bzzzd's Profile

That's a great kitchen. If I had as many people and as frequently cooking and cleaning in it, a kitchen that size would be fabulous. I wouldn't be up for maintaining a space like that on my own though.

Wouldn't buy an AGA - big unreliable hunks of metal. Even the regularly serviced ones have frequent temperamental breakdowns. AND I've heard they don't make back boilers for the newer versions anymore? Is this true? We use a Stanley for cooking, radiators and hot water. It's superb and it's lovely bottle green colour.

Also, Ballymaloe relish is the best thing to come out of Ireland in God-knows-how long.

Moving before 30, I had no problem finding the motivation to get out and find ways of socialising. My family moved internationally every 2-4 years when I was growing up so we changed schools and friendships a lot. I continued that trend throughout my 20s with college and moves for work. At each move, there was a short settling in period, where I gained my bearings of the place and made an apartment or a room my own, then I would go out to join groups of people doing the sort of things I'm interested in like running, reading/talking, rock climbing, good food/beer/wine and classical music. This approach always worked wonderfully for me and I have some great groups of buddies all over.

This last move has been a different experience for me though. At 30, I moved again, this time only 200 miles, but far enough to necessitate a social reboot. I moved to get married and move in with my husband. I found it to be tough this time to gather the energy for friendship-finding because I was travelling 400 miles on a 2-day trip every midweek for doctorate classes as well as working full time the rest of the days. Halfway through the year we realised we were expecting our first little baby. Now that I'm in the 6th month of pregnancy, we are hurriedly working on renovating our 250-year-old cottage and rushing to move there in the next 5 days so we won't have another month's rent to pay on our flat.

I'm sure this lack of socialisation will change because I plan to join any interesting groups around me in our new house. There's a baby sign language group I want to be a part of and a rock climbing wall nearby that is pretty good. I'm hoping to meet another fun-runner and maybe people who like to chat about books. I don't think that it will be a problem just because I'm over 30. It was definitely a problem for me this year, but that was down to time restraints, new commitments and strangely enough, a lack of interest.

This post was full of really weird tips.

We change our duvet cover every 3 weeks and so does every other person I know (I'm another European). No problems there. Bottom sheet and pillow cases we change every week. Most people here air out their duvet during the day so it's fresher longer. We have 3 different tog rating duvets that we change according to season and it works juuuust fine :)

I think it depends pretty greatly on your climate though - most parts of Europe aren't as muggy as, say parts of India or the se USA. I wouldn't use a duvet during monsoon season, for example. If I were living in the deltas or the bayous of N America, I'd probably have a sheet only too. I'd probably wash it more often because it would be pretty sweaty.

Bar soap is better. No contest. Less residue on you, less drying to sensitive skin and it smellllls goorgeous! Also, it actually cleans you rather than sudsing up all lovely and bubbly and then sliding right over the dirt.

My scissors are fine.

Lots of v. prominent, unmissable money traps listed here! Fallon & Byrne? Sure, they're an overpriced, badly managed twaddle-peddling shop. The wine bar is nice, I'll give you that. Emily, do you ever wander out of the Trinity College/Grafton Street zone? I can think of a dozen fab, local-run and high quality bookshops, cheesemongers, cafes, gift-type shops, etc. that are just a weensy walk away (Donnybrook Fair is not included in my list, btw) on the northside *and* the southside.

Gorgeous! The contrasting blue and white are so satisfying.

Oooh, super cosy and calm. I love the natural materials you used and the way you've managed to make a small space seem spacious and yet wonderfully inviting.