Candy selection

Candy selection in ireland is different

It is nestle kit kat in ireland vs Hershey in the USA 

Cadbury and Nestlé are the big brands

Enjoy the gallery ...

Groceries in ireland

In ireland we walk to the grocery usually.

Our local options are lidl , aldi, dunnes and tesco.

Bags cost money so bring your own.

Shopping carts require €1 or €2 deposit 

Some translations 

Crisps (potato chips)

Wraps (tortillas)

Fresh milk (whole milk)

Mince beef (ground beef)

Biscuits (cookies)

Toastie cheese ( American sliced cheese)

Not readily available

Macaroni ( we knew no mac and cheese ahead but you can't even find the pasta)

Bacon ( sure Irish bacon which is more like Canadian bacon aka ham) , I'm sure American style is there we just haven't found it 

Good salsa

Cream of wheat ( all oats and porridge )

In general containers are smaller , which makes sense for walking 

Well that's all for now

Rob

whats on tap

at the local pub
Budweiser (USA)
Coors light (USA)
Heineken (Netherlands)
Peroni (Italy)
Carlsburg (Denmark)
Bulmers -cider(Ireland)
Smithwicks (Ireland)
Guiness x2 (Ireland)
Franciscan Well blarney blonde (Ireland)
Franciscan blonde rebel red (Ireland)

it is a shame that my local mate's beer of choice is bud

Irish name fun

Names that don't sound like they look to American eyes

Eoin (Owen)

Aine (Anya)

Siobhan (chevon)

Niamh (neave)
Cillian (Killian)
Aiofe (Efa)

of course there are plenty of conors, seans ,etc...

Meditations on boilers and condensers

A brief meditation on what makes Irish appliances different from US appliances: First the vacuum cleaner, or "hoover" as it's called here.  As in "I've been 'hoovering' the house". We have a dyson cannister-style machine with the cyclone sytem.  Supposed to be awesome at picking up animal hair.  Sadly it seems to be nearly useless at picking up regular old dirt.  Did I mention that our rental house has off-white carpet in nearly every room including the stairs? It does.  Rob has threatened to buy a new "hoover" just so that I don't have to be annoyed by this supremely un-sucky machine for two years.

Now on to the so-called "drier". It is not indeed a drier, but is actually a drier/condenser.  Unlike our US driers that vent the moist air out of a tube, my drier actually collects the water coming from the clothing and puts it into a plastic doohickey in the base of the machine that I must empty each time I use it.  Not that big a deal if this complicated machine actually worked well, but sadly, it is rather ineffective.  Thus my new love for the clothes line in my back yard.  It's amazing how fast the laundry dries out there on a day with no rain. Doesn't even need to be warm for it to work.  Super cool.

Now on to boilers.  We have two ways to get hot water in this house.  One, an electric water heater called an "immersion" unit upstairs in the "hot press" or linen closet as we yanks like to call it.  This electric water heater is far too expensive to run all the time, so when we want hot water, we turn it on and...wait about a half hour before we have it. Should we make the mistake of leaving this bad boy on for more than a hour the water will melt the flesh from your bones.  And if you don't wait at least 20 minutes then a lukewarm shower you will have.

I promised to discuss boilers, well we have one.  And radiators in each and every room of the house.  Some big, some small.  When the weather turns colder (which it already has started to do) we turn on the boiler and set the timer for when we want it to pump hot water into the radiators.  We adjust the radiators in each room for comfort and the extra becomes our hot water.  I think.  And if we mess too much with the radiators we will "unbalance" them - whatever that means, and we will need our neighbor Darren to come over with his rad key to "bleed the system".

So, there you have it.  Some of the weirdness of my existence as a housewife in Ireland.

Well marked...

POne thing I have noticed in ireland is lots of clear signage . Examples

1- intel office building the double doors in hallways have a green symbol labelling which side to go in and red to indicate that is the exit side .

2- driving , when you have an island in the road they have an arrow to remind you which side you are supposed to drive to.

3- walking, throughout parking lots they have clearly marked pedestrian lanes .

4 - biking, bikes lanes are actually coloured in different colour so you can't miss the lanes

That is not to say all signage is clear. Goo luck with street addresses.

Rob