God Bless us, every one!

A Christmas Carol @ the National Concert Hall - 28 December 2008. Des Loughridge played a very good Scrooge.

Strolling through Herbert Park

Rocking out with Fergal & Sasha

Our new friends, Fergal and Sasha, live next to the Gasworks. They live in "The Dickens". They are fun, have wii and have great taste in German beer.

Happy Christmas

Silly Goose

Emily fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine, to eat Christmas goose, by cooking a delicious goose with mashed sweet potatoes, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce and corn.

Now we're cooking

The Pogues

Shane MacGowan & The Pogues -- live at the Royal Dublin Society 

(sobriety and teeth optional)...

SantaCon Dublin 2008

SantaCon: a mass gathering of people dressed in various interpretations of Santa Claus costumes, handing out candy on the streets and pub crawling to bars in cities around the world.

Meet Charles, Our Christmas Tree

A new tree in the neighborhood 

Lives in our living room and it's understood. 

He's there just to take good care of us, 

Like he's one of the family. 

Charles in Charge 

Of our days and our nights 

Charles in Charge 

Of our wrongs and our rights 

And I sing, I want, 

I want Charles in Charge of me. 

"La-breithe mhaith agat" to me!

Emily planned a surprise birthday weekend in Killiney at the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel (built in 1740). We arrived Saturday morning, checked in, had suprise massages which Emily had arranged, walked around the small seaside village of Dalkey, ate fish & chips, went back to the hotel and hit the pool/hottub/sauna followed by a fantastic 3-course birthday dinner at PJs (restaurant in the hotel). Emily and I both started with pan-roasted Quail in glazed bourbon & maple syrup and ended with tiramisu. My main course was Roasted Tarragon Pheasant Breast served with leek & pancetta risotto. Emily had Ostrich Fillet with with sweet potato purée, cassis & sage jus. Delicious.

On Sunday,  we hit the pool again and then walked around Killiney - past Enya's castle and Bono's estate - and all the way down to the beach. Before heading back to Dublin we had afternoon tea at the hotel. An absolutely perfect weekend courtesy of my lovely wife.

Below Pictures:

1) Killiney Sea View

2) Us

3) Tea

4) MLE

5) Chris in the road

6) Sea

7) Sand Heart

8) Us again

9) Hotel by the sea

10) Afternoon Tea

11) Surprise!*

12) Sea Dog

13) MLE again

14) Enya's castle*

15) Monster

16) Dalkey

* Photo Credit: Emily McCarley

Working

The first week at my new position here in Dublin is going well - although working from 9a - 6p has drastically cut into my ability to explore the city and as such will likely limit my picture posting to the weekends :)

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

Emily and I hit the National Concert Hall this evening to take in a performance of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra!

1) Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major 

Amazing 43 minute piece. The piece centers very heavily around the violin soloist, and guest violin soloist Stefan Tönz gave an outstanding performance. No sheet music. On his feet for 43 minutes. Called back out 5 times for applause after the piece was finished.

    

2) Richard Strauss Alpine Symphony

Ichabod Cranian conductor Gerhard Markson lead over 100 members of the symphony in this piece which included the enormous organ built into the National Concert Hall which takes up nearly 1/3 of the back wall. They had to bring in additional musicians to complement their normal complement of 89.

Our new place

Emily and I moved into the new apartment today.

Our official new mailing address is:

14 Linden

31-33 Merrion Road

Ballsbridge

Dublin 4

Ireland

St. Anne's Park

Today I trekked out to Raheny (on the northside of Dublin) and spent some time visiting St. Anne's Park - the second largest municipal park in Dublin with large sports fields and a magnificent rose garden and Bull Island - an island located in Dublin Bay, about 5 km long and 800 m wide. Emily and I then got keys to our new apartment in Ballsbridge and last but not least hit the Shambhala Center this evening...