I must confess that one aspect of Irish life that I truly love is the fact that Irish people, in general, have a complete disregard for celebrities. Many world-famous celebrities choose to spend their holiday time in Ireland because nobody bothers them. They can go out, like a regular person and enjoy themselves. It is like if Irish people go out of their way to ignore celebrity status... such a cool thing. Some of that 'coolness' has rubbed off and I also do the cool thing... I have never understood how people can go into hysterics at the sight of another human being.

As many of you who follow my facebook page and the twitter @MexicancookEire account know, the last three months of my life have been a roller-coaster: The day my parents got their tickets to visit me in Ireland, my mother fell suddenly ill in Mexico and for a while it looked like she wasn't going to make it; the days and weeks were filled with worry and anxiety, torn between wanting