Here's one thing I miss about Ireland

Moisture in the air.

I'm so glad I now have an answer for people when they ask me what I miss about living in Ireland since I am asked this All.The.Time.

It's only December and the skin on my face already feels like it's going to break off. I use Dove Extra Moisture soap in the mornings to wash my face in the shower and by the time I get out my face is bright red and on fire. I apply my sensitive skin moisturiser and it feels like I'm dousing it in acid. Then I proceed to shock myself with everything I touch as I walk around getting ready for work or stand up from the couch. My clothes stick to me. I'll soon be in the market for a humidifier in the bedroom since it's only a matter of time until my nasal passages are so dry I can't sleep. I miss radiator heat which is warmer and not nearly as dry as central heat.

Oh yeah, I miss one other thing - M&S reduced fat hummus. Grocery store hummus here is nasty. We've tried a couple different kinds and we both agree that it's gross. Funny thing is when I first moved to England and was visiting friends, I specifically remember saying to them that I didn't like the hummus there and thought it was nasty. Oops! Fortunately, it's good at the local Greek restaurants, but I don't want eating hummus to be a special occasion!

Navigating our way around the grocery store

One of the hardest things for us to get used to is buying enough groceries to last us a week all at one time. Now that we have a ginormous freezer that I don't have to hack the ice out of, we can buy meat in bulk and freeze it. Now that our fridge is cold we can rest assured that the milk will not go off prior to the sell by date. It's wonderful. It's no secret that I love to cook, but I have to admit that I was looking forward to making the occasional box of rice-a-roni instead of making my own rice pilaf from scratch. I had bought a box of Uncle Ben's mushroom wild rice pilaf just to have in the pantry. Last night we decided to have it with dinner and it was disgusting. I threw it away and Wes didn't object, which is unusual. It was just so salty. I bought some store-brand fresh soup and we both agreed it was gross. Guess that's it for me buying the occasional short cut! I feel we've had a lot of 'lesson learned!' experiences with food so far.

The bummer is that some of the staples I had in my cupboards in Dublin is really expensive here, like plain wild rice or white basmati rice. It's hard to find a nice variety of lentils. We might have to buy chorizo from a speciality shop. Fish (even frozen) is very expensive. I had a pretty good spice selection in Dublin, so replenishing them has been pricey. And, don't get me started on the ginormous boneless chicken breasts we had the other night. Pretty sure they were all roided up! On the flip side, they have a wide variety of Fage yogurt, which is Wes' favorite. Beer is super, duper cheap. There are black beans all over the place. The cold meat selection is more than just ham. I eat a lot less bread because I'm not stopping at the store on my way home to buy bread to have with dinner.

We have a decent selection of grocery stores around us, it's just a matter of finding which has the best deals on the freshest stuff. Wes gets jazzed about bonus cards and how much we save after each trip to the store. I like not having to worry about having too much to carry home!