St Patrick's Day 2023

All of the team made a great effort in the hotel with their green!

I worethis green dress for the second time. It literally hangs in the wardrobe all year round waiting for March 17th

Quiet enough St Patrick's Day with both of us working.  We just had a nice dinner of steak and butcher sausage with wine to mark the occasion.

Happy St Patrick's Day, friends!  I hope you had a wonderful day, particularly those of you in Ireland who had the day off work!

 

My new favourite hotel

 It has been a dream of mine for about a decade or so to have stayed in The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. I would go for a drink in the bar, or gaze at it as I walked by, and dream about an overnight stay.

Back in June/July of this year that dream was fulfilled and it really was as lovely as I thought it would  be. It also was just lovely staying right in the heart of Dublin and going our for dinner etc and then back to the fab hotel.

Well this weekend gone, The Shelbourne has been surpassed and I have found my new favourite. The (Fairmont) Royal York in Toronto! 

The lobby in the afternoon when we arrived to check in

The lobby the day after, when I guess they put up their Christmas decorations, while we were sleeping.

Beautiful tree in centre of the hotel!

So, when I told Patrick it was my favourite hotel he said...really?? More than The Shelbourne?? More than The Powerscourt Hotel.  He also affirmed that he thinks the Powerscourt is his favourite. 

And while yes, undoubtedly the Powerscourt Hotel is just beautiful...

(Not our room...Lounge area!!)

...and we did have the most amazing upgraded room! Whereas, in both The Shelbourne and The Royal York, our rooms were the very standard and SMALL!!!

But as I said to Patrick. "Yes, powerscourt is fab. And indeed, it is in the middle of the beautiful Irish countryside"

And that's when it hit me "well of course you love the Powerscourt hotel, it is in the middle of the country. And of course I love the Royal York, it is in the middle of the city"

Town mouse versus Country mouse

Ireland, June 2022

 After 3.5 years I finally got home to Ireland!  Amazing how much we packed in.  Amongst other things: met tons and tons of Patrick's relatives, saw Oliver Reed's final resting place in Churchtown, Cork (stayed two nights in the village actually), overnighted in The Shelbourne (eek! Bit of a lifelong dream realised),  a night in Powerscourt Hotel, Enniskerry, visited with my family, met up with Alice and spent a nice bit of time with Enid and Ciaran in Ranelagh.

Pictured below are some food highlights of the hol

Centre of the pic is the absolute climax of the food journey - the amazing seafood tower that Ciaran treated us to in his lovely Lawn Tennis Club restaurant.  Lobster, mussels, clams, oysters, salmon, crab, prawns. Oh my!

Other amazing food places visited: One Pico on Molesworth St, Sikka in Powerscourt, Matt The Threshers on Pembroke, Reilly's on Merrion St, various pubs in Dingle and the surrounds.  Good, Irish ingredients just can't be beat!

It really was just a wonderful trip.

Pigsy in Efffusion Gallery, Duval Street

 Today was an unbelievably cold day in Key West - record lows of temperature in the 50's.  On a day like that, it calls for a nice alcoholic beverage to warm you up.  

In advance of going for said alcoholic drink, I stopped by Effusion Gallery to check out the (decreasing) Irish artist, Pigsy's collection.  I say decreasing, or ever dwindling, because pieces from the collection keep getting sold!

Today I was saying goodbye to the painting "S.E.B." before it headed off to its new home.  It's a great piece and I was glad to see it one more time in situ in Key West.

From there, I headed on to Alonzos to meet with my friend Lara and her friend Tracy.  I met Lara 8 or 9 years ago when I was in Cancun, meeting the first day of the vacation and spending the rest of the time together. The abiding memory from that holiday is playing a lot of volleyball - in the mornings, and then a lot of drinks in the pool in the afternoon.  She is from Texas and was in town for the Mile Marker Zero festival. We had the loveliest of time together, Lara being as fabulous and fun as ever.  It's just lovely staying in touch with people who you click with.

