Monday, February 27, 2012

Betrayal

The mounting tension.

The confrontation avoided. Time and time again.

Not this time though.

The shut door. The beckoning.

(sigh)

Angry words- unfair accusations. (again)

Boiling anger. This time the unspoken thoughts are said.

Not everything though. Just enough. Enough to cause an angry gasp- a sharp look.

Anger right at the surface. Shaking hands.

A third party. Smoothing over.

Anger abates, but is still there. Justice is not done. Won't be done. Such is life.

Shaking hands. Tight throat. Shiny eyes. Red face.

Anger becomes emotion. (again)

Strength, while still strong looks like weakness.

Betrayed by emotion.

(sigh)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Pancake Tuesday

Last Tuesday was pancake Tuesday in Ireland (You see, I'm catching up...kinda lol!)

More commonly known to Americans as Fat Tuesday. Its the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Which is still a big deal here even though most Irish people aren't very religious anymore.

Basically you gorge yourself on pancakes all day long. (I'm not a huge fan of Irish pancakes so I only had a few for dinner and ate normally the rest of the day. Unlike the hubs and all of my co-workers!)


Here James is preparing his huge stack of pancakes....this is one of his favorite days of the year. He would eat pancakes for dinner all of the time if I let him!



The stack...It actually looks small from this angle but I promise you its not! That is a full sized dinner plate and there are about 20 pancakes on that plate....they are just super thin here...otherwise known as CREPES. Although an Irish person won't hear of that. They are "pancakes" ppfftttt.


There are lots of toppings you can put on your pancakes....nutella is fairly popular (we are too poor for real nutella...tesco value all the way!) the common Irish way to eat them is with lemon juice and sugar (which I think is disgusting....funnily enough James thinks my butter and maple syrup is disgusting...)


Here are James pancakes...ready to go with the lemon and sugar. Rolled up of course. (How they don't see that these are crepes I have no clue...)


And mine of course with butter and maple syrup.....I tried to make them like home but it was the best I could do! hah!


And after you have devoured your stack (everyone always tries to beat out their friends..."How many pancakes did you eat this year?") and have begun to slip into the pre-lent sugar coma then comes the next best thing:


Pancake Tuesday naps!

Now next year we will have to make them "American Style" and I'll be set!

Monday, February 20, 2012

A little behind the times...

Sometimes when something is released in one country, its not released in another at the same time. Like for instance, movies. Here in Ireland we typically get a new movie in theaters (well American movies at the very least) about a month after they are released in the states. So a lot of times I see people talking about new movies in a blog or facebook and I have no clue what they are even talking about!

There are plenty of other things that have been around for a long time but that Ireland is just now getting...

Like netflix....This has been around in the states for years now!


There are all kinds of commercials on TV now talking about this great "new" service....ITS NOT NEW!! Well I guess it is...over here. I'm glad we finally have netflix though!

Then there is food....there is some stuff that we have the same here as in America, some that I don't think will ever EVER make it over here and some that is the same that does make it to Ireland but they change the name. (It really bugs me when they change the names of the same products!)

The newest thing to make it over to Ireland is Mini Wheats....which they call Mini Max.

Why it took so long to get mini wheats over here and why they felt the need the change the name? I'll never understand it. I am super happy they are here though! I love mini wheats!! Now they just need to get Captain Crunch and Wheat Thins and Kraft Mac n Cheese and I'll be set!!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Christmas Dinner at Drumroe

(Ok so I know this post is over two months old....just go with me here!)

Every year my friends at Drumroe have a large Christmas dinner where each housemate gets to invite one friend (or in our case, a couple!) to have at dinner. Since there are six housemates the dinners get pretty large and the drinking goes on late into the night!

We were invited not only last year, but this year as well! I was pretty shocked to be invited two years in a row since an invite to the drumroe Christmas dinner is highly sought after in our group of friends (so WOOT!)


This is our lovely host Mark. Last year he wasn't drinking due to his impending climb of Everest....but now since the mountian has been conquered and the title of Youngest Irish person to climb Everest is his he more than made up for the year before. (And who doesn't love drunk Mark? No one!!)

Jen, the girlfriend of one of the housemates....who ended up doing ALL of the cooking!! Poor girl..cooking for 14 people at a dinner you were invited to! I have to say, the dinner was fabulous and there were no murders of the housemates later! haha


Dinner guests seated right before the feasting began. I was hiding in the back there....somewhere.

A toast to the lads of Drumroe, our wonderful cook and Christmas for Christmas sakes!




Aisling and I- Shes my wine and bitch friend....who lives in Toronto which is just way to far from Ireland. She was back for the holidays and I really feel she needs to work harder at convincing her boyfriend to move back to Limerick!!


Marks friend (I have no clue what his name was....) Who decided instead of leaving through the front door to end the night with a 007 style window exit....unfortunately after a bottle of wine and several beers climbing through a kitchen window isn't as easy as he thought it was going to be...but it was hilarious for the rest of us!



Of course- no Christmas gathering in Ireland isn't complete without the singing of Fairytale of New York....

(The video quality is crap, but the movie is still pretty funny!)


All in all, it was a great Christmas dinner and I'm happy to have such great friends here in Ireland to share the holidays with!!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

And this is why I don't do resolutions....

Because I can't even stick to things that I don't resolve to do....like blogging. I've never resolved to blog, but I wanted to do it as a way to share tidbits of my life. Some how its become something that I have to tick off my list of things to do. And I procrastinate it. And then a week goes by. Then two, and three and before you know it two months have passed. And then I feel guilty at the prospect of blogging- like I'm going to get in trouble for being absent for so long. Like i need to explain myself. PAH!!!

lets just say I'm much better at reading others blogs, enjoying hearing about their lives and getting to know them in a stalkerish way than I am sharing my own life.

I'll sum up the majority of the last two months in one sentence. A whole lotta nothing.

I feel like since I've gotten back from America Ive been in hibernation. These Irish winters are a lot harder for me than I like to believe. I've done nothing besides worked and gone home to clean and watch more tv than I care to admit. I've pretty much cut myself off from all social occasions and anything that will lead me to having to get off my couch.

More recently I've been making myself get motivated. Get out of the freaking house- go running, take advantage of the longer evenings. Say yes to more nights out and events. Normally I'm a total social butterfly but recently this has been super hard for me. All the more reason for me to get out of the house!!

But I do resolve to keep writing about my life here. I really enjoy the people I've met through blogging and I want to continue to be a part of this blogging community (and make my writing feel like fun and not a chore!!).