Shopping Spree or Study?

Feb 1st it's Monday and I'm sat at home trying to do my irish essay and finding it all too dull to even think about never mind to start. I'd love to have a machine to do assignments these days, they never really stop all of a sudden. I have the Fiche Blian ag Fas one to do as well as the ICT one. And no inclination to get either one done. Sigh. Instead of working I have taken up watching ER reruns and messing around on Facebook. A change from the shopping spree Gavin and I went on last Thursday......

So last Thursday Gavin and I went spent a very couply day together. We started off in Mahon Point for the Farmers Market. We picked up some indian curry mixes-a lemon chicken one for us Thursday night with my family and a tomato coconut milk one for Galway. Both were really easy to make and tasted FAB!! I'd def recommend going to Green Saffron for a decent curry powder. Especially as all his powders are his own and taste even better than any silly ole jar. After Mahon we headed onto town where we sneaked down to a small cafe out the back of SOHO bar, where Subway used to be across from Susan Ryans. This is the nicest place to have opened in Cork in a good while. And for the life of my I can't remember it's name. It's very basic serving only Donuts and Hot Dogs but what they lack in terms of menu they make up in terms of taste and service. I had the Hot 'n' Spicey Hot Dog which is a roll with the frankferter, cheese, onions, ketchup, mustard and a hot sauce. While Gavin had a New Yorker Dog- basically the same as mine only without the cheese and hot sauce and with saurkraut. It was gorgeous. We had bottles of minerals and noticed a list of coffees and teas on the wall. We were very tempted to get donuts as well but Mr Gavin was being sensible and thought it healthier not to.....I disagreed. They looked so YUMMY! Our next port of call was Smyths.....

Smyths was where we went a tad bit mad! We had been chatting about buying a wii for the last few months and so Thursday we went for it. We got a great deal. Got the wii itself with 2 controllers both with motion plus along with sports, sports resort and Mario Kart. This deal also included a sports pack with the wheel, tennis racket etc. So naturally Thursday night we spent the whole night in my garage (spare room) playing the wii with my family. I'm proud to say that I beat Gavin at golf (and he loves golf....hehehe) and boxing (I am great!!). I do need to hone up mu Mario Kart skills but all in all we're getting better and after spending most of the weekend in Galway with Gav's brother and the wii we have unlocked a lot more of Mario Kart. I still need a lot more practice though.

But back to Monday. And the lack of study done today is beyond a joke. I need to settle down and start something constructive......once I get off Facebook and the Blog.

First Aid Need and Hibernia

So I grew up this week and I went and enrolled in a First Aid course. Figure since I'm so clumsy and accident prone I could do with the extra help in fixing myself. I was right. My my my I'm clueless! But I'm learning! Can only do me good right? To learn to treat my boo boos and what to do should there be an accident at the side of the road or even if a kid in school falls. So off I went Monday night to try my hand being nurse Hellie. I learnt loads once I found the school (not easy without a sense of direction I may add) and can't wait to head back again next Monday. It's something I've wanted to do for ages. And this course is certified (needed if you wanna do a course worth it's salt). The Order of Malta run and organise the course so you know it's a decent one that's well respected. Everything a Hellie needs for this business of growing up.

As for Fiche Blian ag Fás? It's not going so well. I've basically nothing done for the essay and the panic is setting in big time.....just not enough panic to make me work just yet.....Soon. I just keep getting distracted by ER, Friends, subbing or being just plain too lazy to start it. It's all good. I now have a ICT assignment to get doing now too so I should get my skates on.......after this episode of ER. That assignment isn't too bad though, I have a picture story to do that will educate a class on SESE (history geography and science) so it's not totally awful really. It looks like I'll be kept busy enough for the time being. Nothing new there huh? Bring on the dreaded TP3 folder and we'll see busy then.....I promise!

Saffron Indian Cuisine

It's been ages since I had chance to breath and blog. But I'm back! I tried out an Indian last weekend with my delightful better half. We went to Saffron in Hazel Wood Shopping Centre. I have to say I wasn't 100% sure about it on my way down. I hadn't heard of too many people going there and it never looked busy when I drive past it. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised. Gav and I quite like indian and fairly regularly treat ourselves to it. Like every couple we have our favourite spots and take aways. I'm not sure if Saffron will make our top list. It was nice but it could have been nicer. I had the Chicken Tikka Massala while Gav had the Duck Korma. We shared the Saffron Fried Rice, chips and a cheese naan. It came to a grand total of €26 and some small change. The Massala wasn't bad, the bright red colour of the sauce was a tad off putting. That said it tasted fairly good, it could have had more flavour, I like a bit more bite to my indian a little more spice please! Gav said the same about the Korma, he'd have liked more flavour and more duck. His dish had very little meat compared to mine. The rice I can say was good. It was mixed fried rice with veg and egg, I really enjoyed it I have to say, even the chips were cooked to my liking. However the naan bread was a little disappointing. For a cheese naan there wasn't much cheese to be seen or tasted. The pappadoms came with the meal and were delicious.

