Day 22 – March 22nd – Mother’s Day

Today I played a blinder. I feel like I morphed into some strange combination of The Irish Rugby Team, Jamie Olliver and Martha Stewart (before her lawless days). Mother's day has indeed been a resounding success.

Tea in bed for Mum, then Poached Eggs on Toast (too messy to be eaten anywhere but the kitchen table); a snack of delicious Apricot and Orange Muffins made from scratch with a dollop of Greek Yoghurt and washed down with good Coffee. Piece de Resistance came at dinner time – Potatoes roasted with Olive Oil and Rosemary; Brocolli, Carrots and toasted Almonds; Sugar Snap Peas; Sautéed Shallots and Baked Salmon with Basil and Lemon and a Tzatziki type dip. I think I'm more impressed with me and my culinary extravaganza than the family are!

Ducked into Supervalu this morning to stock up on some ingredients where I gave in and also bought a new lead. 24 hours later and missing lead still hadn't turned up so decided that at this stage the purchase was necessary.

Circa €30 for ingredients and lead.

Right around the time Liverpool were rounding off a great weekend of sports by beating Villa 5-0, I got busy booking flights again. I'm off to a conference in the States in June so had to make sure I was booked on a plane which would get me there. I'm also planning to do a whirlwind tour of the East Coast in an effort to catch up with as many friends as possible. That being the case, I'm flying into Boston and out of Philly and have also booked an internal flight between Boston and Baltimore (miles cheaper than the train and just as cheap but hours quicker than the bus). If I had more time and money I would be more concerned about my Carbon Footprint, but I don't. Will bus it between Baltimore and New York and New York and Philly and anyone who's ever been on a Greyhound will know that that's enough for anyone.

€509 for flights from Dublin to Boston and Philly to Dublin (reimbursable).

€50 for a flight from Boston to Baltimore.

Total spent today - €80 (I'm not counting my long haul flights as I'm not actually paying for them.)

For anyone who's interested here is the Muffin Recipe I used.