Prague, Czech Republic

A few photos from T and I's long weekend in Praha... Most Leggy...

Obrigada Portugal

From Lagos, Portugal

Better late than never... Tommyboy and I spent an idyllic week in Portugal in August and I never got around to posting the pics... well, until now. Click the pic above for a bunch of photos that make me long for the sun... and don't forget to check out my fancy, four euro, absolutely, enormous sunglasses. I'm a fashion magnet, what can I say. ;) (The ones I brought lasted about a day before I broke them.)

36 Hours in Riga...

From Riga, Latvia

...but we did so much it felt like 36 days. My work colleague and I went over to Latvia this week for a marathon meeting to discuss a hotel / spa related project. The meeting alone was enough to fill the day but in addition to a 6 hour meeting, we managed to fit in, 2 nights of drinking mojitos, a business lunch, a business dinner (yum), a walking tour of Riga complete with a stop at the coolest Moroccan teahouse ever to drink sweet, minty, Moroccan tea, a record release party for a Russian teen singer wearing the tightest leather pants I've ever seen and a Nascar race (ok, it wasn't a Nascar race, it was a taxi ride from the airport, but it might as well have been a Nascar race!) Our guide for the walking tour was our client and a native Rigan who speaks five languages (Latvian, Russian, English, Spanish and Portuguese) and was very knowledgeable about his city (not to mention super generous with his time). He showed us all the most beautiful Art Nouveau architecture, the medieval old town, Swedish and Dutch influenced neighborhoods, a few choice bits of Soviet blockitecture, hidden statues on the tops of buildings (a boy reading, cats with arched backs, wolves, faces etc...), a canal and park bursting with brightly coloured flowerbeds, and a great Cuban bar where my workmate and I ended up drinking mojitos, listening to a great Samba DJ till 3am, and ogling the adorable and probably gay bar-staff (well, maybe that was just me...haha). Considering how little time we had in Riga, we definitely made the most of it... perhaps a bit too much as we nearly missed our flight home, since someone (who shall remain nameless and wasn't me) was hungover as a donkey and slept in... Next stop: Uzbekistan, I've heard great things from my new Latvian friend ande tour guide, Who's up for it?!

A Side Order of Eco-Fries with your Upside-Down-Poke?

Just when I thought I could no longer be surprised by Irish-isms, that I could answer the dog, ride the joer and wind my neck in, with ease... I was, of course, wrong. The world of Irish slang is apparently an inexhaustable resource...

I was out the other night in Belfast for Tommy-boy's birthday with a few of our favo(u)rite northies. We were in a newly-opened-restaurant-bar called, "Made in Belfast" which seems to epitomise the latest trend in Irish-eating-drinking establishments. Enter, the eco-friendly, "recycled" bar. The premise of eco-dining is that instead of kitting out your new business with fresh-from-the-factory furniture top-of-the-line faux-marble table tops and brand-new hipster scandinavian light fixtures, the place is decked out in an eclectic hodge-podge of granny-chic, straight from the latest second-hand auction or car-boot sale. The result is part 70's rec room, part college coffee-house and part dusty-vacation-house (with maybe a little bit of southeast asian brothel thrown in for good measure.) And marketing-ploy or not, I like it (although it's only a matter of time until McDonald's co-opts it and opens a McGreener-than-thous.) Dublin's version of the eco-bar opened last week and was absolutely packed to the rafters last friday when I hit it up - and serving a damn fine mojito if I do say so myself.

Anyway, so here we all were, comfortably perched on Thai-rice-sack pillows and faux-fur animal-print cushions digesting a tasty dinner (served in a random selection of plates and dishes of course.) It was Tommy-boy's birthday and so it was time to loosen the belt and squeeze in dessert. The waiter quickly read out the choices, apple crumble, berry pannacota and an upside down poke... what? excuse me? Sexual adventurous-ness not withstanding, an upside down poke doesn't sound like something that should be done in a crowded restaurant on a Saturday evening... Instead of slapping the waiter (or dragging him into the kitchen for a better explanation ;)) I waited until he was gone and looked at my table-mates for clarification (hopefully without diagrams...haha.) Apparently a "poke" (now, don't be dirty) is simply an icecream cone, something your Granny would make for you when you visited her on a Sunday afternoon, "Would you like a nice, poke dear?" (Oh, god, the possibilities are really endless.) An upside-down poke is the hipster-bar's attempts to bring you back to your childhood-idyll - basically vanilla icecream in a little bowl with a cone sticking out the top. Care for a lick?!

A little bit of Summer

Click the pic to check out some photos from my recent trip to Boston.

8k and Running

Much to my shock and surprise, I found myself standing at the starting line of the Dublin Docklands, "Fun Run," the other day, with a number strapped to my back and 8 kilometers of pavement between me and the finish line. When I talked to my family a few days before the run and told them I had signed up to do it, they actually laughed and then pointed out that short legs run in the family. That's support for ya! Needless to say, I had never attempted any kind of public race before, and have always considered distance running to be a torture only marginally above hanging upside down from one's toenails...

To be fair, I do cycle to work everyday and I regularly run a few k at the gym several times a week but the treadmill is a far cry from hitting the pavement with 2,000 other people (and 4 very fit co-workers.) My expectation was that I would run half and walk half and hopefully manage to make it over the finish line before dark...haha.

Amazingly, I managed to jog the entire 8k. I had decided that I would make it to 3k and then walk but when I saw 3k, I decided to push for 4k and then 5k and then 6k... by the time I hit 6k, it seemed easier to just keep going. (forward momentum don'tcha know...) I managed to finish in 55 minutes which may seem ridiculously slow to all you sporty types but for me was a good 15 minutes under my time on the treadmill.

I'll not be running any marathons anytime soon. (My legs are still sore from the run two days later) but it was great to prove to myself that it was actually possible. I have to say though, that the best part of the whole experience was after the race, stripping off my sweaty clothes, taking a really hot shower and eating a big bowl of icecream in my pajamas... mmmmm, the real taste of victory. :)

Roma

Better late than never... Here are a whole buncha photos from my recent trip to Rome with Tommy-boy, LoloFerrari and JD. Good stuff. We managed to cram most of the major sites into three days while regularly stuffing our faces with pizza and gelato. It was defo a whirlwind tour but lovely nonetheless. :)