Cinnamon patrol

I don't think anything in photography compares to seeing brand new medium-format slides on a light table. Especially when it's velvia and the colours are popping. And especially when you've used beautiful sharp optics and you can see amazing tiny detail under the loupe.

So it was yesterday when I picked up the two rolls I shot on our holiday with the Morrises. We saw Dublin (from the inside mostly), Cork, Kinsale, Kenmare, the two rings, Portmagee, Caherciveen, Gap of Dunloe, Killarney, Kilkenny and for the kids - Hell Pizza. Quite a ride - and we're still recovering.

I'm really pleased with the first two shots here: The first is of a stone fort in Caherciveen and the second is the Gap of Dunloe (which is a beautiful place). This is a different kind of photography. It's the wait-for-the-light-to-be nice, or just hope-it-is-because-im-impatient kind. There's not much composing or fusing. And it helps I only have the one lens on the Contax and it's a prime, so there's no zooming or lens changing.

a long night
scanning finally completed
i make breakfast

Labels: david, Family, photos, Travelling

It's been ages since I've posted, and even longer still since there's been any knitting content!

To remedy that, here are a few of my more recent FOs:

Debbie Bliss cabled jacket
My cabled jacket is, in fact, a cardigan. It's lovely and warm, which is ideal for the chilly Irish climate. I used Bendigo Woollen Mills' 12-ply Rustic, which gives great stitch definition, and stands up well to cabling.

Unfortunately, the metal buttons I chose were too heavy, and I've yet to find good plastic replacements, so for now it's buttonless, done up with a kilt pin instead. Ravellers, the details are here.




















Mulberry Bush capelet for Emma
One of my best models, Emma, received this lovely (even if I do say so myself) capelet as an early 3rd birthday treat when we visited her in NZ. Breaking away from the machine-washable yarns she's used to, I treated Emma to a merino/cashmere mix, with mother-of-pearl buttons. After all, she's a young lady now! Ravelry details here.




Emilie's first birthday dress
My other beautiful model, Emilie, received an "Angel dress" in a 4-ply mercerised cotton for her first birthday. She was too busy opening presents to really model it for us, but you get the general idea. (Ravelry link here.)

Up next? A gazillion baby garments for the gazillions of babies due (I love them all individually, but seriously, there are a LOT of babies expected by the people in my life!), and Mum's belated Xmas present, which she knows is dark purple and contains cashmere, but is otherwise a mystery...

Labels: Family, Friends, Knitting, Laura

I've just been taking a break from blogging.

I had a lot more to say when we started Cinnamon Patrol... wait, I still have lots to say. I guess the difference is that now, I say it to people I know in person, or via email. And between work, travel and knitting, things have been fairly busy.

David's done a good job of keeping you up to date with the travelling part of our lives, so there's no need for me to recap.

Family-wise, it's been a bit up and down this year. I have a new niece, who is super-cute and has great big chops (just like her dad did), which is great. Less great was my maternal grandmother dying, even though she was ready to. I managed to make it for the funeral week in Florida, where I caught up with relatives I hadn't seen in a very long time, plus my parents. Oh, and I warmed up after a very cold & wet year in Ireland. (And I discovered the delight that is Wildly Cherry M&Ms... The subject of yet another post perhaps.)

On the work front, I'm working hard. The job is a juicy one, and the colleagues are generally great, as are the bosses. However, the distance & time zone issues are definitely wearing me down. I visited the office in Vancovuer in May this year, and am negotiating hard for a second trip every year. I'm a one-woman band on the marketing front for 2 companies, which is fun but also keeps me pretty busy.

On the knitting front, I've managed some baby-related items, socks for David, and a few as-yet-unfinished items for myself. I've mad a conscious effort not to buy any yarn this year unless I really love it and have a project in mind - mostly because my yarn boxes are very full already. I discovered that one of my colleagues not only knits, but also dyes yarns (check her amazing yarn out here), and have converted a friend in Dublin to knitting, thanks in part to her boyfriend living far away, and a small medical incident (hers, not mine, and she's fine).