When we went down to order the meal we went in to see a few people eating in which I saw as a good sign. However when we got home and went to eat our much awaited dinner we found that we had been given the wrong order. I rang them back and had to go back to SAffron myself to sort out the messed up order. It didn't impress me too much but it's not the end of the world though.

Would we go back? Yes probably. As of yet we haven't found an Indian locally in Cork that we like. Limerick and Galway are a bit far away for a take away. So Saffron seems like our only option for now. Maybe we caught them on a bad night? Or ordered the wrong meals? Either way I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and try Saffron out again. It has serious potiential......

Water Water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Who runs this country? Toddlers? Children? Or perhaps a pack of Hamsters? Don't get me wrong hamsters are very clever, look at my own Fuzz and how smart she is....but no matter how clever and smart she may well be I would not want her running this country. Nor would I expect a child to. Yet we allow people with the sense of a hamster or a child to run Ireland every single day.
What have they done now? It's 6.45 and we just got word that the area we are living in will have no water between 7pm and 7am for the foreseeable future. Wonderful. Thanks for the advance warning. And who the hell had this bright idea? Our village is already flooded, our city in shambles and now they would like to turn off the water every night in an area where young families are living, trying to cook dinners and fend for kids and older people. So naturally yes turn off the water when most people are at home. Turn off water during family time etc.

Why not turn the water off while people are at work?? There are a lot of people now unemployed here and at home during the day USING water, so why not turn it off then... Or turn it off a little later so families can cook and get themselves sorted? Seriously like give people time to get dinner sorted and heat the house a little bit, its a cold snap, do we look like polar bears? Do we not need heat now? Would it have killed the local authorities to have given us some warning? Do we not deserve that much at least? We weren't even given time to gather up drinking water...
I'll throw a guess that making up a babys bottle without water is neigh on impossible. So is cooking say pasta. And what about flushing the toilet? Washing hands afterwards? Personal heigine people!!!!
I know there are people who have no water already bewteen floods and frozen pipes but how is this helping? People who had no water now have even less access to clean water than before-neighbours they relied on for clean water have now had their water turned off....well done local authorities. Bravo!
If they want us to conserve water this is not the way to do it. Do not cut us off without warning. Do not treat us like animals. RESPECT. We will conserve water. We will do all we can to help out. But we will do it far more willingly with advance warning. Not the way to get votes guys....

My Hamster Fuzz would have managed this water restriction idea a lot better than the idiots running the country.

VOTE FUZZ FOR PRESIDENT!!

Cork Floods. Again.

The snow is gone. But it brought the rain we all craved so desperately.....when we said we wanted rain we didn't mean another storm nor did we really mean please weather flood cork again....the river Lee has burst it's banks again. There are roads closed all around the city already. At least this time the people of Cork know what to do to try and save as much of our city as we possibly can. This time. The roads that have been closed are not small roads by any means, they are larger main roads, including Sarsfield road and the insale roundabout. Not again we said, there can't be another flood so soon. Looks like there can be. The small village near where I live is now closed due the road out of it being flooded. This didn't happen the last time. It's very scarey. Going into the City today was fun, the roads along the docks were flooding at 2pm when I ventured into town and it hadn't hit high tide yet. That came around half 4 ish....I never left town so quick in my life. Or so empty handed during the sales. There are shops in town that are still getting over the shock of the last floods. Some places haven't even reopened. The Kingsley hotel being one. All around town you can see the devestation of the flooding last November. I can't imagine the Mercy hospital is back to normal and I'm told UCC still isn't. So what will happen to these landmarks now that we're faced with another storm? Another flood? The recession hit us all bad here in Cork, the floods didn't help. We thought Christmas would help the shops get over a very tough time but the weather made it nearly impossible to get from A to B. The after Christmas sales just didn't happen here. Products went on sale, prices were slashed and debanhams did their famous 70% off sale and still no joy. Shops are losing money left right and centre. Just as the big thaw comes to end the big freeze the storm makes a guest reappearance and Cork begins to flood.......again