Pop that cork!

We almost didn't make it down to Cork, My boyfriend's job seems to be under jeopardy at the moment, well we have known this for quite awhile, The restaurant has got quieter and quieter as the weeks go by. Theres always been something to blame it on,

for instance, the bad weather is keeping people away since they have stopped doing delivery,

last week was back to school time and parents obviously didn't have any money left.

 I want this bag

but then this weekend it got considerably worse, we saw the restaurant is up for sale on Daft.ie, and they haven't even told my boyfriend or any of the staff there Then to put the cherry on the cake, they didn't pay him this week.

Which meant Cork was more or less out of the question. :( until my Mom finally agreed to pay for half of the hotel and I used some spare cash I had in my post office account and off we went.

Off we set we got the bus from Dublin to cork, and as usual were late, and ended up getting the worst seats on the whole bus, second from the back, with an extremely noisy and drunk, rude polish man behind us, who was more of a Dub than the Dubs themselves.

We couldn't wait to get away from him and rush off the bus and head to our lovely hotel, The Gresham Metropole. very nice hotel, although a little noisy at night time, We went to Tasty Oriental for dinner. It was really good and very reasonable 35 euro for 2 people. 3 courses.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, (because of the traffic outside) and had our traditional irish breakfast.

Then headed off into the city to explore, we went to the English market, then to St. Fin Barres Cathedral, University College Cork (I have to say it is almost as big as UCD) then we went to an art gallery which my boyfriend loved, it wasn't like a traditional gallery you would see in France, it was much more contemporary.

English Market

University College Cork

St Fin Barres Cathedral

Art Gallery

We were planning to go to FItzgerald park and Mueseum, but it started lashing raining and we were starving, so we gave it a miss, but sure theres always next time.

We got on our bus at 6 and were glad to see their were no drunk polish men around. We made it back to Bray at 12 and I crashed out on the bed straight away my poor little legs were walked off me!! lol

The missing bag?

Last Sunday was Edisons farewell lunch as I mentioned but I didn't really talk much about it. We went to a buffet restaurant in the city centre called Jimmy Chungs and to be honest it generally has a pretty good reputation amongst Irish and Chinese, As buffets go it is usually viewed as one of the better ones.

However the day after the buffet I got sick Nancy got sick and on Friday Michelle told me Edison got sick, so I guess the food wasn't as good as we thought it was... but to be honest I've heard rumours about buffets, they recycle the food, if there are food left over one day they reheat it the next day.

Well at least thats what happened in the buffet restaurant in bray and it quickly got shut down by the Health and Safety Authority, but I guess it must b difficult to prove..

Anyway directly after the buffet lunch we were all fine and I went shopping with Edison to help him pick out some gifts for his friends and family in China, we started with the typical suvenirs shops and then gradually went to other clothes shops like Footlocker, Topman, Lifestyle sports, Champion sports, River island and unfortunately Next.

Whilst shopping he bought one of those small hand luggage suitcases which you pull along and as he bought things he put them in there which was pretty convienent. Anyway "Next" was the last shop we went into before we bought ice creams :) and he bought a lovely grey sweatshirt for 35 euro.one of the most expensive things he bought all day.

Then we bought our ice cream and went upstairs and sat down and at them.

Then we went shopping again and headed for the bus and said our farewells and I got on my bus and he got on his and I thought that would be the last time I would see him again until China. 

Then on Wednesday night at 1.30AM luckily my phone was on silent and I didn't wake up, he text me to tell me he had some bad news he can't find the grey sweatshirt @.@ he'd searched everywhere and nope!

then on Wednesday I met him in the college cantine and told me he still couldn't find it. then we said goodbye again and I said good bye to Jia Qi and went home.

Then on friday I had one last excursion with Michelle we went to see Harry Potter 8 that was my third time seeing it, but i didn't want to tell her i had already seen it... because she was waiting for me to go and see it... we went to see Harry Potter 7 together so its only right that we see the last one together. It kind of set the mood for the good bye the end of an era, end of Harry potter the end of michelle's time in Ireland.

I'll miss her

All smurfed out!

Too be honest I haven't really seen any cartoon movies that I've liked since Tangled, as Megamind was a bit of a disappointment and Kung fu panda 2 was just ok. Basically they all put me off going to see cartoon movies.

But then at the start of the summer my brother told the family that his girlfriend loves smurfs, (this was way before there was any word about the movie) then when we went on holidays to Italy, my brother spent most of the holiday buying smurf related souvenirs for his girlfriend such as

a Smurf Blanket

Smurf balls

Smurf comic books (in italian which he translated when we got home)

Smurf pencils

Smurf tshirt

Then a few weeks after we got back from our holidays and I found out that there was going to be a new Smurf movie. A smurf epidemic was about to start.

Then I saw pictures of Katy Perry at the premier where a smurf dress. Then I knew I have to see this movie! So today me my friend Nancy and Michelle went to see it. The beginning was very good, but parts of the middle were a bit boring.but overall it was pretty good.

