A Few Cheeky Pints

Before I went back to Chicago for Thanksgiving, I had my first visitors (outside of my family) come stay with me here in Dubs! My college roommate Jenna Vickers (pictured below with her Mom, Jan, on the farm) and my childhood friend Preeti, who came the week after (pictured below with me on the Hogwarts Express, aka: The DART).

I was trying to think of good entertaining stories to share with you from their visits here, and the first one that came to mind was when Jenna, Jan and I were taking a DART from Dublin back to Malahide and encountered a serious character in our car, what they call  "a knacker" in Ireland. I'll let Urban Dictionary define that one for you. She kept calling Jenna a "cheeky bitch".

This was pretty funny until she copped on that I was filming her. Had to put the camera down pretty quickly. 

When Preeti was here we went to a bar called Porterhouse in Temple Bar. They had really delicious gluten-free beer called Daura by Estrella. 

On another night Preeti and I got all dolled up and went to the Eircom Spiders awards, which is a big event I had to go to for work, held at the Convention Center in Dublin (see picture of cylindrical building below).

We were snapping pics with the augmented reality app that went along with the event. Check out the picture of the Golden Spider above. 

Last month, I also went on a business trip to London, to an event called the Social Gaming Summit. The event was actually in the Chelsea Football Club, which would be cool for some people, however I actually hate soccer aka: football.

Needless to say the event didn't have anything to do with the sport, so I didn't mind. See a picture of me below at our company booth. At the last minute, the organizers actually invited me to speak on a panel called "Measuring the Health of Your Virtual Economy," which was nerve-wracking but exciting.

In other news, my old pup Sophie kicked the bucket. It was really sad because we had her for 14 years, and she was a really good dog in general. Sophie was a Carin Terrier, like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. 

I found the Judy Garland pic after I took the other one with Sophie, I swear. In her last few weeks she got very tired and slow, but I got one last picture of her out in the front yard, keeping the watch. A classic Sophie moment.

Below is a picture of Peadar and his dog, Brandy. They say people can look like their dogs, and I think in this case it might be true. Divas.

With less than 2 weeks till Christmas, it's amazing to think that I have lived in Dublin almost 7 months now. This is a picture of Peadar and I last year on Christmas, at the Launch holiday party in the Q Room at 565 W Quincy. We had no idea that a year later, I would be working and living in Dublin with him. 

This is a picture of our 1st Christmas tree together in Ireland, at our apartment. There were a few arguments over how big of a tree we could get, but in the end we decided on this one. Look's great, don't you think? I brought over a few keepsake ornaments from back home in Chicago, to keep the connection. My Grandma Keating gives every grand-kid an ornament every year since we were born.  It's a great tradition, and now I have loads of memories from my childhood on my tree. Try to find Clara, from the Nutcracker, hanging towards the top. The best ornament she ever got though was for my little brother Greg, and it was a SportsCenter ornament. Click here to see a picture of it, although a picture doesn't do it justice, since it also plays the theme song as well. 

My blog wouldn't be my blog if I didn't post some funny pics of Peadar on here for general entertainment. I brought back a bunch of winter clothes from Chicago my last trip, and as we were unpacking them, Peadar started modeling them.

I guess he was born to be a model though, he's been doing it ever since he was little. Check out that little gem of a picture I unearthed. Pad's in the middle below! (With brother Brian on his left, and sister Olive on his right). 

On Saturday, I participated in a charity "Polar Plunge" for Special Olympics Ireland. I only found out about on Thursday at swim practice, but I signed up to be a volunteer for them awhile ago and wanted to participate. Between Pad and I we were able to raise about 500 Euro in one day! I think it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit when I jumped in the water... and who knows how cold the actual water temp was!

Check out the video here:

Afterwards I had my towels, slippers and robe ready to lash on. 

Then I changed into even warmer gear. We had brought a hot water bottle, which I stuffed into my sweatshirt pocket for added warmth. That, and an Irish coffee afterwards sorted me right out!

Later on Saturday, I was doing some serious Christmas shopping around Malahide, and couldn't carry everything. So I just wheeled the cart from my last store up straight into the apartment. Genius, right? 

