A Thoroughly Good Blue!

So, the time has finally come folks. As I've mentioned to some of you already my MPhil class has been working hard over the past several months at putting together an anthology of our work. 

From the title, to cover design, to editing and selection of entries, this anthology has been a labour of love for us all and our collective blood, sweat and tears have gone in to making this collection a success. 

Several classmates of mine traveled to Galway on April 28th to launch the ebook version of the anthology at the Cuirt New Writing Festival. Our anthology was launched by Irish poet and short story writer Nuala Ni Chonchuir who mentioned us all by name and said a few words about each of our entries. Her speech is available on the A Thoroughly Good Blue website here. Just scroll down and read away. 

As I mentioned, our anthology is also available for purchase as an ebook up on the Amazon.co.uk website. Because none of your are in the UK you won't be able to purchase the ebook, but I have 8 copies that I have reserved to sell to family for a discounted rate :) 

The official launch of the anthology is taking place this Thursday, May 17th at the Printing House on campus. A much coveted building only used on the most rare occasions which caters only to the science department - or maybe it was engineering? In any case, one of our classmates, who is a former politician was able to negotiate our way into the Printing House for the launch. The anthology is being launched by Paul Murray, who was one of our workshop professors last term and is also a very well known Dublin author. He wrote the tragicomic novel Skippy Dies which was longlisted for the 2010 Man Book Prize. He is beloved by all of us in class and should give a great speech to introduce our work. We will also all be reading an excerpt of our work at the launch which has me both nerve-wracked and excited. Wish me luck all!

Check out the links to the Amazon page as well as our official website. 

Rainy Days = Roast Dinners

This past week, well really the past two weeks in Dublin have been rainy and grey. We've had a few storms but everything is a lovely green so I can forgive the constant downpour. Plus, as you all know I love the rain and I've also had a lot of writing to do lately as I try to finish up my last assignment before I head into my dissertation at full speed. So the rain has kept me indoors where I can look out my window as I type and enjoy the weather from my warm and dry perch.

Yesterday though my roommates another friend of ours and myself trekked out to Tesco - our local grocery store. I ended up seeing some great roasts on sale for about 5 euro and had to pick them up! Juhaina, my Swedish roommate and I decided that we would each get one and make them up differently. We also each bought some potatoes and Sarah, my roommate from Iowa made the veggies and bought the wine.

It was an awesome evening of cooking and just hanging out. Here is the proof of our efforts. Juhaina made a spicy rub for her roast along with potatoes gratin. I went for a more herby roast, with garlic, rosemary and olive oil and then put some onion and garlic and rosemary in the bottom of the pan to infuse the gravy for later. They both turned out marvelously and the four of us ate like kings! It was one of the best dinners I've had here if I do say so myself.

 Luke, helping to mash the potatoes...my arms started to hurt - we don't own a masher so it was down to a fork for about 7 potatoes.

 The lovely table, set by Sarah. 

 And the rain kept pouring...

 Juhaina, ready to eat, eat, eat. 

 Both waiting to dig in...but they were told they had to wait until everything was on the table.

 Our lovely feast.

 There's my BEEF! The picture of perfection :p

Luke didn't cook, but he did the honours and cut the roasts - strenuous work when you don't have very sharp knives.

 Too much food!

Ultimately, a great night with great food and a nice way to spend a rainy day.

Happy 23rd!

   

 Friday the 6th - Good Friday we had a party for my birthday. We had planned to go out for the night but because of the holiday pretty much all of Dublin was shut down. No pubs or clubs or restaurants to be had. So we had a party in Halls instead. Such a great night and probably one of the best - if not the best - birthdays I've celebrated. 

Many of the photos taken at night a blurry because of the lighting - we'd strung up Christmas lights and turned off the overhead lighting so the camera couldn't capture images all that well while people were moving around - regardless, a little taste of the night.

 Juhaina's attempt at writing "Happy Birthday!"

got half way through and the T looks like an J

 Girlies getting ready for the party!

 

 

 

St. Paddy's Day in Dublin - Where the Craic is Mighty!

Getting ready with green shirts and Irish tattoos. 

There were way too many pictures taken over the course of this day to even begin to post them all, but here is a sample of the highlights. 

 Getting the day started right...

On to the parade!

 The theme was science and imagination so there was some random stuff going on but it wasn't really about the parade - more about being in the atmosphere with friends. 

 ROOMIES!

 Big Bear in a Wheelchair??

Here comes the dancing...

 I was lucky enough to be on someone's shoulders during the parade since little ole' me was too short to see anything on my own two feet.

 Piggy back problems...

 Oh boy...the laughing going on at this moment! My abs hurt the next day!

 Onwards to the first pub of the lonnnggg night!

 

Last pub of the night. After 18 hours out in Dublin we were all reading for bed at about 4am!

Best St. Patrick's Day I've ever experienced. Don't think anything will ever come close again.