Masterchef

Guess what this is?? Its called "Parmesan Crumbed Chicken".....and guess how tasty it was??? It was Pretty Tasty..... yes My boyfriend is a masterchef

Ever since we arrived, Kieran has been exploring his talents in the kitchen, and hes pretty damn good! Tonight I came home to the meal above, this is just one of the many yummy experiments that he has come up with.

yum yum yum!

Molto Bene!

No matter where you are travelling in the world, and how exciting it may be, getting up at 4am to go to the airport is always the pits. But with our bags all packed, a sausage roll in hand, and my never ending supply of drugs (yes, still sick, I am a walking chemist) we conquored it!

Where did we take our early morning flight to? Rome

We arrived at our hostel, checked in then went out for a stroll. First stop...A little Italian restaurant for a feed of Cabonara! And yes, it was delicious.

We took another short stroll and landed at a Gelati Shop, Met a couple of Australian Girls who had just drank a bottle of red wine, Took another short stroll to a deli, then just another short stroll away we were at the Colosseum! Everything In Rome is very close, and walking is definitely a must. Everywhere you turn you see something.

We went to many sights, The Spanish steps, Trevvi fountain, Pantheon, Sistine Chapel, The Vatican, The catacombes, and many churches and ruins along the way.

Its a city where you must be assertive, from crossing the road to telling waiter what you want to order from a menu, its a culture and a city that can push you around.

Here are some photos of our little trip. I never really put photos up of us two in it, but this trip we took alot, so here is a tribute to the "Self taken photo"

oui oui

Anyone ever buy junk at the airport? You know... you go into the magazine shops and you buy magazines that usually, you would never buy just to get the 2 hour flight over and done with?? Yes well, Last Thursday night, that was me. We decided to buy the April Edition of the Lonely planet magazine at the Airport, jumped on the plane and read an Article about Paris. The very first paragraph read: " Paris is in a bad mood. The Sullen, grey sky seems to be snivelling sleet and the winter depression has even sucked the dazzle out of the Eiffel Tower, leaving it looking like a leftover...."

Mmmmm......... the flight we were sitting on was heading for paris.

Opening our hotel window on the first morning it was damp and dreary. Who cares, it is what we open our curtains to every day in Dublin. We had a bath (ahh yes a bath, something we had been dreaming of since the day we moved into our bathless unit) got dressed, got our trendy tourist map, and walked into town.

Oh, the patisseries, the Butchers, the Fromageries, the chocolate shops, the people wearing beret's, the amount of baguettes being carried around in brown paper bags, the accent, (and the Lacoste shop), the Architecture, the florists (and the smell as you walk past), the little french cars, the churches, the strawberries and the cleanliness...........All of the above were amazing!

The Eiffel Tower was great, The Musee De Louvre was just Gigantic, Notre Dame was incredible, Paris City by night is well worth a look, and a nice French Meal was a way to top it off.

Catacombes, Madeleine, Arch Di Triumph, Napoleons Tomb, Sacre Coeur.......Paris defiantly Turned it on for us....and Mr Crepe man (not just one, the many we went to ) we love your Nutella Crepes.

So dear Mr Lonely planet writer......I think you should go back to Paris , Visit Mr Crepe Man, and take another look around Paris.

The best creperie

Kieran Picking Strawberries

The Catacombes

The View from the Notre Dame

I can feel the excitement

I know this has nothing to do with Ireland, or travelling......but I am just a little bit excited. just less than 3 months to go.......

The Three of them

Joshy (3), Zach(6) and Lauren(2). They keep me busy....and very entertained.

Some things that make me laugh....

Last week I gave Zach (just turned 6) some dinner and he politely informed me " Well Angela, I must say, you are a VERY good cook".......he makes sure every time I walk outside the door I have the keys on me, and he talks about Super Mario ALLLLL day, draws him, makes him out of toilet rolls, and asks if Kieran is ever going to come play the wii game with him.

Lauren makes it known to me every day that I have a mole on my face, and that she "loves cocolate" (chocolate). She loves to kiss my nose but closes her eyes when she does it and always misses, them says very angrily "STOP MOVING YOUR HEAD" She also makes me chase her around the house every morning when I try and get her dressed. "I can do it all by myself" is also a big phrase that has just come into her vocabulary

Joshy loves the movie "Cars" and has all the toy cars from the movie. He MUST have 3 cars in his hands at all times, and if not, I must find right there and then if he loses one. I have learnt my lesson now and have collected every toy car in the house and put them all in a box up high so I can deal them out to him with no dramas. He loves dancing around, so we put the U2 cd on, turn up the volume and he gallops around the living room like a horse.

We all go swimming, go on picnics, go to the movies, go on walks and ride our bikes...it all sounds glorious. We also have our bad days where they won't eat their dinner, they don't want to do any of the activitys I have planned, where they must have orange juice even though theres not a drop in the house, and where they are so tired they fight and cry over the smallest things.

But when you teach them something and you see them do it the next day, you smile and even though its not my profession, its very rewarding.

St Pat's Day

We had huge visions of St Pats day.....wake up, huge irish breaky, maybe start drinking around 10, go in for the parade then go to a bar and keep drinking till...ohhh around 4 or 5, then go and get a big greasy feed and crash into bed around 8 feeling all better for work the next day.

It didn't happen like that, But don't you worry, there's always next year.

Kieran had to work on St pats, so I jumped on a bus and went in for the parade. ten thousand people in a small city centre has it positives: Huge atmosphere, lots of people to talk to, lots of things to look at.....but you also couldn't move. Dublin certainly takes the brunt of St Pats day, and I must Say the Garda were pretty leniant as there were people hanging off statues, up lamp posts and standing on anything possible to see the parade, and there were no hassles with it.

The parade was great, one of the best I have seen, and also one of the most inventive.

After Kieran got home from work we went to the pub for a drink, and He got his irish Breakfast today, 3 days later.

Don't worry Dublin, we will be back next year and we WILL celebrate.

The Vaults

For the last Month, we have got up every Saturday and said to each other, "We will be in the city by 12 and go to St Micheans Church to see the mummies..."it never happened UNTIL yesterday! We got up and got to St Micheans Church in time for the tour of the Vaults.

It has abit of History behind it, so I think I should tell you that before I show you the photos. It was largely rebuilt in 1686 on the site of an 11th century Hiberno-Viking church and underneath the church are vaults which lie a number of bodies that have barely decomposed because of the dry atmosphere created by the church's magnesian limestone walls. Their wooden caskets, however, have cracked open. Revealing the preserved bodies, complete with skin and strands of hair. Families once paid 4 years worth of wages for a vault, though once it was bought, it could be used by the same families for many generations. Some are still in use today.

Its a scary climb down into the Vaults, though once you get down there its a history lesson that no one should miss!

When looking at the mummies, the guide pulls back the fence and lets you go in there and touch them.....Kieran went in and touched them for the both of us. Here are the photos.