On Sunday, Catherine and Louise Whyte hosted a baby shower for Olive, Peadar's sister, who is due on New Year's Eve. A "Mum to Be Afternoon Tea" it was called, so cute! Except the funny thing was that we couldn't bring gifts for the baby, only for Olive, because in Ireland people are superstitious and consider it bad luck to buy anything before the baby is born, in case something happens. I mean absolutely nothing. They don't buy diapers, assemble the crib, accept baby clothes as gifts, or anything like that. I find it to be the kind of crazy, considering after the kid arrives who would want to be running around having to get all that stuff?! The father has to, I guess! The Irish obviously wouldn't be down for the show "Pregnant in Heels". Catherine and Louise put together a gorgeous day, complete with games and treats, and they totally surprised Olive.  

Picture above: Olive in the moment of surprise. 

This Monday, Peadar, Catherine, Brenden & Hagen (cousins) and Hagen's girlfriend Lisa and I all went to the theater. And by theater, I mean we went to go see Trailer Park Boys live show at the Olympia. Catherine and Lisa had never seen the TV series before though, and I don't think they were too impressed with the live show. It was pretty crude, but I thought it was funny. 

Before the show we ate dinner at the Millstone, which had an extensive GF menu and had the Duara GF beer. 

This Friday, I am going on my first pheasant hunt with Eddie (Peadar's Dad, see picture above. Yes, that really is a pheasant emblem on his sweater). I can't wait. I even bought an outfit so I look like Kate Middleton when I go, which I will put pictures up of next week so you can see. 

The other day after work a colleague of mine asked if we wanted to go for a "few cheeky ones" referring to going out for a drink or two. I thought that was the best Irish phrase I have heard so far.

Lots of X's and O's,

Amanda

Adventure on the Big Wheel!

Hello friends and family, I had a couple of pictures on my phone from some recent events in October and November, and thought I had better blog about them ASAP! Bad form on the blog vacation, I know :) 

You might remember my new friend Michelle Ryan that I mentioned last post, well, she and three of her friends recently completed a serious undertaking recently for charity (Bone Marrow for Leukaemia) that consisted of spending 24 hours straight in a pod on the Dublin Big Wheel to set a Guinness World Record for longest time on a Ferris Wheel (which was invented in Chicago during the World's Fair in 1893, by the way, little tid-bit for ya.) Let me reiterate, 24 hours in that tiny-ass pod pictured below. 

Dublin Big Wheel Pod

Peadar's sister Catherine and I donated a few bob (money) to support the cause, which entitled us to go down to the Point and go for a spin on the wheel with them. Well let me tell you Michelle Ryan is a  far braver woman than I.

Funny side-story: While C-Bone (Catherine's married last name is Bowens, pronounced Bones, so that's what you get for a nickname) and I were waiting for Michelle's pod to come around so we could board, there was a cool looking dad with his two kids, a girl about 7-8 and a boy maybe 4-5. Well the dad had already purchased tickets for the kids to go on the wheel, and the little girl was dying to get on the ride, but the little boy was absolutely terrified and screaming his head off begging his dad not to go. This was going on for about 15 minutes while we were waiting and we started debating what the proper thing to do as a parent is here. Do you: A) Force your son to go on the ride and scar him for life? B) Let your daughter go on the big wheel by herself in one of the pods with only women from the charity (read: strangers) in it? At least then you know they aren't going anywhere with your child. C) Go with the daughter on the wheel ride and leave your son at the base of it with the charity organizer (also a woman, but still, a stranger) and risk potential kidnapping? Or finally, D) Take both the kids home and scar your daughter for life for taking her to the wheel but then not actually letting her go on it? What would YOU do?

Anyway, I never thought of myself as afraid of Ferris wheels. I've gone on the giant one at Navy Pier in Chicago, and the London Eye in the UK. I don't remember being scared. So what changed? I stepped into the pod completely confident. Then as we started to wheel around, taking a few pictures, delivering the care package of chocolate and magazines we brought the girls, laughing... the conversation turned to the quality of the building material of the Dublin Big Wheel.

