Backin' Belfast

Belfast has seen some tough times over the years, but you'd be surprise to know that it's rated as one of the "Destinations on the Rise" by Trip Advisor. Between the MTV Europe Music Awards being held here in 2011, Rihanna shooting a racy music video that got the world's attention, Games of Thrones being filmed in the Titantic Studio, and Holywood (with one "L"), the #1 golfer, Rory McIlroy's hometown, just outside of the city, you can understand why people are "Backin' Belfast!"

Gerald and I had to go there to get our visa renewed so we decided to make a weekend out of it and sure glad we did. We heard the visa process was going to take a long time so we were prepared. When we arrived at the UK Border Agency 30 minutes early, he told us to go get a coffee and come back in 15 minutes, in his Irish accent of course, so we didn't get it the first time and still tried to go in, but he refused us again. So strict! Well, when we got in, we could see why we didn't want to wait in that cold, white room for too long. Anyhow, my bag was full of snacks and our iPads to prepare for the long wait, only to be confiscated (no electronics and liquids allowed!). We got in, paid the fee, took some pictures and fingerprints, waited a few minutes and was out of there within in an hour. Score!

Now, it was time to explore Belfast! I didn't really know what to do, so started researching things and this is what I came up with...

Victoria Square - newest shopping center in town, with restaurants and shops all around. G-man needed his haircut so this was our first stop.  

One of my favorite shops in Ireland - Avoca

Grand Opera House - Sleeping Beauty was on, so we decided to check out the beautiful theatre

Drinks waiting for us during intermission! This is genius, you pre-pay for your drinks, they give you a number, and during intermission, you just go and grab it. We really got the coke but took the champagne instead...haha, just joking! People are so trustworthy here, I love it! Now, you can actually have time to use the bathroom =)

St. George's Market - the market runs every Friday - Sunday, selling fresh fish, meats, produce, food, sweets, and local crafts! We loved this place so much, we went two days in a row. I would love to live in a city with one of these markets. 

Duke of York - where Snow Patrol first played back in 1998! also, one of the oldest bars in town with one of the largest stocks of Irish Whiskey (they spell whiskey with an "E" in Ireland, the Scots, without.) P.S. the Guinness does taste better in Ireland!

The Crown Saloon - only bar owned by the National Trust. a true Victorian style bar.

Doors to your private sitting area

City Hall - this building definitely stands out in the town of 280K. this is where the St. Paddy's parade started

That's pretty much all we had time for in Belfast City, but stay tuned for our bus trip out to the Giant's Causeway and our Titanic Experience! Also, I can't forget about all the yummy food we ate, so I'll be sure to share that with you as well =)

LOVE

I just wanted to take this time to give a shout out to my loving Grandparents! They've been together since they were 14 years old (that's how they did it back in the days in Cambodia...hehe), and they couldn't be more in love! Unfortunately, both of their health's are  getting the best of them, and no matter what God has in store for them, I just know that they are the ultimate example of true love; both for each other and towards their kids and grandkids. Can you believe after all these years, they still hold hands? I just think that's so cute. I am truly blessed to have them in my life and pray that they will get the strength to fight through everything! I can't wait to be in Houston in a couple of weeks so I can spend some QT time with them.  Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers =)

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Belfast, Northern Ireland!

So, Gerald and I were in Belfast, Northern Ireland earlier today and got to see how the Irish celebrate St. Paddy's day in the North. We went to Dublin a couple of years ago to see how they did it in the South, and it was amazing to see the difference. I won't get into the details, but let's just say the South, being a predominantly Catholic country, celebrates it pretty big. Also, because a lot more tourist go towards Dublin when they visit Ireland, so you get the whole tourist crowd out celebrating as well. There were banners all over the streets, people dressed up, laughter, dancing, and drinking. Let's just say it was a good time!

