Weirs of Baggot Street

There is a lovely shop on Baggot Street called Weirs.  While technically is a hardware shop it has a very large children's gift section.

 

It's pricing is funny (but good!).  It has items that are very expensive, but equally has a lot of items that a child could spend their pocket money on.

 

Here is a section of their stock below.

 

Painting apron/pinafores.  How sweet.

Seriously, how adorable are those little tea sets.

 

This is a great idea for saving your child's first shoes.

Ducks! Lipgloss I think :-)

Little small windmills

 





I think these bike helmets are just fantastic.

 

If you are around the Baggot Street area I'd reccomend you check this little tresure trove out.

Oh, they cut keys and stock hardware stuff as well of course :-)

Bonjour!

While out on a lunchtime walk with the two HR ladies from work we came upon this "construction" on top of a bus stop in Baggot Street.

 

This was our initial view and we were actually like "what the heck"

 

We walked around the bus stop to get a better view and it made us laugh and laugh.

 

Really brightened up our day!

So to Cuisine de France I say Bonjour!

Et MERCI beacoup!

 

 

Old Cadbury's ad - what a treasure!

Pearse Street Train Station has been undergoing renovation. 

And in the process it seems that an old Cadbury ad has been uncovered.



 

How cool is this?

In my opinion it is a fabulous piece of social history.

I love the antithesis of the old sign and the big modern sign.

 

I really hope Pearse Station/Cadburys decide to leave it on display. 

IF it was my train station I would make this a feature - I'd put a big chunky silver or black box frame all around it with glass on the front protecting the sign.


Update:
2 years later, see here what has been done about this sign.

What are your thoughts?!

Boston Marathon

Shocked.  Appalled.  Horrified. Angry.  Sad.

That poor little innocent boy who died.  And the young woman who accompanied her friend to cheer on her friend's boyfriend.  And all the other people who suffered attrocious injuries.  Friends and families of all involved.  My heart goes out them all.

My dad's first motorbike - funny/cool story

When my dad was about 22 he purchased a motorbike. He would have been involved with motorbikes from a very young age and all his brothers had motorbikes etc.  But this was his first "own" bike so he always counted it as his first bike proper.

 

Here are some photos of him on the motorbike - a Yamaha 650.  This was taken outside a garage where dad worked.  The story I believe, is that a young photograper from Neil Campbell-Sharp studio (indeed it could have been Neil himself!) asked dad could he take some photographs of him and the bike.

 

The results are as follows!

 

 

 

 

Pretty cool photos I think you will agree?

 

Anyway, obviously that was all about 30/40 years ago and the bike was sold on a long time ago. 

 

But then about 10 years, ago my dad started to get a hankering for his "first bike" and wondering where it was and was there any chance he could get it back.  He set about tracing it and through the tax records he was able to locate the current owner.  Pretty good detective work I think - this was before facebook and twitter etc :-)

 

He wrote off a letter to the owner and shortly after he received a letter from the guy.

It was a pretty funny reply!  I wish I had the letter to scan.

 

The man said - and I am paraphrasing here - "Oh man, I absolutely love that bike.  And I really do not want to part with it.  But I do understand about it being your first bike, so as much as I love this bike I will sell it back to you.  BUT, and I am enclosing a photograph, as you can see I have done extensive work on the bike and remodelled it so it looks different to when you had it.  So I am not sure if you will actually want it when you see the photograph".

 

He then signed it off: Yours, in Easy Riding xxx xxxx (we all found that pretty funny!)

 

The photograph the man sent showed that indeed he had done a lot of remodelling to it.  In fact he had turned it into what is known as a Chopper - a bike with very long forks.

 

So as much as dad knew that this was his own bike he said he just couldn't connect with it as it didn't look like his bike.  So he wrote back to the man telling him to keep the bike (and I am sure he also wished him many years of "easy riding" lol) and then he set about locating purchasing an exact model/replica of his bike. 

 

He located that about a year later - he had to import it from the States - and here is a photograph of it.