Otherwise, I've been reading a lot - whatever I can get my hands on, including a few disappointing reads (to be discussed later), cooking a bit (we *can* survive on M&S alone, but it is not necessarily good for the planet or our budget), and hanging.

My most exciting news is that I am experimenting with some plants and have created my own little inner-city (ok, well, Smithfield-centric) very-smallholding. I bought organic cherry tomato, aubergine (eggplant) and capsicum (bell pepper) plants, and while there were some initial... teething issues (mites! whitefly! spidermites! oh my!), we seem to be on the right track now. The aubergine and capsicum, victims to the above-mentioned nasties, were doused in bug killer, and as such are no longer organic. They live outside, are largely neglected, and seem to be thriving nonetheless.

My cherry tomato plant though... Ahhh George. George was spared the mites-and-bugs, and thus remains blissfully organic. He gets a lot of love and attention - daily spritzing with water, encouraging chat about how clever and strong and tall he is - and is now over 5ft 2in as a result. (I know this because he is taller than me now.) And in spite of a decided lack of flies or bees to pollinate the flowers, yesterday I discovered six (!!!!) baby tomatoes on him. They'll be horrendously late-season, but organic cherry tomatoes nonetheless.

And last, but decidedly not least, I find myself on the cusp of turning 30. In response, I've made a concerted effort to try to eat more healthily (though there are other reasons for that too, which I'll blog about later), and started to go to the gym (several posts' worth all on their own). I've also expressed interest in expensive antique jewellery (hi, David!), which is decidedly less painful and boring than the gym and eating lots of veggies.

While David seems to have settled into 30 fairly easily after a brief panic, I haven't started panicking yet, so I suspect I'll be doing that after the fact. Cross your fingers that I'll be too lazy to bother. I still haven't figured out how I'd like to mark my 30th - any and all suggestions for appropriate ways of marking my passage into moderate-amounts-of-adult-like-behaviour are welcome - please leave a comment!

And with that - which is much longer than intended, and IMHO more than makes up for my months of not-blogging, I'll leave you to it.

Labels: Dublin, Family, Knitting, Laura, Stuff

As of today, I am the owner of a brand-new little niece! Congratulations Mark & Reiko!

(No name yet, so I'm calling her little Laura. I bet they'll name her real soon now.)

She was a wee bit earlier than expected, so none of her knitted welcome gifts are quite finished. I'm off to sort that out now.

Labels: Family, Laura

Lots to say about Vienna - I intend to write more soon.

It was a very successful trip in that we did everything we set out to do (and more).

For now some photos (large slideshow is best):

Labels: david, Family, Travelling

I'm on a bit of a genealogy buzz at the moment.

On Saturday (very early) we are off to Vienna. Somehow I've tracked down a man who is the chairman of a "society for commemoration of the expelled and murdered Austrian Jews" called Lead Niskor. He is based in the town of Laa an der Thaya which is near Mistelbach.

He is pretty much an expert on the Jewish families that used to live in the area. He is going to meet us and take us to the cemetary in Mistelbach where we can visit my great great grandparent's graves. He's also told me about the graves of my step-great grandfather's family - actually he is very good friends with a man who is related to that part of my family. In terms of finding a personal connection to someone living in the area, I hit the jackpot (sadly there is only one Jewish family living in that area now, and they are on holiday!).

So I've been building up a family tree of that part of the family on Geni and I was just about to finish up for the night when I discovered an "ancestors" page that listed all my direct ancestors. In order. So that's how I discovered a man who went by the name Itchke Nurick, and his wife Lea Nurick. They are my great great great great great (that's 5 greats!) grandparents.

I kid you not.

Labels: david, Family

Today we rediscovered where my maternal Grandma and her brother were born in Austria - Mistelbach!

Look at the map - it's so close to the Czech Republic (to the north) and Slovakia to the east. It's about 40kms from Vienna on the main route to Brno in the Czech Republic.

