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This one is mainly for TB!!

PS Sorry for lack of blog activity- work is frantic!!

Dinner & Danny Schmidt at Crusoe’s, Castlerock

I’ve just had a lovely weekend staying with my Aunt in Coleraine. I mean, it may be some time before my pickled liver recovers, but it was most definitely worth it!

I had been invited to go with my Aunt to Crusoe’s Cafe in Castlerock for dinner, with the added bonus of music in the form of Danny Schmidt.

Crusoe’s is a new place to me- but came very highly recommended. They are mainly a daytime destination, and I understand that they make the best cappucino in the world! They run special evening events from time to time, and this was one of those. They provide a gorgeous meal, wine and music. I gather that these evenings are heavily subscribed and eagerly awaited by the population of the North West!

My first impressions of Crusoe’s were of the warmth of the staff. You almost feel like you’ve arrived at a friend’s house for dinner, they are so welcoming. We were seated at a very pleasant table in the corner and brought some wine.

The room itself has a strong nautical theme, lots of great big windows and a very high beamed ceiling. The room is, however, dominated by the kitchen, which takes up a corner of the room and looks very homely. I really like the notion of being able to watch my food being prepared, and it says a lot about the team that work there that everything seems so calm, efficient and amazingly quiet in there!

Our starter was lovely- fresh, warm bread rolls served with little pots of seafood cocktail, foie gras and a gorgeous tapenade which had both black and green olives in it, as well as sun dried tomatoes. All of this was outstanding, especially the tapenade (which, by the way is something I’m quite fussy about, as it consists of all my favourite ingredients!), and I was excited to see what would come next!

I wasn’t disappointed. We were served with the most delectable venison pie, slowly braised with, I believe, chocolate and chilli in the sauce. I’d never have put chocolate in something like that, but am absolutely intrigued now because the sauce was absolutely out of this world. This was accompanied by perfectly cooked root vegetables and some tasty cauliflower cheese. It was seriously one of the nicest main courses I have had for a while, and I am, as you all know, not all that easy to please!

Pudding (though I was already struggling!!) was a cup of coffee flavoured caramel topped with chocolate sauce, not overpoweringly sweet, which was a good thing, and really delicious. It was served with homemade shortbread which I was devastated not to have enough room for! I should have asked for a doggie bag!

Just when we thought we’d burst, they then brought out a cheese board! They source their cheeses from the Fivemiletown Creamery and they were perfect, but I couldn’t possibly have finished! The cheese was served with delicious home made pickle.

I have to say it was one of the most yummy and satisfying meals I have had in a long time, plus mind blowingly good value for money. If you picked this place up and set it down in Belfast, the queues would be out the door and down the street. If you’re in the region, it’s most definitely worth a visit!

One of the things, however, that really made the evening, was the quality of the live acts who played. Both of them were quite a lot in evidence before they played and seemed like very cool and relaxed guys, so I was able to check if they minded me taking pictures of them for my blog. Kindly, they both agreed! I’m a terrible photographer as regular readers know, so I hope they won’t get too pissed off if they ever happen upon these! I was using Ricky’s camera and couldn’t work out the settings, so poor Al unfortunately got hit with the flash once before I managed to change the settings. Ironically, that was the only photo which really came out…

First up was Al Brition, who hails from Coventry in England. He had such a sweet, melodious voice that the whole audience was captivated by the end of the first few bars. Simple, soulful music that was perfect with the relaxed atmosphere. I very much enjoyed the subtlety of his guitar playing too. Really beautiful. Inexplicably, I can find no reference to him online at all, and I wonder if I have got the spelling of his name right. If anyone out there can correct me, please do so! He is definitely someone to watch!

