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Posts Tagged ‘North Tipperary’

Our BnB Summer

Posted in Home, tagged , , , , , , , on August 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Continuing with how busy this summer has been….

Despite a very slow start on our bookings via AirBnB, once May arrived bookings started to come quick and fast.  And, in fact, kept coming right through to last week.

Now all has gone quiet, but hopefully it will pick up again.

In previous years our guests have been predominantly from US and Canada, but this year visitors have been mainly from Europe, with the occasional Australian or American thrown in too.

Initially I thought that maybe Americans were not travelling because it is an election year, but having discussed it with those who did visit, it seems Americans are afraid of terrorism attacks in Europe.

Isn’t it strange how perspectives can be so diverse?  From here looking on, we’d probably think going to a nightclub or a shopping mall in US could be more dangerous than visiting a city in Europe.  As I say, all about perspective.

As always we have met such lovely people.  Sometimes within minutes of people arriving you feel like you’ve just met an ‘old friend’.  We’ve had some great evenings of chat and banter sitting around the kitchen table.

Friday night guests are usually treated to a visit to Lorrha GAA Club for the social dancing… always a great night…. sometimes a bit of a culture shock for guests.

Thank you so much to all the lovely guests who took time out of their vacation, or the busy lives when they got home to post reviews…. they are very much appreciated.  This one from an Irish guest won our hearts though.

Guest review

Guest review

As bookings were so slow to come in via AirBnB – which has more to do with North Tipperary not being a ‘tourist destination’ than anything else – we decided to look at some of the other platforms out there.  Did you know that there are so many?

We recently had our first booking via Homestay.  I had forgotten that we had even registered on there back in 2013!  It has taken 3 years for us to get a booking… however, it was worth the wait, again we met a lovely couple from Ballymena.

Other platforms include TripAdviser, Wimdu and Flipkey.

Have you ever used any of these platforms?  Which are your favourites?

And, as always, we’d be forever grateful if you can share or recommend us to travelling family and friends.

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Limerick Foodies Expo

Posted in Business & Work, tagged , , , , , , , on March 4, 2012| 5 Comments »

I am sure it must happen to others…. you haven’t been somewhere for an age, and then suddenly you are there so may times!

That is what has happened here.  We had not been to Limerick since November – then we’ve been twice in the past two weeks!  Our last trip there was this past week when we travelled for the Foodies Expo.  We had heard about it through our local County Enterprise Board, so figured we’d give it a try.

As it was almost like a day off, we headed away early and stopped at La Cucina for lunch on the way.  This was only our third attempt to get to La Cucina and our luck was in this time round!  We managed to have a very quick lunch there – it would have been nice to have had more time to sit and chill (and maybe even have a glass of wine).  Next time!  Alfie declared the pizza excellent – even better than his own – now that’s some praise!  Pizza

Italia Ciabatta

We did come away with a few goodies tho!  I am waiting patiently for my rocket to grow so I can have a nice Bresaola Salad. 🙂

Bresaola and Salami

Then it was off to the exhibition.

We weren’t sure what to expect but well done to the organisers. It was really worth the trip.  For us, it proved to be a great opportunity to network and meet with various suppliers.

Had a couple of long chats with lots of different traders – but one of the most interesting (for me anyway) was chatting with Muireann from North Tipperary Food Works.  A clever idea they have there…. an HSE fully approved kitchen that food producers can rent by the hour!  No excuse if you live in the area (near Rearcross) – the rent is nominal (€15 ph) and the kitchen has full approval.

There was a ‘break out’ section too, where interesting talks were going on.  We had hoped to catch Peter Ward’s (Country Choice) talk but just as Peter was starting we bumped into old friends who we hadn’t seen in 10 years!

Ireland really is such a small country! You really never know when you are going to bump into people.

When we’d last met Frank and Grainne it was probably over a late glass of wine in Malahide.  So we had a very very quick catch up with them!  Good to hear that they’ve now got a restaurant The Beach House in Bray – which of course we will have to go visit sometime.

We did get to hear Sully of Cully & Sully talk.  Sully was kind enough to share his thoughts on costing and cashflows – and tell us of their experience and lessons learnt.

Unfortunately the feeding routine back home meant we couldn’t stay about to hear Bobby Kerr speak.

Again well done to all involved.

There should be more of these type of events around the country.  There was such a positive vibe for the afternoon.  If you see something like this in your area get along to it.

Well worth a second trip to Limerick.

 

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English… as she is spoken!

Posted in Home, tagged on April 18, 2010| 1 Comment »

We are all familiar with the way ‘words’ can be used in a different way by differing nations.  We, Irish, will use the word ‘dear’ to mean expensive which puzzles our American friends; or the English will use ‘naughty’ and we will use ‘bold’ to mean the same thing.

Well since moving to North Tipperary we’ve had to adjust our language too!  Who would have thought that moving 100 miles could mean learning to use language differently!

Here are some examples…..

‘the finest’…. now that is used an awful lot.  It is used in response to ‘how are you’? It can also describe  a car, a cow, a garden, a situation…. you name it…. it is ‘the finest’.

‘tasty’….. this took me a while to get used to!  To me ‘tasty’ is used to describe food. Not hereabouts!  A tractor can be ‘tasty’.  A ploughed field can be ‘tasty’.  A man’s work can be ‘tasty’ – be that ploughing the field or building a wall!  It’s all ‘tasty’.

‘the woman’…. this I found totally insulting the first time I heard it used!  But somehow you have to get over it – it’s not meant to be rude or insulting.  ‘the woman’ … is the wife!

And the best description I’ve heard in a long time, I heard yesterday.

To describe someone who is mean…. ‘he is so tight, that his a— squeaks’!

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Spring has sprung!!!

Posted in Garden, tagged , , , on February 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

We’ve just had two beautiful days on the trot here in North Tipperary.  Sunshine and clear blue skys – it would definitely lift the spirits.  Even though it is still quite cold, I have taken the opportunity to get outside.

This morning I got to take some photographs of the snowdrops.  Aren’t they the most delicate of flowers?  You would wonder how such tiny, delicate things can be the first to appear at the coldest time of the year.

Snowdrops

Snowdrops 2

Walking around the garden today, everything is starting to bud which is wonderful, but everything is also much later than in previous years.  The crocus are beginning to come on. The yellow ones are in full flower, but the purple ones are only just starting to appear.

As for the daffodils – they are way behind on previous years.  They would normally be in full bloom by St. Patrick’s Day, but I can’t see that happening this year.  The flower heads don’t even seem to be fully formed.

I will keep you posted tho!

How does your garden grow?

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