There are two weeks in Ireland that will have to go undocumented as far as my spending goes, which is probably just as well. Although I will say that almost all lunches and dinners I went to with friends were paid for by those friends (at their insistence; I’m never quite sure how much to protest, because I know it’s annoying when you want to treat somebody to something and they won’t let you, but it also feels bad to immediately say, ‘okay, thanks!’).
My time at home, though it felt long at the beginning – just under three weeks, or 18 days – ended up, as it was always going to, flying by. I didn’t get to see all the people I wanted to see, and those I did see, I didn’t quite see enough of.
I did manage to get my Bombay Pantry; take a trip to Two Boys Brew; eat my weight in Superquinn sausages; entirely deplete my parents’ freezer stash of Aldi bake-at-home croissants; grab pastries from No Messin’ bakery; lunch at Shouk; dinner at Monck’s Green, all of which I will document on a future date. (I promise.)
Monday
It’s very rare that I put a social commitment in my Google Calendar – somehow, it feels like it should be used for work-related things, podcast recordings, meetings and so on – but, at home in Ireland, I have no choice but to put things in my calendar, so it looks a lot like, “lunch with x”, “dinner with y”.
Today is no different – and I’m exhausted after a Sunday that involved breakfast at a friend’s house in Monkstown, lunch with more friends in Phibsboro and afternoon tea in yet another friend’s house – although I have, at least, managed to merge my two coffees so that they are back to back, in the exact same place.
What did us N7-dwellers do before Avoca opened in Rathcoole?! I have zero clue. But off I go to spend (more) money in the Rathcoole cafe this morning, first meeting my friend Ciara and her daughter for a coffee ($8.30) and a scone at 11am.
The other friend I’m meeting is slightly delayed, so we have a little wander around the shop downstairs and I buy her daughter a monkey teddy ($25.95). I know that, if I lived nearby, I’d be getting her the occasional treat or two, so it feels in a way like I’m trying to make up for my absence.
She’s two, so she will not recognise this effort on my part, but seems, at least, to like the monkey.
I also buy some gifts for my boys back home in Fort Wayne, along with the Avoca Soups cookbook for Don, who has never quite forgotten the joy of his first Avoca mushroom soup. ($65.10)
When friend #2, Marie, arrives, we get a seat outside (it’s been really nice weather the whole time I’ve been here!) and I go in and order. The waiter service cafe closed over Covid and has never reopened (sob), so it’s self-service only, which I hate. Yes, I’m a brat.
We each get a slice of quiche and salad, and two Cokes, and somehow it adds up to $38.80. Is this correct?! I guess I’ll never know; the receipt is long gone and, in any case, I’m thousands of miles away by now.
As I haven’t brought Atlas, I invite Marie to come back to the house for a cup of coffee and a cuddle. He was asleep when I left, and I am feeling sorry for him during this trip, being dragged from A to B and back again to meet more people than he’s seen in his short life. His naps are all over the place and it can’t be all that much fun for him.
We have some coffee and cake that my mum had in her arsenal, and Marie heads home around 5pm. Then I vegetate on the couch for the rest of the evening, breaking only for dinner before going back to my prone state.
This whole visiting lark is exhausting.
Daily total: $138.15
Tuesday
This morning, Atlas goes down for his nap at around 10am and the plan is to go to Liffey Valley when he wakes up – I bought some bits in M&S in town last week that I want to return, along with a swimsuit a friend gave me for the babs from Dunnes which, despite being for 6-12 months, is too small for him!
(I have to say, it does make me feel a bit better that baby sizing is crap, too.)
When he wakes up at around noon we head to Liffey Valley – it’ll be a flying visit because I’ve to meet a friend in town later on – but when we arrive and park the car we realise that we have forgotten the things we have to return. I set them down as I was strapping in the baby and we left them on the driveway.
I take Atlas out and Mum heads back home to pick up the bag and come back. While she’s gone I take a little trip to Zara and buy him a little shorts and T-shirt set, and a sleeveless T-shirt for each of the other two boys. I know they find gifts of clothing disappointing but you’re kind of limited for space when you’re packing for yourself and a baby so I don’t want to get them anything too bulky or heavy. ($27.80)
I also run into Boots and get some snacks for Atlas for the plane home on Friday – some little vegetable puffs and sweetcorn rings and other things that I’m sure are terrible for babies but which he loves. ($9.77)
When Mum gets back I meet her in the M&S café where I’ve ordered her a soothing raisin danish and a latte after her tough journey back and forth – I get an iced latte and, of course, a danish for myself. ($8.05)
Now that Mum’s here with the goods we do the M&S exchange – I’m returning a pair of “the Mom jeans” which simply did not do anything good for my post C-section tummy (despite their name), along with some bits Atlas got that were a bit small, and end up with some new shorts overalls (shorteralls?) for him instead, along with some of my beloved Flexifit knickers and a set of two nursing bras. I have to add to the total. ($15)
Of course, no trip to M&S is complete with getting some chocolate chip cookies, to which I add a bottle of Diet Coke and some cheese to have with tomorrow’s lunch. ($11.35)
My Apple Watch payment comes out ($16.62) and, with it, an interest charge on my Apple card ($1.63), which has zero respect for the fact that I’m on my holliers.
