25-01-2012

As you can guess from the title of this blog, we nailed it! The house that is. It was a long, hectic and fairly demanding – I honestly don’t think I have ever seen so many forms in my life! My hand is still aching from all the signatures! But it has all been worth it, as our dream home, is finally ours.



We only have a few more days in our apartment as we pack up and get ready to leave and we spent all weekend in the house building furniture and carting across the first boxes of our belongings. We have been quite organised, by our standards anyway, so we don’t have a huge amount left to do and we both have Friday off work to get everything wrapped up and dusted.



Apart from the stress of the actual move (who the hell knew we really had so much stuff packed into a two bedroom apartment?!) it’s all been very exciting. I still get giddy when we turn into our driveway and the realisation hits me that we actually own this place. I don’t think that will be wearing off anytime soon!

We plan to spend the weekend relaxing and getting used to our new abode and now that this huge thing in my life is now sorted, expect regular rambling and the likes to return to normal .





24-11-2011

A lot has been happening recently in my little world hence the lack of posts and regular updates on here.

The big news is that in a few weeks I will be starting a new job. It is something that I am really excited about with a company I really admire and I can't to get started. Don't get me wrong, I will be gutted when I leave my current place after almost 4 years and you can guarantee I will be the one blubbling on my last day, but the time has come to move on.

The interview process for my new job was pretty stressful and involved multiple interview stages and a presentation at the last hurdle so my time pretty much revolved around getting ready for that, thankfully it has paid off!!

The other big thing is that himself and I have been doing some heavy reseach into buying a house. We have reached the stage in our lives where we are fully committed to each other and to our future and having lived together for over two years this seems like a natural progression. Our initial research only confirmed to us that it was the perfect time to start considering buying a place of our own, based on mortgage rate it turns out we would be paying less into a mortgage than we currently do in rent, property prices are really low at the minute and while the might continue to fall, if we waited in the hope of a further drop the likely hood is what we would save on the final price is what we would pay in rent while waiting.

It was interesting sitting down with himself as we discussed what we both wanted out of a house. The big answer was a home. We want somewhere where we can settle down in and call it our own home, where we can have friends and family over for dinner and visits, where we can be comfortable and have enough space for all our stuff, a place we can put our own stamp on and a place we can, hopefully, one day raise a family.

There were a few other requirements we both had. Where I am from, while it is not necessarily the country it is the next best thing. I come from a small village and although I lived in a housing estate, it was fully of green areas and my back garden lead onto a field, followed by more fields and eventually a lake. I grew up in a place where everyone knew their neighbours and the local pub was really just that, your local. I miss that. Dublin is very different and I have loved living here and I know I will always need to be within commuting distance of a city given the work I do but I found myself having longings for some of the familiarity of home. So any kind of really built up area was a no go for me.

Himself being from just outside the city and working in IT wanted to make sure we were close enough to a city for work so anything away down in the back end of Wexford or Sligo was a no go. Remote countryside was also out as we had to be able to easily access transport to the city centre as he, after enduring the drive through Dublin rush hour traffic for a year too many, was dead set against taking the car to work every day.

A four bedroom property was also on the agenda for me as I want a room we can put aside as a guest room. I want family and friends especially those from home to feel they are more than welcome to stay with us, that they wouldn’t be getting in the way by kipping on the sofa. Some space they could call their own while staying with us. Given that we are hoping this will be our family home it was something I wanted on the agenda from the outset.

Himself was keen on getting somewhere with plenty of space and even if we did have four bedrooms that they wouldn’t be box rooms. He and I both have a lot of stuff and in particular we both have A LOT of books which we like to have out on book cases. With two overflowing book cases already we need somewhere that can comfortably hold all of this along with the standard household furniture.

I also wanted a big kitchen, as readers of this blog may know I love cooking and baking and while our kitchen in the apartment is by no means a box room, there is not a lot of bench space which I have found very limiting.

So armed with our checklist we went a-hunting, keeping our minds very open to places and spaces. After weeks and weeks of online searches, and site visits I think we have found somewhere. I don't want to say too much in case I jinx it but cross your fingers and toes that we will have some good news in a few weeks!!

So all in all it has been a busy 3 months or so for me which lead to me neglecting this blog as I was buried under with 'grown up' things. It's scary to think that I am at this point of my life when I still feel like I am 17 inside and at any minute now my mum is going to yell at me to get off the computer and go do some revision for school. :)





02-11-2011

Last week I celebrated my birthday with two whole days off work and a long weekend followed by the bank holiday Monday. Five days to do with as I pleased. Besides mourn getting older.

My birthday in itself was amazing (minus the getting older part) himself well and truely went above and beyond when it came to spoiling me. I was woken by a lovely home made breakfast in bed consisting of homemade pancakes complete with edible candle and all!! Followed by being showered (obviously not literally speaking) with gifts including some brand spanking new GHDs, a purdy little charm for my charm bracelet and a book with my favourite poem in it with the most beatifuly dedication on the inside cover. Not to mention the lovely card which give me ego quite the boosting.

