Wendy’s Blog

I hate to admit this but being a Lady of Leisure is kind of dull. There’s a Malahide Ladies Club but they don’t have a website and I have no idea where they meet.

So I decided to strike out on my own and do a little of Dublin tour by DART. Once a week, weather permitting, I’ll take the DART to a station and walk around the station and see the sights. One thing I noticed about these stations is that at each station there’s a little sign that says 15 min to blah, 10 min to blah, so this should be fun.

So today, I am starting with the Malahide Station. Why you ask? Because this is where I live and I am too lazy to hop on the DART today. The weather is pretty overcast today so this is what you all get today!

The Malahide Station was built in 1844. That’s pretty darn old! The top of each station column has these decorative writing. Mr says it has something to do with the Royal Family. I don’t know, I can’t read it. If you can let me know what you think it says.

The station also has a waiting room. I took a peek inside, it looked like it once had a working fireplace in it! But I didn’t take a picture. Next time I go there I’ll fill it in here.

Malahide is a nice working village. I took some photos but I can’t seem to find them. It’s got a butcher, few grocery stores, clothing stores, etc. Of course there are lots of pubs as well. In addition, the people of Malahide must really like Chinese food here because I counted 4 Chinese restaurants!

The main attraction here would be the Malahide Castle. I have not been there for many many years now. I probably will hit the castle when my brother comes here for a visit in a few weeks. The land around here used to all own by the castle dude. We saw a fantastic apartment next to the castle grounds, but it was not meant to be because Mr didn’t want apartment living. (It WAS nice though.)

One thing that’s a bit scary here is the lack of parking space. Case in point, the following picture shows a car in the correct parking space. But like it’s in the middle of the street!

By the way that’s not a one way street!

The drivers here are like nutty too. This morning I almost got ran over by a old dude driving an SUV. He was making a turn and didn’t use his indicator and maybe I am invisible here or whatever he just like ran through in front of me. If I get hit I would get money, but seeing I don’t have health insurance right now, getting hit is probably a bad idea. And plus if I get hit I won’t be able to get on this little DART adventure. So I think I did the right thing by not getting hit.

It’s the little things in life!

Today I decided to go solo to the city centre. I did all my research, figured out which station to get off (Tara Station) and the directions from Google Maps. I was all proud of myself because it’s my first solo trip in the big city! Well, that’s quite true, when I worked here for a few weeks back in the early 2000 I had a lot of fun exploring the city by myself. But that was different, I was here for work and when I say explore I mean walking 5 minute from my hotel to the O2 Irish office. Those were fun and crazy times!

I got off the Tara Station and the Mr (he was there to meet his brother for lunch) pointed out where south is and off I go. I never understood why directions say south, north, or whatever. What happened to good old turn left on the street. How does one know where south is? At least you will always know where left is because you can always look at your left hand!

Anyway, the journey started out pretty badly. I went the wrong way, though it was south it was south on the wrong street. I was able to correct myself and find the right streets.

Dublin should coin itself as where the street have no sign because the street signs are pretty scarce. I guess it’s the American in me where every street corner has a sign that tells you ‘hey you are here!’ like the giant red X on a treasure map.

I was able to successfully navigated myself to the 3rd street (College Street), and I was able to go no further. The street just ends, there is College Greens Street, but no Sutton Street (the 4th Street). I know I could have asked someone, but what fun would that be? That would be admitting that I have failed! I will not let Dublin be my Waterloo!

After a few hours (it seems like a few hours it’s probably like only 40 min or so) I waved my little white flag in defeat and pray that I still remember how to get back to the station.

The lack of street signs threw me off once again, I went in to the wrong entrance. It seem like a legit entrance because it said ‘Entrance to Tara Station.’ But it also said it was closed at certain times, and it should have been open! I read another sign and it said to go to Charles Quay Entrance but it doesn’t tell you how to get there. After some trial and error I found the station and got on the train and headed out of the city centre! I end up taking the train until the end of the line and came back just to see what’s out there.

You might think from reading all that I had a horrible day, but I really enjoyed my day. It was nice to get out of the house and look at the people. Dublin has gotten very diverse since I was first here in 1999. You hear all different type of accent and language being spoken or maybe I still can’t Irish accents.

Anyway, best thing heard on the train today:
High School Girl 1 : .. like War of the Worlds.
High School Girl 2 : What’s that?
High School Girl 1 : You know, the Tom Cruise movie.

Orson Welles probably is rolling in his grave.

Last night as I was browsing through my cookbook (awesome bedtime reading!) I found a recipe for granola. We have been buying muesli for a while and it’s so yummy and look kind of like granola.

Anyway, this morning we walked down to the Londis and got all the ingredients.

Shopping in a foreign grocery store is a treat. Everything is just a little bit different but the same a the same time. They also have exotic items like sultana aka grapes.

Part of the recipe called for rolled oats. I looked at all the oats (and there are so many different brand and kind of oats.) and had no idea which one is roll oats. I mean everything there says it’s oatmeal. So I end up picking some organic none quick oats (but it did say you can make it in oatmeal in the microwave with it) and hope for the best.

When we got home I read the back of the package and it had instruction for making home made museli. So I guess I got the right one! YAY!

Anyway, making granola is surprising easy. This is what you need:

• 4 cups of Rolled Oats
• 1 cup of Flaked Almonds (for you Americans it’s Sliced Almonds)
• 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup of good honey

Pre heat oven to 175 C (for you Americans that’s 350 F)

Mix the Rolled Oats with flaked almonds and sit aside. Whisk the vegetable oil and 1/2 cup of honey together. Pour into the oats mixture and make sure to coat all the oats. Put it in a baking dish and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Make sure to stir it every now and then in the oven.

Take it out of the oven and let it cool. Make sure to stir it other wise you will end up with granola bar. (Happened to my first more brown than golden batch!)

You will end up with something like this:

After all that you can mix it with whatever dry fruit and nuts you want. I end up getting some dry figs, dry apricots, and raisins.

And say SUCCESS!

We are leaving tonight to Milan and train it to Turin tomorrow to see the Holy Shroud!

Regardless of people’s opinion of authenticity, it is still a piece of great history. It also are not out on display very often. So when I heard it finally came out on display last winter I had to make reservations to go see it! You only get 15 minute to look at the Shroud so I am hoping we don’t miss it!

Booking holiday on line in Ireland is n very difference experience for me. I don’t have a list of my normal on line booking agencies I can use so I have to do some research. I also am bad at geography and don’t know much about European airports and streets. Makes booking the holiday just a bit harder but learning a lot as well. New experiences!

We opted to fly to Milan and use Milan as a ‘home base.’ We’ll train it to Turin on Saturday and spend Saturday there looking at the sights. But the rest of the trip we will be in Milan. I have never train it in Europe before so it should be a treat!