another weekend over, another week to wish away.

boo to sunday evening. its all school tomorrow ish. Dermot had a 'not party' last night but from where i was standing (inconveniently in front of the fridge most of the evening) it sure looked like one. A while before we went home, after beer and prosecco and before wine, me and mark discovered a cake and ate loads of it. I'm a bit ashamed - someone brought that as a lovely present for maria and dermot, probably for them to tuck into today to reward themselves for a party well thrown, and we attacked it. It was the best, cake, ever. The girl who made it was gone, so i need to somehow procure the recipe. It was peachy and coconutty and had the ultimate baking accolade of being 'very moist' I couldn't take pictures of it we ate it that quickly.

We stayed in Lisa's house then cos it was nearby and this morning Mark's powers of concentration and steady handedness were severely challenged by 3 year old jenga master, Ella.

Riodhna was way more zen.


Along with my lovely new camera Steve Kiraly sent fancy tea and the nicest scented candles in the world. Oh yeah and a wife beater vest with a picture of a truck on it. I'm gonna get Mark to wear it round Biarritz in september. This is not a bundle offered by Pixmania

So with that, it is time for tea.

ah finglas

there was a bit of a parade there down our road. ol laser eyes weren't quite good enough to work out what it was in honour of, but i imagine its a republican related anniversary of some sort. you wouldn't really get the volume from this pic, but there were quite a lot of them and lots of banners and flags, and a pipe & drum band that brought me to the window in the first place. The people living opposite that don't have a massive wraparound balcony like that lot in the top left were out at their windows looking at us looking at the road and even more confused.

new camera. this is not representative.

i just got a new camera. i'm gonna have to do better than this. but that will also require me getting off the couch and not eating popcorn, drinking beer and watching keeping up with the kardashians. i'd say yer woman cindy sherman was a divil for that kind of thing

today i mostly

- exchanged texts with a workmate re: his finding of our syndicate's euromillions tickets in his jacket and his intentions to claim our winnings. (avg: €15)

- ate the worlds best breakfast: lidl's best 'special muesli' with rice dream milk courtesy of mum's new dairy free diet. not bad. nutty. (both of them)

- watched saturday kitchen.

- ate in La Dolce Vita which is lovely food, with way too big pasta portions, and is too cramped and un-italian like, despite its credentials.

- "fixed the tv". I put this in inverted commas, because i fix one of the tv's every single time in am in wexford. there is usually nothing at all wrong with the tv.

- saw my uncle who is my godfather but doesn't know it, but he's great anyway.

- saw my cousin & her daughters as one of them made her confirmation today. realised it is wrong to be jealous of a 12 year olds confirmation outfit as i reflect on the butterfly collars, crimped hair, and straw boaters popular in 1992.

- looked for shoes for sylda's wedding next weekend. fruitless. i shall be barefoot.

offer it up.

i'm not doing that well at keeping up my blog. that is because these days i'm spending my entire time doing one of 2 things almost. looking at houses - real or online - and looking at comedy cat pictures. The absolute joy of one cancels out the unbridled misery & anti-craic of the other. I'll let you guess which is which. Luckily the plan is that as soon as we overcome the herculean task of actually purchasing an abode, we then get to acquire not one but two kitties all of our own. Then, all will be right with the world.

green tea kitkat. an exploration.

I've held on to this thing for a month now. I've avoided it as long as there was actual chocolate in the cupboard, but during a particularly tense episode of The Wire with a fresh cuppa, I felt I had no choice. I was appreciative of Kris's giving to us 2 x Green Tea Kit Kats, but was a little skeptical about their actual deliciousness, even though I'm an avid Pocky Stick fan. Results are in...

mmm lovely phone.

i gots me a new phone and its purty. the restarting of the blog is exposing me as the avid consumer that i am. i've started reading this other website every day - Tiny Choices - and have realised i've quite a way to go. i do make good tiny choices, and i make some bad bigger choices. have a look though, its inspirational some days and other days its mental. Consider that an official review.

eff you exchange rates!

