Eyesored! =D

The Eyesores artist, Xavier Gallego made me very happy today - see the screenshot, above (click on it to see it in larger size)! =D

I'm getting a signed print!!! =D

Here and there, yesterday

Lough Tay & Sally Gap

With all the recent weather bliss, I've kept neglecting my blogs, and I have a virtual pile of photos to upload..

Above, the video bits from yesterday's spin.

I started by collecting a second hand chenille throw from Newtownmountkennedy - I meant to keep it as a car blanket, but it's really nice, and Thatsit likes it as well, so I might keep it in the attic, after all..

I'd planned on continuing to Newcastle beach, but I changed my mind and drove to Roundwood instead. I hadn't had any breakfast, so I wanted to grab a sambo and something from Roundwood Centra, and then go eat it at Lough Tay.

Roundwood was busier than I'd expected, so there was nowhere on the Main Street to park, and there was a truck blocking entry to the Centra car park. So, I drove on, and thought I'd turn in the other end of the village, and drive back to see if the car park entrance would be cleared by then. I ended up doing my first ever tight uphill three point turn, and I was so proud of myself when it went well - LOL.. Two or three cars were waiting, but I didn't panic, and I didn't take a week =) It was worth it, too, because I was able to get to that car park, when I drove back.

I bought an egg salad sambo, a donut, and crisps, and continued to Lough Tay. At first, I had the place to myself, but mid-breakfast, a tourist bus arrived, with mainly loud Germans.. However, I heard someone speak Finnish, and went to have a chat with two Finnish women =D

Then, I went to Sally Gap, and turned to Glencree road, stopping where I shot the second part of that video. I picked some bog cotton for my dollhouse..

After that, I had a maintenance break in Glencree - mmmm, cappuccino.. And back to Sally Gap & Roundwood, and on to Ashford.. I was stuck behind a slow tractor, ALL the way from Roundwood to Ashford! Grrrr..

I briefly stopped in Ashford, to try and decide where to go next, and to have a cold drink from my €2 cold bag =) I decided to go to Greystones via Rathnew - would have been a shorter route via Cullenmore, but I've done that so many times, whereas I hadn't driven to Rathnew yet, so I picked that route.

In Greystones, I did light shopping at LIDL (=just one bag of food, instead of my usual weekly shopping of 3-4 bags, which is not all food, though..). I just wanted some more gouda bread, really, but while there, I got other stuff that I was running out of. Vine tomatoes, etc..

It was only 3:45pm when I came home, so I still had time for a few hours in the back garden as well.

Later on, one of the Stira hinges snapped, and I couldn't go back to the attic! :O I was bored out of my mind as pretty much everything was up in the attic. The laptop, the camera, the phone charger.. I was able to check Facebook on the phone, but didn't want to do much of it as my phone battery is dying, so I'd have needed the charger soon, and it was in the attic..

Luckily, D has a friend who is a guru at welding, and he was able to fix the hinge on the same evening - thank God!! So, the Stira is good again, and I'm back in the attic. Phew! Also, while I had nothing else to do, I cooked.. So, now I have mince stuff for wraps, for 2-3 days.. I also cleaned the microwave oven, which was in a vile state, really.. I don't know what had been nuked, but it was all over the walls and door, and had gone off, stinking like a rotting corpse.. :x Btw, ever since I first saw that ancient episode of The Simpsons, where James Woods cleans the oven, I have never been able to clean the nuker without thinking of him! LOL

Oops, it's been a few days again..

I haven't really done anything special, lately, so I haven't done any blogging, either.. (I did make a start on marking my recent spin routes on the virtual map, but it was too hot in the attic again, so I left it..)

I've been in the back garden a lot, reading, with Oscar (=cat from next door) glued to me, and Thatsit and Pushy loitering about, looking at Oscar and me, unimpressed..

Thatsit is really into these mini lollies now..

Vikings shoot at Lough Tay, Glenmalure, etc.. (Friday spin)

Lough Tay (Vikings S2), Glenmalure, etc.. Summer spin

I haven't uploaded my photos yet (except to Facebook), so I'll be blogging more about this spin later, but meanwhile, here's the video - which includes some stills as well..

