Bike Buffet

Last week hubby and I decided to join the local bike buffet.  I had seen an advert on the book of face about it and decided it looked like it could be fun.

I called a few days before to book our place and was told that there were only about 10 people booked so far so imagine our surprise when we turned up and there were a few more than that  45 to be precise!
So what’s a bike buffet?
Well the idea is that you cycle from pub to pub and eat a different course at each place.

We drove to the Westport town hall which was the starting point and got our bikes out ready. We were greeted first of all with Mocktails and had a chance to eye up who else would be cycling with us. There were couples and friends and families, kids on their own bikes or sitting in a seat at the back of mum or dad.

We were asked to choose what starter we wanted from a choice of three and then we set off to our first pub/restaurant. Although the first part of the cycle was through the town we found ourselves quite quickly onto the The Great Western Greenway cycle track. It was a lovely chance to take in the local views and it was part of the track that we hadn’t cycled before. Also it wasn’t a race so people chatted as we went along. 

We arrived at our first stop off place - The Coast bar. We were guided up to a lovely dining room with views over the quay and it was nice to sit down on tables of 6-8 people, eat our starters and chat to other diners/cyclists.

Once we had finished our starters we set off again. Our route took us through the grounds of Westport House so away from any traffic. 
We stopped for our main course in the grounds of Westport house at Gracys, a pizzeria. Once again we sat at tables of 6 people and were served beautiful tasty pizzas, chips and salad. We chose to sit with different people so we could meet new people. There was also some live Irish music which was great to listen to as we chatted and ate our food. 

We set off again through the grounds of the house and then onto the main street of Westport to our final destination for our desserts - Clew Bay Hotel. 

By the time we had finished our desserts it was getting dark so we set off back to our van and went home. We thoroughly enjoyed this experience, it was a great way to meet new people, try out different restaurants and explore a little bit more of our new home area. We felt it was great value for money at only €20. I would definitely go on one again. Apparently they are run every year, once a month during the summer months and generally the venues change every month.

It's a jungle out there!

It's been a while since I've blogged but life has continued a pace, days have merged into weeks into months.It really doesn't seem like six months since we spent our first Christmas in our Irish house.

Hubby has been working hard both on the house and also on our house and garden in UK, whilst I have been working two jobs meaning usually only having one day off every ten days.

It's been exhausting and family and friend catch up time has unfortunately gone by the wayside.

We spent the full month of April in Ireland and the weather was really kind to us again, meaning that we made great progress on painting the outside of the house.

We have just had another week there with equally favourable weather and we've finally finished the outside.

When you compare it to what it looked like when we first voted the place, the difference it makes is so heartening and hopefully it looks a lot more friendly and welcoming than it did.

 

  

                                                                                        

As well as trying to get some decorating done we have also welcomed quite a few guests already this year.

It's great to be able to entertain at last but it does mean that decorating has taken a bit of a back seat, the house is in the sort of state now that everything has been painted and needs its top coat and final touches. To the unknowing guest it looks ok and I suppose it sort of means we don't feel the urge to paint so strongly! To be honest its nice to sit and enjoy it rather than be working all the time.

With such good weather our attentions have also turned to the outside space. The site our house stands on is apparently 1.3 acres. Essentially it was a field with house built on it and as such it still looks like that. Over the winter everything had obviously died off but when we came back this last time, with the recent run of hot weather, it came as no surprise that everything had grown slightly.

It can be a bit daunting but we have enlisted the help of a local garden designer. He runs a local garden centre and we first came across him when we were listening to the local radio station on a Saturday morning. He does an hour long gardening Q&A show and as his garden centre was fairly local we decided to pay a visit. We found out he offered a garden design service and we decided it would be a good idea. Hubby and I like a nice garden but we are no experts. We have a fairly small garden in the UK which doesn't take too much work to maintain and have over the years developed some raised vegetable beds. 

With such a large area of land we knew we needed some help and really felt that we would end up saving ourselves money too. Trees, plants and other things for gardens can be so expensive and we could easily have bought loads of things and found that they didn't grow properly resulting in a large waste of money.