The day was spent being lazy and enjoying a lunch out in our local village before heading off to vote (no rest for democracy even on my birthday) before we wrapped up the evening with a beautiful meal in town and some drinks and quality time with himself.

All in all not too shabby.

The next day my sister and her better halfed popped down and we spent the evening playing games and chatting before rising early on Sunday to get the decorating started for the Halloween / birthday party in our apartment.

I won't lie, we may have gone a bit OTT on the decorations and converted our living room / kitchen and dining area into something that would not have looked out of place in a horror movie. But it was all in the name of a damn good fancy dress party.

People came the costumes were amazing and the craic was great. It was such a good night I think it took me the full following two days to recover.

Then again who doesnt love a good Halloween party?



19-09-2011

Back from a break in Italy and to say it was amazing is falling below par in terms of describing how fantastic this holiday was. We went to the beautiful city of Venice for five days and we managed to pack as much as possible into our time spent there.

I have never been to Venice but I am sure many people like myself have seen the city feature in films, stunning pictures and romantic stories, so I had an idea in my head of what to expect. I wasn't even close. The real thing far outshone anything my imagination could conjure up. It was simply magical. Everything from the countless narrow winding streets to the intricate canal system, the old style buildings to the perfectly driven boats it was all amazing. We travelled the city on a gondola on our final night and our gondolier summed it up best by describing the city as a museum in itself. Hours could so easily slip by just walking through the streets and taking in everything.

We did a good bit of the 'tourist' things, we checked out St Marks Square and fed the birds, which was unbelievably surreal, standing in the middle of a huge square in the scorching sun surrounded by birds who are convinced you make a good perch. We got to visit the Basilica and go to the highest point of the city for some views, which was an experience in itself in that for a city that has hundreds of canals, you cannot see any from it's highest point. We stood and took snaps on and under Rialto Bridge, we saw the Bridge of Sighs and the prisons by it.

We did some 'us' things, like find the only place in Italy that makes praline ice cream (himself is a HUGE fan of praline) and we popped along to a unique wine bar in the city that has the most wines from that region to sample some of their offerings (for any other wine lovers out there it's Al Volto and make sure to have a glass of their house prosecco!!), and we sampled as much Italian food as our poor stomachs could handle. Boy to the Italians know how to cook!!

We spent hours walking the streets and checking out all the shops and stalls, we must have tried on a million Venetian masks and even got a lesson in making them from a very nice man on our last night. As I mentioned we also got a gondola ride on our last night before heading for a meal in a restaurant along the canal. I don't consider myself a hugely soppy person but that was one of the most romantic things. Yes, I know it's so clichéd and everyone does it but Venice at night by gondola is something I think everyone should experience sometime in their life. It was breath taking.

I could go on and on but my words would never do the trip justice so before showing some snaps I will offer some brief but wise advice for anyone thinking of paying this beautiful place a visit:

Bring flat and comfortable shoes - the city has no cars (read no taxis) and unless you plan on forking out £100 on a gondola more than once then walking is your best bet for getting around

Water taxis / buses are not gondolas - there is a reason they only cost £6 and most of the time it's actually quicker to walk from one end of the city to the other rather than waiting to get on a boat which stops every 100 yards along the canal

The Bridge of Sighs is sinking - and so the majority of it is under cover while it goes under extensive renovation. You can still see the main part but if you make the trip to see the bridge be prepared, it's going to be pretty wrapped up for another little while

Venice is expensive - there is no way around it. It has a reputation for being one of the most expensive cities in Europe and boy does it live up to that reputation. If you are planning on doing the city on a budget it's possible as long as you stay of the tourist track when it comes to food and drink. Souvenirs are pricy and cheap Venetian masks are usually fake plastic ones. It doesn't have to break the bank but a word of advice if you want to do the big tourist things then go with plenty of spending money. Gondolas are expensive and unlike in the movies they cannot be haggled on price. Most museums and places with admission charge £8 in and almost ALL the restaurants in the main tourist areas include a cover charge and a service charge in their bill

There is better food off the beaten track - we ate in a restaurant along the canal on our final night and it was by far the most expensive meal we had while we were there and it wasn't the best quality. We found that places off the beaten track were more reasonable the both the food and wine were outstanding. It's worth it for a better meal to go for a bit of a walk

Wine is cheaper than soft drinks - himself doesn’t drink and I love wine so this was something we found quite funny

Romance is in the air - it's a city that is famed for romance and given that there are no nightclubs and the majority of bars and restaurants close at around 12.30am it is more suited to a couples holiday rather than say a lads getaway

Never leave without a map - Getting from 'A' to 'B' might seem really simple when you know that 'B' is directly across the city from 'A' but when you have lots of canals running through that route and bridges are only dotted around it takes a little more planning and negotiating that most cities

The best bit of advice I can give though is go. It is a city that is astounding and if you have a chance to see it you should get your ass there and not miss one minute of it! I know that's what I did :)