Jameson 2020

 

 

Gave this little gift to my boss as a thank you/merry christmas/happy new year etc etc

Ribbon and bauble added by moi...I think it looks soooo adorable :)

Christmas 2020

I am doing the Irish thing so Christmas is not over until January 2nd 2021 at the earliest.

Today we got up early, I drank a baileys coffee and then we went out on the baby boat to check the crab traps.  We struck out on the traps and caught nothing.  A little disappointing and we were a little dispirited on the return until we caught sight of some dolphins! We stopped the boat and just took the time to enjoy watching the dolphins as they frolicked around us.  What a joy.

Came home. I drank another baileys coffee (it's Christmas) and then headed downtown to do some banking and to pop my head into the hotel to say hi. I then went wild and did something I never do and went and treated myself to a few luxury items that I did not necessarily need... Got myself a pack of three masks in Lilly Pulitzer because I adore Lilly, and had lost my original mask and you can only buy them in threes in the store.  Popped into Coach "just for a look" and ended up with a water buffalo leather (feels like silk) wallet (aka pocket book) and an adorable new hand bag (aka purse).  

Home. Little bit of lunch (brie and serrano ham on rye bread) and spent the afternoon in the pool.

Just before heading to Half Shell Raw Bar for dinner checked the mail and was delighted to get some great news, I was waiting for, in the post.

After dinner, spent a little more time in pool (perfect temperature) and in bed now all set for work tomorrow.

Good night all!

Christmas 2020

Christmas Eve: Wine and Cheese (manchego, gruyere, fontina and brie) dinner (and italian ham, scottish smoked salmon and spanish sausage) while watching "The Family Stone

Christmas Day: Whats app call with my sisters and then a zoom call with Patrick's family.  A lovely breakfast of home made sausage rolls, english muffin with brie and prosciutto.  And a little Bailey's coffee :) Work for Amy in the  PM.

Stephen's Day (Ireland)/Boxing Day (Canada): Work for Amy in the AM.  Dinner of crab claws caught by ourselves!  With dipping sauce and sides by Amy - key lime mustard and mac and cheese (from scratch - gruyere)

December 27th: Baileys Coffee.  Went and checked the crab traps (very cold and quite windy, but fun and adventurous!).  Hot shower.  More baileys coffee.  Plus brunch of smoked salmon, scrambled egg and rye bread toast.  Ordered a new cell phone because mine is dying a slow death.  It was 2 years old when I came over here so it has lasted 4 years which is a bit of a miracle for me tbh.  Phones live a fast and hard life with me and generally die young,

Does this blog post look messed up (the photos in particular)?  Yeah, no idea what happened there.

Miami to Key West

We were in Miami for a night and yesterday on our way home we made quite the day of it I must say!

Lunch was on the agenda first! Last year when we were in Key Largo for a mini vacation we had lunch in a lovely sushi place so we decided to stop there en route.  It was helpful because we were on a bit of a schedule with the rental car - we wanted to get it back by 3pm so that it was just rental for one 24 hour period - meaning that we knew where it was/where to park and that it was very nice so we didn't need to ponder over the menu too long.

Must have been the quickest decision what to order ever.  We opened the menus and Patrick said to me "are you thinking what I am".  "Yup", said I "lunch special for two $32".

Check this out!!!

A boat of sushi!!!! I've always wanted to eat from one of those!! (Crying laughing emoji face). And guess what, it was just fabulous!

From there we headed back down South, looking forward to getting back home and back "on the rock".  It's quite weird how just two years in Key West makes you quite the home bird. I never used to be like that...

We returned the car to the rental company - the 24 hour turnaround a success - and hopped on the bikes and cycled home.  

A little bit of relaxing at home, including a quick dip in the pool, and we were back on the road headed downtown.  Our destination was Vino's where we were planning on getting a bottle of Veuve Cliquot and a cheese and charcuterie sharing plate. But tragedy :( they had ran out of bottles.  

All was not lost. We had a couple of glasses of wine (prosecco, and shared a malbec and burgundy) and the lovely cheese plate (spanish), sausage and bread.

Aaaaaaaand then.  I hit on the brainwave of trying out somewhere we had never been before.  Patrick needed a tiny bit of persuasion.  He is a creature of habit sometimes :)

Berlins! Ssshhh. It's a speakeasy.  And in no time at all there we were, speaking easy, eating oysters rockefella and drinking fancy cocktails. In Key West pretending we were in 1940's Chicago.  Yeah we're silly, I know.

Twin life

 My twin and I go through phases...sometimes we look very much alike, and sometimes not so much. Well I think we must be going through a "look alike" phase at the moment...

So there I was, all dressed in my Christmas jumper and getting ready to go for our Christmas Lobster roll and train trip. 

Aimlessly scrolling through my Instagram feed while waiting on Patrick, when BOOM...

I got the shock of my life.  There is ME, wearing my sweater, in a photo I don't remember taking.

Spoiler. It wasn't me.  It was Enid. 

Enid. Wearing the exact same sweater as me at that exact moment in time, in a different country to me.

How crazy is that?!

Christmas festivities

 I love this time of the year.  Not quite as mad as Ireland (side story: where "silly season" started on November 17th, as designated by my best friend in work because that is the date that brokers started bringing us out for Christmas parties - this was during the Celtic Tiger years when there were so many brokers and so many parties that it all had to start that early in order to get them all in before Christmas), but probably more straight forward "wholesome" than Ireland.  More festive gatherings versus mad drinking parties I guess.  That was the Celtic Tiger for you I guess.... Insert "eek emoji" here.

