Prawns Pil Pil

I adore Prawns Pil Pil so when I saw this recipe in a magazine I was just browsing through in a shop I quickly snapped a pic!

 

The recipe is by Chef Eric Mooney from Asador on Haddington Road.  Asador is very near my work and I pass it on my daily walk at lunch.  I always think there are fabulous smells coming from it.  This recipe and the lovely photo below makes me want to visit there to EAT!

 

This recipe looks very simple to make.

 

 

Final product (don't know why it is on it's side)

Blooming fabulous!

I called over to my friends apartment in Ballsbridge yestersday afternoon.  Tara is six months pregnant and blooming as you can see!

 

I bought her a teeny gift of this teeny baby gro.

 

 

And THEN....do not ask me how this happened, it was just one of those nights.....we had fun by me trying on her divine wedding dress!

 

It made for alot of hilarity and some great photos!



How amazing is this dress!

Posing with a glass of champers :-)

Smart Car Rally Dublin 2013

My sister Enid has a Smart car. It's a fun little car and people smile at it wherever she drives!

  In 2011 we organised a little event of a meet up for Dublin Smart owners - check out the photos of the event here. It went really well and was a fun day out, so we are now planning another one for this year in Dublin. (In 2012 we attended the Belfast meet up).

 

We have a facebook page and today we announced the plans for the 2013 rally:

 

Planning has started for Smart Car Rally Dublin 2013!
Shaping up as follows:
Date - late June or July.
Location - Phoenix Park Dublin.

Agenda - meet in the carpark of Ashtown Castle in the Phoenix Park and park up for an hour or two for a "Tailgate Party"
*chat about our Smarts, eat food (nothing fancy! Tea & Coffee, pastries etc like last time), check out everyone's Smart, take photos etc etc*
Then take a drive "en convoy" around the Phoenix Park for a half an hour so - beeping and waving at the tourists and park go-ers.
Suggestion that you bring a car window flag for your county or some sort of decoration or flag for your car - will look good during our "convoy".

So that's what we are thinking! Hope you can all make it. If you know any other Smart owners please spread the word. We will confirm the date for definite soon and will set up a fb event page. Post below if you are hoping to attend. Enid & Amy

 

Do you know any Smart owners?!  They might be interested in looking at our facebook page :-)



Urban Fox!

Today I saw a fox in Dublin CITY!  Yes in the city!!

I have always heard rumours about a fox's den in Dublin but I always pictured it being somewhere near O'Connell Street for some reason.

 

 

He not so much ran across the road, I would actually describe him as gambolling across the road.  He did not seem scared of the traffic yet he was also neither overly brave in his surroundings.

 

Unfortunately I was too slow with my phone/camera :-(

 

So instead, using the magic of Google Streetview, I thought it might be interesting to show you where I saw him.

 

As you can see this is Mount Street/Merrion Square. 

He came from the side of American College Dublin crossed the road right in front of me and skipped through the railings into Merrion Square. 

 

Things to note about my encounter with Fantastic Mr Fox

(1) I don't know why I am assuming the fox was a "he"

(2) I still cannot believe we have foxes in Dublin CITY!

 

Update 05/05/05:

What a co-incidence! 

Today in the Metro I read an article about a project group who are trying to collect data on foxes in Dublin.  I had literally just read the article when my sister Katie of the very funny and clever Binary Pixie blog (follow her!) texted me a pic of the article and asked had I seen it.

 

They have a facebook page, a twitter account and a facebook so I am going to post a link to this post on their page.

 

Below are some pictures of the article.

 

But before that some further musings on my encounter with Mr Fantastic Fox.

(1) The colour that I chose to "paint" his route on the photo above was chosen specifically - it was the closest I can get to show his colour.  He was an an almost bright orangey rusty colour. And he seemed to be an all-over colour, no white.

(2) The more I think about it I think it was not an adult fox.  Now of course I don't really know that much about foxes but this one just didn't seem fully grown to me.  I would describe it as about the size of a big West Highland Terrier.  Anyone out there know what size a fully grown fox is??

(3) You will notice that the route I painted on the photo above is not straight.  In particular it is "squiggley" on the left hand side.  That is done on purpose to show the actual route Foxy took - when he was on the left hand side of the road he looked like a little puppy!

 

 



Tom Cruise is in Dublin!

He is staying in the Merrion Hotel which is only just around the corner from where I work.  I won't lie to you I was tempted to take a trip around at lunchtime!

 

The Merrion Hotel is very popular with film stars and musicians when they come to Ireland - Bruce Springsteen stayed there when he played in Ireland during the summer.  I'd recommend you click on to the hotel website - switch on your speakers, they seem to have attached music to the website so you can listen to lovely classical music while you browse!

As it happened I had to go Northside to run an errand during my lunchbreak today so I wouldn't actually have been able to go stalk the hotel afterall.  I did however pass the Savoy cinema where Tom will be attending tonight for the premiere of Oblivion.

 

I passed at 1pm and there were people queuing along the red carpet already!

 



But no Tom Cruise :-(


Update:
I see that he spent 90 minutes greeting his Irish fans.  Fair play to him!
Article
He's a handsome man for 50 I tells ya :-)


Three scissors, two forks and a spoon

I cleaned my bedroom from top to bottom today.  I found 3 scissors, 2 forks and a spoon under the bed.  I had been wondering why I could never find a scissors, there's the answer to that now anyway.

There are articles on the internet giving tips on how to clean your bedroom.  My personal tip is to do it in 30/45 minute stints.  Clean for 30 minutes, watch Oprah for 30 minutes, clean for 30 minutes, watch Oprah for 30.  All done in two hours and you feel like you've been watching Oprah all afternoon! Lol

There is something very satisfying about sitting in bed, watching tv and blogging in a spotlessly clean room.

Vacation Planning Time!

 

My family and I are planning a big holiday to Key West in June of this year!

 

When we go to KW (and we go alot!) we normally stay in a beautiful "conchy" cottage called Bahama Breeze.

 



 

It is the perfect place for groups of two or four people; good size bedrooms, hot tub (fun!) and margerita mixer - I love a cocktail on the deck in the evenings.

 

This year because we are a bigger group we are looking to get a bigger house.  We are looking at a two storey house with a small swimming pool which will be great. 

 

The location of the new house is "okay".  Not quite as good as Bahama Breeze's location which is just off Duval, but good all the same - hey it's Key West, you are never really too far from anything in KW, right?!

 

Oh my!  That photograph up there is getting me excited already for our vacation!