Blooming Marvelous

We had a great day out at Bloom yesterday. I was looking forward to attending this garden festival after hearing great reviews about it, for some reason we missed the previous years and I think probably I was too busy working.

The festival was very lively and packed with people when we arrived, there was something for everyone and no wonder they called it Ireland’s largest gardening, food and family event.

I’ll put up as many photos here and let them do the talking so that you can have a feel of the festival.

The first marquee was brimming over with wonderful plants and flowers. Believe me, these are REAL vegetables on display.

Garden enthusiasts would go crazy here and aren't these flowers beautiful ? They were on sale for 50 euros a pop.

Just outside, we took in the beautiful surroundings of the 25 show gardens.

The one below was my favourite, very calm and serene and something I would like for my own garden.

It even came with a 3 piece orchestra. I don't mind having one in my garden too

More garden ideas

The artisan food market had a huge variety of foods on display, we had a fun time munching on free cookies, brownies, yoghurt, bread and Aidan especially loved the homemade orange juice.

The food market was great for foodies alike

All kinds of bread to choose from, we bought custard and almond bread.

There were plenty of stalls offering crafts, toys and other beautiful household items too.

Wooden jigsaws

Puppets

We bought a bubble gun for Aidan, I think the daddy was more interested than him

Or maybe the mummy ?

Oh, we fell in love with these gigantic pillows which were all over the field in the concert area courtesy of the company selling it.

All sorts of colours - green, orange, blue...

Aidan was more interested in the boy smiling across us. Look at the sea of people behind, we were lucky to get hold of the pillows!

They were also selling these cool hammocks for 49 euros, I was hoping to let Aidan have a go but none of the kids wanted to get off!

Next we went to discover the children’s play area hosted by Imaginosity.

So true!

There were competitions for the bigger kids with prizes for the winners,

little toddlers like Aidan went for the sand pit

We went back to the concert area and parked ourselves in front of the jazz band.

In search of the best spot

Aidan kept himself busy with the blondes

These 2 were busy chasing each other

All set to support England in the World Cup

Next, we spent the last hour walking around enjoying the ambience and that’s when we found an eagle and a donkey!

Aidan was intrigued by the eagle but terrified of the donkey.

My first face to face encounter with an eagle, what a beautiful bird. The guy insisted we take a picture with the eagle , our lucky day

The cute shaggy donkey

And to top his little zoo experience, he played with some hay!

Phew, this must be my longest post to date. So that’s how we spent our weekend, a fun day out with the family.

We had a blooming marvelous time at Bloom, and hopefully we'll be back next year!

Sunday Lunch

On sunday, my dear friend invited us over for a big lunch at her gorgeous new house. We made our way to south Dublin after Aidan’s midday nap, hubby couldn’t make it as he was on call yet again on a Sunday. I think he’s been working back to back the last 3 weekends, how insanely crazy!

With the great hosts and Aini whom I have not met for over a year, and btw Aidan was dangling onto me hence the funny pose!

Aidan, Alea, Aishah

Restraining the hyper boy in the bumbo

Watching the bigger kids play dart

The new house is really beautiful and bright in a highly sought after address, 4 bedrooms, a very spacious kitchen with a breakfast bar and separate dining. I took a tour and really loved how she decorated Ayman’s bedroom, just like a scene from ikea.

There was a sumptuous spread of  food on top of the yummy cupcakes made especially by the lovely hostess, which reminds me I must get hold of that Hummingbird recipe book.

Another worthy Sunday,  we went home happy and content. Thank you for inviting us and also  for the lovely birthday presents Aunty Shahnaz, Aidan loves them all!

Snippets Of The Week

I was in the midst of saving my iPhone photos onto my computer earlier, thought I put some of them up.

I called mom for the recipe and here’s what we had for dinner a few days ago ;

Easy peasy Nasi Tomato

The rice turned out perfect, just like moms, I would definitely do it again!

Roti Jala & Kari ayam

Today we had some leftover curry from lunch and for dinner, we didn’t feel like having rice with it, so I called 1800-mom again and walaaa! Perfect roti jala!

Mom gave me a tip – she said, use a blender to make the mixture smooth,  it was so easy to ‘jala’  when there’s no lumps.

Aidan had a break from my cooking

The other day I was walking along the ready made chilled aisle, I was thrilled to find this by Annabel Karmel.

All you need to do is pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Bought it for Aidan and he loves it! Now he can have something nice on one of my lazy days.

He would kill me for putting this up, hehe

The man of the house has been doing a lot of gardening lately, I think it’s got to do with the weather.

This boy ?

Well, he’s been getting very cheeky lately and annoys me most when I’m at my computer.

He likes to do this,

he keeps pressing the delete button!

Now you know why I can’t blog as much!

Garden BBQ

So finally yesterday we met up with 3 of our friends, they have been tied up with work and oncalls lately that it was difficult to gather everyone.

Woke up early saturday morning to sunny weather and a couple rounds of text messages and calls later, we decided to go ahead with a BBQ.

Hubby came home midday after a night out oncall and headed straight to the nearest halal shop.

Few hours later we got the bbq running in our back garden and feasted on beef burgers, lamb koftas, garlic butter mussels, lamb chops, flaming hot chicken with coleslaw and potato salad on the sides.

Good food, great company, fabulous day!

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Spring Is (Almost) Here!

I’ve been wanting to put up some photos of our trip to Malaysia but haven’t had the time to resize the photos. I’ll leave it for another day.

