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Took a flying visit home recently and turned out to be a just wonderful weekend! Boy, did Enid and I pack it all in.  Also, the weather was incredibly mild and of course, as we all know, Ireland when the sun shines is one of the best places to be in the whole wide world.

Hit the ground running with an airport pick up from Dad and then breakfast with Mam and Dad.  Sneaky little nap afterwards in my childhood bed to try beat the jet lag - sadly, I didn't - the jet lag was the only negative about the whole trip.
Dublin bus into town.  Can only say good things about Dublin transport.  Bus and Luas, I was leap(card)ing all over the place.
Bought a few essentials in Dunnes and Penneys - some things are way cheaper over here, some things better value there.

Met with Enid and started our weekend of fun.  Including, but not restricted to:

• A perfect evening with our best friend Alice
• L'Guelton on Fade Street - steak frites, red wine and bubbles mmmm
• Dions - incredible views!  And nice nouveau cuisine.  I knew I would love this place.
• Lunch at The Shelbourne, an amazing seafood platter.
• Yoga at the most beautiful new studio in Ringsend.
• A concert with 50,000 other people.  Take That were just great, as always.
• Little family get together to meet Katie's new fiance - exciting!
• A stroll around our favourite Dead Mall (ahahahahhahaha)
• Visited Stephens Green and found a new little area that neither of us had seen before which was just lovely.
• A couple of Full Irish breakfasts!  Doheny & Nesbitts, a highlight.  But always good in the casual cafe in the basement of Dunnes in Stephen's Green.
• I introduced Enid to Bloody Marys :)
• Enid introduced me to a great new health shop near her :)
• We both got our hairs cut in a lovely little salon just off Grafton Street.

Phew! I think that is it!

Want a more extensive report on my visit? A report that includes Lots of Photos, pop on over to Enid's blog to have a read.

Bloody Marys of Key West

Bloody Mary tastings!

While Patrick was away recently I may or may not have eaten out a lot 🤣🤣 And at each of these eatings, I may or may not have had a Bloody Mary.

Some highlights! 

Shout out to Kaya Eats for serving theirs in a tiki style glass - always fun!

Alonzo’s - the guy gave me a free shrimp - also fun 🤩 

Key West Yacht Club’s one was excellent as expected and as always - of course. 

But my favourite was Two Friends. It comes with garnishment and the saltiness of the bacon was just tremendous with the tomato. 

Are you a Bloody Mary fan??! How do you like yours? Drop a comment below! 

 

What a busy day!

Bear with me here! The photos uploaded in the wrong order and because I am posting from my phone I am finding it impossible to reorder. Maybe I will fix next time I’m on the laptop…

Made my bone broth for the week! 6th week in a row. Very happy with this batch. Extremely firm and gelatinous. 

Have also introduced chia seeds into my diet. Added them to my Greek yogurt, collagen peptides powder and cereal topping mix.

I fixed this!! Our pool pump was malfunctioning to the point that the pump handle would not move the internal workings thereby meaning we could not backwash the pool (not good at all).

I watched a YouTube clip and proceeded to unscrew the pump apart - yes, until it looked like the above. Cleaned and lubricate every o-ring, every single moving part, and then put it all back together. Took me about an hour all in and IT WORKED! 

 

This whole pump job was done after arriving to the boat this morning at 8am ready for a big trip out…to find the battery was dead. We bought this portable charger a couple of years ago for this day specifically. And it worked beautifully too - am happy to report!

So yeah, a good but busy day 💪 

Things I have been up to lately...

...in no particular order.

Trivia Night with Matt & Jenni

These guys are experts.  I wholeheartedly expect to see Matt on Jeopardy one day.  Whenever I play Triva with them, I like to think that there is one question I will answer, that as a team we would not have got if I was not there.  This night my question was something about the book Great Expectations, answer was Mrs Havisham (I can't remember the exact question something about a wedding dress).

 

Lunch at The Yacht Club!

We never do this.  But figured we were both off on a mid week day and we should do something nice.  Lovely food and I may, or may not, have had two bloody marys.

My friend Feliz directed a wonderful little production for her school Performing Arts group. Always an enjoyable evening seeing some very talented kids.

I am on a bit of a healthy eating kick.  Long time readers of my blog know that Keto is something that works really well for me.  Well, I am not doing full keto at the moment but I am definitely trying to avoid sugar and eat a lot more protein.

Protein! For Breakfast these days I am having Greek Yogurt with a small sprinkling of muesli.  

As well as trying to eat better I am back on the peloton every morning.  A small bit of yoga also.

Poor Monty had to have a visit to the vet. He had these weird little white bumps all over his nose bridge which he then was scratching and making them bleed. It really was quite bad.

I was working, so Patrick brought him on his own which worked out fine in the end (Patrick had a small bit of trepidation initially, about getting him into his crate and bringing him in a car etc).

Turns out he has a "Mosquito Bite Sensitivity/Allergy".  They gave him a steroid shot and gave Patrick a bill for $200.  Not sure how much the steroid shot did.  A few days later I got some cream (silver honey) in the pet store and that cleared up things nicely it seems (Pictured. Monty with the cream on, looking like a right little bruiser).

Some others things going on that I can't remember off the top of my head. Oh! We went to see Project Hail Mary at the Tropic and very much enjoyed that!

End of crab trap season 2026

Busy day today! First on the agenda was end of stone crab season and bringing in our crab traps. The winds were high and the water was decently choppy making it hard work for us.

We were glad to have them in and loaded into the jeep. They are seriously heavy btw (concrete base etc etc).

My bike had a puncture so poor Patrick had to drive me everywhere for the afternoon: we first went and left the bike in for repair and then he drove me to a doctors appointment and waited outside while I was seen.

When we came back we each gave the crab traps a going over with the power washer. They look and smell a lot better and are now ready to be stored away until next year.

After lunch I realised that I had left something in work. I’m not back until Monday and while Patrick could have picked it up for me on Sunday I decided I would go for a slow cycle and get it myself. 

We were both tired this evening and while we had been thinking about going to Brady’s Irish pub for dinner we decided to get quesadillas to go from Paradise Cafe. They were huge - Patrick ate 2/3 of his, I ate 1/2 of mine and am saving the rest for lunch tomorrow! 

Pink!

 New toilet seat arrived. I’m in love! 

Valentine’s Day 2026

 Started out strong by getting up at 7am headed out fishing. Totally struck out at fishing lol. But did go check our crab traps and got a bumper quantity and this 8.5oz absolute monster, so there’s that 🤣

And finally! Wrapped up the day with our usual heart shaped Chicago pizza and wine. 10/10 day