Hey y'all,
Slim has started a new blog: Iceland 440. All of the news regarding Slim's Icelandic birthday fest will be posted there, as well as interesting and useful tidbits we discover along the way.
Not much there yet, but Slim hopes to change that soonly.
Got your woolies?
Slainte!
Friday 28 March 2008
Sunday 9 March 2008
Mark your calendars!
Ladies and gentlemen, lads and lasses, gentlefolk in general!
And he wants all of ye to come too! So mark your calendars now for the week of 15 December 2008 (or maybe the weekend before) and join us in the steaming cold north. Actually, it turns out that Iceland isn't all that cold: pretty similar to my old stomping grounds in Philadelphia. But a fair bit darker, and a much greater chance of snow.
Tis time to announce the social event of the 2008 calendar; the not-to-be-missed shindig!
Slim turns 40 this year and has decided to embrace his winter birth and celebrate in Iceland! That's right, the land of fire and ice: where Scotland meets Alaska meets Yellowstone.
And he wants all of ye to come too! So mark your calendars now for the week of 15 December 2008 (or maybe the weekend before) and join us in the steaming cold north. Actually, it turns out that Iceland isn't all that cold: pretty similar to my old stomping grounds in Philadelphia. But a fair bit darker, and a much greater chance of snow.
We will be gathering details in the coming months, including locking down dates, so watch this space and your email boxes.
In other news we enjoyed a fabulous dinner last night in celebration of our fourth anniversary at a place called L'Atmosphere. A French style bistro, it's won a place on Bridgestones' Top 100 restaurants in Ireland for 2 years running: right here in Waterford! Who knew? PK started with a trio of crab dishes, me with seared tuna with a sesame sauce. Slow roasted leg of lamb for PK's main: incredibly tender. I had "cassoulet of confit of duck with Toulouse sausage," and it was out of this world. Easily the best dish I've had in Ireland. PK finished with a chocolate souffle and I had a creme brulee with pear confit. A really grand meal.
Tell everyone who might be interested about my birthday plans, and we'll look forward to seeing you in Iceland.
Slainte.
Wednesday 5 March 2008
A Quickie
Well. If you haven't checked out the pollybloggy recently, you should. New format. New picture. And a new career! That's right, PK has found employment again. This time as an editor for a transcription service. Super big congrats to herself! The Slim could not be more proud.
Super big thanks to the Juneau Lass for the cookies and DVDs. Muchly appreciated indeed. Can't wait to see you!
And for those of ye who were there, can you believe that it's been 4 years this weekend since our Weekend Wedding in the Woods? PK and The Slim will be celebrating at a French restaurant. Anyone headed to Quinnault?
Slainte.
Super big thanks to the Juneau Lass for the cookies and DVDs. Muchly appreciated indeed. Can't wait to see you!
And for those of ye who were there, can you believe that it's been 4 years this weekend since our Weekend Wedding in the Woods? PK and The Slim will be celebrating at a French restaurant. Anyone headed to Quinnault?
Slainte.
Tuesday 5 February 2008
A birdy note
Howdy folks. Tis me again. We're just after getting back from Holland for a birding trip. Well, in fairness, it's been almost 2 weeks... We went to Lauwersmeer National Park, a wintering ground for thousands of geese and ducks, and a large concentration of raptors. We had several highlights. First were the Barnacle Geese, all 10 or 20 thousand of them. Truly spectacular. Life bird for both of us at that. Other lifers included snow buntings, red-throated loon, egyptian goose, and carrion crow. Polly got an eider for the first time too. The most exciting life bird, though, was undoubtedly the smew. All told we saw maybe a dozen of the stunning white and black mergansers (toothed ducks for the non-birdy out there). 61 species in 2.5 days of birding.
Northern Holland in January is not exactly a hospitable place: 50 mph winds driving some needle like rain. We did enjoy some fair skies on occasion thankfully. Our B&B was very hospitable though: much like staying at the poor relatives really. The Dutch countryside is dotted with 19th and early 20th century barns, giant things, with earlier homes attached at one end. Our B&B was such a place: a 16th century cottage attached to a thatched barn from the 1880s, we actually had to walk through the barn to go inside. Really nice folk running the place too. Big time birders who pointed us to those secret spots that only birders know about. (The birders reading this know exactly what I mean: Jaap, the husband, pointed us to a crook in a road by a pier to look for snow buntings and damned if there wasn't a big ole flock there.) Breakfast was at the family kitchen table: an assortment of whatever cereals, bread and juice were about, plus several enormous hunks of Dutch cheese. Oh and the local liver sausage: think liverwurst with cloves. A really fine way to start a day of birding on a cold blustery January morning.
