Eating West Cork: Cabin Fever

All readers in Ireland are well aware of the weather conditions. It has been quite cold and much of the country is covered in a lot of snow. It has now mostly melted in Kinsale but roads were bad enough all week that the girls’ school remained closed. All three of them ended up sick at home anyway with some bug that is going around so snow playing was seriously curtailed. The car remained in the driveway unmoved nor started for seven full days and of course then would not start but friendly neighbor helped me out getting it going again.

So a week of plenty of playing Connect 4, Guess Who and watching way too much television. Speaking of which I bought a Logitech Harpmony 650 remote and it has changed our lives! For years been listening to folks telling me how these remotes are game changes and they really are. If you have lots of remotes and lots of stuff under your TV then do go buy one. I promise you will not regret it! The other game changer is setting up a DLNA server in the house and streaming all your movies, audio and pictures over your home network. I am using TVMOBiLi which a free DLNA server and it works quite well especially for the Mad Men marathons Gwen and I have been doing. We have now seen Series 1, 2 and 3.

With all the snow and ice we have been surviving from the freezer and walks to shops into the town for dinner so nothing very exciting has been cooked in a while. We have been enjoying a whole new range of delicious cheeses from a place called The Quay Food Company. It is a tiny deli in the town owner and run but a really nice chap who really knows good cheese. He mostly sells small independent farmhouse Irish cheese but has some nice French ones too. Been popping in buying what he recommends (usually three small pieces at a time) and get to taste ten more while waiting!

So that’s all. It has all been very quite and we are mostly stuck indoors due to the weather and sick little girls. The only other news is that the girls Elf that used to visit them in Dallas each Christmas arrived a few days ago here in Cork. He is the “Elf on the Shelf” and flys in early each morning, sits on a ledge somewhere different each day and keeps on eye on them for Santa.

PS: I heard a very funny conspiracy theory as to why it is so unusually cold in Ireland on radio the other day. The theory being that the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has screwed up the Gulf Stream which normally keeps Ireland warm in winter!