Michelle Ryan on the far right and her friends who stayed on the wheel  for 24 hours

The girls started saying they were a bit freaked out their first hour or two, but had come around to the fact that they were relatively safe and had gotten use to the wheel creaking around turn after turn. But then they pointed out that rain water was leaking in. Yes, it had started to rain, and the wind was really picking up, and it was very dark. But you couldn't even tell it was dark because the windows were so fogged up and rain-streaked. Yes, the girls went on, rain was actually leaking into the pod from outside through parts where the metal had been welded together. My stomach started to get uneasy. Were we at the top? And then they started taking about how a wheel had never run for 24 hours straight before, so who's to say the motor could actually handle it? My stomach was feeling really tight, I had just eaten before we got on, maybe I was accidentally glutend? We had gone around 2x fully and were starting our 3rd turn upward. As we climbed and climbed, the wind really started to pick up howling and the wheel was creaking hard. We stopped about three quarters of the way up. I was ready to be sick. Then the wheel started going back down. I wondered out loud why it had changed direction? Sometimes it does that, the girls said. But then we stopped again, and started going back the original direction.

WTF, I am ready to get off this thing! But then the girls said sometimes the coordinators don't let you out until they can, because they can't keep stopping and starting the wheel. Or sometimes even if you wave at them like you want to get off, they can't see you because the window is so fogged up. With this news I sprang into action. As the wheel came back around the bottom, I started waving my hands at the operators for dear life. Let me off, let me off I was yelling! I wished the girls a hasty "good bye and good luck" and jumped out of that pod. I will never again be visiting the Dublin Big Wheel. That little boy was right.

Pic of the big wheel from the Gibson Hotel where C-Bone and I went for  a drink after our adventure. You can kind of see the rain in the glass but you will never be able to feel how windy it actually was. 

In equally adventurous news, one of my best friends Andrea Schnorr is getting married! She is the first of my core group of girlfriends from high school to tie the knot and we are so excited for her. The wedding is on my birthday (the ever-fabulous, July 27) next summer back in Chicago and I am a bridesmaid! We recently got the save-the-date magnet in the mail and are displaying it proudly on the fridge. I saw Andrea recently when I was home for Thanksgiving break and we all went out one evening for drinks. Her fiance Shawn decided he wanted to walk home from the bar (very responsible) and climbed a fence to get into his neighborhood, which is just around the corner from where we were. Apparently he landed on his ankle and broke his foot and now needs surgery (not very responsible, but love you Shawn). Andrea is getting to try out that "for better or worse" thing a little early ;)

Peadar pointing at the save-the-date magnet

Me and Pad, loving life

At the end of October, my company boxPAY exhibited at the Dublin Web Summit, which is this really innovative event in town that loads of important people in the tech world go to, like the Co-Founder of YouTube (and fellow Illini alumn) Jawed Karim. There I am below walking the step-and-repeat. A little nostalgic for my days back working at Aspen Peak Mag and Michigan Avenue Mag.

We were in the Start-Up Zone, which only allows for a small table and pop-up banner, but we utilized our red branding to stand out.

The coolest thing by far at the event was the Tweet Cafe. It was this type of vending machine with coffee and water and chocolate in it, but everything was free, and instead of typing in a selection on a keypad you tweeted @ their Twitter handle with a hash tag (#) saying which box you wanted open. Then it would just pop open! Very cool. 

To sign-off with I thought I would share a little cultural fact from this side of the pond with you. In Ireland it's socially acceptable to play the national lottery. In fact, people love it and play it regularly. Seriously, I was in the shop (Americans, read: convenience store) and you will see this well-dressed sharp looking business woman in heels paying for her salad and water at lunchtime, and then ask for a lottery ticket. It's hilarious. 

I've started buying scratch cards. 

Yup,

Amanda

Forever Fall

Someone recently described the weather to me in Dublin as "Forever Fall". So true! Sometimes the way it rains is more like spring but on the whole and whole it is like Forever Fall here. And Fall just happens to be my favorite season...

Remember my post awhile back about my 16 Euro dirty martini at the Westin? Well, I've topped it! At the Four Seasons premium cocktails are 20 Euro, and a Silver Margarita with Patron is 25 Euro! Now, I know it's the Four Seasons but how crazy is that! I'll tell you one reason why, alcohol is so expensive over here because they have taxed it to the max. A bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey is cheaper in America than over here. In Ireland. Wrap your head around that one! I think it's because there is a high rate of alcoholism here so they think if they keep taxing it that people can't afford to buy it. But I don't think that's working, I think the Irish authorities are just going to have a high rate of homeless, broke alcoholics if they keep this up. 

