Toilets in Dublin-issue 1

Ha ha ha, this subject is a standing joke in my family. My mum says my dad should write a book about all the public toilets in England cos he's sure to have visited them all! Jokes aside, how often are you dying for the loo when you're shopping in town and there seem to be no list in circulation so I'm gonna start one!! I've called this "Toilets in Dublin-issue 1" so that I can add to it as I find them!

So for starters, off the top of my head here's the first few, and most of them are in department stores.
 
1. Boyers  22 North Earl Street, D1 - on the mezzanine floor through the linen section to the rear.
2. Clerys 18 Upper O'Connell Street, D1 - 1st floor to right by tea room
3. Arnotts 12 Henry Street, D1 - 1st floor to right of escalator next to cafe
4. Marks and Spencer 24 Henry Street, D1 - on the top floor (?)
5.Connolly station- large number to right of ticket barriers or in bar to left

Over the river
5. Brown Thomas Grafton Street - lovely bathroom, next to cafe on 2nd floor(?)
6. Marks and Spencer Grafton Street -through homewares
7. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre
8.Pearse Street Station- on southbound platform

 Toilet in Bar Pintxo in Temple Bar- guess you can't just wander in only to use it but it surely deserves the title of the "throne"!

I'll tackle hotels, bars, galleries etc later as some of them need a certain amount of  "I'm walking in here and I know where I'm going" attitude to avoid the "toilets only for customers" comment.

Canvas Works

My daughter found this great website yesterday  http://thecanvasworks.ie/ . They put prints on canvas and sell ready made ones for a very good price, plus delivery is free in Ireland. In particular I liked this one called the 'Merlot Blur' which is only €34.99.

Cup-a-soup cooking

My son arrived in from college this afternoon with five free sachets of Knorr Quick soup that were handed out to the students. Perfect instant student food, I told him to have them when he was studying.
Meanwhile I started cooking the dinner, mince and sliced potato bake for us and vegetable layer gratin for my veggie daughter.  Aah, I thought as I started to brown the mince, why not use the soup instead of a stock cube plus flour? and for the veg dish, why not mix the powder with some cream cheese and pour over instead of veg stock. It was all delicious.

The mince bake is just literally browned mince, a sachet of oxtail soup sprinkled over then a cup of water to make a gravy. Butter the dish then spread out a layer of thin sliced potatoes, top with half the meat mix, repeat then finish with a thin layer of butter to cover the meat. Dot with butter and season, pour in enough water to come to just beneath the top layer of potato. Bake covered for about an hour at 200 degrees/gas 6.

 
The vegetable gratin is very similar. Butter a gratin dish and layer vegetables of your choice. I used potato, carrot, parsnip, sliced pak choi, sliced celery, chopped parsley then finished with a final layer of potato. Blend the sachet of cup-a-soup with a tablespoon of cream cheese, thin with water and pour over, enough liquid to come just below the top layer of potato. Top with  a thin layer of mixed breadcrumbs and grated cheese. Bake about 1 hour 200 degrees/gas 6.

New book pile from the library

Just back from my second home, the local library. Of course they never have the books that I want to read but I order them online and they arrive pretty quickly. Today I have left with four books; The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers, The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed, What We Talk About When we Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander and Dead Men Risen by Toby Harnden.

 

The first one The Testament of Jessie Lamb the back cover blurb runs (and how else are we supposed to judge it-my daughter swears by opening a random page and if she wants to read on she'll buy it), "Women are dying in their millions. Some blame scientists, some see the hand of God, some see human arrogance reaping the punishment it deserves. Jessie Lamb is an ordinary girl living in extraordinary times: as her world collapses, her idealism and courage drive her towars the ultimate act of heroism. If the human race is to survive it's up to her". Sound interesting huh?

 

The Collaborator is set in early 1990s Kashmir where "...war has finally reached the isolated village of Nowgam, close to the Pakistan border. Indian soldiers appear as if from nowhere to hunt for militants on the run.Four teenage boys, who used to spend their afternoons playing cricket or singing Bollywood ballads down by the river, have disappeared, one by one, to cross into Pakistan and join the movement aginst the Indian army. Only one...is left". It's a first novel for Waheed and sounds like a good story.

 

The short story collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank has a really funky front cover ("never judge a book by its cover" you say). With obvious homage to Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Nathan Englander is highly acclaimed as a writer in America. The stories here are where "deep tragedy will rub shoulders with dark comedy. relationships will be brought to the brink, and choices made that change fates and lives for ever. There will be vengeance and violence, coming of age and coming to terms". Although not a great fan of short story collections, perversly, I am a great fan of the late great Raymond Carver so Englander has a lot to come up to to meet his standard. We'll see!

   

The final book Dead Men Risen by Toby Harnden is a bit of a risk for me. It sounded so interesting but is a monster of a book. It won the Orwell Prize and the author is a foreign correspondent, and I thought I'd give it a go. It is the story of the Welsh Guards in Afghanistan in 2009. "Underequipped and overstretched, guardsmen...found themselves in some of the most intense fighting by British troops for more than a generation. They were confronted by a Taliban enemy they seldom saw, facing the constant threat of Improvised Explosive Devices and ambush. Leading them into battle was Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe...(he) was dismayed dismayed by how it was being conducted".
Harnden conducted over 300 interviews to research this book and it sounds fascinating. I wouldn't usually be overly interested about reading non-fiction on war but willgive this a good go.

BBC International Short Story Award 2012

The BBc International Short Story Award, made international this year in honour of the 2012 Olympics being hosted in London, has been awarded to the Bulgarian author Miroslav Penkov.


www.bbc.co.uk tells us about his book East of the West ; "Set in Bulgaria during and after the Cold War, East of the West explores the difficulties of love, relationships and identity in a region ridden with conflict and sectarian violence. The narrator takes us from his childhood through to present day, ruminating on the loves and losses which both constrain and define his life".

Homeland Series 2

So, the first episode of the second series of Homeland aired last night on RTE 2 at 9pm and it was gripping- I have a new tv addiction to follow, yippee! It's definitely worth watching if you were a 24 fan. http://www.rte.ie/drama/tv/featured/homeland/episodes.html

Best doughnuts in Dublin?

I'd like to nominate TeaTime Express on Talbot Street, Dublin 1 as the location of the best jam doughnuts in Dublin. Often sold out at lunchtime, they are four for €2.40 and in my house they are required bring-home items after a morning in Dublin.