I'm still feeling nice n warm n fuzzy after watching so much of the coverage of Queen Elizabeth's trip to Ireland. I don't care who knows it, I think the Queen is all right. I think that for somebody who was thrust into a life nobody would choose, she's come out of it the other side with good grace. And a terrific line in hats. I'm not all that keen on the concept of royalty: it seems fundamentally ridiculous that somebody - anybody - should retain a job just because who their parents are. But, from what I can see, she doesn't make a habit of weighing into her government's business and seems quite content to promote her country, and the welfare of her people. Now, the physical area over which she has dominion, and the fact that her police and army have jurisdiction over a corner of this island, I find a little more troubling - but not enough to take a day off work, go into town and protest over it.
But I'd probably have a little more respect for the protesters if they, yanow, had a little integrity. Or consistency. Or wore something other than a football club replica strip which is lining the pockets of commercial interests on the same side of the Irish Sea as their professed enemy. Yanow, like...

The beef curry was... okay actually. Quite bland but very more-ish. I quite like the idea of throwing everything into a pot and walking away, freeing up your time to make your flat presentable, so the slow cooker will be getting an outing again before too long.
Yesterday turned into the very worst of non-days. Just about managed to read the papers, got no housework done, none of the small, not very onerous chores. Then at 11pm, I got an attack of the shouldas and stayed up until 3am trying to make the day worthwhile, which it was, if you count trolling on boards.ie.
Still. If my weekend was a little uninspiring, at least it wasn't disastrously seedy, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn's. The disgusting toe-rag. Obviously, I can't assume he's guilty of a sexual assault or attempted rape but it seems pretty clear that he has a knack for leaving hotel rooms in haste and hotfooting it to the First Class Lounge at JFK without bothering to bring his mobile phone with him.
Now it appears that he has enjoyed a reputation within France as a roué with an appreciative eye for women.
Christ. From Berlusconi to DSK, why do we think it's acceptable for decrepit older men to - haw, haw, haw - think they have a chance with beautiful younger women. Why don't we just label these superannuated would-be seducers for the DOM that they are.
And, M Strauss-Kahn: next time, remember that it's Ireland you're meant to be trying to screw...

Note to self: if you are going to be organised enough to prepare a curry to decant into the slow cooker before leaving for work, at least make sure you know how the timer functions... It may save you returning home and finding a pot of uncooked Malaysian beef curry sitting lumpenly and coldly beside the takeaway menus...
In fairness, I wasn't too hard-up. I'd taken the precaution of swinging by the local Bombay Pantry and picking up 2 starters along with a portion of rice (Very naughty, I know, but it came to a not exorbitant €5.50 - on Eurovision night, people!) before popping into Superquinn to buy some fruit.
So although the Malaysian curry had to wait (until today: I can smell it now!), I had a *feast* of a pear starter, bhaji and samosa main course, and yummy Lily O'Brien chocolate (a present from Sergei) for dessert.
I'll get back to you on whether the beef curry was a success. Cos I've to go and weep for Jedward and the €2m they've managed to earn by not winning X Factor or the Eurovision...

I *guess* today would be a good day to wrap presents and write Christmas cards... It's definitely a day for doing things around the house. Finally finished off a tiresome work chore - and even nipped into town last night to see a play and have a drink. Yay! In fairness, I was very pleased with myself: back home, I had a ham simmering gently away in a broth of Coca-Cola! Had picked up the ham in Dunnes yesterday for €6, and when I got it home, I thought: it's now or never. You see, Nigella Lawson includes the recipe in her book, How To Eat, but I've always been too uneasy at the thought of placing good, wholesome, expensive (!) meat into a concoction that is cheap and artificial-looking. So I was quite giddy last night. And today, it's still standing in its cooking liquor, looking very sorry for itself. The next step is to make and apply the glaze, and then stick it in the oven. Before then, I must decide whether I'll reheat the cut of meat fully, or throw on the glaze, bung it in the oven and hope I don't catch food poisoning from half-reheating meat. Blegh. I'll let you know how I get on.
To serve with the ham, I have some Brussels sprouts (75c), tomatoes (€1.50 for 6) and a red onion (50c) with which I'm hoping to make a nice dish by Cafe Paradiso's Denis Cotter...
Not too shabby for a Thursday night dinner...

God, it's so warm and cosy in here... I've armed myself with the papers, got lots of provisions, so should be able to hunker down here until the morning. I work Saturdays and, given that the snow wasn't going anywhere, decided to leave the car at home yesterday. Getting to work wasn't so bad, but leaving the office and getting home at a not-very-late-at-all 8.15pm was horrific. Ended up abandoning wait for the train and getting a taxi home from the city centre after I panicked and started believing that the bus service had been halted. The only redeeming feature of the whole saga was the lovely veggie curry waiting for me at home. It was Friday, in the end, before I made it, so it had taken on all the gorgeous flavours of the charred aubergine and the cardamon by the time I sat down to eat it last night. The perfect end to a hellish day...
(pic thanks to infomatique via ipernity.com)

Well, it's chaotic out there - anywhere beyond my front door, they tell me. Buses running intermittently, trains under pressure, feral kids roaming the streets looking for thirtysomething women to pelt with snowballs... Grr... Dublin is definitely experiencing An Event. My secret addiction, discussion forum boards.ie, is chock-full of up-to-the-second weather reports (including my own for my own corner of the northern suburbs), and it's simply impossible not to feel like you are in a disaster movie of some sort.
All this cold weather has at least one unintended boost: it's impossible to spend money! Mounted an expedition to the supermarket yesterday and stocked up on provisions. Had modest scrambled egg/veg sausage/beans feast yesterday; and today, I've just stood up from a lovely butternut squash soup. Now all I have to do is finish an article I'm writing, and make the veg curry I've got lined up for myself. Simples...

Snow! Or a modest scraping of it, at any rate. Other parts of Dublin are, if facebook/twitter are to be believed, suffering sub-Siberian conditions. I'm lucky. I'm off work today, and got no place to go, no appointments to keep.
But after being hit with a €750 repair bill for my car, and a fairly lavish few days with my family in Galway, I'm definitely stony. And spotty.
So between the weather and my finances, finally cleaning my flat and cooking something substantial for myself (not just surviving on the cut-price M&S ready meals I happened upon on Sunday) is a must... I can do this