Love

“Love is hard. If it was easy, it wouldn’t mean nothing, no.” (James Morrison)

Carpe Diem

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.

                                    James Dean

 

This is a quote I have stumbled across many times. It always sounded so right and reasonable. But now I ask myself: how can I live as I’ll die today? What would I do if I knew this was my last day on earth?

 

If I would know for sure, I would probably fly home to spend my last day with my parents and just do a lot of crazy things I normally wouldn’t alow myself to. But when you’re stuck in the daily grind it feels like you can’t escape and there are just too many days that resemble each other. Days when you try to think back “what did I do two days ago?” you can’t even remember, because nothing relevant or life-changing happened. And yet – if we wouldn’t go to work, wouldn’t write bachelor thesis, and all those things – we might have a great today but not a great tomorrow.

 

I think you can never truly live like it’s your last day (except on holidays), but you should always try to accomplish small goals every day and see or speak to different friends and family ever day – that really makes the real deal for me.

SoCook! brings social networking back to real life

How many of your facebook friends are your real friends? With how many friends have you recently interacted?

Socializing goes back to the most basic needs of everyone: empathy, comfort and togetherness. In order to enhance socialising in real life, SoCook! offers a new gastronomic experience: a location to cook with friends and other networking people. The SoCook! Concept shifts online social networking into real life experiences.

The SoCook! concept is part of a University of Brighton project. It proposes a concept relating to a trend or issue of significance to the hospitality sector.

 

If you would like to find out more and join our socializing cooking community, we’re looking forward to meet you on https://www.facebook.com/socooking.

Maybe I’m just in love when you wake me up

I just wanted to tell the world how much I appreciate Ed Sheeran’s music! His lyrics reveal many beautiful secret messages that you will understand when listening carefully.

This is my favourite quote from the song Wake Me Up:

“So I take you to the beach,

and walk along the sand, And I’ll

make you a heart pendant,

with a pebble held in my hand.

And I’ll carve it like a necklace,

so the heart falls where your chest is,

And now a piece of me, is a piece of the beach,

and it falls just where it needs to be,

and rests

peacefully.

So you just need to breathe,

to feel my heart against yours now, against yours now.”

My favourite pubs in Dublin

Dear readers

I know I have been writing a lot about Ireland lately and this is due to me having actually moved to a place near Dublin! I have a couple of weeks left until I will move back to Germany. But before I leave, I definitely owe you a recommendation for the best places, so the best pubs, in Dublin! (This is basically what I have been doing a lot lately: trying to discover as many pubs as possible.)

Please – if you have tried the pubs I am writing about tell me how you like them!

1. The Bernard Shaw (11 South Richmond Street)

“Bar. Cafe. Creative Space….Musically, we cover a lot of bases. Events-wise, on any given day you could walk into a back yard Carboot Sale, an exhibition launch, a marathon 10hr set from a Detroit DJ legend, a hot-tub party, dinner on a double decker bus, a live show from emerging Dublin bands, graffiti battles, jazz band in the smoking yard, or even just a simple pint of plain and a chat. ” (http://www.facebook.com/thebernardshaw/info) I found this place to be very extraordinary – you will find everything you are looking for and nothing you would have expected. The people in there are everything but ordinary and you will find a lot of creativity everywhere. My recommendation: go there in the night to have a pizza in the double decker bus and party and come back the next morning for one of the best coffees in town!

2. Flannery’s (6 Camden Street Lower)

“Quaint looking from the outside, Pure craic on the inside, Flannery’s has gained institutional status and is somewhat of a right of passage for those visiting our city.” (http://www.flannerysdublin.com/about_us.php) Flannery’s is more than just an ordinary pub. As soon as you enter, you can find very enjoyable and good-humoured people. The music is more joyful than in other pubs, you can sit at the bar for a pint and a good chat, dance or enjoy yourself in its beer garden.

3. Anseo (18 Camden Street Lower)

“Anseo, an old traditional pub transformed into a exciting modern music bar. The bar started attracting a steady clientele of young trendy suburbanites and clubbers with an excellent selection of Dublin’s DJs spinning vinyl in the bar over the weekend.” (http://www.dublinks.com/dublin-pubs-bars/anseo.php) It’s the first pub I have found that has its walls full of bookshelves! In the evening it’s lit only with fairy lights and sets the inside in a very cosy, familiar and almost romantic atmosphere. The music (most of the times they have live DJs) is a modern kind of electro lounge music which fits perfectly to the whole pub. My recommendation: probably a perfect spot for a first date or to hang out with friends after work!

4. Dicey’s Garden (21-25 Harcourt St.)

Situated in the Russel Court Hotel, Dicey’s garden is a bar, pub and nightclub all in one. It has a bar area inside on the ground floor with live music, a giant space outside with bars and dancefloors and also the krystle nightclub below. Dicey’s garden is perfect for wild parties and on Tuesday night it’s always packed, because of the 2€ specials.

5. Temple Bar (47-48 Temple Bar)

Temple Bar is probably the most well-known and popular pub in Dublin. It is famous for its excellent live music, a traditional Irish pub experience and fascinating vibes. Everyone, no matter how old, is singing or dancing along to the live music! Here you can find what we stereotypically think about the Irish: their welcoming, tolerant, funny and sincere nature.