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the "story" and to any bikers out there:

Yours, in Easy Riding

Amy

 

Ireland - the perfect country for a hot tub

The more I think about it, the more I am coming to the realisation that while hot tubs are really common in (for example) America and not at all common in Ireland that just doesn't make sense.

 

Hot tubs are HOT. 

Most of America has hot weather.  They don't need more hot.

Ireland is cold(ish).  Particularly this year - longest bloody Winter ever!!!  We need hot.

 

Hot tubs are actually nicer in cold weather.  One of the most enjoyable experiences I ever had in a hot tub was about eight years ago in Galway with my twin sister,Enid.  

 

We were on the roof of the then Great Southern hotel in Eyre's Square (now called Hotel Meyrick) in the rain and the cold while watching the Red Arrows fly over our head - the Salthill Airshow was on!

 

It was grey, rainy & miserable before we got into the tub and it was grey, rainy & miserable when we got out, but in between it was hot and fabulous, warm and relaxing.  Amazing.

 

As you may know Enid is lucky enough to have a hot tub in her house.  She and her husband rebuilt an 1840's house from inside out, and one of the things they put in was a hot tub. 

I always tell them "it is a complete and utter folly.  ...But it is the BEST complete and utter folly in the whole world.  Thank you for putting this folly in your house".  Lol.

 

If you are interested in reading Enid's blog about the rebuild of her house click on the link.  It is an interesting read and a fine record for them and of the house for the future.

 

Anyhoo! 

The point of this blog is for to me make two announcements.

1. I want a hot tub.

2. I am going to start saving for a hot tub.

It might take me a couple of years.  But watch this space!!!!!



Marks & Spencer - new dessert menu?

Yesterday afternoon I took a trip to Marks & Spencers to get something nice for Saturday night dinner.  I tend to only shop in Marks & Spencers for weekend treats as it is a little bit outside of my budget for my day to day shopping.  Although, as much as I wish I could afford to shop in Marks everyday, it does make the weekend all the more of a treat when I have something particularly nice.

 

For dinner on Saturday I had rump steak which came with a portion of peppercream sauce and chips.  I cooked my steak rare.

 

Dessert!

 

Starting from the bottom:

Shortbread biscuit layer - crunchy & sugary

Caramel - smooth, creamy & flavourful

Cream - balances the caramel & chocolate

Chocolate - not too dark, not too light: a good strong chocolate hit.

 

So I was going to just get Millionaire's for dessert when I noticed they had a variation on the theme and had a (new?) dessert called Billionaire's dessert!  What sold it for me was the salted caramel.  I adore sweet and salty flavours (case in point - Reeces peanut butte cups!)

 

Below are my photo's of the dessert and what I thought of it. 

 

:-(

Jeez Louise they are not great photos.  I must remember NOT to use my ipad cover as a little photo booth ever again.  I am embarrassed how bad they are compared to the pic above from the M&S website. 

 

Starting from the bottom:

Chocolate crumb: this for me was the weak link of the dessert.  I like the crunch of SUGAR that is in the shortbread biscuit base on Millionaires.  This was the right texture but in my opinion needed a slight bit of sweetness.

Salted Caramel: yes Yes YES!!!! All it promised to be .  Sweet and salty, rich and caramely.

 

Okay so now this is where it gets confusing and I had difficulty (in a good way) separating flavours.

It is advertised as containing the following other layers: burnt caramel, black treacle mousse and chocolate ganache.

I definitely could TASTE these flavours. I just can't tell you which of the above is which!  But that doesn't really matter.  The taste is what counts.

 

So as to the taste:

The burnt caramel - this was an intense caramel flavour; it had an intensity a bit like the intense flavour of a charred well done steak.  It worked! 

Black treacle mousse: when combined with all the caramel and the chocolate it added a divine intensity to this dessert.

 

And finally what Marks call "the bling" on top of the dessert.  I like the way my flash caught the light and has made it even blingier!!!! :-)

 

All in all this dessert for me was a massive success.  I never thought Millionaire's could be beaten but as is the case a Billion really is a lot more than a Million!