Lough Tay (where I watched the Vikings shoot for a while), Sally Gap, Glenmacnass, Laragh, Glenmalure Inn, Glenmalure, Greenane, Rathdrum, Glenealy, Ashford, Cullenmore, and N11 back to Bray - I checked out that revamped Centra, on the way home.. Very nice! I bought ten bottles of Lucozade for €5, some cheapo cider, etc..

I was absolutely roasting when I came home, so I soaked my feet (again!) in cold water, and had some cold cider with tons of ice =D Aaaahhhhhh..

Is Rihanna actually Roger?

Hmmmm.. Are they twins? Is she actually Roger? What's with her HEAD?!?

(on FB / on Twitter / on Pinterest)

BBQ day

I was sitting in the garden, on Friday, looking at the tiny charcoal BBQ, which had been collecting spider webs and such, for the last 2-3 years.. And then I decided to clean it and use it.

    
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the big charcoal bag (which had collected dust in the hall, for the last 2-3 years..) contained smaller charcoal bags, and all you had to do, was to pop one on the BBQ and light its corner with a match. (Yes, a match - I tried it with a lighter first, but it was useless.. Maybe it was just a crappy lighter..) It took maybe about 30 minutes for it to be ready for the food, and I'd used that time to prepare the food for it.

Before I'd even fetched the charcoal bag, I made a spontaneous quickie-marinade for the two chicken breast fillets I had in the fridge;

This & that marinade
dark honey
olive oil
soy sauce
sugar
sea salt
spicy Herbamare
black pepper
white pepper
garlic powder

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl, and then wrapped the fillets (separately) like this; I took a large sheet of tin foil, folding it in the middle for extra strength.. I spread plenty of my marinade on the sheet - on large enough area for one fillet.. (It's liquidy, of course, but not runny enough to escape from the sheet - if you're worried, though, place it on a plate, so the middle part will be a bit lower than the edges..) Then, I placed a fillet on the marinade pool, and spread some more marinade on top of it.. And finally, I folded the edges up, wrapping the fillet pretty tight in its marinade.. Once I'd wrapped both fillets, I put them in the fridge, where they stayed over 30 minutes, until it was time to put them on the BBQ.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of that early part - maybe next time.. But see below..

    
On top left, you can see one chicken breast fillet, which is still wrapped in tin foil. (The mince packets were also totally wrapped, at first - read on..)

It felt silly to BBQ just two chicken breast fillets, so I decided to make some beef mince packets as well;

Beef mince BBQ packets
(enough for ONE packet - multiply as necessary)
chopped half an onion
crushed fresh garlic (as much as you like)
sliced half a mystery chili pepper
about 100g beef mince
soy sauce
sea salt
spicy Herbamare
black pepper
white pepper

I started with the folded tin foil (like with those chicken breast fillets), and just piled up stuff in that order (see the list of ingredients, above), finally wrapping it tightly. As I hadn't done anything to the mince, other than spooned it out of its original container, I applied some pressure on the wrapped packet, to make it a bit "burgery". That's totally optional.. =P

Once my BBQ charcoal was ready, I placed all the packets on the grill, and the lid went on. After maybe 5-8 minutes, I turned all packets upside down.. After maybe another 5-8 minutes, I unwrapped the top of the mince packets, to get the actual BBQ flavour..

    
I cut into one "burger", to make sure it was done, and it was. So, I decided to have the mince packets for lunch, and keep the chicken for later. However, before I started eating those mince packets, I unwrapped the chicken;


I placed the fillets back on the BBQ, without the tin foil wrapping - you can see leftovers of the marinade, in the unwrapped packets, above..

I ate the first mince packet (well, not the tin foil, heh..), and it was really, really nice.. The onion was also perfect to my taste, I loved the soft fresh garlic, which had soaked in meaty juices, and the mystery chili pepper turned out to be quite hot, mmmmm..

After the first packet, I turned the chicken breast fillets, and then ate the second mince packet. After that, the chicken fillets were done.


As I mentioned, I was planning to keep the chicken fillets for later, but I was curious about the marinade, so I thought I'd try some of the smaller fillet..

I kind of ended up eating the whole fillet.. =D

It was Really Good..

