Catch of The Day

We went back to the village of Howth to get our supply of fish for the week. We wanted something fresh from the sea and not from some local supermarket.

A foot long, that's only half of the fish!

It was a pretty good deal at the market, we bought a whole salmon for 13 euros, which is considered cheap. A whole fish in Tesco would have cost us more than 20 euros. So looks like kari kepala salmon will be on the menu this week.

This side view of me is pretty scary!

Just outside the market, we saw a crowd of people at the pier. We decided to have a look and we were in luck!

A few wild seals were putting on a show for us and people were trying to attract their attention by feeding them fish.

There were plenty of seals but only 2 can be seen here.

Cute!

Later, we had fish and chips at one of the takeaways in the village which I think is better than any other place.

The crowd

Just look at the massive crowd at the photo above -  people were actually getting a little aggresive.

Anyway, I had the succulent scampi while he had the haddock. The batter was light and crispy, not oily and just perfect!  Price was reasonable too that I am definitely coming back for more.

Yummy!

Sunshine Through My Window

View from my bedroom

After the freak snow storm in February, it’s nice to have the sun out again. It has been sunny all week and I hope it stays that way for a while.

After a very hectic week at work, we decided to have an easy weekend. Saturday we went all out cleaning the house, I did my share of laundry and cooking and he went all out with the hoover. I think the best investment you could do for the house is a good reliable sturdy hoover!

Come Sunday, it was grocery day and time to stock the fridge and kitchen with food. But before that,  we wanted to check out Blessington which is only a 25 minute drive from our house. The last time we came here was roughly 9 years ago in 2000 with my parents.

In search of Lake Blessington

It was a pleasant drive all the way to Blessington, probably because most people were in the city celebrating St Patrick’s. There were a lot of cyclists though and  I know my brother would really love cycling here!

Found it!

As usual there were very little signs along the way, so we got a little lost. Eventually we found the lake.

Lush green countryside

9 years on, all I can say it has not changed that much!

We were this close to the lake

I wish there were more touristy things to do here but I figured the Irish like  to leave things natural and untouched.

One for the family back home

And here are photos of us. Thanks to my SIL, my parents now know the existence of this blog. They have been asking for our photos you see.

Another one for the family!

Finally, this is how I look like today!

Not the most flattering pic!

ps : Happy St Patrick’s Day!

I had big plans to go to the parade but seeing that half a million people will be in the city today, I decided against it! Besides, hubby is on call saving lives…haha…poor him!

Crossing The Border

We finally made the trip to Northern Ireland last weekend .

Hubby had been on call for 3 consecutive weekends in February and the month of January we were so busy moving into the new house, so there was no way we could make a weekend escape.

Just to give you an idea of the trip, below is the route we took from Dublin to the little town called Newry.

The route

It is a brilliant place to shop as the currency is in British Pounds so we get to save a lot as compared to paying in Euro.

Nowadays, the Republic is really ripping people off that people do not actually  mind clocking the extra miles to get a really good bargain.

The drive, taken with the Fuji bridge camera

Anyway, the real reason we made the 90 minute drive was to get his belated birthday present.

Hubby’s birthday was actually in January and knowing that it would cost a bomb to buy it in the Republic, he was willing to make a wait. Heheh. Hey, it saved me 150 euros! (Now I am hoping come May I do not have to wait 2 months too) He now has upgraded his camera to a D60 so I now own his old camera. And by the way, all the photos in this blog were taken by the Fuji camera, I think it does the job though.

Whilst we were there, we bought a few baby essentials too. I am now slowly ticking off the list and hopefully come April we should be prepared for the little one’s arrival. With no family support and hubby literally working 24/7 with his on calls, it would not be wise to leave things to the very last minute. I only felt comfortable buying things after reaching 30 weeks and that is why I didn’t bother catching the xmas sales even though I knew we could have saved a whole lot more.

Anyway, back to the trip –   that evening I volunteered to drive us home to let him play with his new toy. And here’s the first shot in the car…

A glimpse of my growing belly

We were planning to test the new camera this weekend but the weather forecast is predicting  snow and rain. I think it’s best we stay home, nothing beats a good book, warm socks and a mug of hot chocolate.  If  lucky, I really hope to watch Slumdog after all the good reviews!

This entry is getting way too long,  finally I leave you a shot of Pepper lounging at home

Pepper all curled-up