So Padraic from the garden centre has visited and we have discussed our ideas with him. He seemed very positive and we await his first set of plans. Once we have agreed on a design we like he will put together a 3 years plan for us to follow in order to achieve it.  

So hopefully we wont be looking at this 'field' for too much longer.

                 

                  

Maisie has enjoyed exploring the garden. She runs off and hides and waits for you throw her ball, sometimes its a bit hard to see her properly.....

 

Half a kitchen

In November we made another successful trip to the west coast to see how things are progressing.

We arrived on the early ferry meaning that we arrived over in the village late morning. Of course we drove straight upto the house to see what if any changes we could spot.
The first thing was the garage door! Yes sad but true but every little thing means progress. Kevin the builder had arranged it and we are very happy with it.

Newly rendered garage with a new door. 

We had picked up the key for it from our neighbour so we opened it up and set about decanting stuff from the car into the garage. I have to admit this included a quirky selection of our belongings including our open Canadian canoe, dog agility equipment  and a rotary washing line. Completely random.
Within half an hour of our arrival we got a call to say that the lorry  carrying our delivery of kitchen appliances from the UK was arriving in the village. We gave the last few directions to the driver and marvelled at how organised we were.
The lorry arrived bearing a logo very close to our home in UK 
which was strange as it is now an Irish registered vehicle. Anyway as if on cue, the heavens opened and assisted in a swift and soggy transfer of goods from lorry to garage.

We were also pleased to see that all the plastering inside was now complete and does make such a difference to the inside. The new hallway looks vast.....perhaps it could double as a skittle alley.

We were also pleased to see the first of our two multi fuel stoves installed. This one is in the dining area.  We will also have a free standing one in the lounge.

Overall we had a lovely few days which also involved choosing carpets and measuring up for bedroom furniture and we even had a sunny enough day that we could enjoy our 'garden'. I use the term loosely as it is currently more like a field. 

Getting plastered!

We had another lovely few days over in Ireland and would you believe it, beginning of October and it didn't rain once!!

This trip we stayed in a little cottage about two miles from our house. The cottage belongs to a German couple who only visit once or twice a year and offered their cottage  as a place for us to stay.

The cottage where we stayed.

The view from the cottage gate.

We had a lovely surprise when we went to visit our house. Apart from three sections which need to be stone clad with local stone the rest of the house has been rendered beautifully. At last we can see our house coming to life,

Before

After

The back before

The back after - no sign of the door that used to go to the boiler room.

Work will now commence on plastering inside.

We  finally ordered our bathroom furniture / sanitary ware. We will have four bathrooms of various shapes and sizes so there was a lot to think about.
We have found a brilliant furniture store locally which has a great selection of furniture and it seems that every time we visit we manage to do so whilst they have a sale on. Last time we were over we ordered a mattress and sofa and so this time we decided that a bed frame and some bedside cabinets and drawers would be a good idea.

Lots of progress

Hubby and I have just returned from a few more days in Ireland.
The main reason was to check how the house was going but also enjoy Irish hospitality.

We arrived on the Monday and as we were a little early to check into our accommodation we found a place for breakfast. There is something about Irish bacon and sausage, it is yummy, add a little bit of black pudding,egg  and toast and you have a perfect Irish breakfast plus of course the obligatory pot of tea.
We went to introduce ourselves to our host for the week. Have you ever tried Airbnb? It's a great way to stay in places where people rent out a spare room for not very much money. Our stay in Westport was with Sabina, a lovely lady in her early 40's, who had a spare room in her apartment. She had recently decided to take a year long career break from her job and had decided to be an airbnb host for a couple of months. She was so friendly and welcoming and very passionate about her country.
She also provided a great breakfast every morning. We were happy with tea, cereals and homemade soda bread, the best he had ever tasted according to hubby. 
Once we had introduced ourselves and offloaded our bags we set off for a local town, we had visited a home store there on our last visit and purchased two dining chairs to add to our set and we had noticed they were having a bank holiday sale so we popped in for a look around. We ended up buying a lovely sofa set plus a new mattress. They were a very good price and we have been able to order them for delivery in November. 
We then went out to our house to see how work was getting on. We had some friends from back home in Birmingham,UK who were over in Ireland at the same time doing a road trip and we had arranged to meet up with them. The weather was totally awful, horizontal rain!! Ok so we always go to Ireland expecting rain but this was torrential. Sadly it did mean that most of the beautiful views around our house which had tempted us there in the first place were somewhat obscured by cloud. We were keen to show our friends around inside and out but we scampered inside and viewed the rest from the dry indoors. It was a shame because all we could see was low cloud. I'm sure they think we are mad, not the only ones I'm sure, but came again on another day and they would appreciate it a lot more I'm sure.
The rest of our 4 day stay was spent deciding on the final layout and design of the kitchen,  looking at bathroom furniture, having the rooms measured for flooring quotes, looking at stoves/fireplaces, looking at doors and of course enjoying a pint of Guinness or two.
The most impressive part was seeing the transformation of the upper floor from one big space to three separate rooms.