The North is a bit different, you really don't want to talk religion here. Belfast was divided into East Belfast and West Belfast, pretty much based on religion. You know the Berlin Wall? Well, they had something similar back then to separate the two religions. You have the Protestants on one side and the Catholics on the other. As you can imagine, people don't go around parading down the street stating they're Catholic or Protestant because you might get into some trouble. We went out last night, and it was pretty dead, just a normal Saturday night with people out, but nothing crazy like Dublin. Also, this afternoon, there was a parade and concert and I was expecting the streets to be lined up with people and traffic to be a mess, but it was pretty calm. There were a good number of people out with their kids and decked out in green, but you know what? Most people were flying the Ireland (South) flag, makes sense...right? A pretty calm celebration but good nonetheless. It was pretty interesting to see how the Irish celebrate in two different parts of the country.

Anyhow, we saw the parade, then went on over to St. George's Market to see a school dance group perform. Here's a video of them doing the river dance. 

Meanwhile, in Chicago circa 2009, this is how 10 TX girls celebrated... A girlfriend of ours was attending MBA school at Loyola and was graduating in May of that year, so a bunch of us decided to pay her a visit on St. Patrick's Day weekend and party with the Irish Americans! Chicago has one of the biggest Irish immigrant population in the US, which explains why they do it so big here.  What a great St. Paddy's celebration that was. However, I must admit, us Americans, we're a bit over the top. They even died the river green! Here's a few pics one of the girls sent out earlier today to remind us of all the fun we had that weekend.

Hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day celebration, however you decided to do it. I got to indulge in some pretty good Bailey's and Chocolate brownies from the market today =P  - Slainte!

Ultimate Housewife Week

Where did this past week go?? Oh, I know...

Monday - volunteering & Zumba (first time in a looong time!)

• I did my usual afternoon shift at the Cyrenians, came home, made dinner and then went to Zumba class. My friend, Rachael, teaches it at the local church, which is literally 1 minute from my place, so I have no excuse not to continue going...plus, she's a great teacher and I really need to get my groove back.

Tuesday - day drinking and baking macarons with lovely girls + more drinking and bachelor watching in the evening

• a couple of the girls that weren't on the ski trip this week, decided to get together for a macaron baking day. we made pistachio buttercream macarons from scratch and then tried out the raspberry macaron kit from sainsbury. both were delicious, and what made them even more so were the couple bottles of champagne we drank along with a bottle of wine...day drinking at it's finest. the same girls came over to watch the "women tell all" bachelor episode and we continued on with our drinking and eating. what do you do with all the left over egg yolks from making macarons? make creme brulee, that's what we had for dessert that evening. i really need to stop baking.

Wednesday - all that dancing, drinking, and baking called for a Thai massage...and a bath afterwards =)

• the right side of my upper back has been bothering me for the past 3 weeks, so I decided it was time for a massage. I originally planned for a 30 minute back massage, but because she was doing such a great job, I went ahead and made it an hour. i love deep tissue massages and the Thai lady that was doing mine was surprised that I wasn't complaining because she was tearing me up! it felt so good and was just what I needed to get that knot smoothed out. i think I'll go back in a couple of weeks.

Thursday - first cross stitch completed, double date dinner & a movie

• so, i always thought cross stitching was for old people, but it's quite fun and entertaining, when you're watching tv, that is.  what's so fun about pulling thread through a hole? i'm kidding, it does take skill and concentration, and I was so close to giving up a few times because I kept messing up, but for some reason found myself picking up the darn needle every time i looked at it. this could be a problem. I have a bigger cross stitch pattern a friend gave me so I shall try that next. 

• in celebration of finishing my first cross stitch, we went out to dinner at Las Iguanas with the Perry's and then watched "I Give it A Year," which was a brilliant film. If you're married, you might be able to relate. We even got G-man to stay up for most of it, probably due to Diane laughing out loud next to him...haha. The 3 of us (Phil, Diane, and I) laughed so much that our abs were hurting afterwards. Although we didn't hear a peep out of Gerald, I could tell he was secretly laughing inside.  I may be exaggerating but I haven't seen a film that humorous in a while. It's a different kind of funny, so might not be for everybody. 