Anyway, this morning’s weather was absolutely beautiful.

I was truly elated to have sun beaming brightly through my window as this has not been happening for a while.

Even the temperature felt warmer and  I have a feeling the BBQ weather will come sooner than expected. I can’t wait to  bring Aidan to the park and let him play on the swing.

Hubby is already eyeing this parasol, table and chair set for our garden but I told him not to get too excited.

The Irish weather can be very unpredictable and sometimes you can experience all 4 seasons in a day.

A very bright lounge

With my mood up, I made eggy bread @ french toast for the both of us.  The other day Aidan had pancakes and crepes, and he absolutely loved it. This boy so far eats anything and everything but what he loves most is yoghurt, he takes 2 small pots a day.

brekkie

Most paediatricians don’t recommend introducing eggs until the child’s at least a year old, I made a gamble a couple weeks ago even though there’s a strong family history of egg allergy on hubby’s side. So far so good, thankfully.

My advise, if you want to try and introduce something new, I say do it in the morning. Saves you the trip to the emergency room in the middle of the night and the doctor gets to sleep too

That's my boy!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Last Minute Lemang

Tonite will be my last night to savour mom’s cooking before I head back to Dublin.

She’s cooking up a feast in the kitchen today -  my favourite Nasi tomato with ayam masak merah and another dish of ayam rendang. She’s packing some of it for me to bring back to Dublin so that at least I don’t have to worry about cooking the first few days, which is great! 

This evening I also made a quick stop at the nearby pasar malam to get the usual stock of ikan bilis and cili kering, I certainly can’t live without these 2 in Dublin.

And as I was just about to leave the place, I found this stall selling lemang. Bought a few rolls to accompany mom’s rendang tonite, yums!

ps: posted this 2 days late! we’re back in dublin so no more blogging from my phone.

Smokin’ BBQ

My Inlaws will be coming over later for a potluck dinner.

We’re preparing bbq chicken, coleslaw and garlic bread for the feast, I really hope it will be a hit with everyone.

And since it was such a nice day too, the cousins decided to go for a dip in the pool. Unfortunately Aidan has quite a bad cough, so I didn’t let him join them. Maybe next time dear.

But he did have a jolly good time watching his cousins play (and fight!) and splish splashing his little tiny feet in the water

A Quiet Sunday

It is 9am Sunday morning and the house is unbelievably quiet – baby’s asleep, Pepper’s lounging god-knows-where, hubby’s oncall and the weather is looking desperate out there.

I have been up since 6am – fed and played with the baby and packed hubby’s lunch and dinner since he will be staying the night at the hospital.

Thanks to Tesco online, I have just done my grocery shopping for the week and the items should arrive at my doorstep tomorrow evening. I used to enjoy going to the store but ever since having a baby, the online option is probably better for me. No more worrying about looking for the nearest parking space and handling a cranky 3 month old whilst pushing a fully loaded trolley. Their service has been super efficient and always arrive at the scheduled delivery time. From baby nappies to chillies, from coconut milk to shampoo, the items have been spot on too.  Basically you can get just about anything from the store and it gets easier with every order as you can make a favourite list making everything just a click away. I wonder if Malaysia has the same service?

Anyway, if you’re wondering what happened to Mr Crab – we had a big (big meaning plenty of leftovers to survive another meal) lunch yesterday and here’s a photo of it

Ketam Masak Lemak

Dihidang bersama nasi panas dengan

Udang Goreng Kunyit

Alrighty, Master Aidan is screaming for attention.

TTFN ! ( That’s Ta Ta For Now from the Disney channel )

Goodies From Home

You can always count on mom to bring goodies from home.

And look what she brought all the way from Malaysia :

Sate Hj Samuri

I didn’t expect anything like this and was surprised when she told me she brought 40 sticks of sate  for us to savour. Mom had wrapped it well in foil that the flavour was perfect as if it never left the restaurant back home. Coupled with thick peanut sauce, it was definitely one of the best dinners I’ve had in ages. I even kept half of it in the freezer, sayang nak makan…

And thanks to SIL, amongst other goodies were a whole bunch of Malay movies that should keep me entertained for the next couple of weeks. Being here makes me miss all things Malaysian that I’ll watch anything and everything.

Picnic in the Park

Birdie mid-flight

Birds flying high,
You know how I feel.
Sun in the sky,
You know how I feel.
Reeds driftin’ on by,
You know how I feel.

It’s a new dawn,
It’s a new day,
It’s a new life,
For me.
And I’m feeling good

( Micheal Buble )

Another birdie

We’ve had such a nice return of glorious spring weather recently that we spent a good 5 hours in the sun, walking along the pier, enjoying the gentle sea breeze and taking photos of old rusty boats and sea gulls. It’s true that having a camera does make you extra aware of what is around you.

The scenery behind us exudes a sense of calmness and serenity that we felt refreshed after the walk

I made him climb the steep steps so that I could take a photo of the cloudless sky

Our usual weekend haunt would be the fishmonger and we bought sea bass, salmon and prawns. I was tempted to buy the live crabs and lobster but as our freezer is currently packed to the brim, we had to settle for the fish.

Spoilt for choice

Friends joined us for a spur-of-the-moment picnic in the sun and we had another dose of fish and chips. It is always handy to have a picnic mat ready in the car with summer coming along real soon.

My RM10 tikar came in handy

I wonder where we should go next ? I just hope the weather will be kind to us for the next couple of months and my idea of the perfect picnic should include Nasi Lemak too.