All of that made for a great day and warmed me up no doubt.  But now, I am back home and it is cold again - I am posting this from bed, drowning under a million blankets and a cat. Thoughts and prayers please!

What I've been up to...what Enid has been up to

What have I been up to lately?   Bikram yoga! A lot of bikram yoga!

Tuesday.  I went and enrolled for a month long course at Mata Yoga. $140 and worth every penny I believe. Here is a photo of me outside the studio looking worried that I left the immersion on.

Thursday.  Look at the cute bubble gum pink yoga studio

Friday.  Just me initially.  Two other people and the instructor in the end.

Sunday.  I made it! And had an awesome practice. I'm so happy.

What else have I been doing?

Staying as careful as is possible.  

Social distance and mask wearing in work. Washing my hands and not touching my face.  Stay safe friends and readers.

Eating healthy! Patrick cooked us this beautiful salmon on the new barbecue. I swear food tastes better on it.  Look at those grill marks.

And what has Enid been doing?

Oh just the small matter of being FEATURED IN THE IRISH TIMES!!!

Click here to read all about what she and her husband Pigsy, Irish artist, have been doing in the Spanish city of Malaga. 

How exciting right?! 

And what is next for Pigsy and Enid?  His solo exhibition will be held in La Casa Amarilla in the latter half of March of this year. So that is also extremely exciting.  Covid or no covid, these pair have risen up to it, and they inspire me every day.

I thought the article was a great little read.  I'd love to hear your thoughts! Comment below :)

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 :)

We are living through a Pandemic

I said it out loud to myself this morning "we are living through a pandemic".  My feeling is still a little disbelief.  I think back to Christmas day as an example.  If any one at the dinner table, had predicted something like this happening in the first quarter of the year, I think we would have all fell around laughing at them.

Yet it did happen. And here we are.

It is hard to capture the feelings of life right now, and I think this is because things, and information are changing constantly.  So you hear some news or an update, and you adapt to it - and you identify the feeling and you begin to understand and accept the feeling - and then, things change again.  I also find things constantly changing because I am trying to keep up with what is happening at home in Ireland, what is happening in the wider US (watching those White House press conferences every evening - the less said there the better) and then of course adapting to the local situation here in Key West.

So what is it like here in Key West? I am sure similar to wherever you are right now while reading this - complete and utter lockdown, everyone staying at home, bars and restaurants (the mainstay of Key West) all closed except for some restaurants take out only.  And of those restaurants that are doing take out - each day one of them closes for business, I guess just not enough business to sustain them staying open.

Ghost town.
The one big notable difference about Key West is the amount of people on the island.  Can you imagine if you told half the people in your town to leave?  Well that is what Key West did.  Normally at this time of the year the island is teeming with tourists, bars are packed, restaurants need reservations. We are now closed to tourists.  The streets are empty of cars, empty of cyclists on rental bikes, empty of revelers.  The shops are boarded up.  Quiet does not begin to describe it.

At home I have been trying to keep busy and "get things done".  I painted the bathroom and painted our bedroom (pics below).  Doing some cleaning chores around the house etc.  I have been reading lots which I am pleased about. I have not been blogging.  Hopefully this post is a sign that will change! I would like to have a record of these strange times in years to come.

Oh yes for the record, I guess this is part of the "adapting" I mentioned that I almost forgot to post about it, of course we are practicing social distancing and lockdown. We are staying at home as much as possible, only going out for essentials and when I do go out I wear a mask when I am in a shop or picking up food etc.  If we meet a neighbor on the street we have a very quick check in with them - at 2 metres away from each other.

Ok I think that is all I've got for you right now. Stay safe, well and healthy dear reader.  Enjoy photos of my handiwork below - I'd love some feedback on it :)

Before - a lurid lime greeny yellow. 

And now - POP- the crisp clean white allows the tiles be the star of the show!

Before - this photo does not fully capture the yocky lurid purple colour enthusiastically slathered from ceiling to floor (yep the trim had been painted purple too).  