Soooooo.  Here is some "wholesome" for ya! Ok, ok, with a few little sneaky spiked drinkies snuck in there too :)

Patrick came up with great idea of Christmas Lobster rolls.  The absolutely best place on the island, like literally the best, do not go anywhere else, is DJ's crab shack.  

Maine Lobster with a local Islamorada beer

Afterwards we headed to meet our friends in the Truman park car lot where we had some festive drinks, eggnog and the like. Yes that is bucket of fireball.  In the cup is hot chocolate with double chocolate vodka in it.

And then! Then we boarded the conch train for a tour of the island and all the houses lit up for the holiday.  Christmas songs blaring and lots of holiday cheer.  It was a wonderful evening!

Irish artist Pigsy in Social and Personal (Ireland's ruling fashion magazine Est. 1934)

 Dublin's DesignYard has a very exciting online exhibition of artist Pigsy's latest work, featuring more than 20 vibrant pieces ranging in price from eur1,300 to eur24,000.  The show titled "Seven Spanish Angels", runs from November 28 - December 12, and each piece will ship directly from Pigsy's Malaga studio free of charge worldwide.  

Born on the north side of Dublin, Ciaran McCoy, is an award winning architect of (ODKM Architects) who borrows from his architectural knowledge to create his diverse expressionist artwork as his alter ego "Pigsy".  Featured in this new collection, the painting here is called "I Went to Mass" (eur4,800).  

See the show at Designyard.com

Elvis: That's The Way It Is - Special Edition

 Just before covid19 hit and the cinemas closed one of the last films we saw in The Tropic cinema here in Key West was the Robbie Robertson documentary about The Band "Once Were Brothers".

The Tropic is (softly) reopened, and when I saw an ad on facebook for the re-release of "Elvis: That's the way it is", and that it was playing in the Tropic.....well I just hopped on it and bought two tickets.

It felt incredibly safe in the theatre....well there was only us and two other couples there! Great for us, but I do worry how the cinema will survive with that kind of attendance.

What was really cool is that the major of the film is clips of (full songs) of his Las Vegas concerts so, as Patrick said afterwards, in a bizarre pandemic kind of way it felt like we were at a live show. It is as near to a live concert you will get right now so we will take it I suppose!

Sorry :(
I can't rotate this pic

We both really enjoyed the gospel songs part of the show so went online and ordered a CD of them.  Best deal was to also get his number 1's also.  And then, I went the whole hog and ordered a cd of The Band also. Spent the afternoon today listening to them while swimming in the pool. Pretty good afternoon me thinks!

Success!

 Great day out on the water this morning!

First, caught a ginormous parrot fish.  This feeds on the coral and cleans it, so after a quick photo and swift removal of hook (me and my trusty pliers) we got it back in the sea and on its way.

Then we went and checked the crab traps and caught this ginormous stone crab!  Same as the fish: swift removal of ONE claw and back in the ocean asap.

Sugarloaf Lodge

 We got off the rock for a little getaway, which I admit does pose the question do you really need to take a vacation from an island where people go to vacation?  Probably not I say, and in fact we were dying to get home the next day, but that doesn't mean we had anything but a wonderful time.

We stayed at a quirky little hotel that I had my eye on.  Sugarloaf Lodge is located on Sugarloaf Key which is about 20 miles away from us.  Our room had a lovely view of the ocean and was warm...but yes, quirky, read old and dodgy lol. Just the way I like 'em lol! Clean though! MUST be clean!!

We ate that night in Mangrove Mamas and it was really really good. Great atmosphere - although we stayed in a dining room separate to the bar, that was just us within it, to stay safe - we could hear the vibe though and it felt good.  And wonderful food! I had Shrimp Coquille St Jacques and I just loved it.  Patrick got paella with a Cuban vibe which he too loved.

The next morning we drove home, stopping at Baby's Coffee on the way. 

10/10.

"Me and my Tree" The Christmas 2020 portrait series

 I've always loved old photos from the 1960's.  I love looking at the fashion, "the what people wore", the furniture and imagining "how people lived" based on their photos.  I particularly love Christmas ones.  People dressed up for parties, such glamour! And their cocktails!  The craft cocktails of our day can't hold a candle to the old classics of a Saturday night, in my opinion.

My friend Feliz came up with a great facebook idea for this Christmas:

"We need a little glamour in our lives right now.  This Christmas season 2020, let's put on our fanciest dresses, pour ourselves a martin, and pose in front of a tree.  Post those pictures! Extra credit if you have a silver tree, or those silver tinsel thingies".

So taking Feliz's idea I put this challenge out to my friends on facebook and the photos are coming in!  Photo of my album so far, plus of my pics.  I'm really loving this fun little project and I think it will be a nice little memory of this crazy coronavirus pandemic year.

If you're reading this blog and you want to be part of it that would be great! Just send me your pic :)

Manai (A man cave in Key West, Florida)

I love our little outdoor space aka "the lanai".   

We recently got it wired up properly by an electrician so it means we have the option of watching tv outside. Patrick particularly likes it for watching sports and having an evening drink so I guess it is a bit of a man cave.  Hence the name "the manai".

We scored the white wicker chairs at a yard sale.  They are REALLY good quality.  Proper old wicker, and heavy and solid.   Whereas the brown yokes are just Home Depot plastic wicker...

...BUT! When the brown are sprayed up white, they sure look better don't they?  

Before and After pics below!