Friday - Nia class & lunch w/ the girls

• to celebrate international women's day, a fellow AWA member decided to do a Nia class for the community with donations given to JDRF, a local charity. the class was super fun and easy to follow, and not to mention a good workout. not sure if it was the space heater that was on, or if I was really working hard, but we sure did break a good sweat. as a rewards, a few of us went to lunch at the Beautiful Mountain. you can probably see a trend now, I like to reward myself with food for working out. which is probably not the best thing to do...haha

Saturday - lunch & shopping with G-man; dinner party with Jon & Margaret

• Gerald and I are on a mission to try all of the restaurants we've been wanting to try in Aberdeen before we leave, hence, why we are eating out so much. I really enjoy cooking and would take a home cooked meal over eating out any day, but our days are limited here and being the foodie that we are, we have to give each restaurant a go. So we decided on Cafe 52 for lunch. 

• Another thing we're trying to do, is buy Scottish memorabilia to take home with us. We found this cute highland coo pillow and decided it needed to go back to the States =)

• going back to the cooking thing...after eating out quite a few times this week, I was itching to make something so decided to have a couple of friends over for dinner. I settled on a couple of Pinterest inspired recipes: Southwest Eggrolls and Shrimp Enchiladas with Jalapeno cream sauce. If you like mexican food, I suggest you try these recipes. They're almost as good as the Chili's one, just missing that avocado ranch sauce. 

Sunday - mod podge, washi tape and slow cooker meal

• we woke up to 2 inches of snow on the ground and more falling, so I decided to put on some music and start using the supplies I bought for crafting. mod podge is awesome and so is washi tape =) while I was doing all of this, we were cooking up some pulled pork in the crock pot. I do love meals where you don't have to stand in front of the stove for hours. 

Well, that concludes my "Ultimate Housewife Week." I think I pretty much did all that you could do as a housewife =) I didn't mention it, but I also did some cleaning, laundry, and organizing. I keep saying that I'm getting bored with myself, but I think I really just need to embrace this time and quit feeling so unproductive by not working. I don't know about you, but after reading this past weeks activities, I wouldn't call that being unproductive! So, that's the last you'll hear me say anything negative about being a housewife =) I hope I didn't bore you with my daily activities, and I promise, I won't ever do this type of post again. I think I just needed to remind myself that staying at home has it's perks =) Have a great week and be productive in whatever you choose to do!

Sunday @ Forvie Sands and The Store

It was a pretty decent day in Aberdeen (no rain, and a bit of blue skies), so G-man and I decided to go out for a short walk around Forvie Sands Nature Reserve and then visit a nearby farm shop, The Store. We only planned to walk around for about an hour or so and then go have our afternoon tea. We decided to take the route to visit the nearby estuary, but due to heavy rains, part of the path was closed because of flooding. 

We did the best we could to follow the signs, but unfortunately, it lead us to deep puddles of water (we probably misread it). 

What looked like a pretty solid rock underneath a few inches of water, swallowed my right foot, and the walk was over. I stepped into the puddle as if I was going to use the rock as leverage to get over the puddle, but instead ended up with muddy shoes and a wet sock!  Like I said, we were only planning to walk about an hour, so didn't feel the need to put on our hiking boots. 

We were about 40 minutes into the walk when this happened. After taking the shortcut back to the car park, we actually ended up walking the planned hour, yay! My shoe was disgusting, and what was even more disgusting is that I had to wear it without any socks, since my socks were soaked. I won't elaborate on that! 

On the way to The Store, we passed by the Udny Arms Hotel, which is supposedly the birthplace of Sticky Toffee Pudding! Without even asking me if I wanted STP, Gerald pulled into the parking lot and told me to see if they were open; they were not (mental note, must come back for this) =(  So off to The Store we went to have our afternoon tea. I gave up coffee for lent, but after the day I had, I really wanted some, so I ordered it; plus it was Sunday so technically it doesn't count.  However, when it came, I felt guilty for giving up so easily. So, I asked Gerald if I could trade him for his hot chocolate, and he said aye =) I love that The Store is only about 20 minutes from us and offers fresh food and groceries. We bought some meat and veggies from there for the week and I'm hoping we can make this a regular thing. I love supporting local businesses. Happy Sunday!