Fair play to the Four Seasons though because the dirty martini was delicious. Now if only I could find good sushi I'd be in heaven here.

The gardens at the Four Seasons are lovely, check out this man snoozing on a rare warm and sunny day here in Dubs. He's actually a bronze statue but looks pretty real at first glance.

Another shot from when my parents came and visited. My dad and the Whyte's dog Brandy. They look good together don't ya think?

Friend Brandy Whyte on Facebook, he's been blowing up the newsfeeds lately.

Yet another Keating to hit up Eddie Whyte for lessons in shot gunnery. Eddie was kind enough to bring my little brother Greg shooting when he was here visiting me. Greg wants to know who was better, himself or Kevin. Eddie was very PC and said they were both good, and we'll have to have a shoot out to decide!
  

I've joined the National Aquatic Center's master swim team. It has been a real struggle getting back into lap swimming, but it's nice to have a coach to give you sets and times. Plus it's been fun to meet new people. Most of the team are triathletes who want to get better at swimming, ex-swimmers like me, or even open water swimmers (open water as in the ocean... like people who swim the English channel). In the summer the NAC masters team trains in the ocean in Portmarnock ,which is right next to Malahide. Can't wait to try that out. The picture below is from the paper and is a bunch of people doing the Liffey swim. As in the River Liffey that runs through the middle of the city. Similar to the Chicago River for all my Illinois people out there. I can't even decide which one is dirtier.

Peadar got up one morning at like 6AM to watch Ireland in the Rugby World Cup, since they were playing in New Zealand. Think he could get any closer to the TV?

A couple of swans in Grand Canal Quay...very different to the flooding that went down in the Quays this past week.

I found a mini-Peadar by the crosswalk coming home from work the other day. See the resemblance?

I was being touristy on my way out of town and took a pic of the ole Samuel Beckett Bridge. I will put together a little list of all the check box places you must see whilst visiting in Dubs.

News update: I have friends now! Well 2/3 girls below that are not me are related to Peadar so they have to be nice to me, but one isn't! Her name is Michelle Ryan and she is on the left in the red. Next to me on the right is Pad's cousin Fiona Whyte and his sister Catherine. Together we form the Dirty Thursday club which meets every second week for some shenanigans. Sometimes it's on Friday at which point it becomes the Frisky Friday club. Anyway, great girls, great times, can't wait for this week! :)

This blog has some old pictures (shame on me for not being on the ball, no pun intended) but a few weeks ago Peadar's Gaelic football club won the cup final. Mass drinking ensued.

Pad came home that night at like 3AM and "murdered" a block of cheese. I took about 10 pictures of him chowing down until he finally looked up, caught like a deer in the headlights!!

To sign off, Ciaran (pad's bro) and Jane (his GF and my friend) stayed over recently and played a little prank on me and Pad by creating a full blown image of a blackhawk hockey player in the bed. Luckily it didn't scare me, which it easily could have seeing as how I've been watching too many true crime shows on TV lately. :)

Happy (belated)  Halloween! 

XOXO

Amanda

Cheerio Parents!

Hello to all my friends and family around the world! Lots to update you on from the Keating/Whyte front. The Dub's won the All-Ireland Final, Peadar's parents and mine have met, we all lived to tell about it, we jet-skied the Irish Sea, and more.

To start you off with, check out a classy picture of my lovely boyfriend enjoying a glass of pino grigo after a hard won football match. Very manly ;)

Recently we went to a "blessing of the graves" which is an Irish Catholic tradition. Once a year the priest does a service in the graveyard by the church for all those who have passed on. It was very interesting as I had never been to anything like it. Everyone gathers around and there is a little trailer where the choir sings from and the mass is done on loudspeaker. I thought it was nice to dedicate some time to people who have died... it's comforting to know that even if you are gone you will still be remembered.

As I mentioned before, The Dubs (Dublin County Team) won the All-Ireland final, which is like the Superbowl of GAA. Below is a picture of Peadar and I getting breakfast into us before the game and a subsequent all-day session of celebrating! We got really good seats from Peadar's GAA club and were sitting in the Davin stand, which is like the endzone if you were comparing it to American football.

