Sunny Ireland

What a girl's gotta do when she finishes her VAT declarations and all of sudden has a few free days? She jumps on a plane to Ireland to visit her BFF who has been living in Kilkenny, Ireland for the last seven years. And since I obviously have a terrific (or terrible) planning skills, the said BFF is currently eight months pregnant with her first baby, so the visit was pretty mellow and unhurried. We talked a lot, we ate a lot (that would be me) and drank a lot (yep, still me). The best long weekend a girl could wish for.

Somebody's looking so gorgeous! I can't wait for this baby girl to be born. She has no idea how loved she's gonna be. :)

 Yep, I wasn't kidding about the drinking part.

And the food.... we went to the local Thai restaurant called Yindees. Can't recommend it enough, I had pork ribs as starter and prawns as a main dish (I go crazy for seafood and it's no wonder, you can't get more continental than the middle of Continental Europe - Slovakia, so no delicious seafood here for me to eat. :( And as I like to say: I am on a seafood diet - I see food and I eat it. But I would LOVE to eat real seafood everyday!)

The funny thing was that obviously it rains in Ireland A LOT. Obviously I came at a time when there were full five days of sunny weather. I know, lucky me. :)

Kilkenny is a gorgeous little town with one fairytale-like castle and full of beautiful historical buildings and with some really nice people living there (I mean besides my BFF, of course!). ....And of course....the food.

Here I am in the local pub-restaurant Langtons watching the finale of hurling (apparently an Irish national sport I've sadly never heard about before) and enjoying incredibly decadent Baileys and ice cream gateau with butterscotch sauce.

The last day of my trip we just spent lazying around and saving our energy for the last delicious dinner at the Ripley's Steak House. And let's end this Irish adventure with somewise words: "Vegetarianism is a big missed steak". Amen.
Reading: Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter

ER suddenly

So yesterday was a pretty neat day. I finished my work, did some shopping, brought my boots to repair shop, drove my mom home, and after coming home I fixed myself some lunch, played the piano, put turkey in the oven and went for a quick run. Afterwards my plans were - finish the dinner, blog about my stay in Ireland, study Italian and get my ass over to my friend's house for a little party. So much for my plans...
Unfortunately, the last km of my 5k run my hands were starting to get a little bit itchy. I popped in the shower, took some antihistamine Claritin and started to fix butternut squash for the dinner. But I realized that my itching was not getting away, but it was getting worse. My face was all red from the running, but I started to get red splotches and rash all over my abdomen, back, neck and neckline, too and my esophagus was really hurting. I wasn't chocking or anything but I am severely allergic to penicillin and I didn't want to take my chances with anaphylactic shock so off we went to the ER. I got two shots of anti-allergy medications (and obviously according to the doctor I was very close to a shock and few minutes before that I didn't even want to go inside cause I was afraid of being overzealous and that they'll laugh me out of there) and spend an hour in the bed with IV in my arm and being bored out of my mind while I was getting "nicely pale" (as my nurse called it). The most possible culprit of my allergy attack were pumpkin seeds I got from the market that day and probably it was exercise-induced, too. Yeah, lucky me. Otherwise there was nothing new or different I ate and considering it was my second day of my second Whole30 I ate no known allergens other than nuts  & seeds. But we'll see next week when I'll go to get my allergies tested.
So I have no pictures of yesterday's ordeal but here's a sneak peek of my time in Ireland:

Reading: Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Very Short Introduction to Design.

Romeo i Julietta

There are few things in this world that I love more than ballet (as I am proving by trying to train it two times a week - operative word being TRYING). Since it was my best friend Katja's birthday few days ago and she shares my passion for ballet (among other things like Russian literature), I decided to get us tickets to the Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet in the Slovak National Theatre (SND). The last time we went to ballet to see Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty we were incredibly disappointed - it was unbelievably amateurish. But this time SND managed to surprise us. Romeo and Juliet was very good, fast-paced, beautifully and professionally choreographed and let me tell you, the fact that men and especially Romeo were serious eye-candies didn't hurt either (as I can prove by one picture). I managed to sneak one photo at the end (obviously I am too cowardly to break the rules even for one harmless picture, so I got some from SND). If you ever get stuck in Bratislava with nothing to do, I can't recommend this ballet enough. I am already considering going to see it for the second time with my mom.

The last picture is of my gift from Katja (yeah, it wasn't my birthday but I got gifts - that's Katja for you). My beloved Bulgakov AND history reading. Yey.
Reading: Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot
Listening: The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet

Little Things

Life's made up of little things. Like a cup of espresso or a once-a-month delivered magazine from UK. Or the everyday moments with the love of my life. We were in the kitchen talking and laughing while my man was grinding the coffee beans for the fresh coffee. We were excited about the cakes my mom sent us and contemplating when I am going to cook us vanilla pudding (next hour or next five minutes?) At that moment I realized how happy I am with this guy. And how much I appreciate that he is mine. Last night he woke me up from my nightmare (creepy little ghost-girl) and hugged me and was willing to fall asleep with me in his arms (we never do this). Yesterday he listened to my why-the-f***-is-everybody-asking-me-when-I-am-getting-married-and-having-children rant. (Seriously, people, you need to back off! and stop asking me this three times a day, every day!) And even after seven years I love him more and more. How amazing is that?

(We have amazing espresso machine but for the purpose of grinding the coffee I discovered this long-forgotten coffee mill in our kitchen that I swear is from the communism era 30 years ago that still works perfectly. When my parents found out that we use it they had quite a laugh about it. But if it's not broke...)
Reading: John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men, A Very Short Introduction to The First World War

Autumn Walk

Today the weather was exceptional as noted by my man as he was hanging the laundry (yeah, lucky me, he voted that part of laundry as his chore :) ) so we decided to go out. Since I cooked lunch (Paleo zucchini quiche), baked a cake (Paleo brownies) and we have excellent espresso at home, we were unable to make any other plans like - go for a lunch, or go for a coffee/cake and decided just to take a stroll. The walk was for me a bit nostalgic. It is getting worse here in Slovakia for people trying to run their business (us) and we are once again reconsidering the notion of moving to Bratislava, Prague or Vienna. But I am not sure what to do with my business and if, after all, I want my children to grow up as little "Pražáci" (since Prague is the most probable place we'll move to if we have to). I love this city and I love that I have my family, friends, choir and ballet here. But (and that's the problem) - but will a better life await us elsewhere?

Currently reading: Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms, A Very Short Introduction - Classics
Currently listening: Birdy - Fire Within