Danny Schmidt, hailing from Austin, Texas, was the main act, and he took everyone’s breath away. It’s not just his gorgeous voice and guitar playing, but the lyrics of the songs too. I was particularly moved by his song “This too shall pass”, which he told us was about a time a few years ago when he’d been unwell, and a friend had made him a ring with those words enscribed. From listening to the lyrics of the song, I hope I’m not inferring incorrectly that he must have been suffering from a cancer of some kind back then. Obviously, having been going through my own battle recently, this really touched me and the words will resonate with me for a while to come. Haunting. Other songs had an irreverence which I think unfortunately may have been a little over the heads of some of those present, but I really enjoyed all of it. I will definitely be going to see him again next time he’s in Northern Ireland.

All of this added up to being a really special night out. The evening was £35 per head including wine- stupendously good value. Thanks so much to my aunt for inviting me, and to both Crusoe’s and the musicians for making it a truly memorable night.

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Ricky’s nursery school are having an “exotic fruit” day tomorrow, and they each have to bring in an exotic fruit to show the class.

I do believe Ian has outdone himself this time.

Who can tell me what this is?

I had no idea. I will reveal the answer, if noone gets it, tomorrow. Winner (if applicable) will win…nothing…well, kudos? Does that count? My unending respect for being so knowledgable about fruit and veg???

I am feeling sorry in advance for Little Jimmy Brown, whose parents will have forgotten, and who will be sent in with a mouldy apple which will be the only thing left in their fruit bowl…

PS- if this kind of fruit is really common in the States, I am going to be very crestfallen!!!!!

From the journey home…

I had a gorgeous weekend with my Aunt, and have a post ready to go for tomorrow about our evening out, which was fantastic! I just need to finalise a permission or two and it will be good to go!

I got a mixture of bus and train home today. I sat at the top of the double decker bus, and the view was wonderful though the day was cloudy. We were diverted up this little back road, though, and to say it was bumpy was the understatement of the year! That road was not designed to take a bus!!

The mountain you can see in the distance is Slemish, where St Patrick allegedly tended sheep in his formative years-

On the train, coming into Belfast- the Cave Hill is in the background (can you guess why it has it’s name? Someone must have spent YEARS naming that place. So original. )

Belfast is really a city on the up- as you can see from all the construction that’s taking place. The city is almost unrecognisable from fifteen or twenty years ago, when pretty much none of the buildings you can see here existed. Lagan Weir is in the foreground.

More building work! You can see the Albert Clock on the right hand side, which dominated the area when I was a child, and was a local hang out for hookers… It now looks so tiny, but it’s about the only non modern construction you can see, as it dates back to Victorian times and is named for Queen Victoria’s husband.

Could this post BE any more random?!

Better things to come during the week, I promise!

Another random post

I haven’t got anything of great importance to say today! So, here’s my random news. Nothing very major to report.

Robbie has his first girlfriend, at the tender age of not-quite-two. When I got to daycare yesterday to collect him, he was sitting on a bench with this little girl. They had a book on their knees, he had his arm around her and was singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to her whilst playing with her hair. What a ladies man!!

Ricky hasn’t been doing so well with being dry at night. The past two nights, he’s had an accident, and ended up in bed with me and Ian. With Ricky and our preternaturally large cat, Max, in between us, with their arms and legs spread out as far as possible, Ian and I have been perched on the outer limits of the bed, which is not conducive to a good night’s sleep. The random “knee in the kidneys” that Ricky seems so good at delivering isn’t helping either.

We didn’t expect him to get it right all the time, but he couldn’t WAIT to get into bed with us last night, and I worry a bit that it might become a habit, and that it might not be as big an accident as he’s letting on. He was totally dry for about two weeks before we went on holiday, and then ended up in our bed a few times when we were away. I wonder if he’s realised it’s warm and snug in between us…

We’re going to try lifting him out of bed and onto the potty before we got to bed in the evenings, and see if that helps. He’s been doing so well, and we never expected that he’d get it right all the time.

I’m going to stay with my Aunt in Coleraine tomorrow night (always a treat as you all know by now!!) and we’re going out to see Danny Schmidt at a place called Crusoe’s. I don’t know much about him, but gather he’s along a similar musical genre as Leonard Cohen, so it should be interesting.

