Lily O'Brien's Double Chocolate Mousse & Chocolates, On Singapore Airlines and Online

 

One food gets better every year. The chocolate ice cream or dessert on Singapore Airlines (March 2022). The airline has had a series of delicious ice creams and this latest mousse was wonderful. An intense chocolate flavour, a thick, creamy, lip-smacking mousse. 

It appears that the company was founded in the 1990s in Kildare, which is to the west of Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland (southern Ireland for simplicity's sake). Kildare means church of the oak. The company was bought up by a Polish group but still has the O'Brien family involvement. O stand for of, meaning descendant of.

If the name O'Brien sounds familiar to you, apart from chocolates, maybe that is because it is in the top ten of Irish names, or because you have read about one of two well-known Irish authors, Kate O'Brien and Edna O'Brien.

I watched the video about the origin of the country. The enterprising and enthusiastic lady who started it had tasted wonderful chocolate at a hotel in South Africa. She was so impressed by the chocolate that she spent the whole of the rest of her stay there in the hotel kitchen learning about chocolate from the hotel's expert. 

On returning to Ireland, she started experimenting. Her creations were so successful that she went into business, and named the company after her small daughter.  The first major development was supplying to the Irish flight company Aer Lingus. The products are not static. The team in Ireland meet up regularly to review the products and find new tastes and combinations for the customers' enjoyment. 

Useful Websites

https://lilyobriens.co.uk/

https://lilyobriens.co.uk/all-chocolates/by-type/boxes

https://www.facebook.com/LilyOBriens

https://lilyobriens.ie/

(ie is Ireland or Republic of Ireland or Eire)

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2017/1222/929272-lily-o-briens/

https://www.irelandroots.com/obrien.htm

https://lilyobriens.ie/blog/blog-post/chocolate-salted-caramel-mousse-cakes-recipe

https://lilyobriens.co.uk/our-story/how-it-all-began

Email

weborders@lilyobriens.ie

for chocolates sent from the USA to Singapore costing 80 dollars (plus postage?)

https://www.desertcart.sg/products/22945453-lily-o-brien-s-ultimate-chocolate-collection

Marilyn Monroe's dress on display in Ireland brings back memories of the Sixties

Marilyn Monroe's dress, which she wore to sing, Happy Birthday, to President John F Kennedy, is going to be displayed in kildare, Ireland. The dress is decorated with Rhinestones.It will be auctioned, along with many other items.

Peter Lawford introduced her jokingly as, 'The late Marilyn Monroe'.

You can see her singing on YouTube. (The words are in Wikipedia.) Then two chefs in high white hats carry in a giant cake with candles. Finally, President Kennedy goes on stage and says, "Now I can retire."

She died a few weeks later. She was born and died in Los Angeles. She died age 36. Her birth year and death year are easy to remember with the last two digits reversed, 1926-1962.

He also died, assassinated Nov 22 1963. I've seen it said that some people felt Kennedy's assassination was karma, that he had killed her and therefore he was killed. I've read at least three books on the death of Marilyn Monroe, each equally convincing. If I remember rightly, it's hard to summarise but these are some of the theories:

First, I was convinced by the theory of a Kennedy brother and Peter Lawford both in a car stopped by a policeman in Los Angeles for speeding, secretly seeing her earlier the day she died.

Then the cover-up theory that the autopsy was false, because it claimed no injection marks. Yet an innocent injection mark from something like a vaccination should have been noticed and listed.

Then I was convinced by the idea that two doctors, deliberately ordered to arrive in quick succession but not meeting each other, independently, innocently each gave her half a fatal overdose.

Finally, I was convinced by a video of her housekeeper blaming Marilyn's doctor-cum-psych. The theory toes that he killed her accidentally by injecting into the wrong place when trying to revive her.

If only life was so simple, the true reasons for everything were so quickly revealed, and justice was so quick, that no miscarriages of justice ever took place, and all facts fitted such a neat pattern.

Happy Birthday Saturday May 19 1962. On YouTube.

The dress will be auctioned in Los Angeles, USA in November 2016.
Irish newspapers report on a Marilyn Monroe lookalike appearing to help promote the display. Lonely Planet has a list of sites to see in the USA connected with Marilyn Monroe.

Memorial Flowers
I was disappointed that she has no great memorial grave, just her name and dates on a wall. I recall reading about the flowers placed every year by her husband Joe DiMaggio. For years the donor of the flowers was kept a secret.

Joe
When I read that Joe refused to shake hands with Kennedy, blaming him for Marilyn's death, I immediately thought, that's the person who placed the flowers for her every year. Joe was the man who cares deeply about her, the man who many years after the divorce, the end of the relationship, has still not moved on. Later I learned that my guess was proved right.

The Newbridge cutlery company's museum is named one of the top five attractions by the tourist board. Look at the company's website and you can see lots of dresses. They have memorabilia from Audrey Hepburn, Princess Diana and the Beatles.

Watching all the videos, all sorts of secrets and facts are revealed. What was Marilyn wearing underneath? Nothing. The dress split at the back. You can see the place where it was quickly sewn back together.

Museum of Style Icons (MOSI)
Newbridge Silverware
County Kildare
Ireland

https://newbridgesilverware.com/mosi
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/travel-tips-and-articles/77391
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday,_Mr._President
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWaEGH2nImU
http://www.irishmirror.ie/whats-on/whats-on-news/most-significant-exhibition-marilyn-monroe-8295733
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.