Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

16 March 2008

Cowboy Candy

Filed under: consumer,ireland — Anita @ 22:37

Continuing our quest for becoming the best-in-class source for information about the Irish and British sugar- and syrup-oriented products, the BB Procurement Department obtained the second sample for 2008: Nestle’s Milkybar. milkybarthumb.png

The Milkybar is a thin, classic white chocolate bar. The Milkybar Kid on the wrapper, which is what first attracted the BB Procurement Department, is a pale blond kid, dressed in cowboy gear. He is suspiciously happy young man, but still strangely attractive.

On the surface, it wouldn’t appear to be much more than a white chocolatemilky-bar-kid.jpg version of a classic Hershey’s bar. However, the Milkybar has a bit of a hidden treat – each bar has a wild-west scene in the chocolate, with the Milkybar Kid doing some sort of wild-west activity.

Not only do you get creamy, sweet and lovely white chocolate, but you also get the surprise of what scene you will unwrap. As this gentleman noticed, the scenes can be quite interesting. The experience here at the BB is that the scenes are more routine and uninteresting.

The Milkybar has become a permanent addition to the BB Candy Stores, thereby showing our continued willingness to all candy, whether it be brown, white or even Turkish.

9 March 2008

Required Reading for Ex-pats in Ireland

Filed under: B&B,culture,expat,ireland — Anita @ 20:43

Before we moved to Ireland, our good friend and frequent commentor Dave gave me a copy of The Lonely Planet’s Irish Language and Culture. The book, unlike a tourist guide, goes into lifestyle and society, sport, slang and entertainment.

For many months, I would read a little bit about Ireland before I went to bed. It helped give me insight into the Gaelic Games, helped me memorize the four provinces and the 32 counties. I also picked up several classic Irish phrases, included “You’re grand,” “No bother at all,” and “Jaysus!”.

Here’s a big thank you to Dave for the book. Now that Will and I have finished it, it will move to a place of honor in the guest room, so all our visitors can have the opportunity to learn just a little bit more about the country they are visiting.

13 January 2008

Simple Saturday in the City

Filed under: dublin,entertainment — Anita @ 20:54

In the spirit of getting out of the house, Will and I tried to be more active this Saturday than we have been in weekends past. We debated about taking a drive outside the city, seeing a movie or going for a bike ride. However, the weather on Saturday was not the best, so we decided to do a chore and go to a museum.

We did our chore first, which was taking some recycling to the “bring centre.” As I mentioned in an old post, the city will pick up only our trash, so we have to take our recycling ourselves. With our chore finished, we ate some lunch and headed to the museum we had picked for the day.

We had several choices, but we went with the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History. We just call it “The Collins Barracks,” which is the name of the site from its military days. I had been there once this summer when Mom was here for her visit and Will has been back a couple more times. It is a very large museum and both of us thought there would be plenty to see. We were right.

The major exhibit we viewed today was Soldiers and Chiefs: The Irish at Home and Abroad. With all the history relating to Ireland that we have been watching and reading, it was a good overview of the military side of Ireland.

We intend to try each weekend to take some time to experience our city. It is far too easy for us to sink into a winter funk and hide in our home. From now until Spring, we plan to use the time to explore the museums and other indoor activities. Maybe one weekend will be nice enough to do something else. Stay tuned!

6 January 2008

First Visit to the Mothership

Filed under: ireland — Anita @ 12:59

As many of you know, Will and I have a fondness for IKEA. [Editor’s Note: Dave’s objections notwithstanding, we cannot resist the Scandinavian huldra of affordable design.] Once or twice a year, we would organize a trip to the Schaumburg (Illinois) store to get nifty storage containers, unique household items and functional furniture. Imagine our shock and dismay when we discovered that Ireland did not have an IKEA. Not one store on the whole island – a tragedy! We discovered this deficiency before we moved, so we made a final run to the Schaumburg store. We managed to get almost every IKEA thing we could need, but we did have a few holes that needed filling with cheap, function Swedish designs.

Not long after we moved here, the news of a new IKEA opening in Belfast reached our eager ears. The store opened in December. ikeajan08.pngWhile the island is small, Belfast is still about two hours away. So, it wasn’t reasonable or practical to go to Belfast just to shop at IKEA, as we really didn’t need that much. But, due to circumstances outside our control, we had to go to Belfast Saturday morning. Never ones to miss an opportunity, we decided to go to IKEA after we completed our commitment.

We arrived not long after the store opened, before the crowds began. Our friend Kathryn went with us and all three of us had an excellent shopping experience. We found rugs, storage units, a small table – everything we think we need to make our apartment just a little more perfect. Since Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain, the currency is Pounds, not Euros. Right now, it takes about two US dollars to get to one Pound. So, to get a feel for what things cost, you just doubled each posted price. Even I can handle that!

IKEA has plans to build a Dublin store, but they have to wait for some roadwork to be finished before they are allowed to build the store. The best estimate right now is 2010. Sometimes, things take a long time in Ireland…..

15 November 2007

Dublin Marathon

Filed under: dublin,entertainment,sports — Anita @ 13:55

The last weekend in October was a bank holiday weekend (meaning a Monday off). That Monday, the 27th annual Dublin marathon chose to start in our front yard (literally). The main start was on the east side of Fitzwilliam Square, so the runners lined up in front of our house as they sorted between their start times.

I’d never been to a major race before. The start times were a bit staggered (elite women at 8:45, wheelchairs 10 minutes later, then the main start a bit after nine), so I dragged Will out early. It was like a small carnival outside our door — skinny people in trash bags, not so skinny people in trash bags and others in more normal running clothes. They were all over — some already lining up to get into the stalls, others wandering around talking to friends and family, still others making use of our park for a public toilet….