I had the other fillet later that night - I cut it in bite-size pieces, nuked it for a minute, nuked a tortilla wrap, filled it with the chicken fillet, and slapped some mayonnaise on it.. Mmmmmm.. Very Nice BBQ chicken tortilla wrap..

It had been such a long time, that I'd forgotten how quick and easy it actually is, to BBQ stuff.. OK, you have to wait for that 30 minutes or so (unless you have a gas version, I guess?), but the actual cooking part is pretty effortless, and the food is so nice..

Clammy / hot

Thursday was great, driving around in (mainly) County Wicklow, enjoying the warm breeze with car windows open, etc.. On Friday, I spent quite a lot of time in the back garden, and yesterday, I was there all day. Today, I've tried to be in the garden and in the attic, but both are kind of uncomfortable..

After all the sun, yesterday, I felt like I could maybe take a break from it today, but the attic is über-clammy, so I've had to take garden breaks as well.. My right arm is no longer Caucasian =D

I'm thinking of a spin down to County Wexford, one of these days.. They have such lovely beaches..

Indoor moss

I love moss. This stuff is growing in my old bonsai pot, which was in the garden - the moss just appeared, out of the blue.. I eventually took the pot in again, curious to see if I could keep the moss alive over the winter.. Turns out it's doing fine =) I just try to keep it really moist, but I've let it go dryish, every now and then, yet it's still fine.

It's almost over..

I already mentioned my Game of Thrones marathon..

    

A few days ago, I watched the second last episode of the third season - suddenly understanding why all the GoT people had been so shocked, on Facebook, after seeing that episode..

So, now I have only one episode left, and it seems to difficult to start watching it as then it'll all be over - until there's more (added to that site, too)..

Jebus, I'd love to be an extra on that! (We almost went to the open casting for the second season, but Belfast would have been so awkward, and had there been any work, it probably wouldn't have paid enough to be worth the trip, as much fun as it would have been..)

My first video blog, I think (?) - the 9h morning spin

Video bits of my morning spin

Published on 4 Jul 2013
04072013 ... I was waiting for the weather to get better, killing time by making an (obviously) unplanned video blog entry. I look like I haven't slept in a month =D If you don't like double chins & eye nuts (work it out..), go to 1:43 - the landscape stuff starts from there =P

I'll blog the photos and the route on another day as I've no energy for that now.

Done with June

June 2013, in my ShutterCal.

June briefly;
I spent time in the back garden, thinking of Oimo, enjoying the good weather, weeding the flowerbed.. I got the old living room telly, but I can't afford a digital box.. I went to the Vikings S2 casting, etc.. I visited my godson and his family.. I bought a car first aid kit.. I had an extra day on Love, Rosie.. More time in the garden.. I drank my champagne.. I took supermoon pictures.. I had ice cream sambos.. More time in the garden.. I ended the month with a Game of Thrones marathon, which continued in July..

Relaxing sounds on Youtube

FOREST CREEK Nature Sounds | 11 Hours


sleep with the ocean sound 12 hour of sea sounds full night


10 Hours of Relaxing Ocean Waves


Gentle Rain 10 Hours High Quality


10 Hours - Rainfall on a Tin Roof With Thunder #2 New Mix


10 hours of rain and thunder sounds in a lightning storm

There's loads more, just go to Youtube (click any of the links above), and see the other suggested videos..

One form of child abuse

Best Uses for Ketchup and Cheeseballs | Honey Boo Boo: Cooking...

While I do think it's everyone's personal business, what, when, how much, and how often they choose to eat, I think it's a crime to deliberately feed children the worst possible diet.. Why would anyone want to give their children a really bad start in life, by feeding them stuff that will make them overweight before they even start school, won't help them during school (as they are likely to be either tired or hyper, during the day), and will bring all kinds of health issues, sooner or later? That's not love.

Game of Thrones marathon(s)

Source: Uploaded by user via Stella on Pinterest

Having come across a website where you can watch Game of Thrones (link here), I decided to start watching it. On the first night, I watched the whole first season. Then I slept, and then I watched the first half of the second season. After blogging this, I'm about to continue..

Drogo and Daenerys were my favourite couple, of season 1 - hot! hot! hot! :o Other than that, Tyrion Lannister has to be my favourite character - I pretty much love Peter Dinklage in any part! =)