We have the address of what once was the family shoe factory. Looking at it on Google Earth it seems to be on the main street in town - and most of it seems to be a carpark now. 20 years ago it was a supermarket. I'm not sure what we'll find.

We also have details of the cemetery where my great grandparents are buried. It's in Mistelbach, on the outskirts of town. I can't believe we'll be there in a few weeks.

Labels: david, Family, Travelling

Ah, what a weekend!

What a lovely, long weekend (hence the "extended" in title) - a 3-day bank holiday weekend, to be precise.

On Friday night we made the acquaintance of a Moldovan security guard at our building complex. He was tall, blonde and handsome (if you go for boys with hair, that is), spoke beautiful English, and a number of other languages besides. Then we went to our local supermarket and tried some vegetarian Linda McCartney prepared meals. Interesting, and the only vegetarian prepared meals - apart from a cheese pizza. I wouldn't go out of my way to have them again, but apparently it's better than a toasted cheese sandwich.

Saturday dawned bright and clear... and stayed that way for a long time. I had some of the local Dublin Stitch n Bitchers over, since the cafe we go to was closed for the weekend. We sat on the roof terrace admiring the view and stuffing ourselves with delicious food. My simple - but successful - contribution was scones made with cream and 7-Up. Sounds gross, I know, but they were pronounced lovely and light by all who ate them. Here's the recipe - it's dead easy, no rubbing in butter (yuck).

I loved having people over, and the SnBers were - as usual - loads of fun and no trouble at all. I'm definitely going to invite them back if we're venueless again.

On Sunday - aka my actual birthday - I managed to sleep in a bit later than our usual 8am (the sun is very bright at the moment - roll on winter and darker mornings!). We Skyped with my parents, which was **very** entertaining. If you know my mum (Hi Mum!), ask her about her "lap dance without a lap". Then ask for a demo. (It's ok, it's G-rated, but it's still very, very funny.)

I also opened my presents from David. As usual, he bought me lots of lovely, thoughtful and useful gifts, including (but not limited to) some very fancy hair straighteners I'd been coveting.

(I know, I seldom look like I do my hair, but I do actually do it! And once my hair dryer from NZ arrives, I will be able to dry my hair in under half an hour, and possibly use the straighteners before work even. Really!)

We decided we should roll on out to Malahide for a pub lunch. So out we rolled, via Swords (nice enough I guess, but nothing made me feel compelled to move there). There were no pubs on the main road through Malahide (I think we were supposed to go into the town further, but it was comfy in the car) so we kept going to Howth. At Howth we did find a pub - again, once we moved inland. Seems the main road is for non-Irish eateries.

Mmm, Guinness and a pub lunch. We were very full, and I had a very small nap afterwards, before we headed slowly home, where we chilled out with some quality downloaded tv.

Incidentally, that was my first Guinness in Ireland, albeit only a small one. (Guinness is a serious drink and it requires time and stomach-space to drink. I had fried-food plans, so I knew I had to limit myself to a small one.) It tasted chocolate-y-er and bitterer than I remembered - perhaps because it apparently tastes different in Ireland than everywhere else in the world. Anyhow, it was good. I look forward to rainy weekend afternoons in pubs with David, Guinness, and my knitting.

Yesterday we managed some brunch at our favourite crepe place, then popped out to my favourite yarn store in Blackrock for some needles and a gossip, then bought some plants. It has been really, really hard to find indoor plants here - or even garden centres, for that matter. I don't know why - people do actually have plants and gardens and stuff - but it's like they all either buy the plants ready-potted from M&S, or they steal each other's in the middle of the night!

Oh, and I got some knitting done - I may actually finish my first Irish knitting project sometime this month. Maybe. I accidentally popped into a shop to get some needles I need for a number of upcoming projects, and I'm dying to cast on with them. I already have 2 nearly-completed projects on the needles. And I'd like to finish them both soon - one to wear, one to finally give to the very deserving recipient (even though it'd be totally out of season). Must... be... strong...