Then after the movie we went to a korean bbq restaurant for dinner ^^ But it was a bit sad because this is probably the last dinner for the 3 of us in Ireland anyway, Michelle is going back to China for good next Sunday. Tomorrow I have another fair well lunch tommorrow, My friend Edison is going back to china on the 18th of August

 So basically I will be eating all weekend lol

Foody issues

Previously I wrote a huge long list of all the different food that I don't like, don't worry I am not going to mention them all again if your really interested you can click here, but if there is one thing regarding food that I don't like, its people telling me what I should or shouldn't like. That really pisses me off! and I really like to beat those people.

When I was with my ex boyfriend, he used to go to a Chinese Breakfast buffet with his friends and he always used to talk about how much he liked it. Then one time I asked him can I go with you guys? and he said "No this is only for Chinese people, I have never seen any foreigners eating it. you definitely wouldn't like it.

This made me more and more curious to try it, so almost straight away after we broke up, I invited another Chinese friend to go, and surprise, surprise I liked it.

Another time I was with my boyfriend, we went to a restaurant and my boyfriend was ordering in Chinese. One of the things he tried to order was pork and seafood soup. Then the waitress stopped him and said "Foreigners don't like this soup maybe you should pick something else" then my boyfriend explained what she had said and I being stubborn said no lets just order the soup. I refused to be defeated.

As I mentioned me and Nancy got off to a rocky start on Friday, and it continued to get even more rocky when lunch time came around. We decided to go to Super Mac's (Ireland's answer to KFC) we wanted chicken, but when we got there, we realized all the meals were ridiculously overpriced. 7.50 for a snack box with 2 pieces of Chicken, chips and a regular coke. 8.00 for a lunch box meals with 3 pieces of chicken chips, coke.

So we decided to share a lunch box and get an extra coke and paid 5 euro each, not bad eh, it came with 2 chicken breasts and a chicken drumstick. straight away Nancy went for a chicken breast and I decided to take the chicken drumstick... then she said "oh no you should have the chicken breast, Foreigners don't like chicken on the bone. Oh do they not?

So I reluctantly went for the chicken breast. in fact I don't like Chicken breast's, my moms been cooking that for me all my life, and I always think its the most plainest bland, boring meat. Whenever me and my boyfriend go to KFC we always say we don't want any chicken breasts,  I guess I am a weird "Foreigner"

I finished my chicken breast first and then Nancy said well you can take the chicken drumstick if you want cause your finished first, she had only eaten half of her chicken breast, Then she said or maybe you could have the rest of my chicken breast and I will have the drumstick.. I don't really like Chicken breast because it tastes a bit boring, I accepted,

According to my boyfriend I am weak. I just think I am amicable.

Birthday fun!

I know I kept this on the down low, but yesterday was in fact my birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Basically I woke up yesterday morning and my boyfriend made me some pancakes and some hot chocolate for Breakfast.

Then we went out for a walk and decided we would try climbing Bray Head again but go a different route this time, but unfortunately... As we were nearing the sea front a big huge black cloud appeared

so then we decided to call in and visit some friends. We had some Chinese Jelly there. It's weird it comes in a tube like a cool pop. Actually it comes in all different shapes, like Cats, Sea horses, mice fruit. Etc and they come in all different flavours such as Strawberry, Mango, Lychee, Pineapple & Banana

If you want to see more check this website Zuozuo Jelly

 My friends son Yi Bing

Here is me and my friends daughter Yi Han

Then we went for a walk down the sea front and walked around the harbour looked at the incredibly noisy swans,

We went back to the apartment and freshened up then my boyfriend said he wanted to find the best Chinese restaurant in Bray for us to go to. We went into about 4 different ones. The first one was incredibly overpriced.  we would be better off going to an Irish restaurant, if we had to pay that much, Then we looked in a Chinese restaurant that we had never been in and they didn't have a "Chinese" menu. It was purely take away style.

Then we looked in another restaurant the food was reasonably priced but all the tables were on top of each other my boyfriend said he didn't want us eating in a canteen. Then finally we found the perfect one. Ying Yang Chinese Restaurant.

Most people will know this already but it your finding trying to find a good Chinese restaurant outside of China of course, A key indicator of a restaurant being good is if they have a Chinese version of the menu (written in Chinese)

Secondly if there are actually Chinese or even Asian people eating in the restaurant.

Thirdly this is not always true, but if the restaurant looks quite shabby with quite old mismatched furniture, its likely to be family run and will have quite traditional food. and traditional food is always better than Chinese Take away style food.

Sweet and sour chicken is not traditional, The best place to find traditional Chinese food in Ireland is in Parnell street and Capell street  in Dublin, City centre, Some restaurants in my hometown Bray have traditional food if you inquire such as China Kitchen.

Anyway back to the dinner, I let my boyfriend order because sadly most restaurants don't translate the Chinese version of the menu into English and a lot of dishes are left out in the English menu what a pity!

We had Prawn Wonton Soup.

Crispy Ribs 

Sweet and Sour Sea bass

Yummy!!! My favourite was the Sea Bass, Most Irish people don't like fish but I usually love it!

and my Birthday Celebrations are continuing today. Its a tradition in my family that the Birthday Girl or Boy gets to choose which restaurant they want to go to for their Birthday dinner. So we are having my Birthday dinner today because.... Its mothers day and my dad wanted to include my Grandma, which I was fine with. So I am thinking Italian today!!