A brand new ‘Paint Your Own Pottery’ studio has opened in Cork City so of course, I had to go and try it out. Modelled very similar to Cré Pottery Studio in Skibbereen, Potteria has an extensive range of models, figures, and kitchenware ready for painting. Prices start from €14 to €60, depending on what you pick to paint, and the price includes the studio time, materials, and firing. Unlike Cré, Potteria doesn’t have a cafe in-store so you are encouraged to bring your own snacks and drinks while you paint. We opted for some wine while we saw others take sweet treats from baking tins and pop champagne bottles. A great addition to the city. I’ll for sure be back again.
This month I spent a week in the Algarve – Portimão, Ferragudo, and Alvor – and while there, we stumbled upon a wine festival, and the notion of green wine. Vinho Verde comes from a small region in the Minho province in Northern Portugal. Although the name means “green wine,” it translates as “young wine” and it’s usually consumed soon after bottling. This means it can be red, white or rosé. It’s light, refreshing and typically has a low alcoholic volume. It was the perfect pairing to my sun holiday.
10+ years of living in Cork, and this month marked my first gig in the famous Coughlan’s (pronounced Caw-lins not Cock-Iins for my fellow non-Corkonians). I’ve got tickets to a few gigs over the years but something always got in the way of me going – sickness, cancellations, covid, etc. Well, I can gladly say it was worth the wait. Although the room was smaller than I had imagined, the ambience, framed by the iconic poster stage backdrop, makes it the perfect intimate venue. Looking around at photos and images on the wall, I learned that it was steeped in more history than I was aware of. Everyone from Lisa Hannigan to Eddi Reader has played the venue and I can see why. The cherry on top of the cake? The Guinness is … chefs kiss.
Netflix’s Nobody Wants This is the most delightful show I’ve binged in a while. If you haven’t watched it yet, this 10-episode rom-com about a permanently single sex podcaster and a rabbi just out of a long-time relationship who – you guessed it – fall in love despite seeming completely incompatible, is just the ticket for a cosy night in. Give me season two immediately.
I really enjoyed Wondery’s latest series, ‘The Kill List’ this month. In the spring of 2020, when most of us were bingeing Tiger King and making banana bread, UK-based tech journalist Carl Miller found himself in a rather unenviable position. An IT expert/hacker approached him after coming across a site on the dark web which claimed to be a hitman-for-hire marketplace. The hacker, Chris Monteiro, had uncovered a ‘kill list’ complete with details of the intended targets and how they should die. Of course, they go to the police, but unsatisfied with the outcome, Miller decides to take matters into his own hands and sets out to try and warn victims in advance. On the musical front, I’ve had two new Irish albums on rotation this past month; Orla Gartland’s ‘Everybody Needs A Hero’ and HousePlants’ ‘Half Known Thing’. I’ve already got my ticket to see Gartland in the Olympia in April, and will be hoping to catch HousePlants on one of their nationwide dates next year too.
For the last few months, I’ve been getting salicylic acid peels every six weeks or so to keep my acne-prone skin at bay, and I can’t believe what they’ve done for my skin. For the first time in my life, I’ve been getting unsolicited comments on how great my skin is looking. The peels, Obagi Blue Peel Radiance, aren’t the most relaxing experience, but they are well-worth the discomfort and cost for me. I couldn’t recommend them more for anyone prone to congestion and breakouts. I go to South William Clinic where they cost about €125 a pop, with discounts available when purchased as a course.
Seán Ronayne – Hope. Having won the hearts of the nation with his wholesale love of Ireland’s native birds, and concern for their documentation amid ongoing biodiversity turbulence via the Irish Wildlife Sounds project, Corkman Seán Ronayne has turned his pursuit of recording audio of Ireland’s wild landscapes into the practice of curating albums of natural soundscapes. While his debut collection focused on the urgency of the matter, including the call of the last pair of Irish Ring Ouzel, his follow-up, entitled ‘Hope’, was released quite literally as his infant daughter entered the world earlier this month, cataloguing the wild ambiences of Ireland and Catalunya as a nod to her mixed heritage. “Despite all of the challenges today’s natural world faces,” he pledges in the liner notes, “I still hope for a better, nature-filled future for my daughter, and I’ll do my very best to make that happen for as long as I live.”
The Queen of Villains (Netflix). The only real sport in the world, professional wrestling, continues to be the focus of dramatic adaptations – this time, it’s the turn of Japan’s eighties grappling scene to be spotlighted. Mild-mannered Kaoru Matsumoto, portrayed loveably here by actor and comedian Yuriyan Retriever, overcomes a troubled upbringing and finds her place cheering on the pop-idol heroes and rule-breaking villains of All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling. But when she crosses the barrier and narrowly passes auditions to become a trainee wrestler herself, her life becomes a tangle of physical grind, menial promotions work and complex feelings for her peers – until she taps into her latent anger and frustration to unleash a bloodthirsty brawler of her own creation… Violent in places, and reflecting unkindly on the misogyny of the age, but ultimately a good-hearted young-adult drama on adolescence, representation and the self, that somehow outdoes the energy and emotion of its source and setting.
