Bustin' our asses

When I'm working all week to pay the bills (Erin too!) I'm going to make sure my pound goes further! Spending money on bills is the least fun way to spend money. We all would much rather be buying food, holidays, gifts, alcohol, etc. You've probably heard me banging on about this already but the revolution in lighting is happening now! This week I added to my LED collection.

I already had these

But I bought these

So what's the deal? My wife loves these new lights. "They are so cute! Niall, you are so creative. They look so nice in our living room. How are you so thoughtful?" I sit there and soak up all the credit and praise. Do I deserve any of it? Not at all! My primary motivation is to squeeze every penny off my electricity bill and back into my pocket. Want to know some numbers? To run those lights 4 hours a day, everyday of the year:

£0.53

See those spotlights above Erin's head in the roof. There are 9 of those suckers. And I mean suckers! These things suck down 50W of power each! That's 450W total. My LED string is 3W. Cost for same period as above:

£78.84

Heck, I'll be a hippy for that price! Save the planet man. Normal bulbs waste 90% of their energy through heat generated. LEDs don't run hot.

Anyway, I don't expect any of you to be as cheap as I am but in case there are some closet misers out there, now you know how to save some moolah.


Hmmm, what else is new with us? Well some of you may have noticed a lull in communication from Erin since she got back to Ireland. Don't worry, you're not on your own! Even I don't get texts or calls from my wife these days. Why? Let me bring you back to Friday 4th January:

Niall: "Hey Erin, did you grab your phone?"
Erin: "Yeah, I have it. Come on mom and dad are waiting."
Niall: "Ok. You're sure you have it then."
Erin: "Yup! Let's go!"
Niall: "Ok my little snugglebunny. Coming."

23 hours later standing in the rain at Dublin airport waiting for my dad to pull up, Erin had been searching through her bag for about 5 minutes for her phone. Fearing the worst, I cleverly pulled up an app on my phone that locates her phone (I normally use it just to keep track on her while I'm in work! Joke). Don't worry hunny, I'll just check for you now:

     

Hmm, 3 hours ago your phone was in CA! That's not good.

So all my LED savings are down the drain. I should have got her a brick.

What else? Oh yeah. That damn typewriter. Want to hear what it was like to be in 'nam?

Erin hammering away

My lovely sister-in-law has been thinking about setting up her own business. Mac cleaning. May I be the first to NOT recommend using her services. Just kidding H-bomb. Except not really. For a while we had one very shiny (but utterly useless) macbook. Anyone want to see what the guts of an Apple product look like:

I was nervous doing this. I may look like I know what I am
doing but if I had one weak subject in Engineering school,
it was electrical engineering!

How on earth does this do what it does? And which wire do I
cut, the red or the blue?

On the operating table. Time of death... No wait doctor!
There are signs of life. (And yes, we were watching The Office
to keep us entertained)

Well something I did must've worked because I'm writing this blog on a born-again (albeit fritzy) macbook! Hurray. Or else it must have been the old turn it off turn it on again trick. Why didn't I do that first?!


Last bit of local news for you. A bunch of idiots are rioting about a flag (pronounced 'fleg' if you are one of these hooligans) and it's wreaking havoc on a healing land. Get a job ya bums! I'll explain more in another post.

The famous PSNI Land Rovers. We're prepared for riots over here!

And the knobs they are trying to protect us from. The British flag not
flying on that building in the background is the reason for all this.

If you are so proud of your cause, why hide your faces?

I can't tell you how angry this makes me. Imagine seeing
the American flag being burned in America! 

But nevermind all that. When are you coming to visit? We may hate each other but visitors are welcome :) Seriously, we better start seeing some more guests to the Bakery this year.

Bed-time!


P.S. Snow is keeping all but the most loyal customer from Soul Food! I love this place!

walking in a winter wonderland...

Just for fun, here's a few more pictures from this morning :)

We're back!

Well it's been exactly two weeks since we left Santa Barbara.  When I say it like that it doesn't sound long, but it already feels like it's been forever!  Thankfully Niall and I are feeling pretty settled in again over here.  It's back to the usual routine for both of us and we've been keeping busy.  I will admit, when we first got back into Belfast I was a bit down.  Throughout my first day back at work on Monday I felt like I was on the verge of tears!  Deep down I thought it may take a couple of weeks to get settled in again-- thank goodness that was true because I feel fine now.  It was a blessing coming home to Belfast this time and having a job and a life.  Not like last year when I woke up on Monday morning and Niall was gone to work while I had absolutely nothing to do!  Work has been keeping me busy.  We're a bit understaffed at the moment which is great for me because I'm consistently getting 4-5 shifts a week.  Keeps me on my toes!  Niall came home and studied lots straight away because he took his last exam on the Wednesday of our first week home.  He is on a 3 week break from school now before starting up again next semester.  (they do things differently over here... exams are AFTER the Christmas break... how terrible is that?!)

Well, some exciting news: it's snowing!  I know it sounds weird because I'm always complaining about the cold, and snow means it's REALLY cold... but it's kind of fun.  :)  It started up this afternoon and by the time I got off work there was a thin white layer covering everything.  It was fun being in Soul Food and looking out the window every now and then to see the white flakes swirling around.  It will probably finish up tonight and be melted away by the rain tomorrow.

view from our room

Ormeau Road

keeping it cozy in 304! :)

Unfortunately we didn't break out the camera that much while were home in SB... but here are a few.  Most of you already know but I got pretty sick halfway through the trip so I wasn't feeling too photogenic!

good to be back in 5543!

The infamous rocket.  I was in bed sick for the first launch but I got to see the other 2 launches on a clear day.  So cool!

our first anniversary :)

snapping a few shots from San Marcos pass

December 31st... we loved being there to celebrate for Heather's 24th!

pretty sure this was taken while I was in bed sick!  Niall went to the SB airport and watched planes :)

Random side note, but here's my favorite Christmas present:

A typewriter!  I know, a bit old fashioned, but I have been having so much fun with this thing.  I love typing letters on it (though I'm still a firm believer that hand written letters are the best) because it's faster to write more and my hand doesn't cramp up.  I try to use it while Niall is at work because I'm pretty sure I drive him nuts whenever I'm on it.  One day I was typing away while he was sitting on the couch.  I asked if I was annoying him and he replied, "I feel like a parent who just bought their kid a drumset for Christmas and is totally regretting it!"  :)  Ha ha.  I admit, it is pretty loud.

Anyway, I think that is all for now.  I'm missing everyone in CA already... sometimes it's hard to believe that our 2 week trip home has already come and gone.  I apologize to anyone we didn't get to spend much time with or didn't get to see at all.  It can be really difficult when there are so many people we love but not enough time!  :/

Hope you all have a lovely weekend... would be nice if some of you could pop into Soul Food for a coffee tomorrow, I'll be there working away!  Love you guys.

xox
erin

p.s.  Mom or Evan do you have any photos from Christmas and if so can you send me some?!