I'm buying a lovely gúna for at least 2 weddings this summer, and a quick check online says "Jill You Are Being Fleeced". Dress in brands own shop on Grafton St: €220. Label also displays UK price: £150. Today, £150=€190. Jokes on you Ted Baker, I just bought it on their website for £158.50 inc delivery to Ireland - about €201 - and it gets delivered to work so I don't even have to go shopping again. Now shoe shopping time!

whats not to love

the sun came out today so i bought these. fob-oh-las

then 5 hours later i brought muttley & cosmo for a walk and got soaked. luckily i was wearing my more sensible knacker chic pink & white Nike Shox at that point.

lovely dressmaking

these are the 3 things i've made so far - the middle top in the first one in a green fan pattern, the dress on the right in the second one - didnt turn out half as slinky :( and the skirt in the third one in an embroidered black cord.

And this is the next project, except its not going to be in cheap red polyester it's going to be in black & white patternedy stuff, and in the bubble shape like the tiny black one below the main piccies. It better be nice, and I'd better get deadly and confident at dressmaking soon, I spent €60 in Hickeys alone today.

I think I'd like a 'personal pattern shopper'. I find it hard to pick them, because almost everything seems naff in the catalogues. It doesn't help when you find american pattern review sites, and the final product has been made in a pastel synthetic and is generally yuck. and the fabric selection in hickeys is very hit and miss. The ladies in there can be very helpful (if they feel like it) but they don't move fast and my lunch time is only so long. Murphy Sheehy's so far still scares me a bit, especially when i ventured in yesterday and overheard a precocious young queeny salesman grilling some women about their personal histories practically when all they wanted was some curtain fabric.

maybe some update pics when i start that dress anyway.

STOP THE PRESSES...
I'm going to make this instead for Mark. I need to rush and get it done in time for Sylda & Mark's wedding. It's a zoot suit - amazing!

10 hours in.

10 rather tipsy ladies all just about staying upright, but with lovely style it has to be said. this was post-races, in honour of sylda's upcoming nuptuals. a brillo classy hen idea it has to be said.

a bit proud

yesterday while i was off carousing and drinking sparkly in the back of an executive mini coach (no less) on the way to the races at fairyhouse my brother was reading the proclamation of independence at the 1916 commemoration ceremony on o'connell st.

(photo from ireland.com)

it's back

I had a bit of a think about whether i was going to delete the blog or not.   After a while I decided to do the opposite and keep it going.   I've a new camera on the way and am gonna be taking more piccies.  There's a plan in place to get a cat in the relatively near future, obviously everyone loves cat pictures. right? right?

Riodhna & Jill = bonded.

Niece number 1 had no time for me today. not a bit of it. no smiles or hugs or anything. I think it's terrible hard being 2 years old. That's the impression I got off her anyway. Niece number 2 however. Flying form. As in kicking and looking about and smiling loads and not giving out when i changed her nappy or anything.

so what did happen to the rattly bike? i'm not sure really. i was on my way home on monday night, when the derailer (im told) popped up and into the back wheel of the bike breaking itself and a few spokes and bringing the bike to a dead halt. Luckily I was going uphill slowly at the time suffering from post pilates shaky-leg syndrome. I'd gone into a very easy gear when it happened, so I don't think I was in any danger of it happening during a down hill jaunt. Anyway so now i'm on my 3rd bike this year. I got it ourra de buy & sell from an american in clontarf. It looks like this:
So now i have 4 reflectors, 4 lights and 2 locks. Goodness. I won't be clipping along at any speed with all that hanging offa me.

Here is some cheesecake.
and a nice day on t'road

hands up who had any of this?

Well done on the recycling of our toys ma dunphy. who needs bleedin' dora the bleedin' explorer wha'?

broke bike mountain, or, i am on foot once more

The latest victim:

i don't have a good record with bikes since i entered my adult cycling years. adult cycling is not any kind of smutty activity its just different to child cycling where you zoom around to your friends houses and leave your bike in a dusty heap on their front driveway until you have to whizz home and go to bed until you get up again for summer holidays kids telly in the morning and then off you go again. Adult cycling is 15 more minutes in bed in the morning, fitting errands like going to the bank or buying birthday presents into your lunchbreak that you might not get done in time on foot. And beating taxi queues and nitelinks home -cycling on footpaths where possible) when you have had no more than 3 drinks over a long period of time. (that is my self-imposed limit).

my safety record is okay. i wear a helmet, a reflective thingy, some lights, i use signals and only break lights carefully. but the poor bikes that end up beneath me bum, with each passing one the tale of calamity jills bike related failures grows.