After - cool and calm, dare I say sophisticated? Ironically the name of the paint is "calm" :)

A bad buy v a good buy

Don't buy these! (Aldi)

Buy these! (Aldo)

Last year, I had a pair of boots from Lidl which were absolutely brilliant and got me through the whole Winter - which if you remember included a trip to Chicago (minus 22c!!) and the Beast from the East hitting Ireland.  They were however totally dead after those tough conditions and I needed to get a new pair before my move to Chicago this week.

Unfortunately Lidl hadn't got their ski/winter/boots in stock, but Aldi had.  Figuring how good the Lidl ones were I assumed the Aldi ones would be the same.  Big mistake!  Awful.  Awful.  Tough and hard - like moulded plastic.  Little to nil (or at least not comfortable) inner soil lining.  And simply a bad fit.  Very uncomfortable to walk in because it felt like my feet were slipping in and out of them.

They were a BAD BUY.  I regret not doing a good lap of the shop when I bought them as all of the above would have been exposed pretty quickly.  Instead I just quickly tried them on and without much thought I paid for them.  (I guess, again, I was relying on them being the same as the year previous' ones from Lidl).

So what to do! Here I was in Chicago with a crappy pair of boots that aside from feeling terribly uncomfortable I really felt were just not up to the job. I dreaded being outside too long in them, I am sure they would not have kept the cold out.  Luckily I spotted an Aldo shoe shop near me. And they had the cutest pair of boots which were most importantly GOOD - insulated and comfortable.  And best of all the Aldo was a sale shop.  So boots that should have been $200 cost me only $40.  I couldn't believe my luck.

Long story short. Aldo trumps Aldi

Ps. How super cute are the Aldo boots!



Lakehouse hangs

It's very difficult to describe a great weekend with amazing friends.  What I mean is, it's very easy for me to describe what Enid, Alice, Katie and I did last weekend.  But you know, sometimes the whole, really is bigger than the sum of all parts (thanks Aristotle!).  So, while yes, we did a lot of really fun things in a really amazing part of Ireland, in a beautiful house, in a glorious setting...that alone doesn't capture just how joyous it was to spend time with my twin and my best friend (of about 33 years, since primary school). 

Anyway let's see if you can feel the vibe of what a good weekend it was!

Alice kindly did the driving in her fancy new car which was a fab ride indeed.  Enid felt bad bringing Bones with us in the new car (it had NOT been planned!) but to be fair he was no bother at all and slept all the way down, and all the way back.  He was also very good in the cottage.  He loves it there!

All in all it was a weekend packed with good clean fun - a nice dinner on Saturday which Katie drove out from Galway for.  Mmmmm lovely filet steak and fab wine.  Then afterwards we had a rowdy game of scrabble.  Cheaters the lot of them!!  I swear I was ganged up on! Did I mention the lovely fire as well?  There is nothing like an open fire right!

On the last morning we got up early and Enid fried up a lovely big breakfast (thanks Enid!).  We ate breakfast looking out on the lake view while listening to a Christmas album on the record player.  How hilarious!  But it just felt right! 

After breakfast we took a clamber down to the lake and took in it's beauty.  All to soon it was time to go and we had the car loaded up and were on the road back to Dublin. 

Thanks for the great weekend darling girls!  I'll hold the memories close for a long time

Discussing how to gang up on Amy!

The sunsets over the lake are surely some of the best in Ireland?

Bricfeasta!  Mmmm

Sure what else would you be doing but listening to Christmas songs?!  :))))

The 3 amigos down by the lake on Sunday morning

Bonesie.  He's not a bad little doggo sometimes



Weekend round up

On Friday evening after work I did a small but much needed chore and replaced the battery on my mains powered smoke alarm,

The chirping had been annoying me for a few evenings but with my ceilings being so high it was not as easy as just standing on a chair as I have done previously.  Conveniently I spotted a step ladder down in the basement of my building so I borrowed it for 15 minutes to get this job done.

