A great start to the year!

 It feels like since we came back from Miami we have just been celebrating or having a lovely time - whether with friends (OUTDOORS to stay covid safe) or our own eating out or eating at home.  It is like...things were good before that trip, but they are even better now.

New Years eve:

I worked until 3pm when Patrick collected me which was a nice treat.  Easy to throw the bike in the back of the jeep when the roof is off.  Later that afternoon/early evening we had a few drinks and a bottle of bubbly (prosecco) with our neighbours out the front of our house until about 8pm. We then had takeout of awful dirty sweet fire chipotle chicken wings which were fabulous! Toasted happy new year and were in bed asleep by 10.30pm lol (I was in work next morning at 7am fyi)

Half Shell Raw Bar:

Happy hour.  We were sat at the bar for the first time in forever.  While there was a big (nice) space between us and others at the bar which was good for covid safety, it still just felt nice and almost normal.

Saturday evening in our friend's house:

Yesterday we visited with G&K for drinks and dinner. We bought a bottle of bubbly (cava) and dinner was an amazing home made in the crock pot bbq pulled pork and divine mac and cheese. We ate outdoors.

Sunday on the baby boat:

Mixed it up and went out this afternoon rather than our usual Sunday morning trip.  Caught some throwbacks - an exotic looking (and foul tasting lol!) porkfish, and a big (but not big enough) mutton snapper.  And then caught some keepers of lovely porgy (aka "Sea bream" in Ireland). And three crab legs to add to our stockpile. 

Normally Patrick pulls the one crab claw off the crabs.  (Did you know? You take one, they grow it back. You don't take two as it leaves them defenceless).  Today I took over that task. It is hard! They are TOUGH! You need to be so careful you don't have your fingers near their pincers and then you really need to push/pull with all your strength to get the arm off cleanly.

Back to work tomorrow for this lad!  But I think he will tell you himself that he had a good break, and this was a great ending to his Christmas vacation

New year, same old Amy

 This is the 10th year of me blogging!  Quite pleased with that actually :)

Just three resolutions for the moment, for 2021

- Keep on blogging

- Do more bikram yoga 

- Choose happiness

And my new wishes for you, dear reader?  To quote the indomitable Dolly Parton: "I hope life, treats you kind. And I hope that you have all that you ever dreamed of.  And I wish you joy. And happiness.  But above all of this, I wish you love"

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?!