Ian is being left home alone with the kids, but my brothers and Dad are taking them out in the afternoon. Ian claims that he will be using this time to make several runs to the dump with general gubbins from our garden, but personally I will eat my headscarf collection if this actually happens. It is much more likely that he’ll relax with the rugby, and do you know what, I won’t care at all. He needs some time off.

Finally, we had so much fun in Donegal that we’re going back up there next weekend for the May Day break. Traditionally, our May here in Northern Ireland tends to be the best weather we get all year. We all joke that our summer is the first two weeks in May, and then it’s back to porridge!! I hope the weather will be nice. I wasn’t expecting such lovely weather in April when we were up there last week, and hadn’t brought any swimming costumes. Then it was lovely and all we could do was paddle in the sea, to the kid’s disappointment. Of course, by bringing the costumes with us this time we will be guaranteeing bad weather, but that’s sod’s law for you!

I probably won’t be around much until Monday, when I hope to post pics of my evening out with my Aunt. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

When do memories start?

Memory is a funny thing.

It was occuring to me in the car this morning that Ricky (who is four) is probably now getting to the age where he’ll have concrete memories about his day to day life. I mean the kind of memories that he’ll still have when he’s my age.

My earliest memory dates back to the first house I lived in, so I must have been under two, as we moved around then. I remember being on the driveway, and falling over and hurting myself. My Mum was watching out of the window, and she came running. That’s all I remember!

I fell into the pond at that house when I was very little as well and nearly drowned. My Mum was putting up some washing on the line and didn’t hear a splash. This was, of course, back in the days when child safety wasn’t something everyone obsessed over like we do now (not that my Mum didn’t take great care of us- she did- it was an unfortunate accident)! Who had safety locks on everything back then?! Anyhow, I have a memory of that- but I am very unsure that it’s a real memory, it’s more of an image. I wonder if it’s genuine or something that my imagination has created because it has been mentioned over the years and my brain kind of thinks I ought to remember?

I think my first solid memories date to when I was around four. I have a memory of coming down the stairs in the house I grew up in, and seeing myself in a mirror which was on the turn of the stairs. I remember (with the lack of vanity that a child possesses) thinking how cool I looked, and then I thought, “In six years time, I’ll be TEN!!!”

Back then, being ten was a very big deal. It seemed like some kind of long term goal, to be worked towards and yearned for. I recall that, when we were children, we painstakingly worked out that we’d be in our twenties when the Millenium came, and that seemed impossibly old!

Dropping Ricky to nursery school, I thought back to my own memories of nursery, which I attended in Stranmillis. It actually surprised me how much I was able to remember.

I clearly remember an argument between me and my then best friend, Alexandra (Kingsbury, for old Methodonians!! ) involving some playdough. I remember making butter in a churn by all of us skimming the cream off the tops of our milk bottles every day- we took it in turns to shake the churn until after what seemed like 100 years, one day there was butter. I remember us all lying down on mats for our naps. I remember that they served up savoury mince on a Tuesday- and in my memory it tastes just like the innards of a Linda McCartney vegetarian mince pie!! I remember that they had three tricycles in the playground, and you had to queue up behind an egg timer to ride one of them. One of them was called The Bunny Bike, and the queue for it was always the longest. I remember the class going for a walk by the River Lagan which was nearby, and there being a poor drowned Golden Retriever on the shore, the image of which is still crystal clear in my mind. I remember learning to tie my shoelaces.

The reason I find this so remarkable is that, when I pick Ricky up in the evening, I always ask him how his day was (he always answers “fine”) and then I ask him what he did.

He never has the faintest idea.

I am driving like a ninny

Now, let me preface this by acknowledging that I am setting myself up for endless ridicule, particularly from my immediate family.

I normally think I am a pretty good driver. I mean, I know everyone thinks they’re a good driver, but I don’t drive like a complete lunatic and think I know the rules fairly well, and try to stick to them.

But, seriously. What is WRONG with me today!!!!