Back home in Ireland, the big news items are more priest scandals, gangsters and cocaine, and the US primaries. It is sometime hard to fathom how excited the rest of the world is at the fact that Bush Jr cannot be re-elected. There is a palpable sense of relief at the 7 years of bewildering nonsense and arrogance coming to an end. I'd call it something akin to joy. The Irish in particular want to like America and with W in charge they can't. As if the Bush administration and it's excesses weren't bad enough, the sub-prime mortgage thing rippled across the Atlantic and washed ashore as a hurricane. America sneezes and the world catches a cold... And the drama of the primaries so far has just entranced a lot of people over here.
Finally, what I'm listening to these days.
Northern Holland in January is not exactly a hospitable place: 50 mph winds driving some needle like rain. We did enjoy some fair skies on occasion thankfully. Our B&B was very hospitable though: much like staying at the poor relatives really. The Dutch countryside is dotted with 19th and early 20th century barns, giant things, with earlier homes attached at one end. Our B&B was such a place: a 16th century cottage attached to a thatched barn from the 1880s, we actually had to walk through the barn to go inside. Really nice folk running the place too. Big time birders who pointed us to those secret spots that only birders know about. (The birders reading this know exactly what I mean: Jaap, the husband, pointed us to a crook in a road by a pier to look for snow buntings and damned if there wasn't a big ole flock there.) Breakfast was at the family kitchen table: an assortment of whatever cereals, bread and juice were about, plus several enormous hunks of Dutch cheese. Oh and the local liver sausage: think liverwurst with cloves. A really fine way to start a day of birding on a cold blustery January morning.
Back home in Ireland, the big news items are more priest scandals, gangsters and cocaine, and the US primaries. It is sometime hard to fathom how excited the rest of the world is at the fact that Bush Jr cannot be re-elected. There is a palpable sense of relief at the 7 years of bewildering nonsense and arrogance coming to an end. I'd call it something akin to joy. The Irish in particular want to like America and with W in charge they can't. As if the Bush administration and it's excesses weren't bad enough, the sub-prime mortgage thing rippled across the Atlantic and washed ashore as a hurricane. America sneezes and the world catches a cold... And the drama of the primaries so far has just entranced a lot of people over here.
Finally, what I'm listening to these days.
- The Once soundtrack, if you haven't seen it look it up. Your man Glen Hansard, the singer-songwriter star of the film, is something of a national hero over here. Irish know him for his band The Frames: you know him as the awkward red head bass player from The Commitments.
- White Stripes, Elephant. Lo-Fi goodness.
- Martin Sexton, Black Sheep. More singer-songwriter goodness.
- Hank Thompson, A Six Pack to Go. Beer-swilling, honky-tonkin', country goodness.
Finally finally, work is crazy busy, the Irish rugby team is struggling again, and Jared just turned 6! Happy Birthday, amigo!
Slainte.
Monday 24 December 2007
Christmas Play-by-play
Well. Giving thanks that we decided to stay put this Christmas, given the weather in England this weekend: "travel misery eases."
Welcome back to the running commentary on our first Christmas in Ireland. Christmas Eve continued with PK upstairs at the wrapping station, and me making sausage rolls. Christmas Eve dinner this year was sausage rolls, homemade mushroom soup, and Fuller's London Pride. Fabulous.
After the traditional Christmas Eve hoovering of the house, PK and I settled in to watch the Grinch and hoovered some ice cream. We briefly considered going to the pub for the Christmas Eve craic, but decided against it in the end. Kitty thanked us for our company by curling up on PK's lap. We also discovered that our turkey is not quite as thawed as we had hoped. Thankfully we have 12 hours or so to remedy that.
