👟👠 My holiday pleasures (#40)

Hi !  Welcome back. Happy New Year! This week I am thinking (and writing) about holidays. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can join here or by clicking the button below. - Eve D.❣️

WEEK IN REVIEW

I’m on holiday, and loving it. So far I have done so many things that I thought I would never do (and have successfully not done for 50 years): climb a mountain, dive under ocean waves (this is a big one for me!), eat (and enjoy!) chicken livers, wake up at 5am to (happily!) walk on a beach. Also, I’ve done things I always wanted to do, but just never have (see below). If you haven’t gathered, it’s a great holiday.

One thing about a chilled holiday, and especially one without kids, is that it gives me ample opportunity and incentive to think, process and figure shit out. Luckily I am not at a crossroads or rock bottom, and don’t need to make any drastic changes, but it’s still a worthwhile exercise to change environments, pick G’s brain, and get a new angle on what 2025 can be. And, I am happy to report, it can be great. But we’ll talk more about that next week.

I’ll quickly tell you a fun experience. If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you’ll know that most of my top rated experiences involve food, and I am always on the search for the next memorable meal. On a beach holiday, that usually translates into harbour-sourced fish and chips (bonus points if it’s wrapped in newspaper because taste beats pretentiousness, always). But unfortunately there is no real harbour here, and no fish and chips. Nevertheless, even with limited number of restaurants, the food here is good and we’ve eaten well. But one experience stands out above all others.

Before I arrived at the coast to join him, G found a restaurant called Off the Menu, tucked away in the back of a street mall, and gave it a shot. He immediately knew it was special and something that I would enjoy so he took me last week, and was proven right. Immediately, the little restaurant hits different. The breakfast menu has things like “Feta Chilli Eggs” and the small retail operation sells Foie Gras by the kilo, and cured ham by “whole pig’s leg, including the hoof”. The food was sublime, and something that I felt could work in the streets of London, Paris or New York, at multiple the price charged here. So…..imagine my utter and shriek-of-delight-inducing joy when I realised, by pure chance, that the restaurant is run by ….wait for it….a Michellin-starred chef. It has always been a goal of mine to try out Michelin rated restaurants and chefs (one day I’ll do the full list, top to bottom), but have not done so yet. And so my journey began in a tucked away tiny restaurant in a country that doesn’t even have Michellin restaurants! (The restaurant is run by Conrad Gallagher, who at the age of 26yrs was the youngest chef to ever be awarded a Michellin Star for his restaurant in Dublin.) What was extra special is that we only found this out after we ate there…so no preconceived ideas or expectations. We loved the food and appreciated its originality, before we attached any award labels to it. We’re now doing dinner there tomorrow night, and I can’t wait.

And now, you’ll have to excuse me. I am off to decide whether I want to lie on the couch and read, go to the beach and swim, or go in search of sea shells. It’s a tough life, but someone has to do these things so that you can read about them.

I’ll catch you here next week.

FREE THERAPY

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

Thanks for reading!

That’s it for this week. (Want more? You can find past editions here). I hope you have a great weekend and upcoming week. Please keep sharing /forwarding to your friends/groups 😄 . You can also email me privately by hitting reply on this email.

PS