This morning, I dropped the kids off at daycare. The carpark there is a little bit blind to pull out of, but the blindness is to the left, no the right. As I turned left onto the road, this woman who I seriously hadn’t even realised was there at all had to veer onto the other side of the road to avoid me hitting her! I did look to the right before pulling out, and there were two cars coming towards me, a fair distance off and one was indicating to turn in before they got to me, so I went ahead.

It scared me, not so much because I had such a near miss, but because I REALLY didn’t have a clue she was there and I still can’t work out where she came from?! I must be losing my mind!

I just drove from work to the local Subway to get a sandwich for lunch, and the carpark there is very small, narrow, and populated by idiot drivers who dither and block your path. For those of you who know Belfast, it’s the one at the crossroads between the Knock Dual Carriageway and the Ballygowan Road/ Castlereagh Road.

Again, to quote my dear friend Heather, what was I thinking? I let someone out past me, and then nearly reversed into them. I must have missed them by millimetres. I then realised when in Subway that I had parked really badly too.

Two very near misses in one day- someone order me a taxi to take me home before I completely write myself off!!!

Dinner at The Mill, Dunfanaghy

I mentioned before we went on our break that Ian and I were being treated to a dinner at The Mill, Dunfanaghy, which has always been one of our very favourite places to eat. We haven’t managed to have dinner there for about five years now, what with the kids, so this was a massive treat!

The Mill is a fabulous Georgian building stunningly set at the edge of the New Lake just outside Dunfanaghy. The restaurant is magnificent, and if you’re really lucky, you can stay there too. I never have, but I hear that the rooms are amongst the best in Ireland.

Upon arrival, you are greeted by their lovely staff and invited to sit either in the conservatory or by a roaring open fire whilst you look at the menu. They bring you your drinks and a couple of delicious complimentary tasters to eat whilst you make your decision- we had rosemary bread served with mackerel pate, and melba toast served with crabmeat, both of which were gorgeous.

The menus strongly feature seafood and local organically reared beef and lamb. The lamb in particular comes from just a mile or so down the road on Horn Head, and I’ve been told people come again and again just to taste it! Seafood is also sourced from Donegal. The region is spoilt for choice in this area, as it has a very extensive sealine and a strong fishing community.

Once our order had been taken, we moved into the restaurant itself, and were delighted to be given a wonderful table right beside the window overlooking the lake. What a gorgeous view! It was a beautiful evening, and you could feel the tension drain away as you looked out.

I had really struggled with my choice of starter, as I was in the mood for seafood, and the mussels and clam starters sounded delicious. However I eventually went for a mixed seafood starter, which featured crab claw, plaice fillet and scallop, served with guacamole. This was gorgeous, beautifully presented and a perfect size for a starter. Ian chose duck confit, served with redcurrant, and it was melt in the mouth delicious. I pinched some of his and really enjoyed it- but there was no way he was getting any of mine!!

For my main course, I decided on an open seafood lasagne, which featured (amongst others) crab claws, clams, salmon, and plaice. When it arrived, I thought it looked a little bland, but the flavours were wonderful- very delicate and perfectly seasoned. The clams in particular were perfection. Ian had a lovely steak, which was deliciously tender and well cooked. The accompaniment of champ was gorgeous, I used some to mop up the last of the creamy sauce from my lasagne!

We both decided to go for the chocolate delight with marmalade ice cream for dessert. The chocolate delight was a light sponge around a melting chocolate middle- very rich and delicious. The ice cream had quite a lot of marmalade in it (well, duh!) and wasn’t quite as sweet or mild as I’d been expecting, but was lovely.

Coffee is then served in the conservatory overlooking the lake as the sun sets, and they bring you home made fudge and petit fours to eat whilst you drink your coffee (as if you needed anything else to eat after all of that!!).

This is not an inexpensive place to eat. The set three course menu is currently at 42.95 euro per person, but believe me, this is truly excellent value. The food is of the highest possible standard and you can really taste the care and dedication that has gone into not only the preparation of the food, but also the choosing of the ingredients.

Wonderful food, lovely service from friendly locals, and a truly beautiful restaurant. I can’t wait to return, in fact, if I had loads of money, I’d probably just move in!