Glorious out, isn’t it?

Dublin just thrives in this weather, we love it. Everyone is in good form, there’s a really nice buzz in the air.

Our hood, the Grand Canal Dock area, works really well when it’s nice and sunny; Ocean, where our yummy chicken wings come from, has a great outdoor boozing area and it’s just jammers these past few days.

There are now three restaurants along Hanover Quay - Ely HQ, Milano and Riva, a cute new little place brought to us from the people at The Winding Stair. All the restaurants allow for outdoor seating, so there’s very a cool, laidback Mediterreanan vibe along the waterside; close your eyes and we could be in Barcelona/Paris/San Sebastian/insert as appropriate. (It makes me think of how pissed off I was when McDowell’s wine bar plans got scrapped.)

Also, according to the Tribune, there are more epicurean delights on the way for Grand Canal Dock, among them Real Gourmet Burger (YUM!) and an Asian restaurant.

But, to be honest, I’ve been spending most of this sunny time on our west-facing balcony. When we first moved in, the fact that we weren’t facing the water seemed a bit of a bummer, but coming home to see sunshine streaming across the city (you can see the SIPTU building and the Spire to the right, Dublin Mountains to the left) is really lovely.

I’ve stuck the lounger out, grabbed what’s left of the Sunday papers, and popped Nialler 9’s incredibly awesome Summer Sunburn mixtape on the iPod; that’s it all takes for me to be perfectly blissed out for a good hour or so. That, and maybe a BBQ burger…

And with that, here are some recent BBQ pics.

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