Weekend roundup

Market Bar was great, apparently unusually quiet but perhaps that had something to do with the mass exodus from all over the country to witness the Electric picnic. Malcolm's colleagues ALL wimped out, not one arrived but of course MY friend Kelly showed up, after she saw a facebook update on where we were going and commented on it which allowed me the opportunity to invite her, thank goodness, always more fun in a group!
We sat at the bar and had a good catch up and then Kelly told us about The Cellar at Fallon&Byrne - a wine bar where you can choose from an extensive list of "wine by the glass". Malcolm was in the mood for wine and as it is my drink of choice anyway we all voted for a change of venue.
The cellar was lovely, much quieter but the atmosphere was pleasant and we ordered a liver paté, a cheese and meat selection, both with warm crusty bread and smoked salmon on brown soda bread. We all sampled all the goodies and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine, there was only 1 rosé on the menu and as I had been drinking white at Market Bar I decided to try it and it was good enough that 1 turned into 2!
We behaved ourselves enough to leave in time to catch the luas home which was quite an accomplishment...for Malcolm, he normally has to catch a taxi home after a stint in Dublin, what good influence Kelly and I are!!!
Of course we got home and ended up talking in the kitchen until 03h00 so we were still exhausted on Saturday morning.
Malcolm had to drag himself off to cricket and I went to help Carla as she has just moved into a house that needs a lot of scrubbing! We washed walls and skirting for a couple of hours and I think we made a difference, although there was just so much to do!
Sunday and Malcolm was off to cricket again and I spent the day pottering around the house, catching up on washing and then I fetched Carla and we went shopping for bolts and washers for the house and then I took her off to Lidl to show her how to shave her grocery bill by a couple of hundred a month! Example? I bought a punnet of premium quality nectarines for €1.99, at M&S half the size punnet would be €4.99...Tesco might be €1 -€1.50 cheaper than M&S and that is just one example, enough home economics!
And I guess that was my weekend, not quite fits into a nutshell but hey!
Oh...and today is the most magnificent day, blue skies as far as the eye can see, sadly I have to work but at least i get to enjoy my walk and the sunshine at its best...

What goes around....

A couple of weeks ago I went to draw money from the A.T.M. I inserted my card and punched in my PIN number. I was told in no uncertain terms by the screen that I had input the wrong PIN code. I realised that I had used Malcolm’s code; I usually have his card and use it more regularly than my own. So I re-entered the PIN number and the machine still decided that I was wrong. Luckily it is one of those machines where you put the card in and take it out again before doing the transaction, so it cannot swallow the card. Thank goodness because I stood there in shock (I ALWAYS know my pin) and decided to try again. The blinking screen politely told me to contact my branch.
I still have not contacted my branch. Last night Malcolm asked me if I had called the bank about my card. Duh, I have not needed to use it, I have HIS card, why on earth would I try and sort it out unless I was in desperate need of the money? (Okay, I am bloody lazy.) I told him that it was a good thing not to be able to extract money from the account, kind of like forced savings, ha! Sometimes I even impress ME.

Now reap what you say comes to mind…today I did my fresh fruit and vegetable shopping at M&S, very organised because I like to have lots of fruit for school days. I also put together a salad, ravioli and a pasta sauce from the wonderful array of ready meals, Saturday night is M&S dinner night, that way I get a break and we all watch a movie together. Alas when it came down to the nitty gritty of paying for my packed and ready to go groceries I did not have Malcolm’s chip and pin card, of course I had MY card which was less than useless. Sheepishly I had to unpack the groceries into the trolley and walk out with my tail between my legs, made worse by being lectured to by my mortified 14 year old. Malcolm was a real gentleman when I told him my sad tale, not even the sign of a smirk crossed his face.