And to round out my little round-up, today I caught the bus to work again (ugh) because I had a meeting with an M&A target this afternoon in the city.

In brief: Bus: late, slow, irritating. Location of meeting: Dublin 3, very different from anywhere else I'd been here previously, a lot like the western viaduct in Auckland. M&A stuff: really satisfying to research, prep my boss on, then meet with a potential target. It's not my call - I doubt I will get to even go to many of these - but very, very interesting.

And that's it for now. More quality tv downloads and a spot of knitting (old project, I will be strong!) await.

Except I almost forgot - thank you to all the knitters who came and kept me company on Saturday. And thank you to everyone who remembered my birthday - it really was the loveliest one yet!

Labels: Dublin, Family, Food + drink, Knitting, Laura, Work

Another day, another dollar.

I'm still job hunting, knitting, and watching/ listening to low-quality tv.

Over the weekend, I decided that a role I'd previously been interested in was, in fact, not really suitable. It was too focused in a specific direction that wouldn't advance my career, and that could end up pigeonholing me. I was up for a second interview, which was great - but there seemed little point in wasting the agent's, company's, or my time when I wasn't keen any longer.

So this morning I let the agent know. Apparently the company are quite disappointed, because they saw me as a strong candidate, but I have to follow my gut and bow out.

I realise that it sounds contradictory - I'm super-keen to work, but turning down opportunities to get jobs. But at the end of the day, I don't just need a job - I need the right job. There aren't loads and loads of opportunities in my field, and I need to either remain where I am or move forwards (not backwards!) - so the job hunt will probably take some more time.

I am trying to remain positive and motivated, and I'm also trying to remember that as one door closes, another usually opens. I just hope that the door that opens is the right one for me, and soon!

Also over the weekend, we had a chance to speak to some of our family, because it was Mother's Day. David had a quick chat to Grandma & Auntie Mavis, and I called Mum and Grammie in Florida.

Mum had originally planned to leave Florida today, but she's now staying on until the 30th at least. In some ways this is bad news - if Grammie was doing really well I think Mum would be leaving. But in other ways it's great - as Grammie said, they get on "like bread and butter", and I know they are both enjoying spending some time together. It was great to talk to them both.

Meanwhile, in knitting news, I'm making excellent progress on the mystery knitting project. I'm more than 60% done with it, and unless something unexpected (like loads of interviews, please!) happens, I'll finish it this week.

I would have had it finished already, but my plans for weekend knitting were somewhat hampered by activity - a bit of shopping, and a great movie, Michael Collins.

Speaking of which, my advice to you?

- Space bags are awesome, and no storage system is complete without using these.

- Michael Collins is just as brilliant a movie as it was when I first saw it in 1996. It's an excellent
- if incredibly sad - story, very well acted (with the notable exception of Julia Roberts'
appalling "Irish" accent), and it stars the fantastic Liam Neeson. I know a little more about
Irish history than David, but not much. This was a great memory-jogger for me, and a good
intro for him. I'm hoping we'll be able to see more great Irish movies while we're here.

And now I have to go and make lunch for David, who should be home any second.

Labels: Dublin, Family, Laura, Work

As of last night, my lurgy is officially upgraded from a cold to the flu.

I won't go into the details, because they're yucky enough to experience once, let alone re-live through blogging. Suffice to say, I remember feeling worse than this (campylobacter - both times, my allergic reaction to the wisdom teeth painkillers, and my even nastier reaction to the Floridian antibiotics for suspected bronchitis) - but never at a time when I wasn't under medical care.

David says this is the first flu I've had since we've been together - so in 6 1/2 years. My immune system must be doing ok - maybe all those smelly, dirty brothers were useful after all!


Speaking of brothers and family and suchlike, today and Monday are big days, and we're thinking of you.

Today, Joan (my mother-in-law) and our very good friend Katie (my bridesmaid) are celebrating their birthdays. Plus, Colin & Monique (David's uncle and now aunt) are getting married. Congratulations to all of you! Send photos!