Now it's time to open a pressie: it's addressed to both of us from Santa via Auntie Hank. Off comes the paper, feels like a book, and it is: Whole Food, 300 recipes to restore, nourish, and delight. Thanks Auntie Hank, I mean, Santa! There's some good sounding stuff in here.
Now it's time to wander the 'hood and see what the neighbours are up to with decorations and the like. PK will be next on the Christmas blog play-by-play; so be sure to check out the pollybloggy. But not until tomorrow, when it will be Christmas!
Nollaig Shona!
PS, to all our little nieces and nephews, be sure to get to bed early! That way you can wake your folks up real early to open your presents! Tell them Uncle Slim said it was OK! Try a saucepan and big metal spoon to get the sleepy heads out of bed if they linger too long; they'll appreciate your attention.
Welcome back to the running commentary on our first Christmas in Ireland. Christmas Eve continued with PK upstairs at the wrapping station, and me making sausage rolls. Christmas Eve dinner this year was sausage rolls, homemade mushroom soup, and Fuller's London Pride. Fabulous.
After the traditional Christmas Eve hoovering of the house, PK and I settled in to watch the Grinch and hoovered some ice cream. We briefly considered going to the pub for the Christmas Eve craic, but decided against it in the end. Kitty thanked us for our company by curling up on PK's lap. We also discovered that our turkey is not quite as thawed as we had hoped. Thankfully we have 12 hours or so to remedy that.
Now it's time to open a pressie: it's addressed to both of us from Santa via Auntie Hank. Off comes the paper, feels like a book, and it is: Whole Food, 300 recipes to restore, nourish, and delight. Thanks Auntie Hank, I mean, Santa! There's some good sounding stuff in here.
Now it's time to wander the 'hood and see what the neighbours are up to with decorations and the like. PK will be next on the Christmas blog play-by-play; so be sure to check out the pollybloggy. But not until tomorrow, when it will be Christmas!
Nollaig Shona!
PS, to all our little nieces and nephews, be sure to get to bed early! That way you can wake your folks up real early to open your presents! Tell them Uncle Slim said it was OK! Try a saucepan and big metal spoon to get the sleepy heads out of bed if they linger too long; they'll appreciate your attention.
Saturday 22 December 2007
Happy Holidays!
Well. It's happened. The holidays are upon us. Slimmie no workie again until 3 January 2008. But the holidays season has been crazy round here. No different than anywhere I guess, but I'm looking forward to some R+R just the same.
The month began with a night out organised by my team at work. 15 or so of us ate out at a really nice Italian restaurant. I had a gorgeous crab risotto. Two nights later was the AOL Broadband Christmas party, an annual highlight on the Waterford social calendar. All the bars in town know when we'll be kicking it up. We take over a place called The Forum, a nightclub and performance space. This year's agenda included a Dixieland marching band, acrobats, Tarot card readers, an all percussion band, an 80s cover band, and a nationally syndicated DJ. The usual assortment of alcohol abuse, karaoke, and general silliness abounds of course. A late night. Very late by my standards. But a real gas; some craic.
Next was a contest at work called "Pimp your Pod". The work stations are organised into "pods," round groups of up to 6 staff. Each team was assigned a country to represent, and we got Spain. We decorated in gold and yellow to the hilt, threw in a few caganer (google it), and then threw a tapas party. I made caldo gallego, a traditional soup served at Christmas time in Spain. Stole the show. We swept the contest and earned ourselves a party on the company with a budget of 100 euro a head. Super fun.
In the midst of all this I turned 39: entering my 40th year! Egad! To celebrate, Polly whisked me away to Dublin for a three day weekend (we get our birthday off). We stayed at our favorite guest house, drank some meaty pints, ate some delicious sushi, and wandered the streets of the capital. One of the unexpected treats was running into a Starbucks and discovering that they have eggnog lattes! Much rejoicing. Eggnog doesn't seem to be much of a thing here in Waterford: ain't seen it anywhere. Contemplated making my own, but a mixer would really help. We had a blast, despite the fact that I was just getting over a cold and PK was in its grip.
Now we're winding up for the main events: Grosserman and Frau Doktor will be coming over for an orphan's Christmas dinner. Christmas seems really quite similar here to back in the States. Turkey and ham dinner. Lots o Santa Claus (often called Santy) everywhere. Maybe a tad bit more emphasis on the liquid variety of Christmas cheer... We've accumulated a garage full of wine ourselves.