Also we had asked our builder to do a bit of adaptation with the fireplace in the dining room. We didn't want a floored based fire but one a bit further up the wall which wouldn't impinge on the room so much.

Its just a song

Isn't it strange how hearing a song can take you back in time so quickly. Whilst on watch to day I managed to tune into a great radio station, the music was such a varied mix, I found myself transported back to many different events in my life. Clicking on each title should take you to a Youtube version of this song.

 1) Love Shack by the B52s

This song took me back to 1989 when I was just 15/16 years old. I was going out with my first boyfriend Mark. I used to follow him and his mate around whilst they did their paper rounds! I'm still friends with Mark actually, he is in the army now and married with a family living in Germany. Very strangely he has the same birthday as my hubby. Hearing it took my back to happy carefree times with the whole future ahead of me.

2)Take it Easy by The Eagles

In the late 1990's my brother spent several summers on the Greek island of Zakynthos. He and his mate Mark (another Mark!) played guitars and sang and formed a band called Bomba Blue. They played in different bars around the island. I went out to visit several times and this song is one of the numbers they did. The reason I remember it so well is that it is one of the few songs that my brother actually sang himself. He has a great voice but never sang that many songs. So this always reminds me of him and hot weather and sunny skies!

3) Mr Blue Sky by ELO

This is definitely a 'going on holiday in the car' song. When my grandparents lived down in Cornwall we would make the 4-5 hours journey down there to visit several times a year and of course we had lots of music cassettes in the car to listen to. As children of course we were ruled by our parents choice of music so ELO, Bread, Roy Orbison and Richard Clayderman were all part of the 'car music system'.
Hearing this song took me instantly back to a motorway journey on the M5 south passing certain landmarks along the way and knowing we hadn't got long to wait til we were there! My dad always had his seat right back so woe betide the child who sat behind him and accidentally kneed him in the back. Watch out the arm to come sweeping round to move your legs out the way!

4) Hungry Eyes from Dirty Dancing

When I heard this song I had very mixed emotions.
Little did I know back in 1987/88 when my mum brought home a video called Dirty Dancing how much effect this film would have on my life. I can't be the only person who saw it and instantly fell in love with Patrick Swayze. I lost count of how many times I watched that film and I so wanted to be Baby's character and have a chance to dance with him. Of course I always believed that he was beckoning to me  -

Both Mum and I swooned over Patrick for years. We even went down to London to see him when he was in Guys and Dolls. It was brilliant and I remember how excited I was to be so close to him and my mum will be forever sad that the time of the last train home meant we couldn't wait to see him at the stage door.

This song made me think back to that day and also to the film but also it made me sad. We were both so sad to hear Patrick was ill with pancreatic cancer and we would check news about him regularly to see how he was doing.

I remember waking up to the news he had died and shedding a few tears and then having to phone my mum to tell her because I knew she wouldn't have heard the news.

Patrick you were a Star!

5) Thriller by Michael Jackson

I have never been a big Michael Jackson fan but when I heard this song it took me right back to primary school. My best friend Sarah had an older brother (his name was Mark too) and he and his friends were big Jackson fans. They had managed to get a copy of the Thriller video and we all packed into their living room to watch this video of Thriller. I remember being a little scared but also thinking what a great video and song it was. Watching it again in researching this blog I can't believe I wasn't more scared and also just how young does Michael look!! Amazing!

So what songs take you back and where do they take you to?