This past weekend my parents came into town, and we also had the wedding of Louise Whyte and Darragh Mannion. So the wedding ended up being where my parents and Peadar's parents met each other. Louise was kind enough to invite my parents to the "afters". Irish weddings are very different from American ones, they are a flat out party and the dancing and drinking continues until at least 6 in the morning usually. They are divided into two parts, 1) the wedding ceremony, drinks reception, and dinner and 2) the subsequent party of drinking and dancing, also called "the afters". You could theoretically be invited to a full wedding, or just the "afters". Since most weddings are well over 200 people here, it's a way to include people in the fun without having so shell out loads more money. 

 Since I am super pale these days (shouts out to Irish weather), I went for a spray tan the day before the wedding, and I didn't know you weren't supposed to shave your legs or put lotion on before you do that. So my tan ended up being reallly streaky... see picture below. 

It was a total nightmare, especially because ever since I moved here, I have been very aware of the fake tanning industry going on in this country (it's a basic requirement for women because there is very little UV action happening on this island) and am sometimes critical of others tan job. For example, when girls feet are overly tanned and orange and they look like they have a disease. Or the other day I saw a girl wearing shorts and she had very tan legs but pale arms. What the hell? There should be legislation regulating the fake tanning in this country. In Ireland, for a proper tan you either do it yourself (self-tan), or go to the salon where you have to get semi-naked and have some young one (judge you) and spray you down with an airbrush. There are no self-service booths like in the USA. Anyway, I came home freaking out, ready to actually not go to the wedding. But luckily Peadar worked some magic with a self-tanning mitt and evened things out. It looked fine the morning on the wedding. You can now add beautician to his long list of skills and talents: farmer, footballer, musician, beautician. Quadruple threat.

The bride Louise looked beautiful, in Ireland most of the brides I've seen have long traditional veils down the back to the floor and they don't wear them over their faces. The church was lovely, and all the guests had colorful outfits and swanky hair pieces.

 < Bridesmaids, not like the movie. More classy.

Later on in the night, about 3 AM, I was convinced Peadar needed to wear my headpiece and was harassing him for ages telling him he looked gorgeous. Doesn't he?

A pic of the parents, Peadar and I, also at 3 AM! Looking good, don't you think? ;) Anyway, so Kev and Suz meet Eddie and Mary and I think things went really well, considering the late hour and the cultural differences. It was surreal seeing everyone in the same place! Suz wanted to meet "as many Whytes as possible" and she was in the right place for that. I think she met about 150/230 people that was at that wedding, and quite literally almost the whole extended family - which is quite an accomplishment. And she will remember everyone's names too! Better than me anyway....

The castle we were at was Lough Rynn  and is a sister castle to Killronan, where Peadar's sister got married in March. This castle had the most amazing grounds and we took a little nature walk after the wedding and I felt like I was in the Secret Garden. Love that movie, btw.

Lastly, on Sunday, Peadar, Kevin and I went Jet-Skiing in the Irish Sea. It's hard to see in the picture below, but it was a cloudy and rainy day in Howth Harbour and I rented some 215 horsepower, huge, brand new jet skis from some semi-sketchy eastern Europeans. You can see the boat launch in the picture below.

Basically, these two guys were like, have you ever driven a jet-ski before? We were like yes... they said "Sign on dotted line so we not responsible if you die" and off we went! Now I have open-ocean jet-skied before in Maui, Hawaii, and there were some pretty big waves, but it was highly regulated and you generally had to drive around buoys in a big circle. Well this was completely unregulated! They basically said stay away from other boats, you can go all the way around Ireland's Eye, which is a big rock island, and have as much fun as you possibly can. Well we sure did! We were fighting the most massive waves ever and barely staying on our jet skis. I thought I was driving crazy then when we switched and Peadar started driving and I was on the back of ours, I was scared sh*tless! He almost threw us off in a major way! Good thing Mom was safe on dry land, having a glass of wine and reading her book at one of the restaurants. She would have died if she saw what we were up to. My friend Rachel Taggart would have absolutely loved this. It was pure adrenaline for a full hour. Kevin even managed to not listen to the easy-going guidelines, went to close to shore and beached himself, but he was lucky Peadar and another guy helped him push the jet ski back into the water. We wore wet-suits and weren't too cold, but next time we are taking a tube out behind the jet-ski, which is meant to be freaking freezing but a lot of fun. Not sure I would want to fall off the tube in the waves we were in though, it would be tough enough not to get swept away and get back on it! Serious adventure in Ireland....