Will and I headed up to the starting line. It was a cool morning, only in the 40’s, but that is the perfect temperature for a long run (or so I’m told). It was so emotional and exciting to be at the start and I didn’t even know anyone running. Watching the runners throw their extra clothes and trash bags off right before the start, seeing the runners bounce and bob as they get ready for the start, feeling the large group pass you by as the main start happens…. it is a overwhelming experience. I can’t imagine how much more so it must be for the runners.

The most amazing part is how fast the city of Dublin cleans up after these events. The streets around our square were wrecked with clothes, wrappers, bottles and floating trash bags, but within a couple of hours, the city workers had the square looking like normal again.

Take a look at our photos of the event at Flickr: Set of Marathon Photos

11 November 2007

Settled In

Filed under: mental state — Anita @ 21:34

I’ve noticed over the past few weeks that we have settled into our lives here in Dublin. Work has become more routine for me and Will seems to have exited his “tourist” phase and entered his “daily living” phase. When life starts to become more routine, the creativity of the BB staff becomes a bit stale. We here at the Bugle vow to fight that staleness with the freshest and most exciting content that we can possibly find!

Between now and the holiday season, the Bugle will continue to bring you interesting and exciting reporting. The BB B & B will be opening for some guests from the US. The holiday season in Ireland is almost upon us and we should have some specials stories relating to that. The Bugle will also be going back into history and reporting on stories from the fall that were missed at the time, including more from the trip to London and other thrilling events that happened here in Dublin.

Stay tuned!

Good game

Filed under: sports — Anita @ 10:54

As I’ve mentioned previously, we’ve been really thrilled to get the NFL on our satellite. We were especially excited because we realized Sky Sports was broadcasting the “Game of the Season” between the Colts and the Patriots. The only downside — the game started at 9pm Dublin time. Recognizing that there was no way I was going to stay up until after midnight on a Sunday just to watch a football game, we set up the DVR and headed to bed.

In the States, delaying the game would have been a challenge. There would be no way to avoid knowing the outcome. But Will and I were confident that none of the newspapers in Dublin would report on outcome. We were right, so Monday night, we settled in to watch the game.

I’ve always liked Peyton Manning and I grew up close to the Colts, so I sat down and put my cheers behind Indy. Will was indifferent. Both of us, however, really enjoyed the game. (We watched it over two evenings.) While the outcome could have been better, the actual football played was excellent. The caliber and quality of the play was terrific.

I don’t know how many other games we will get to see this year that will be as excellent as that one, but I do know that I’ll be checking the schedule each Sunday!

28 October 2007

The NFL on FOX SKY

Filed under: culture,expat,sports — Anita @ 19:53

When we moved to Dublin, we made the choice of getting the “local” (UK) satellite system, called SKY. We were amazed to discover this fall that SKY Sports is showing NFL games each Sunday. As we started to research exactly why, we discovered that Miami and the NY Giants were going to play a NFL game in the new Wembley Stadium, outside London. In the last few years, interest in American football has increased in Britain and now, we are reaping the rewards with games each Sunday. Today is the day of the big game at Wembley.

While we weren’t always the biggest NFL fans back at home, we have found that watching the early game on Sunday night is a relaxing way to end our weekend. We’ve even had Kathryn over for pizza and football, since she is a huge fan and hasn’t gotten to see a lot of games since she moved to Europe.

The strangest thing to overcome is the British accents talking about the game. It just sounds off. But, the beer commercials are just as good here as they are in the States. The ad firm for Coors took advantage of the combination of American and British accents. And, I think the folks here have an even bigger obsession with the cheerleaders that the guys back home. There was as much cheerleading as football in the previews on SKY Sports for today’s game.

Springfield and Shelbyville

Filed under: culture,ireland,travel — Anita @ 19:44

While on a short cab ride in Westport, Kathryn and I struck up a conversation with the driver. We both mentioned how we had visited Westport in August (with our respective families) and how much we enjoyed the town. Kathryn was there during the Arts Festival and she had a specific question for the driver. There were orange “heads” in the river, barely peering out of the water. She wondered if this was just for the festival, or if there were always orange heads in the river.

The driver proceeded to tell us the following story. First, it was a part of the arts festival. We learned that a term of endearment for fellow “Westportians” is Covey. (Will overheard this term during his wandering around during the day, as in “Hello, Covey” or “How are you doing, Covey?”)

Apparently, the town 10 miles over, Castlebar, is a much less desirable place. According to our driver, no self-respecting Westportian would ever want to live in Castlebar. In fact, people from Westport refer to the folks in Castlebar as “Fish-heads”, versus their own friendly “Coveys”.

Our driver said that the joke around town during the festival was that the heads in the water were the Castlebar folks, since they are Fish-heads. The whole town was enjoying the thought of the Castlebar citizens as silly fish-heads in the water.

It’s good to know that friendly rivalries are typical the world around.

29 September 2007

BB B&B: Guest arrived

Filed under: award,B&B,entertainment — Anita @ 8:41

The Bakker Bugle B&B has had their second guest check in. Doug, Will’s brother, arrived early Thursday morning for a short visit. After four fast days, he’ll head back home on Monday.

Due to staff constraints, the Bugle will not award a commenter of the week for the Week ending September 29. Instead, we will award a commenter of the two weeks ending October 6.

Stay tuned for more exciting BB B&B updates. Our guest is keeping us plenty busy and we’re really enjoying having him here!

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