The Lizard:

The Raleigh Lizard. Aged 12 I bought it with my confirmation money, it wasn't my first bike but I had grown out of the one i bought with my communion money. Note to self: if ever there was a reason to baptise hypothetical children, there is 2 right there. Happily or not, I am an average, or possibly short arse height person, and had no sudden vertical growth spurts whatsoever. This bike saw me right into my twenties. I didn't cycle when i was in college. I ate 2 packets of salt & vinegar Hunky Dorys every day and thought 5km was a long way. So it enjoyed a few years retirement gathering dust in the sometimes raided Dunphy garage. It had a spell in the leafy confines of Clonskeagh & Donnybrook, then moved with me to the Liberties. It survived living in 1 Meath Terrace, something only hardy folk & vehicles could do. It made the trip to Portobello, where it had to fend for itself nightly locked to a railing in front of our flat, with only the aroma of the Bretzel Bakery for company (we lived opposite the cartoon side door in that piccy). I had gotten cocky. One fine summers day in return for hard work, and being overstaffed I got to leave at 3pm to enjoy the sunshine. I sailed home on the lizard, and propped him up against the rail. Distracted by the still trading bakery, i decided deserved a treat. My head was turned by the sweet smells and, to this day i cannot be sure if i locked the lizard or not. I trotted in home past it grubby fist gripping a muffiny delight - who knew if it creaky emmissions as i brushed by were simply the impact of the light breeze on the 12 year old chain or a cry for help from the ancient 2-wheeler?

2 hours later I emerged into the evening, helmet in hand, to go and meet my good friend Fiona. There was no lizard. And thus began my unfortunate history...

Quote of the evening, which was uttered by Sylda's Mark, and came second hand to me:

"He's no Mark Jordan"

on seeing Miss Jay in the RTE canteen. I believe the quote refers to his not being as statuesque as he appears on America's Next Top Model.

the interactive dinner party.

the pasta
Mark thinks he should have put more tomatoes in.

the salad dressing

the seabass
He used a good old fashioned analog cookbook. but lo! Through the magic of the interweb I've found it anyway. It was kind of a bastardisation of this recipe. You'll have to cook Mark dinner to find it out.

the garlic butter
I used half the amount of garlic salt required by that recipe and it was plenty salty. And I didn't buy italian seasoning cos thats a bit generic sounding to me.

apple crisp
I love the Judy the waitress on that page. We should have had her help out last night.

Now, if anyone wants pasta for their tea this evening, call round!

La Fheile Fun

that was a fun weekend. i love bank holiday season. even though i was working it was only small bits of work. i had more fun at the you're a star wrap party than i thought we possibly could have. the show itself was pretty much a snooze fest but we amused our selves with a photo project at the party. i have to get the photos offa matt to put up here. we also did loads of shopping and eating and cinema and babysitting and not so happy rugby watching. score. now i'm knackered but hey presto, 8 days off!

my bad luck seems to have worn off. i left my phone in a taxi on saturday night. the taxi of rock mind. our driver was a northerner with long black hair who was playing ac/dc in his car. Considering its usually Q102 or some country station we were only delighted. Mark & Steve expressed this by airdrumming the whole way from cork st to finglas. Maybe his car is a hybrid petrol/air drumming vehicle, and he has to play that music and pick up likely lads in order to power it. Anyway i called O2 the following morning to just suspend my account cos it would be a few days before i could check the carriage office. The lovely lady decided i could have a gold upgrade even though i was due no upgrade at all. Then 5 minutes after hanging up John the Nice Taxi Driver called to say he had my phone. Sound man altogether. He worked for about 8 more hours after dropping us home with the phone on the ground in the back and no one took it. Me and my phone are reunited. Together we will go to the Garda Bike Auction next week and see if we can't find my bike to join our merry troop.