And if you feel more like going into a stylish bar, this is the best bar I have found in my entire life:

37 Dawson Street

“All is not what it seems” is the motto of the brand new bar 37 Dawson street. If you have time, check out their pictures on facebook or have a look for yourself as soon as possible! This is so extraordinary, it is hard to describe it at all. My friend who has introduced me to the bar described it like this: “imagine a place like Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory”. This or a setting like in Alice in Wonderland would probably do. The cocktails are fantastic, the bartenders are ridiculously good, the music very pleasant and the clientele rather sophisticated. My recommendation: ask for their homemade candies consistent with your drink.

Photography

                                                                                                           – By chrisseyf

Homemade Ice Tea Recipe

As spring has already offered us many warm and sunny days, I have started to make my homemade ice tea again. So give it a try, take it outside along with a book and sunglasses and enjoy the lovely weather!

Preparation time: 5 minutes (when tea is cold)

Serves: 2-4 people

Ingredients: 4 bags of black tea (I prefer Darjeeling), 1-2 lemons, 4-6 teaspoons sugar, ice cubes

Preparation method: Boil approx. 1,5 litres of water and fill it in a tea pot with 4 bags of black tea (preferably Darjeeling). Put at least 4 teaspoons of sugar in it and stir it well. Leave the tea bags in for at least 10 minutes, to ensure that the tea is very strong. After 30-60 minutes (when the tea is cold), pour the tea in a big glass jar. Half the lemon and squeeze one half in the glass jar. Then (wash and) cut the other half into slices and put them in, too. Put lots of ice cubes in it and in the end try it and add more sugar or lemon juice according to your taste. To be served in big water glasses with ice cubes or/and slices of lemon. Enjoy!

Ridiculously Photogenic Guy on TV

Okay – we see you really admire the ridiculously photogenic guy. We don’t want to deprive you of his television appearance anymore and now show you the video. It appeared on ABC News in “Good Morning America” three days ago. Have fun! (I have to admit I already watched it twice…)

 

 

How far would you go to find the man of your dreams?

“As the singer in a wedding band, Romily Parker has seen her fair share of happy endings, even though her own love life isn’t quite as    simple. On the last Saturday before Christmas, (shortly after disastrously declaring her love for best friend Charlie), Romily has a brief encounter with a handsome stranger whose heart-stopping kiss changes everything. Determined to find him again, Romily embarks on a yearlong quest, helped (and sometimes hindered) by enthusiastic Uncle Dudley, cake-making Auntie Mags and flamboyant Wren. Will she find the man of her dreams? Or could true love be closer than she thinks?”

As I have just finished reading this wonderful story, I wonder how far you should go to find true love. In the novel, the leading character takes exactly one year to find a man who she met only for a couple of minutes at the Christmas market. When he kissed her, she had the feeling that their hearts knew each other for a long time and that they belong to each other. This was her magical moment, which led her to follow nothing but her heart for one year. I wonder – how many people would put such an effort into searching someone that they have met so briefly? Today, it feels like most of the people have nothing on their minds but their careers, caring too less about finding the one. It is too easy giving up so quickly and letting go of your hopes. Probably, most of the people would say that a yearlong search is a wasted year of their life. But I think there is nothing better than listening to your heart and do exactly what is right for you. In the end, it is not worth wasting your energy for things that you don’t truly believe in. Instead it is waiting for the right opportunities and maybe for the love of your life, that is worth it all.

Cliff walks in Ireland

#2 – Howth

Howth, or Binn Éadair as the Irish call it, is a very beautiful fishing village at the North of Dublin Bay. When you arrive there, you are instantly smelling the sea and everything that lives in it. Before starting the cliff walk, it is worth taking a look at the little harbour, where you can see seals at almost all times.

Being there for the second time, I wanted to take the chance and do the cliff walk along the stunning coastline. The starting point is just the hill up on the main street, where you need to walk at least half an hour on an asphaltic road, before the real cliff walk starts. Along this way you pass many little, romantic houses and some of them are so tiny I wonder what kind of people may live in there. Until this point everything about Howth just seemed magical – the fairy houses on the coast where you can hear birds sing over the sea… However, as I went further and the path started to be on the edge of the cliffs – again with no walls or any kind of safety – the heights scared me a lot. But when you can get a view like this, this is truly worth it. Then I had to face a long, adventurous walk, which took around 1,5 hours, and when I could see the light house, this was the end of the “easy” cliff walk. (At this point you can also decide to go further and do the advanced cliff walk that is 2 km longer.) The rest of the walk was just walking down the hill again on another asphaltic road back to the town centre. I must say – I loved that bit! Even though I couldn’t enjoy the view on the sea anymore, I got to see some of the most beautiful and enourmous houses I have ever seen! Since then, one of my biggest dreams became buying one of these houses and grow old in it…

The “easy” cliff walk in Howth:

- 6 km – takes about 2 hours

- wear trainers

- don’t do it if you are scared of heights or in case of bad weather conditions