The sweats

We went to Dundrum yesterday; Malcolm wanted to do some shopping. He also needed to return the shirts I had bought him from Esprit for Christmas – as he said, “I am not a skinny Frenchman!” We also needed to get the David Attenborough Blue Planet series, I had got him the HD set for Christmas, but as we do not have a HD DVD player and are not in the market for one we had to change it for the regular series. As you can see I did not do a great job of playing Santa baby this year. In my defence, we do have a TV to view HD….and there was lots of food about at Christmas so the shirts may have fit…once upon a time.
A pair of tracksuit pants for soccer was on the list so off we went to the sports shop where a sale was in progress. My man tried on a few pairs, the ones he liked were not on the sale, another pair was, at E12 worth every cent, so he decided to buy them and then have a look at the other sports store before deciding on the favoured pair. The queue was long and I stood outside the store patiently waiting for 15 minutes. Eventually he came out with his purchase looking a little concerned. The cheap pair of sweats were not actually on the sale, he had paid E40 for them! Our roles reverted to a parent child type scenario…I berated him, pointing out that he should have explained that he thought they were on sale and seems as they were not he did not want them! He had just paid full price for a pair of pants he did not particularly LIKE. I sent him back in with a withering look and told him to get the pair he liked. Another 15 minute queuing session ensued and he came out triumphant, and I wonder WHY I don’t like shopping…but I do still love my man.

Silver linings in strange places

I went to Superquinn yesterday to do some grocery shopping. Unfortunately the banks in Ireland do not think I should have a chip and PIN card, so every time I do shopping I have to withdraw cash from the ATM. I have to say this really irks me as I am accustomed to using plastic and it is so much easier than having to make sure I have enough cash all the time. I guess that is one more of the painful things to add to my list of changing countries, no credit history.
ANYWAY….I got to the ATM and guess what? It was “temporarily out of service” this caused me to want to have a good tantrum as it is the ONLY ATM in the shopping centre! As I stood there trying to decide what the heck to do, a coin security guy came around the van to go into the back of the ATM, my lucky day! I asked him how long he thought the machine would be offline and he looked at me and said…”You should know not to hang around in dangerous places” in what can only be described as a South African accent! I laughed and then looked around and saw that there were 2 cash in transit vans in the car park! Not one gun wielding heavy hiding between the cars or standing at the van, and I suddenly realised that my heart had not gone into thumping mayhem as it used to when I went up to the local shops and saw those vans. I was always petrified that there would be one of those huge hold ups with flying bullets; I know Karen narrowly missed a heist on her way home one day. Of course this was a great epiphany (yes probably a bit of strong word, but I am the author ok?) as my thundercloud above my head evaporated, the fact that I cannot get a chip and pin card was suddenly a small price to pay. As Kirstin clung to me to ward off the freezing wind I suddenly did not feel that cold.

A good night's rest

Buying duvets and pillows in a foreign country in a hurry…..sucks! We have no clue as to what a good brand is, we could be merrily buying cheap quality and not even know it. I wanted to tear my hair out, the selection was poor and we did not know where else to go! The little I did know was not enough! The tog over here is the measure of how warm a duvet is, and I had seen some lovely duvets on the internet, a 2 in 1 scenario where there is a light one for summer a medium duvet for Spring and Autumn and you clip them together for Winter, fantastic! Little problem…where had I seen them?
Pillow talk…..now a pillow is very important for a good nights’ sleep don’t you think? Here again we had no clue as to what was good, bad or ugly, I did find some down pillows (good) so we bought one each and then got another “it looks nice” pillow (bad or ugly, will let you know) to try as well. We did our best and got duvets and pillows that we thought seemed okay, not a clip together good idea one…just a regular 10.5 tog duvet! My thinking is that if our house is centrally heated so we should not really get too cold…

I did manage to get lovely duvet covers on sale for all of us, so at least one of our 5 senses will be satisfied because our beds really do look great! And please note the heaters in all the rooms!!!!

Mall rats

Malcolm has an interview! He left a couple of suits here after his last trip so he was not too worried until he couldn't find his shoes! He puzzled over this for a while, backtracking in his mind as to were he may have packed them. Ahhhhhh in the UNACCOMPANIED luggage, the luggage that has not arrived in Dublin yet!!!
Well now, a trip to the Dundrum mall is a necessity, much to Jessica's glee. Luckily it is very close and it was raining too, so a perfect day for indoor shopping! We found the mall very easily and went underground to park, same set up as in S.A. with a boom to get your ticket etc. The likeness stopped there, I have never ever in my life seen such a beautiful car park! Well lit, brightly painted, no really it is unbelievable, AND there are electronic signs telling you how many parking spaces are available on each level!!!! Not only each level we soon discovered, but each ROW!!! There is a light above each car park space and it is green when empty, turning red when you take the space! The mall was also super, similar to Cresta, but obviously more interesting for us with all the different types of shops. I think Jessica could have spent an entire day there, our very own little mall rat.