Bank of Ireland also chooses this far-from-ideal moment to charge my account fee. ($6)
After our frantic trip to Liffey Valley, the whole returns palaver and my own inability to choose knickers, this trip has taken us way longer than I thought it would and Atlas, having now missed his afternoon nap, is in a bit of a grump, so I cancel dinner and arrange to meet my friend on Thursday.
We order Indie Spice from Naas instead, having been informed by our next door neighbour that it delivers! This is one welcome change that has occurred since I left – up until that point there was one lone takeaway that delivered to my parents’ house, and at that, it frequently took an hour and a half and turned up freezing cold.
This delicious Indian feast – genuinely, it’s so good – shows up within 40 minutes piping hot and incredibly good. An excellent end to an otherwise mess of a day.
Daily total: $96.22
Wednesday
What is it that they say about when the cat’s away? Brandin is taking liberties with my Walmart credit card and – shocker – ordering groceries with it. To be fair, this was the specific reason we got the Walmart card. ($166.49)
Today we’re dropping Coileán off to my cousin’s, where she’s staying for the six weeks while my parents are in the US with us, so we pack up all of our bits – with the baby in his car seat, the dog on my lap in the front and the dog’s crate and assorted bits in the boot, it’s a bit of a tight squeeze – and head in to town, where I get dropped off with Atlas, to meet Liam for a coffee (and a fruit crumble) in One Society. ($12.10)
I used to live right across the road so Will, the owner, knows me pretty well and we have a chat about all that’s been going on since I left – it turns out, we both chose this magical pandemic era to have babies! We force Liam to listen to a long, boring conversation about sleep deprivation before ordering.
After our coffee and snack, I wrap Atlas up in his Solly Baby wrap – which isn’t getting much use in Indiana since the daily temperatures have settled into their summer of 25C+ – and we get on the Luas ($2.20) to Ranelagh, from where I’ll be walking the 10 minutes to my aunt and uncle’s house for dinner.
We have a delicious chicken and chorizo stew with chickpeas, Atlas gets his first whole strawberry and we head home at around 8.30pm. Of course he’s fast asleep in his car seat when we get back and is not pleased to be woken and changed, but falls back asleep again. Eventually.
Daily total: $180.79
Thursday
Today we’re up bright and early for our Covid tests in a pharmacy down the road (Mum and Dad pay), then I head to the train station to go into Drumcondra to meet a friend for coffee, and another friend for lunch.
I leave Atlas with Mum and Dad, deciding that, what with travelling tomorrow, he could do with a day off and I think my boobs will just about survive a few hours without him.
I can’t get over the price of the train ticket. I don’t know why but it just seems so high – the last time I got the train into town (today I’m going to Drumcondra), I’d swear it was about €4?!) ($8.10)
I meet Linda at Bread and Butter in Drumcondra, where I order an iced latte and a gluten-free salted caramel square, which is delicious but so rich that even I, lover of all rich foods, cannot finish it. ($9.66)
It’s so nice to sit down and just have a face-to-face coffee and a chat with her, but weirdly feels like no time has passed since we last saw one another. I think that’s what I’m missing in Fort Wayne, the feeling that I have the kinds of good friends you can sit in silence with; or speak to after a long gap and have the exact same chats you did the last time you saw each another.
I do feel like I’m getting there, but slowly!
Anyway, after our coffee I walk her back towards her house-slash-office and we go into a pharmacy en route, where I pick up some new dodies for Atlas (reduced from €8 to €1 something!), a pack of baby wipes, some face cream and a lip balm. ($30)
Then I walk back towards the train station to meet Clare for lunch in Shouk, where I’ve never been. We share a hummus starter, then I have the whole roasted cauliflower with a side of shawarma chicken and Clare has the Shouk salad. It’s really, really good.
I don’t think I really appreciated how well Dublin does fresh food before I left, but it does such delicious, thoughtful meals in a way that I just haven’t experienced in the Midwest. Maybe I’m going to the wrong places!
When I get home I feed Atlas and try to cuddle him for a while – although he’s not that into cuddles any more and mostly wants to escape-slash-roll around on the floor – and then a friend of the family comes over for our last supper before we leave.
Tomorrow morning’s taxi is coming at 7am so we’re all packed and ready to go by the time we get into bed.
Daily total: $47.76
Friday
Our taxi arrives promptly at 7am and we’re all on the road by about 7.10am – between buckling the baby into his car seat and realising, as we pull out of the drive, that I’ve left my phone plugged in, things take a little longer than planned!
