Cars, Cows and Castles!!

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Meant to do a post right after the weekend but work has been very busy!

Well, let me give you some updates. This past Saturday Pad and I went autocross, where his cousins Dermot and Brendan race what is basically an off-road buggy for time against other cars in the Irish countryside. Check out a short video of Bren below:

Buggies lined up...

Team Whyte keeps it all in the family. Jimmy is the Coach and also happens to be their dad, Brothers Bren and Dermot drive as well as work on the car, and their 3 other brothers Hagen, Declan, and Barry serve as pit crew for them on race days!

Haha, Peadar and Dermot caught in the act of... helping a cuz out with the kink in his back!

I was more interested in checking out the cows then the cars...

Peadar looking fancy in my sunglasses at the race:

On Sunday we went for a lovely walk around Malahide, because the weather was so good!

We saw a group of kids windsurfing out on the estuary so we decided to sign up for lessons ourselves! We are going next weekend so I'll let you know how we do :)

We walked up to Malahide castle, which is about 10 minutes from our place. Like having a local pub or bar, in Ireland you can have a local castle! You can go to lunch here, take a tour, visit the parks and grounds, it's really a great spot. 

After our walk we went to go pick up our GAA tickets for the match from Phillo's house. He has two dogs, Clubber and Chopper. This is Chopper:

And Clubber. Doesn't Clubber look like "The Beast" from the Sandlot? 

At the actual game we sang the Irish National Anthem. And by "we", I mean Peadar. Doesn't Irish seem impossible to pronounce? For next game we are going to phonetically spell out the words so I can read it properly. I promise to post a copy here :) And some pics of Croke Park Stadium and the game.

Lastly, Peadar's sister Olive just announced she is expecting a baby! The first one in her family. Peadar is going to be an uncle... Uncle PadMan haha!

Cooking blog later this week, I promise.

XOXO, Amanda

All aboard the Hogwarts Express!

Taking the train into work every day feels like I'm on the Hogwarts Express. You know the shots from the Harry Potter movies where the train is travelling through the countryside? I took a picture on my way in today, the train was moving so it's hard to get the full experience, but you get the idea. Very magical :)

View from the DART in Dublin

Hogwarts Express

Speaking of work! Let me tell you a little bit about what I do... I am a Marketing Manager for boxPAY,  an innovative mobile payment platform for web merchants and game developers. The boxPAY platform utilizes SMS technology to bill customers making online purchases in games or apps through their cell phone bill, instead of having to use a credit card. Recently I have been writing press releases, and trying to get some media attention for the company. My stories recently got picked up in the Irish Times,  and here's one in Silicon Republic! We even got printed up in the Irish Independent Biz Section, see below:

Here is a picture of my desk area at work:

And a shot of the office:

And a view from our window:

What you are looking at is Grand Canal Quay. (Quay is pronounced Key, so think key like a waterway between docks or ports for ships. Note: There is a pub in Temple Bar called Quays, do not sound it out like "kuh-way", people will laugh at you and call you a tourist.) Anyway, the Grand Canal area is considered the tech-hub for Dublin, like of like the Silicon Valley area is to San Fransisco, California. In fact, Google is right across the water from us, and Facebook's Euro headquarters are around the corner. 

Check out Google's brand new building (an addition to their already massive campus) that they recently purchased. I can see this out my window. It is the tallest office building in Dublin, and the most expensive, sold for 100 Million Euro! 

The best part about this is that I am going to get a private tour of the new building from a Google employee tomorrow! Simon McNally and I are having lunch then going to check the building out. I met Simon when he interviewed for an internship at my previous employer, Launch Creative Marketing, last year. He was an Irish exchange student studying at University of Illinois on the same program that brought me to Dublin City University just a few years before! He is back in Ireland now working at Google as an Online Media Associate.

Speaking of LUNCH... yesterday I went on an adventure for a favorite Irish meal, but one that is very hard to find gluten-free, Fish & Chips! In Ireland, chips mean fries, and crisps mean potato chips. I will have to do a blog later on funny word exchanges. Peadar thinks it's funny that I call an adapter with multiple outlets a "power strip". The cultural differences never get old!

Anyway check out my delicious (and huge!) lunch, all totally GLUTEN FREE, thank you Beshoff Restaurant on O'Connell Street:

This was my view from the table:

Another thing I am struggling to find is good sushi. There just aren't Shintos and Kikus around every corner like back home. Irish people wouldn't be as big into it as Americans. I will do a blog post documenting my search for sushi as well.

Well lots of information here, so I am going to sign off. On a last note though, Sunday was Summerfest in Peadar's hometown of the Naul. There was bbqing, live music, and lots of drinking at the local pub, Killian's. This is affectionately referred to as the K-Club by the Whyte family, as a "piss-take" (meaning, to make fun of) the actual K-Club, which is a famous fancy golf course and country club nearby. 

Love you and miss you all! XOXO

I've Arrived!!

Hey there to all my friends and family back home in the US of A!

It's been about 2.5 weeks now since I arrived in Dublin, Ireland to begin a new phase of my life (with the ever so charming Peadar Whyte, see image below)

I know I haven't given you all a lot of updates yet, but it's because I have had a bit of a nightmare with getting an internet connection and phone line here. ("O Amanda, tats grand, see I'm on the ole holiday this whole week, see it's me missus and I's 40th anniversary, so I won't be able to come by and bring the paperwork for the cable until next Chooseday, Monday being a bank holiday an all, but I'll come round then and we'll get you all sorted out love.")  But I'll save that for another post :)

I promise to keep up with this blog and keep you informed with all the news and going-ons from my new home! Please feel free to write comments and interact with me, I miss you all and want to hear from you!

So let me start with the basics:

1. Where am I living? In a little town called Malahide, on the coast of the Irish Sea, about 20 minutes north of Dublin. (See the map below)

It's a lovely seaside village and we can see the marina from our apartment, which is above a bookstore on Town Yard Lane. Last night Peadar and I took a walk along the water and this was our view:

We stopped at a little restaurant called the Seabank for a glass of vino, and found out they have a gluten-free seafood chowder, and source all their seafood locally, so I think this place is going to be a new favorite of mine!

I am still looking the wrong way when I cross the street, but am settling in nicely. I will fill you all in about work and more in the coming posts, in the meantime, I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Love,
Amanda