Loads of new Irish-interest books. My to-read list has, much to my beloved partner’s chagrin, become a library, especially of the kind of Irish-interest material that doesn’t tend to hang around shop shelves after its initial print run. Alas, the good publishing houses of Ireland will grant neither of us relief this Winter. Brinsley McNamara’s ‘Weird Ireland’ makes a book of the premise of his warts-and-all Instagram documentation of Ireland’s various quirks, hidden landmarks and nearly-forgotten traditions; master calligrapher Timothy O’Neill has gifted the Irish people with ‘The Irish Art of Calligraphy’, a step-by-step guide to trying one’s hand at traditional Irish fonts and scripting; while Irish historian Diarmaid Ferriter’s multiple-book odyssey through the country’s story and people gets as far as 2020 with ‘The Revelation of Ireland’. At a time when Ireland and her people are gaining a new confidence and cool on the world stage, these books will each offer a different perspective on aspects of who we are, and what’s brought us to the present moment.
I spent two weeks of October on annual leave, travelling around Japan and to South Korea. We flew into Tokyo and spent a few days there, before moving on to Kyoto, where we took a trip to Nara to feed the wild deer and Arashiyama Monkey Park. We then spent the rest of our time in Japan in the city of Osaka. We flew to Seoul for the last few days of the trip and visited the demilitarized zone between the North and South of Korea. We got to see North Korea, which was an insane experience, but couldn’t take any photos as there had been an incident near the border in the days before. The trip was absolutely amazing from start to finish. It was so cool to see the different cities and I’ve been quite inspired by the different styles and fashion we saw. I also stocked up plenty of K- and J-beauty products which I can’t wait to test out.
Before my travels east, I went on a press trip to Amsterdam for the launch of Rituals’ new collection, Alchemy. Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities and it is such a vibe at this time of the year – the brown colours of the buildings combined with a canal cruise during a rainy evening had me feeling very autumnal. We visited Rituals HQ for a preview of the new collection and a gorgeous meal. The next day, we received some treatments at House of Rituals, which had me feeling very zen for the flight home. We stayed in the Pulitzer hotel, which respected the design of buildings in the Dutch capital so well while still being modern and stylish.
I was woken up at 9am Korean time to my phone absolutely hopping with notifications and even SMS messages from Ireland about the news of Liam Payne’s death. I was a huge One Direction fan when I was about 11/12 and gradually grew out of them as they started getting huge in America and the world over. I got back into listening to them in recent years (when I finally got old enough to forget the real cringey moments of being a young fan). My TikTok has since been flooded with videos and compilations of the band in their heyday and it’s been nice to reminisce, even if it is under tragic circumstances. A headline in the UK Independent – “Liam Payne drew the short straw in One Direction – now we’ll never know the real him” – really resonated with me, and it’s hard to not think how much he must have been struggling in the last few years of his life in those viral videos of him that were mocked countless times. I’m certain it won’t be the last tragic case of its sort, and it won’t be the last time the internet is flooded with “be kind” messages in the wake of it.
Salt, Victoria Road always reminds me of one of those paintings of French cafés when I pass it so I love a chance to pop in for a treat. The food is super tasty and innovative and it’s got a great cosy atmosphere and a lovely outdoor area with twinkly lights galore. I still don’t know how it all fits into what used to be a tiny little bookmakers years ago — and it somehow also looks like it was always here.
I’ve wanted to see the G Hotel in Galway for a while and a year of ‘big’ birthdays is a great excuse, I reckon. And it really is quite impressive… moody corridors with decadent Twin Peaks vibes and fabulous lounges all decorated in different styles. You know it’s a wild weekend when you photograph your favourite wallpaper there to image search it and put it on a wishlist. (It seems to be €521 per roll, since you ask).
Biodegradable clips on packages of bagels. Yes, it’s small but every little helps. I gave Fitzgerald Bakery a shout about them and they said: “Yes, they are just fully recyclable, so an environmental move. It’s not on all our bagels yet, but it will be rolled out as the older plastic clip stocks are depleted.” More of this please.
I went to London for a few days. Even though I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been there it’s a city that still surprises me. We caught a few shows (Hadestown and Cabaret were first-time watches and Phantom is an old favourite we revisited again) and explored a few new areas of the city. Richmond is a gorgeous spot and a must for Ted Lasso fans (did you know the official merch shop there is owned by Irish people?) and TikTok convinced me to make my own charm bracelet in Parsons Green and it was well worth the Tube journey.
I felt spoiled with good TV last month. Agatha All Along was the perfect spooky-ish watch (Patti LuPone needs to be in everything), Only Murders in the Building was a fun romp, and a rewatch of the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings is always a good call — I love Tolkien’s word so much a trip to New Zealand will always be on my bucket list.
My boyfriend experimented with a new recipe he found on TikTok and lasagne soup is now a regular meal in our house. Essentially a deconstructed lasagne, it’s comfort food at its finest (thanks Greg!).