooked rare.  Both were very good - my dish was a very tasty and sweet concoction.

There were 4 choices of dessert including cheesecake and bread and butter pudding. We chose chocolate mousse.

Breaking dawn

Yesterday Amy and I started the day with a bang by going to 6.30am Bikram.  There is something special about doing back stretches while watching dawn break in Dublin.

After class we went to the restaurant in M&S for a "Full Irish".

What is the full Irish, you might ask.  It's the traditional Breakfast fry up of Rashers (bacon), sausage, egg, black pudding, etc.

The Marks and Spencer fry had tomatoes and mushrooms also included and came with toast.

Until the 29th of November the Full Irish is half price between 8am and 12pm in the Grafton Street store.

That's my kind of breakfast!!

Pirate Scavenger Hunt

I hosted a Pirate themed Scavenger Hunt in the library yesterday.

I created a Pirate Treasure Map which I gave to each child as they signed in.  The children dressed as pirates which added to the fun.

The children solved each clue in order to unlock a password.  When they had the password they went to the desk and received a bag of gold coins from the pirates treasure chest!

What fun!

Blanchardstown Shopping Centre

A new Superdry store has opened in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre.  It's in the unit where HMV used to be.

Leonidas chocolates has also opened in the centre.

Over beside TK Maxx, Walton's music is now opened.  Walton's is one of Dublins oldest music shops - it's the place to go if you are looking for sheer music.

The final opening is a seasonal offering - a pop up shop selling calendars and personalized Christmas ornaments.