Back to the land of the living

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Posted by wendy | Posted in blog | Posted on 28-04-2010

The cable guy came today and gave us the gift of internet and cable TV!

We picked up the keys on Monday and so far so good. The house is on a reversed house plan where the living room is on the 2nd floor. It’s very bright and sunny on the 2nd floor. Apparently, most Irish people don’t like this config. I think it’s awesome! After a heavy night of drinking you can just go to your room without having climbing the stairs.

The house is different than I remembered. I thought it was a 2 double bed and one single bed room. But I was wrong! It’s two single and one double. One of the single room was like the size of our closet. The floor board are like uneven and one of the door doesn’t close. The landlord said that the guy who built the house fancied himself as a handyman and they had to re hang all the door after they bought it.

One good thing about the house is that it’s like 2 min away from the Estuary. The village is about 15 minute by foot and there’s a grocery store 5 minute away.

Yesterday we took the DART to center of Dublin and went to see a reading of a play written by his grand uncle. His cousin was in the reading. Anyway, it was pretty good except I was falling a sleep.

We made it!

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Posted by wendy | Posted in expat life | Posted on 25-04-2010

The journey was long but we made it!

It was nice to have a flight that leaves at 4:55pm and not at 8:00am that we usually book. We had time to do all the last minute thing we wanted to do. It was sad to drop off Oskar but he’s in good hands. I think he might have more fun with my friend Wendy than us. 😛 He knew exactly who they were and where their house is which is pretty funny.

The trip out of SFO was quite pleasant. It’s been a while since we flew Virgin Alantic and to Hethrow. The online flight entertainment is totally awesome.

Hethrow immigration was more strict than I remembered. Everyone in the queue got the 3rd degree from the immigration people. The Mr told the London immigration people that I was moving to Ireland with him and the lady at the desk took my passport and the marriage license. We told her what we needed to do but she said she had to call Dublin to confirm if it was cool with them. She also took copious notes on the little landing form I wrote. I guess now I have a record with UK immigration! I have never had my pasport detained by anyone before. It’s just a transit! it’s not like I am going to live in the UK. She end up giving me a month visa and told us that we need to go to the gardi station to get a proper visa. She was nice about it and all, but it seem a bit unnecessary.

As we were waiting, I was listening a conversaion next to us. The Immgration officer was asking a traveler why the UK company hired her (I think she’s from Canada) and why can’t they hire someone locally. I have never heard people being grilled on a connection flight!

Anyway, the immigration officer in Ireland was much nicer. After Mr explained to him what’s going to happen, he just gave me a 3 month stamp and gave us the instruction to the gardi office.
So now, I have 3 valid visa on my passport. One from March (expires in May), one for a month, and one for 3 month. There’s no way I am getting deported from this country I guess!!

The only think I kind of am concerend about is that each visa takes up a page on my passport. I am going to run out of space soon!! I guess that is better than being deported!

I dont’ care so much as the visas. Just dont’ want to run out of space! I just got this passport last August!

Anyway, toaday is a big day! We are getting the keys to the new house! So excitied!

Easter Dinner!

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Posted by wendy | Posted in blog, Cooking | Posted on 04-04-2010

For Easter, I’ve decided to make some Shrimp! So I looked around the internet and found Ina Garten’s Shrimp Cocktail recipe. It’s easy, fast and I have all the things I need (other than Shrimp of course!)

I love Ina Garten’s recipe! I made her lentil soup last week and it was a total hit. The only thing I don’t like is that everything out of the recipe book serves 6 to 10. When there’s only 2, you end up eating the same thing over and over again. But, it’s so good, I can eat it over and over again!

I couldn’t find Horse Radish at the store, so we substituted wasabi. I guess you can say we made this cocktail sauce with an Asian flair. Anyway, Mr said it taste fine and wasabi is in the horse radish family so I am sure it’s awesome.

Here’s the recipe!

Roasted Shrimp Cocktail

From Ina Garten

Ingredients

For the shrimp:

  • 2 pounds (12 to 15-count) shrimp
  • 1 tablespoon good olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce:

  • 1/2 cup chili sauce (recommended: Heinz)
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
  • 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (I used 2 squeezes of Wasabi)
  • 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Peel and devein the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Place them on a sheet pan with the olive oil, salt, and pepper and spread them in 1 layer. Roast for 8 to 10 minutes, just until pink and firm and cooked through. Set aside to cool.
  3. For the sauce, combine the chili sauce, ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Serve as a dip with the shrimp.

It’s awesome and easy!!

Blogging from my iPhone

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Posted by wendy | Posted in blog | Posted on 01-04-2010

Finally got the wordpress iPhone app to work!! Now I can geotag and blog on the run! *swoon*

Now I just need to get off the couch and go somewhere!

In the main time, check out a picture of Oskar’s new do!