More for you next week, I've got loads more pictures too!

XOXO

Keating

And I thought Chicago was the the Windy City...

Thursday, September 15th at 1:11, I just had one of those moments... I got a new office chair at work, and the seat is much shorter than my old one. I went to sit down and completely missed it and fell on the floor! It would have been totally embarrassing, but everyone was at lunch so no one saw! Well, it's embarrassing now that I have shared it with you. My rib cage, and head, actually hurt from the impact, haha. Regardless of injury, it's still funny. 

On Monday here it was the windiest day of my life in Ireland, gale force winds left over from Hurricane Kathy which never made landfall on the other side of the pond. Check out her path below:




Apparently hurricanes begin off the coast of Africa, travel up North America, then come full circle around to harass Ireland with their winds. People were like literally being blown around on the streets. Chicago is meant to be the Windy City, but Ireland as a country is entirely more windy than even the most intense wind tunnels in-between Chicago skyscrapers. But a little Chi-City trivia for you, the "Windy City" is not actually referring to the weather but to the "hot air" (i.e. exaggerations) the politicians exuded in the bid to have the World's Fair in Chicago in the late 1800's. It's also said to have began with a rivalry between Cincinnati and Chicago journalists taunting each other in the headlines of newspapers. But the true origin is often contested, as with most nicknames, it's hard to remember how or who started them. And since the weather is actually pretty windy in Chicago, the nickname stuck.

World's Fair Colombian Expedition in Chicago 1893

One nickname I wouldn't want is "Angel Faced Killer". Many of you have probably heard of Amanda Knox, the American exchange student (wrongly) being held in Italian prison along with 2 others for the murder of her UK roommate that occurred when they were both studying abroad in Perguia. After being in prison for 4 years, her appeal has finally been heard, and a decision about her acquittal could be made any day now. A naive, aloof, and with a flaky personality, Amanda did herself no favors in convincing the fantastical Italian authorities that she is innocent. But the DNA evidence does not lie. I am in the middle of a great new book, "The Fatal Gift of Beauty: Trials of Amanda Knox" by Nina Burleigh, an investigative journalist. After I ordered it and opened to the cover, I was thrilled to find that the author (another investigative journalist) of the book "The Monster of Florence" Douglas Preston had fully endorsed Nina's book. Monster of Florence is an amazing labor of effort that covers the Italian investigation and subsequent trials of various people in the case of a serial killer that stalked the hills of Tuscany in the 70's and 80s. The book reveals the numerous and frustrating flaws in the Italian justice system and the paranoid delusion of it's chief prosecutor, Giuliano Migini. I highly recommend these books as great reads, and interesting true stories, and a stark reminder to American and Irish citizens that you do not take your rights with you (as my mother, the lawyer, always use to tell me) when you leave the country. So be mindful of local policies, customs, and law when you go abroad, have adventures but be smart. Even in countries that are romanticized like Italy that appear 1st world, but actually have 2nd world justice and legal systems. I've seen too many episodes of Locked Up Abroad to be blase. Ever see Brokedown Palace?

On a lighter note, last weekend we went to a benefit at the GAA (remember, Gaelic football) club for a fellow that played football in the 90's who now has Motor Neuron Syndrome. I never mind knocking a few back for a good cause, and had never been inside the club house at Clan Muire (Peadar's local club) before. Surprise...the bar is made of potato boxes. Whyte Brothers potato boxes you better believe.

This was taken the night before Ireland played the USA in Rugby. I decided to support Ireland and wear my green dress, green nail polish, and then drink orange cocktails in order to support my new allegiance to Ireland with their national colors. It was Rugby so I didn't care. I still support the USA in matters more important.

See the WB etched into the box on the left hand side of the bar? That's a potato box from the farm.

Peadar heard today that he got tickets for the GAA final which is basically the Superbowl of GAA, and its Country Dublin vs. County Kerry, guess which team we'll be rooting for? "Com'on you boys in blue!" is the saying (Blue is Dublin's county color.) The whole town is buzzing in anticipation on Sunday's game. I'm taking Monday off. Guess why.

Amanda Lynch, Peadar, and I at a Dublin GAA game in '09

Catch ya on the flip side.

XOXO

Amanda