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Craicnet

Unlocking Ireland - an unprecedented thread no. 6

996 replies

CherryValanc · 07/03/2021 06:23

A sixth thread in Craicnet!!

Who thought that would ever happen!!? Has there even been a sixth page before?

OP posts:
Apileofballyhoo · 20/03/2021 11:32

Also spent on food. Fancy organic things, artisan (hate that word for food) dressings and condiments. More expensive skincare items than I normally would. DH spent a lot on garden stuff. DS grew out of clothes and shoes that weren't at all worn but I didn't really notice how small everything had got because it's mostly tracksuit bottoms and hoodies and bare feet at home, and wellies for walking so I didn't realise his bottoms were all quite short with shoes and trainers! Had a look at his other clothes and realised everything was a bit small so had to buy quite a lot of new stuff all in one go, whereas I think usually I'd be replacing things because he's torn them. I bought myself a long warm coat for walking, seeing as there was feck all else to do! Don't really need it now until next year. And I spent much more on extended family Christmas and birthdays presents than usual, as everything was so crap - attempting to make it a bit nicer for people 'celebrating' in lockdown. Oh got the car fully valeted before the NCT. I'd never normally spend money on that. I suppose it's lots of things and it just adds up.

Also did a school tour to Fota in primary school!

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 20/03/2021 11:51

There's a new initiative that has started in my town called "Neighbour Food'. It's an online country market where you can place an order and collect your shopping at a distribution point. Lovely quality and it's easy to spend a good few euro.

My ds (15) needs new clothes too. If you have any recommendations of where to shop, Apile, I'd be happy to hear them.

eggandonion · 20/03/2021 12:06

The spuds from Neighbour Food are great! I am trying to limit it to once a month, it would be brilliant if we had visitors.
I'm so bored cooking I'm spending on any food that needs minimal preparation.

halfpasteleven · 20/03/2021 12:12

I've spent a fortune on clothes this lockdown. Clothes that I can wear so lounge wear mostly with a couple of "good" bits thrown in for work even though my work isn't strict at all about how we dress!
I'm fed up enough in lockdown so need something to cheer me up and some nice clothes help.

Also food.. I'm definitely buying more treats lately/ savoury and sweet..
Feck it- we deserve it !

FionaMacCool · 20/03/2021 12:15

Oh Lord, it's Reminiscence Alley in here.
Mount Melleray- tick
Fota- tick
School tours- tick

@LifeInAHamsterWheel tis far from notions I was reared! Grin

Neighbourfood is lovely. I am blessed to have 2 within my 5km.
I got the most gorgeous peonies from there last year.

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 20/03/2021 12:23

@eggandonion

The spuds from Neighbour Food are great! I am trying to limit it to once a month, it would be brilliant if we had visitors. I'm so bored cooking I'm spending on any food that needs minimal preparation.
Yes. I'm thinking once a month two. There's apple brandy from Longueville House near Mallow but it's 40 euro a bottle and I can't justify it. I tried the cider mór instead (8pc alcohol) and it was divine.
eggandonion · 20/03/2021 12:28

My two older kids are stranded in Dublin, and have no local neighbour food. They don't live in posh areas. They are really fed up with not being able to go anywhere. Ds and partner drove 5 km and walked into Grafton Street last week, got some food shopping and had coffee.

FionaMacCool · 20/03/2021 12:40

Fuzzy I havent tried the Longueville cider- I will splash out after Lent.

This stuff from Cork...... well, it's like cider-y 7-up. www.stonewellcider.com/news/stonewell-ros-stockists/
We really enjoyed it in the sunshine last year.

Iblinkedandiamold · 20/03/2021 13:25

I just had a great day, walking around quiet shops, (I'm convinced a lot of people here dont go out before 12pm)
I got some nice Easter Decorations in Dealz. My brother was visiting my parents with my nephews so I saw them for the first time since Christmas. We were able to sit outside.
The days not even half way done but I felt like it should be 5pm. Grin

Re school tours. I was in primary school in the 80s early 90s and we had great school tours. We went to Dublin zoo and the wax museum once. That was before the "good roads" it used to take nearly 3 hours to get there.
We went to Delphi too I think. We went somewhere with canoes.
We went to Mosney. Remember Mosney. And westport house with the pink Bunny.
Good times.

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 20/03/2021 13:27

@FionaMacCool

Fuzzy I havent tried the Longueville cider- I will splash out after Lent.