We’re all in a bit of a heap worrying about what it’ll be like at the airport, having seen the massive queues during the week, but actually it’s all pretty straightforward. It probably takes us an hour and a half to get through check-in with United, regular security and then pre-clearance and immigration.
We have more than two hours to go and head to 51st & Green, the pre-clearance lounge – we were going to book our tickets earlier in the week but then with the airport chaos we decided to wait to buy them on the day and wouldn’t you know, it’s all booked up. I am horrified.
There’s only one cafe and one bar and each has a queue about 35 people long, so we just head upstairs and sit at our gate. Mum takes a hit for the team and goes and queues up for coffees and pastries after a while, but otherwise we just sit and wait. Atlas is not impressed with all of this lounging around, let me tell you.
Our flight’s delayed about 45 minutes, which is no big deal as we have a good few hours to wait in Chicago when we get there – and when we do board I am like a hawk, waiting to pounce as I ask the woman in the seat next to Mum and Dad if she’d mind switching with me (they’re both window seats) so that we can be together, ie, so that I can hand them the baby at regular intervals.
Luckily, she doesn’t mind.
The flight is relatively uneventful, although not as smooth as it was on the way over. Atlas slept through the first overnight flight, but this one is during the day so there’s a lot of bouncing him around and this-little-piggy and stuffing him with those little snacks, so much so that Dad ends up with most of them all over his jacket.
Still, crying is kept to a minimum and for that I – and, I’m sure, the rest of the passengers – am very grateful.
Mum and Dad had ordered wheelchairs at Chicago – both in their 70s, they’re not as mobile as they used to be – so when we land, we’re all bundled on to one of those little airport truck things and beep-beep-beeped all the way to our gate, where our flight is delayed by just under two hours.
I get an alert via email that Costa Farms has the Pink Princess Philodendron I want in stock! I order it without really thinking twice. (So unlike me.) ($53.50)
We take turns to wander around; at one stage, I head to the bookshop and buy mum a copy of Tina Brown’s book on the royals, picking up J. Courtney Sullivan’s Friends and Strangers for myself. ($69.41)
I also get myself a Starbucks. ($9.95)
We finally get to Fort Wayne at around 9.45pm, where Bea is there to pick up the auld pair and Brandin is there for the baby and me. Atlas lets me down by acting so incredibly delighted to see his dad, any worries I had that he’d forget him over the three weeks are assuaged.
When we get home, Atlas is fast asleep and we manage to transfer him into his cot with very little disturbance, meaning my plans to unpack before bed are thwarted. Gah.
Daily total: $132.86
Saturday
Brandin is off on a work fun day today, so I’m on my own with Atlas – and my shipment of things from Ireland, which arrived while I was away!
I packed up a load of boxes before I left in March of 2020, thinking, not only that they’d be arriving within the year, but also that I’d be home before they left, and have a chance to sort through them one last time.
Obviously that didn’t happen, and they finally left Ireland in October of 2021, only to arrive in Fort Wayne in May of 2022. I am very excited to see what’s in them – it feels a bit like getting to go on a big shopping spree, but without having to pay for it!
Well. Let me tell you that, as shopping sprees go, this one was disappointing. Things I sent myself include: a bag of Bic pens; a small measuring tape (in cm, useless to me now); a set of china cups and saucers that contains three cups, four saucers and four side plates; a battery-operated kitchen scale; my full collection of Harry Potter books (the second set we now have in the house); a set of Ikea bed linen that does not fit my American duvet; a single woolly sheep Christmas decoration; three Keepcups.
I have, once again, let myself down.
There are, of course, some good bits: Le Creuset bits and pieces; some lovely blankets; all of my books, which I was seriously worried I would never see again; my figurine of the helpful worm from Labyrinth. It’s not all bad.
I manage to unpack all of the boxes – there are about 15 – and put almost everything away, along with unpacking my suitcases and putting those things away, not to mention keeping Atlas alive all day, so I reward myself with dinner from Taj Mahal. ($37.44)
Daily total: $37.44
Sunday
A day of rest. Brandin is here to hold the baby. I lie on the couch.
I am charged for my expensive Hulu subscription. ($15.98)
In the afternoon, sick of lying on the couch, I do a 30-minute Peloton ride (lol). It does nothing for my energy levels.
We order Shigs in Pit for dinner. ($43.72)
FIN.
Daily total: $59.70
Weekly total: $692.92
A little note: I forgot that my Irish expenditure was all in euro, and I have it all written as if it were dollars and I cannot cope with amending it now. If it helps, the exchange rate right now is great for euro travellers, so $690 works out at around €660 – not a huge difference, so I hope you’ll forgive my error!
Homegoing | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? May 30-June 5, 2022