Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Irish Mammies!

It's Mother's Day here in Ireland so I called over to my mam this morning with some gifts.

Here she is reading the card I got her. I wish I took a picture of it as it was not an actual Mother's Day Greeting Card but was instead a black & white photo of Ireland in the 1920's. It was a photo of a shop in Waterford (where my mother's family is from) called "Patricia's" with the ladies who work in the shop standing in the front of the shop in their uniforms of white "shop coats" over their everyday clothes. I thought it was the perfect card for her due to the family connection to Waterford and also her second name (baptism name) being Patricia!

The gifts I bought her included a nice bouquet of flowers, a box of Butler's chocolates and an adorable little Carolyn Donnelly butter dish which I think will look great on the table at Easter time!

If you are a mother I wish you the best today and I hope you have a lovely Mother's Day!

What's going on with me.....a quick update!

We visited the newly opened "Pupp" - Ireland's first dog friendly cafe. Here's Bones enjoying staring at my cappuccino!

The cafe is only open two weeks so we will give it another chance....however I do hope they improve their food offerings. They also need to add butter and other good stuff to their scrambled eggs to make them more appetizing.

I'm watching.....
"The Wonder Years" on Netflix.  It's incredible....I love the sixties!

I'm reading...
"Are you there, vodka? It's me, Chelsea" by Chelsea Handler

Election Count Day

After dropping her husband off at the airport (he's gone on a ski trip with friends) Amy called to me just before 9am. She brought me a lovely gift of a pack of limited edition nespresso pods (look at the great colour - so pretty!). We straightaway made Baileys coffees and then set about making breakfast.

For breakfast we had scrambled eggs made with this bottle of O'Egg liquid egg that I had bought in Supervalu the day before. It is super convenient and I shall purchase again!

We spent the morning eating brunch and drinking vodka OJ's watching the election count. But it turned out to be a long time before results started coming through. In my sister's constituency, it was about 11pm before the Tanaiste (Sub Prime Minister) won back her seat by a tight margin. My constituency only elected someone today on the 7th count!!

We vote by Single Transferable Vote (or Proportional Representation) here in Ireland which is quite complex and counts are lengthy. Click here to read all about how our system works. I think Malta is the only other place in the world who uses this system.  Although quite complicated it is a brilliant system and it can mean that there can be really exciting moments throughout the count.

And today as the dust settles and the TD's are being elected we are beginning to see that no one party has a clear majority. It looks like a government will have to be cobbled together.....but I have to question what parties will work together.

.......We could be back at the polls in 6 months time.

Little Kitchen Leeson Street

On Thursday afternoon I attempted to get a table in Tribeca for 7pm that evening.  They could only offer us a 6pm spot which I wouldn't be home from work in time for.

I then rang The Little Kitchen on Leeson Street and got a table for 7pm.

When we arrived we were offered a choice of tables.  We chose the window seat which, even though was near the door which blew cold air on us as people arrived, was a nice place to sit with a good view of the street.

I liked this restaurant from the get go.  It's a small place which I always prefer as it reminds me of a lot of the small really good restaurants that we go to when we visit Key West.  It is also BYOB which is always a good option (I took a bottle of French wine from the our wine rack - and to be honest I can't even tell you what type it was)!

We enjoyed all our food and definitely shall return soon.  The only dish we wouldn't order again is the lamb.  As we walked home we agreed that the lamb had been cooked well but that we just aren't really in to it!

Here is what we ate...

Donegal smoked haddock chowder, chorizo and wild samphire

Risotto of chili, roasted red pepper, prawns, garlic and soft herbs

Slaney River, Slow roasted lambshank, roasted yellow squash andvanilla, twice cooked root vegetables,treacle gravy

Sesame crusted tuna with mussels (this was a special with a €5 supplement)

Half-baked chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream

Funday Friday!

Yesterday, Amy and I had been invited to a friends house for brunch. We both took the day off work so that we could meet for brunch and then head off for the day. 

Brunch was arranged for 10am so I got the bus to Blanchardstown and met Amy at 9.30am and then we walked to our friends house. 

Our friend had her table laid out so nicely and she cooked us delicious pancakes. As well as having lovely food we had nice conversation and chat. It was a great brunch!

We also had fun posing with this giant chimp!

On a side note, Amy and I received our results from a DNA test we did as part of a twin study we were involved in about a year ago. It confirmed we are 99.99997 % positive identical twins. I have to say we do look fairly alike in the chimp pic!

Afterwards, Amy and I took the bus to the city (we mistakenly got on the 37 which took us all around Carpenterstown & Castleknock and took way longer than the 39A which we should have taken) and went to the train station to pick up Amy's annual train pass. We then hopped on the Dart out to Blackrock. The sea views were so nice! We had a drink and some spicy pawns before getting back on the train and heading on to Dun Laoghaire. We stopped in to another pub and had a drink here too as well as some lovely BBQ ribs and corn on the cob. 

To get home, I got the 46A bus while Amy luckily caught a train that went all the way to her station without having to switch trains n the city. I got back to my house about 7.30pm where I picked up the dog and my polling card and headed to the polling station and voted in the general election.

After an enjoyable but long day, I went to bed with a glass of wine and a good book! A lovely end to a great day.

We have a new front door

Here's our new front door.

It's been painted in "Railings" by Farrow & Ball and the brass ironmongery are the original ones that were restored and re-polished.

Here's the door at night time

And here it is during the day

It's very different looking from our red door and I'm very happy with it. The big difference is the comfort levels with this door being fully sealed and also having a dummy letter box.  It doesn't let any draughts in which makes a big difference as our house so open plan.

Penneys Haul

I met up with my best friend and sister this morning for a chilled out brunch in The Great Wood in Blanchardstown. Most people seemed to be eating and then leaving quickly. Not us though! We were there from 11.30am until 3.30pm. It was fun and it was a great catch up.

Afterwards, Amy and I went to Penneys to browse the Summer stock for our upcoming trip to Key West. 

Amy got a nice pair of flip flops and birkenstock style sandals. We both got sunglasses and I also got two bargain bikinis! The triangle style suited me better but I also bought the bandeau one in order to stop tan lines building up.

All of the below was €14. You can not beat Penneys for price!