On Monday, Brent (my youngest brother and bridesman) is turning 25. Happy birthday Pinky B! I haven't sent you a cheesecake this year, but we love you loads.

In fact, we haven't sent anyone anything, apart from wedding thank you notes... Whoops. I blame the flu!

Labels: Family, Friends, Laura

Our move has been exciting and exhilarating - and occasionally terrifying, let's be honest. But now we're finally here: it's happened, we're here, and life starts again.

The bubble that mostly surrounded us on our (wonderful, amazing) honeymoon hasn't exactly burst... we're just slowly but surely re-entering the real world: going to the supermarket, doing dishes, that kind of thing.

For me, the real world began again yesterday afternoon, when I read an email from my uncle in Chicago. Except he wasn't in Chicago, he was in Naples, Florida, with my maternal grandmother, who is very, very unwell.

I haven't seen Grammie for almost two years, and I know that by the time you get into your nineties (she turned 95 on Boxing Day) you inevitably have a health problem or two. Yet I still cling to the image I have of her from our visit. Admittedly it was a very brief visit, due to my nasty chest infection (and even nastier antibiotics), but apart from a different hair colour, she was still the same Grammie I remembered from my childhood.

Well, as it turns out, Grammie's aorta is shot, and she's too high risk for surgery, so she's stuck with it.

For awhile David and I have been idly discussing a visit to Naples in February, to coincide with the annual pilgrimage from the Chicago clan. Now, we're talking about a visit much sooner.


Meanwhile, life here goes on. Laundry has to be done - and when the washing machine breaks and the door won't open, so half your clothes are trapped inside, with no hope of recovery till Monday at least, clean socks have to be bought.

Jobs have to be found, and we've started looking. After I register with the Garda on Tuesday, I'll be busy with the final edit of my CV - and hopefully making some appointments with recruiters.

We've also managed to get new mobile phone numbers. I won't post mine here - but if you'd like to know and I left you out on the email, leave a comment and I'll be in touch. We'll still keep and periodically check our old numbers for awhile though, just in case.

Labels: Dublin, Family, Laura

We're just back from Gosford (about an hour out of Sydney on the NSW central coast - that's Australia) and our Australian post-wedding party.

As usual, we had a fantastic time staying with Grandma and Auntie Mavis (technically David's grandmother and great-aunt, but we tend to refer to them as "the grandmas"). We hung out, ate, hung out some more, ate, ate some more... You get the picture.

The ostensible purpose of the trip was a lovely post-wedding luncheon, but I'm fairly convinced that it was all part of a nefarious plot to convert me to eating salmon rissoles. More on that later...

The luncheon was really lovely. I got the chance to wear my wedding dress again (sadly, not the veil, though I tried hard to justify it!), and we all got the chance to spend some time with some of David's many relatives. It was much lower-key than the wedding: all we had to do was get dressed and turn up!

George, David's uncle, was the photographer for the day, and did such a fantastic job that we had trouble choosing which photos to put in the grandmas' album. As soon as we're packed and ready to move, we'll add some photos to my Flickr account.

After the luncheon - and the cake at afternoon tea time - some of the relatives came back to the grandmas'. For more food. Because in Gosford, you need to eat every few hours. Don't ask me why, it's just how it works (and it's lovely).

It was at this time that I was converted to the love of the salmon rissole. After numerous visits when I've declined the pickled herring, gefilte fish, and the rissoles, and any other fish-related dishes, I cracked.

Just as well, too - because the rissoles are amazing! They don't taste like salmon, which suits a non-fish-lover like me, and they are very moreish. I like them hot or cold, plain, or with horseradish cream and/ or spinach dip. I like them for breakfast, lunch, dinner or just as a snack in between.

It's only taken just over 5 years, and I'm converted. So converted, I have the recipe.

Considering how long it took me to eat any fish not covered in batter and deep-fried, I'd call this a huge success on the grandmas' part. Well done Auntie Mavis - they really are delicious!

Labels: Family, Food + drink, Laura, wedding