This stuff from Cork...... well, it's like cider-y 7-up. www.stonewellcider.com/news/stonewell-ros-stockists/
We really enjoyed it in the sunshine last year.

Fiona, go for the one with the 8pcWink

Yes, I like the Stonewall one too and the beer from Elbow Lane. Doing my bit to support the alcoholic craft industry Grin

Iblinkedandiamold · 20/03/2021 13:47

Oh, my money is disappearing on virtual runs. I've just entered another one. Grin

M0rT · 20/03/2021 14:19

We went to the CocoCola factory every year! There was a part where they would ask questions and anyone with the right answer won a can of coke.
By sixth class we were all going home with the equivalent of crates Grin

Apileofballyhoo · 20/03/2021 14:21

Oh God Neighbourhood food, yes to spending all the money. Also trying to limit it. It's weird but when I look at the stuff I think oh that's only a fiver, whereas a jar in supervalu I'd be raising my eyebrows at a fiver for a tiny jar of fanciness.

I'm also utterly sick of cooking egg but DS can't eat gluten so convenience is limited. I've taken to a lot of salad and fancy cheese with fancy dressing. I don't eat much meat but DH and DS are having steak a lot because I can't be bothered making an effort to cook something that requires more effort. DH is fond of the insanely good pepper sauce you can get in supervalu. Fry steak, heat sauce on pan, serve tasty dinner with no effort.

fuzzy DS is only 13 and doesn't really care what he wears as long as it's comfortable and boring boy colour, though he tolerates light blue, orange and red in tops. So I don't know if a 15 year old would be the same. I'm still able to buy from (older) kids ranges but I think mostly they just go up to 14. From h&m I got soft combats, organic t shirts but the tshirts not great quality- very thin and soft but the shape will go I'd say. Grand as vests. The baseball type long sleeve tshirts are better quality. I was trying to be more environmentally friendly - I think the range is called conscious. The combats have an adjustable waist because DS is skinny. Got him some shorts too in case April gets v hot like last year.

I got more tshirts from redbubble because he does like funny slogans and tv show/film stuff on tshirts. I got him men's size XS and they're fine. That might be something your DS would like, I'm pretty sure they have prints for anything you can think of. Comes from the UK so watch the price so you don't go over the limit for vat. Each packet is sent separately so that helps with the vat/ import duty thing. Not with postage though, but I had a code for 15% off so that cancelled out. EMP have tshirts and hoodies and what not too and I think that comes from Germany. I got him stuff from there before but they didn't have his latest craze.

Plain hoodies I got from mango, they've got organic stuff too. They're grand and heavy, seem good quality. Tracksuit bottoms from nameit, also organic and with adjustable waist but they're very slim fitting. Jumpers from mango, the fit was smaller than the hoodies - I can wear the hoodies but not the jumpers. The hoodies do look a bit big on him but the jumpers are perfect. Another warm hoody from M&S to replace one my DM got him that he grew out of without wearing at all hardly and I think he felt a bit sad about it (they are/were very close prior to this shit anyway - rang each other every day during first lockdown, but he's gone a bit teenagery now and distance has made the connection weaker I suppose, less to talk about). Socks and boxers and a couple more tracksuit bottoms from Dunnes (because the name it ones are too legging/jegging like really). Funny socks from the Irish sock society. He likes funny socks as well as funny tshirts! Got him a shirt and chinos from GAP in case he needs something smarter but he'll probably grow out of them before we have anywhere to go. Runners got from a shop in Spain - he hates shoes and he'll only wear barefoot types. I used to get them from the uk but Brexit messed that up a bit.

Mostly stuff that's fine for a 13 year old but I'd imagine an older teen would be more fussy? And the size issue. So my info is probably useless to you!

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 20/03/2021 14:37

Thank you, Apile, thanks very much. I'm going to have a look now. No, he's very easy-going. He is at a tricky age, size-wise, in between boys'and men's clothes. Yes, I'll look up the XS men's size.

LadyEloise · 20/03/2021 14:54

The guards were out in force at checkpoints. Waved us all through.
What a waste of resources.

Apileofballyhoo · 20/03/2021 16:31

DH was stopped recently at about half 10/11 in the morning. Bizarrely the guard asked him as an opening line if he was coming home from work! We think he must have looked really tired or something as he hadn't slept well the night before but we still thought it was a strange one. He kind of nodded to say hi guard actually I was at Halfords (he was getting a lightbulb for the car) but the guard just waved him on anyway without any further questions so we were thinking it must be all a bit pointless if you can say any old thing, or they don't really even ask you.