 

Saturday I was up nice and early and off on the canvass trail with the Dublin Bay South chapter of Together for Yes.  It was a positive canvass overall and you can read all about it here

 

Then it was on to the real weekend fun stuff!

 

Enid and I got the bus out to visit our best friend Alice.

And Baxter the dog.  How cute is this pupper?!

 

We had a lovely evening with plenty of great food, drink and chat.  Playing in the background on Spotify for the whole night was Abba! Yes the whole night.  Enid, Alice and I have been massive Abba fans since we our early teens and there is nothing like it for sparking some reminiscing :-)

These prawns in garlic, chili and coriander were divine!

 

And how good does this steak, avocado and mac and cheese look!  I tucked into the steak and avocado, and athough I would have loved to hoover down all that scrumptious mac and cheese I was very careful and just had a bite or two of it.  The thought of a bikini in two short weeks is keeping me on the straight and narrow!

We finished with a Key West delicacy of coconut (key) lime patties which were so good!

And of course that went delightfully with our Key West conversations.  Key West and our recent big trip was of course a central theme to the night!

 

Thanks for a great night Alice in your beautiful new house!

This morning I had a lovely relaxing time reading the Sunday paper with a coffee.

I know I say this a lot but it really was nice to be up and out,

Later that morning I popped into Dunnes in Stephen's Green to try on a skirt from the Savida range I had seen on a mannequin.  I really like it, and it is so comfortable that I am going to try wear it instead of jeans  - for a change - I tend to live in tight jeans and biker boots at weekends, I should mix it up more.

The only bad thing about this weekend was my attempt at coconut keto pancakes which simply didn't work.  And in fact set off the afore mentioned smoke alarm!!

Pity :(  I really wanted some pancakes.  And now I am literally CRAVING pancakes and Canadian maple syrup.  Ah well... Probably for the best...bikini Amy, bikini!!!

 

Clothes swap / fundraiser night / fun with family

For the last couple of years one of my aunts has hosted a really fun social night which also raises money for a good cause.  For the past couple of years the funds raised has gone to our local hospice St Francis's which does the most incredible work ever.  This year the charity chosen was Laura Lynn which is a hospice specifically for children.

 

A lot of work goes into the evening! 

This is the conservatory which is set up and decorated to look just like a real shop. Doesn't it look fantastic. We all pay €10 each and then you basically try on and get to take anything you like!

My aunt also runs a raffle to raise further funds. Every year she gets some has great prizes which are donated by the attendees  Amongst the prizes this year were some Jack Vettriano prints, a Coach handbag, a silk scarf, a beautiful painting done by one of the guests, and other nice items.  Tickets are priced at €2 each and most people buy €10 or €20 worth.

The lucky dip is a lot of fun. 

It costs €1 and you take a little wrapped parcel out...which tends to contain a novelty gift.  Again these are donated by the attendees.

My aunt does the best food! 

In the red pot is her famous chilli made with her special South African spices!

 

Oh this is fun!

Another way of raising money is that she holds an auction of old photos.  An envelope is held up that has three names on it (of people at the party).  The photo within may be of any one of them. Therefore all three want it - so they all bid against each other to buy the photo.  The bidding starts at 10c and the photo is sold for around €1/1.50.  There is always great craic and competition to "win" the auction!

 

I bought this photo of my mother (second from the left in the trousers and jumper)

And I bought this photo for Enid of her wedding!

The best thing about the night is of course the clothes.  How cool is this Pucci-esque dress that I got?!  Perfect for my holiday to Ibiza in September I think!

And I got this dress!

It's not something I'd normally choose to buy for myself but that is what is good about this night you tend to pick up something a bit different.

 

A lot of fun was had.  I tried on loads and loads of clothes/outfits and modelled them putting on funny accents to match each outfit to make people laugh.

 

And then the next day I got a text from my aunt announcing the good news that €550 had been raised!  She should be very proud of herself.  Like I said at the beginning of this post it's a lot of organisation - before, during and after (all clothes left over need to be brought to the charity shop!)