Thanks to everyone who've sent packages and cards. It's really great to get little pieces of home. We're just about ready. It's Irish tradition to clean the house down to the floorboards in preparation; I always did that myself anyhow, and that should occupy a good part of Christmas Eve eve. PK's much adored Christmas shrub, er, excuse me, "tree," is trimmed and the presents are piling up.
Well. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a great New Year to all of ye. We miss you all and hope to see some of you in 2008.
Nollaig Shona!
The month began with a night out organised by my team at work. 15 or so of us ate out at a really nice Italian restaurant. I had a gorgeous crab risotto. Two nights later was the AOL Broadband Christmas party, an annual highlight on the Waterford social calendar. All the bars in town know when we'll be kicking it up. We take over a place called The Forum, a nightclub and performance space. This year's agenda included a Dixieland marching band, acrobats, Tarot card readers, an all percussion band, an 80s cover band, and a nationally syndicated DJ. The usual assortment of alcohol abuse, karaoke, and general silliness abounds of course. A late night. Very late by my standards. But a real gas; some craic.
Next was a contest at work called "Pimp your Pod". The work stations are organised into "pods," round groups of up to 6 staff. Each team was assigned a country to represent, and we got Spain. We decorated in gold and yellow to the hilt, threw in a few caganer (google it), and then threw a tapas party. I made caldo gallego, a traditional soup served at Christmas time in Spain. Stole the show. We swept the contest and earned ourselves a party on the company with a budget of 100 euro a head. Super fun.
In the midst of all this I turned 39: entering my 40th year! Egad! To celebrate, Polly whisked me away to Dublin for a three day weekend (we get our birthday off). We stayed at our favorite guest house, drank some meaty pints, ate some delicious sushi, and wandered the streets of the capital. One of the unexpected treats was running into a Starbucks and discovering that they have eggnog lattes! Much rejoicing. Eggnog doesn't seem to be much of a thing here in Waterford: ain't seen it anywhere. Contemplated making my own, but a mixer would really help. We had a blast, despite the fact that I was just getting over a cold and PK was in its grip.
Now we're winding up for the main events: Grosserman and Frau Doktor will be coming over for an orphan's Christmas dinner. Christmas seems really quite similar here to back in the States. Turkey and ham dinner. Lots o Santa Claus (often called Santy) everywhere. Maybe a tad bit more emphasis on the liquid variety of Christmas cheer... We've accumulated a garage full of wine ourselves.
Thanks to everyone who've sent packages and cards. It's really great to get little pieces of home. We're just about ready. It's Irish tradition to clean the house down to the floorboards in preparation; I always did that myself anyhow, and that should occupy a good part of Christmas Eve eve. PK's much adored Christmas shrub, er, excuse me, "tree," is trimmed and the presents are piling up.
Well. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a great New Year to all of ye. We miss you all and hope to see some of you in 2008.
Nollaig Shona!
Tuesday 4 December 2007
A quick word
Howdy y'all.
If any of ye back in the home country feel the need to send on holiday or birthday packages that won't fit through a mail slot in the front door, please don't send them to our home address. It's just as likely as not that we won't get it.
So send one of us an email and we can give you an alternate mailing address.
The wind continues to blow here, although the temperatures are mild at least. Tomorrow (Wednesday) night is our department's holiday dinner out. We're going to a really nice, surprisingly nice, Italian restaurant. Should be fun. And then Friday is the AOL holiday party: a really fun do. I got to go last year and had a blast; and am looking forward to a similar experience this year.
That's all for now.
Slainte.
If any of ye back in the home country feel the need to send on holiday or birthday packages that won't fit through a mail slot in the front door, please don't send them to our home address. It's just as likely as not that we won't get it.
So send one of us an email and we can give you an alternate mailing address.
The wind continues to blow here, although the temperatures are mild at least. Tomorrow (Wednesday) night is our department's holiday dinner out. We're going to a really nice, surprisingly nice, Italian restaurant. Should be fun. And then Friday is the AOL holiday party: a really fun do. I got to go last year and had a blast; and am looking forward to a similar experience this year.
That's all for now.
Slainte.
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