Emeraldshamrock · 20/03/2021 17:20

The testing system is pants here. I can't understand why they haven't issued home testing kits, between trying to book one through the gp as a phone consultation which holds up other patients, they should have one centre with medical staff to assess symptoms and book, you can't get an appointment for anything else without huge delays, they've assumed everyone drives and is local to test centres, people are getting the bus to tests.
My BIL drives the luas he said 100's get off daily at test centres.
I've to bring DS Monday possibly tonsillitis again, a 6 mile round trip walk with a SN 6 year old.
The majority don't drive around here with the public transport no parking and shopping on your doorstep, obviously can't use any transport if possibly infected.

Iblinkedandiamold · 20/03/2021 17:22

Throughout this whole Covid thing I've been stopped by the guards a max of 3 times. I hear about them being in areas near me but I've never seen them.
I remember the guards saying last year that they were not happy about having to enforce these restrictions so maybe they dont care if you're lying or not.

Postprandial · 20/03/2021 17:54

@Iblinkedandiamold

Throughout this whole Covid thing I've been stopped by the guards a max of 3 times. I hear about them being in areas near me but I've never seen them. I remember the guards saying last year that they were not happy about having to enforce these restrictions so maybe they dont care if you're lying or not.
We must look guilty because we get stopped all the time, as does DH when he has to travel for work. Whereas my parents (sweet, mild-looking late 70somethings) get waved through and on the rare occasion they've been stopped miles from home, say (truthfully) that they are visiting family graves.

I've been stopped twice about 500 yards from my house while on the way to get a Covid test because I was having surgeries, though DH claimed my resting bitch face frightened the poor garda -- I absolutely hate the tests, and wasn't feeling chipper about the surgery.

Iblinkedandiamold · 20/03/2021 18:47

@Postprandial they're haven't been any checkpoints around me to be stopped at. Maybe because I live in rural Ireland they figure that you have to travel more than 5k to get anywhere. Grin

Apileofballyhoo · 20/03/2021 18:58

Whereas my parents (sweet, mild-looking late 70somethings) get waved through and on the rare occasion they've been stopped miles from home, say (truthfully) that they are visiting family graves.

I'm so desperate now I've actually been wondering about saying I'm visiting my DF's grave and going to see my DM. I always do visit his grave when I'm there so I wouldn't be lying exactly.

fuzzy I meant to say part of why I looked for stuff for DS in h&m was free delivery and free returns, though I expected the returns to be hard work. Instead there's this thing where you go to the anpost website (just Google anpost returns) and you select your retailer and put in your info - I think it was just the order number - and then anpost emails you a thing and when you go to the post office they scan your phone and print out a sticker for the parcel. It's the easiest thing ever. I'm probably the last person in Ireland to find out about it and am revealing my ignorance to you all.

eggandonion · 20/03/2021 19:08

My ds got shoes from lifestyle delivered here a few months ago, but they had to be sent back. An post picked them up, it was really handy.
I wish they would deliver him to me for a few days, and take him away when he is too shouty!
The rugby went well.

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 20/03/2021 19:20

@Apileofballyhoo

Whereas my parents (sweet, mild-looking late 70somethings) get waved through and on the rare occasion they've been stopped miles from home, say (truthfully) that they are visiting family graves.

I'm so desperate now I've actually been wondering about saying I'm visiting my DF's grave and going to see my DM. I always do visit his grave when I'm there so I wouldn't be lying exactly.

fuzzy I meant to say part of why I looked for stuff for DS in h&m was free delivery and free returns, though I expected the returns to be hard work. Instead there's this thing where you go to the anpost website (just Google anpost returns) and you select your retailer and put in your info - I think it was just the order number - and then anpost emails you a thing and when you go to the post office they scan your phone and print out a sticker for the parcel. It's the easiest thing ever. I'm probably the last person in Ireland to find out about it and am revealing my ignorance to you all.

Oh, thanks for that info, Apile, I had no idea!
IwishIwasontheN17 · 20/03/2021 20:06

@FionaMacCool

Fuzzy I havent tried the Longueville cider- I will splash out after Lent.

This stuff from Cork...... well, it's like cider-y 7-up. www.stonewellcider.com/news/stonewell-ros-stockists/
We really enjoyed it in the sunshine last year.

Stonewell do a lovely non alcoholic cider alongside the lovely ciders. It got me through a pregnancy and six months of breastfeeding.
LadyEloise · 20/03/2021 21:23

eggandonion The rugby went VERY well. Grin