Anniversary, Football Shirts & Visits to the Dentist

After a very very hectic but fun week, this years Baboro International Arts Festival for children is over, I will post detail's and photos about this years festival and my exhibition in the next few days on both this blog and on my art blog...

This weekend, Sunday to be precise was our first wedding anniversary, coincidentally the 23rd of this month, this Saturday, is our official 10 year anniversary too. On Saturday night my beautiful wife and I went out to celebrate. We had dinner in Cooke's Restaurant Galway, a favorite spot of ours. (Although we tend to save it for very special occasions.) Neen had her regular and favorite meal: Crispy Potato Skins Filled with Bacon  and Mozzarella Cheese Served with Garlic Cream AND Baked Fillet of Salmon Finished with Lemon Butter, Served with Creamy Mash Potatoes. I had Vegetable soup with Homemade Bread AND Tenderloin Fillets of Pork Cooked in Mushrooms and Cream, Served with Saute Potatoes. Everything was so so good, and the service is great! If ever in Galway and looking for a special spot to eat, definitely check out Cooke's!

Before we went home Saturday night Neen and I dropped by the 50th birthday party of a family friend Anne, a 70's themed bash! It was great seeing Anne, Dermot, Dave, Brendan, John and Joy and the rest of the clan!

I had to work for much of Sunday and was really bummed, I had family workshops in the morning and had to take down the exhibition that evening. I eventually arrived home, tired and looking forward to a relaxed and wonderful evening with the missus. We exchanged gifts and cards, had some dinner, then chatted and relaxed on the couch! I had a lot of trouble this year finding the perfect gift for Neen, for the past two weeks I've been in and out of every jewelry store in town. I just couldn't find the what I was looking for. I really didn't want to settle for something "nice" I wanted something extra special. Saturday evening I finally found exactly what I had been searching for, A Belleek Pearl Drop "Beau" Necklace. I loved it the minute I spotted it, The necklace was simple, elegant and unlike anything I have ever seen. Neen luckily loved it too and has been wearing it since. I also bought her some very funky earrings and a big bouquet of her favorite flowers.

I was completely spoiled. Neen gave me not one but two jerseys!...I absolutely love replica shirts, you can't really get me anything better. She gave me the brand new white Umbro Ireland Away kit, the nicest Ireland kit to be released in years and Liverpool's new home goalkeeper shirt. These kits are extra special to be for a couple of reasons...no. 1 I haven't had an Ireland shirt since 2002, I'm pretty picky and none of them 'spoke to me' up until this one AND as for the Liverpool shirt....Liverpool are having arguably their worst season in the clubs history, we are drowning in the bottom end of the table, it's at times such as these I think fans of the club should get behind their team in any and every way possible! I will be wearing my Liverpool shirt with pride....I absolutely love 'em both...thanks hun! : )

This morning I had to go to the dentist to finally have a broken tooth removed, I originally went two weeks ago but given the state of the tooth in question extraction was postponed until after my exhibition. I was worried sick as I've never even had a filling and the whole local anesthetic thing was a completely new experience to me.  I was really lucky in the end, the dentist in question was quite apprehensive about how exactly the tooth should be removed, we were pretty positive given the degree of erosion the tooth would shatter completely once a removal was attempted. I have pretty strong teeth and to our surprise it stayed in tact and the whole event passed off with out any trauma what so ever. My sister Genny attends the same dentist and coincidentally had an appointment just prior to my own, she had the unpleasant experience of having a wisdom tooth removed. In our dribbly, numb-faced post-procedure state we christened each other "tooth-buddies", as I type this blog we are both suffering the after effects in our own respective homes! Feel better Gen!

If interested you can read more about our anniversary and see Neens birthday necklace here on Neens Blog!