Saturday was bright and only slightly chilly. My SuperValu grocery delivery wasn’t scheduled until the afternoon, because the morning slots had been booked up. My friend CJ invited me out to breakfast at Murphy’s Bistro, a cafe along Bachelors Walk, the stretch of street along the north bank of the Liffey. It’s know for Turkish menemen (eggs with tomato, pepper and spices cooked in a small skillet or ramiken), and according to CJ it has the cheapest eggs benedict in Dublin. It’s the same place where we met up last weekend when my friend Julius was visiting. I order a basic combination with two eggs, toast and a small hash brown for €6.50, adding sausage for an extra €1 and avocado for an extra €2.
After breakfast, CJ and I head out for a long walk to continue catching the conversation and catch up. Now that I’m working, we haven’t had as many opportunities for our “walk and talks” like we did during lockdown. We end up getting in more than 9,000 steps before I need to head back home for my grocery delivery window between 2:00 and 4:00pm. I spend the rest of the day doing small projects around the house. The SuperValu delivery guy arrives toward the latter part of the window, which is fine since I don’t have any plans for the evening. I’ve been cooking much fewer meals from scratch than when I first arrived to Dublin, but with the cooler weather, I’ve been in the mood to revisit some of my favourite recipes. One of my tried-and-true recipes is a cauliflower, mushroom, leek soup with blue cheese and bacon crumbles. It’s not that difficult to make, and thanks to the hand blender I acquired not long after my arrival to Dublin, it turns out smooth and creamy. I recall the blue cheese being a bit strong the last time I made it, but this time the tastes were more balanced. Served with some leftover brown soda bread from last week, and a Guinness, it made for a comforting Saturday supper.
Daylight savings time when into effect on Saturday night, which gave me an extra hour to sleep in. On Sunday afternoon, I had a follow-up date with S., whom I had last seen a few weeks ago. He lives outside of Dublin, and instead of driving into town this time, he decided to take the train. He met me at Sprangers Yard around 12:30, then we headed out to lunch at a restaurant called Featherblade that he had pointed out last time we we strolling around the Grafton Street area. Their speciality is their namesake flank steak, cut into thin strips at a diagonal, and served with a choice of sauces. It was very good!
Although the weather was fairly nice in the first half of the day, a storm blew in so the afternoon turned wet and very chilly. Given the weather, we decided to go see the new Wes Anderson movie, The French Dispatch. (I swear I hadn’t heard about this movie when naming my blog!) It was one of the strangest films I’ve seen in awhile, featuring a star-studded cast and multiple, seemingly related but also disjunct, storylines. It was enjoyable to watch once I stopped trying to understand it, like a dream with lots of random people in it doing silly things. It was the first time I had been to the Savoy Cinema on O’Connell Street, and although our movie was being played in one of their smaller theatres, their recliner seats made a big impression — the other cinemas I’ve been to in Ireland have had them. By the time we emerged from the cinema, there was about an hour before S. had to catch his train back home. The storm was in full swing with steady rain and very chilly air, dipping down into the 40s F / high single digits C. We ducked into the Grand Central Café Bar on the corner of O’Connell and Abbey StreetS on the way to the Connolly train station. The bar’s interior was lavishly decorated, a holdover from its days as a bank. The building itself dates back to 1824, although it was shelled during the Easter Rising of 1916 and later rebuilt.
We had time enough for a couple of quick round of beers before we hurriedly left for Connolly Station. We arrived about 5 minutes before S.’s train was scheduled to depart, so just in time. It was an enjoyable time together, and I think we’ll be making plans for a third date soon. On the way home, I walked along the quay in front of the Customs House. The rain had stopped, and loud explosions of fireworks were reverberating across the city in commemoration of Halloween. Many young people in costumes were still heading out for the evening. I was glad to arrive back home at Sprangers Yard and settle in for a quiet rest of the evening.
Until next time….
