YES, MONICA
Sleet was ever present throughout the day and mostly whilst I was out and about gathering supplies and food. After breakfast, we walked out together and went our separate ways - he to work, me to the coffeehouse.
I intended to have my usual cappuccino and a fruit scone but ended up having potato leek soup before my usual two. I wondered how different the soup would taste from the one I made the other day. I also keep wondering why soups in Ireland are always pureed. I noticed a hint of broccoli in this potato leek soup but it was not bad. Still, I prefer seeing the vegetables I eat.
As I sat awaiting my cappuccino, I noticed the sleet and thought I saw a few flakes of snow. I'm sure it was merely sleet, but I wished I would see snow here as there is no hope for snow back home in Texas. Christmas without snow simply does not seem like a real Christmas. Then again, a Christmas alone is not the same as spending it with someone special and I believe this will be the last time my boyfriend and I will spend Christmas alone.
After my lunch, I headed to find the restaurant supply store which was somewhere 'on top of a hill'. The rain followed me wherever I went as did the wind. I walked past Aldi and saw what might be considered a hill and a business park. Walking further up the road, I noticed the bar supply shop but arrived during their lunch break. I was curious as to whether they carried a higher quality baking sheet than the ones I found everywhere else I looked.
I decided to walk around until the shop reopened after their lunch break. I walked back down the 'hill' and past the Fergus River. I stopped to photograph it until the sleet and wind started up again. At one point I relived a 'movie moment'. The one where I was walking along the road and a car drove by and through a puddle which then splashed all over the left side of me and onto my camera. Cold and now wet, I turned around and walked to Aldi where I bought cheese for tomorrow's breakfast. I also managed to find fresh thyme sprigs.
When I walked outside and looked up, I saw a faint rainbow spanning the sky. I was glad to have been able to capture it as it disappeared within two minutes. Back up the hill at the bar supply shop, I was ten minutes early but managed to arrive just as the owners were returning from lunch. I asked if they had cookie sheets. They did, but industrial-sized ones. I decided I would have to settle for the dark non-stick ones I saw at Dunnes - which was nothing close to the Vollrath cookie sheets I have back home.
The rest of the afternoon I spent gathering cleaning supplies for the kitchen and some more food such as the small lentils for the lentil soup I made for dinner. I even managed to find some tiny red roses which were on sale and put all but one in the living room. The lone one I placed on a shelf in the bathroom. I could hear a delighted laughter from him as he noticed the rose upon walking in the bathroom.
Incense, charcoal, and copal resin were other supplies I found at a specialty store - the name of which had 'angel' in it. The metal incense burner has an elephant on it. Something I know my son would love. As I burned the copal resin, the small living room filled up with smoke and lingered for hours with a pleasant smell.
When my boyfriend arrived home from work sometime around 22h, I had my hands covered in sugar as I was testing a new spiced chocolate chip cookie recipe. I also had potatoes cooking on the stove for mashed potatoes.
When I started to mash the potatoes and add the butter to the pot, he came into the kitchen to advise me on adding the cream. I started to say 'I know' when he then immediately said 'Yes, Monica' - referring to Monica on Friends and her dominance in the kitchen.
The first day alone in 'our' new place and already looking forward to tomorrow and what interesting things I will do - to my boyfriend's surprise.
