Flying British Airways to London

We flew British Airways to London on Saturday. Since swearing off Ryanair, Aer Lingus has been our first choice but a good price popped up for flights with British Airways so I snapped them up.

It was a pleasant experience travelling with BA and I loved the cabin crew's uniform, especially their smart navy hats. 

I was very impressed by the food & drink options on board with food offerings by M&S.

We were on an early morning flight so we didn't order any food or beverages, instead choosing to try sleep for the whole flight. Ciaran succeeded, I didn't.

The drinks selection were excellent with vodka options including my favourite "Grey Goose".

 

On our way home from London we were impressed to be offered a selection of newspapers to take on board the plane with us. We took an English Times and also the New York Times. This little extra would make us choose to fly Speedbird at any time in the future that we get a chance to do so.

Back at Basquiat!

Last week I bought flights to London for Sat 27th of Jan as I planned on us visiting Boom For Real for a second time.

It was a bit silly but after booking the flights I went to get tickets on the Barbican website where I then discovered they were sold out!!!  Aagh!

I emailed the Barbican Centre to see if there was a wait list for cancelled tickets. They told me there was no cancellation list but there would be a small amount of tickets released on the day.

And so yesterday we flew to London and arrived at 8.40am and dashed to the Barbican on the Heathrow Express and tube.

We got there at 10.10am to discover a HUGE queue with easily over 300 people ahead of us.

After waiting in line for over an hour and a half it was hard to see if we were going to get in. There was very little movement and they were only letting in a handful of people every 15 mins. And although they were open until very late with entry up to 10pm, we had a flight in the evening so we were somewhat restricted by the latest time we could go in at.

We heard someone ahead of us mention that if you joined as a member there was an opportunity to get tickets for this exhibition as they had a different batch set aside for members.

Leaving Ciaran in the queue I went inside to suss out membership and see if they still had tickets available.

There was another line to set up membership along with ticket pickup for members so I got in to this and when I got to the top I was advised that if we joined as members we could get tickets for a 2.30pm entry.  I jumped at the opportunity! After travelling all the way from Ireland, it would have been a big disappointment to not get to see the show. 2.30pm was also the perfect time as we had plans to go visit a gallery in another area of London where we also planned to have something eat. We could then return, see the show and then head directly to the airport at about 4pm for our flight home just after 6pm. It was perfect!

And now we are members of the Barbican Centre we can get lots of other benefits on future visits.

The exhibition was just as good if not better on the second visit as on the first. The only thing is that I find Basquiat's art so immense that once I have seen a few of his works I begin to feel overwhelmed. So in actual fact I would choose to visit a third time if that was possible.  But of course it is not possible as it has closed now.

Hopefully it will open in another country and with any luck I will get to see it there!

I had hoped to buy some postcards of Basquiat prints but they were all sold out. However, I did buy my twin sister a little gift to say thanks for minding our dog while we were gone for the day - I got her this cute little enamel Basquiat crown pin. Thanks Amy!

"THE MALL"

Really enjoyed watching this 1980's report on a mall in Kansas. And then after this I started watching videos about abandoned malls in different parts of USA - strangely addictive!

Daytripper!

We are heading back to London this weekend. We will be making a dash to the Barbican to try get day release tickets for the second last day of the Basquiat exhibition that we visited a little while ago.

This time we are flying British Airways and once again I've booked the Heathrow Express.

It will certainly be hectic.  We land at 8.40am and then we need to get over to the Barbican to get in line at 10am. Fingers crossed we get tickets.

New Year, New Recycling habits.

One of my new year resolutions was to be more discerning in my recycling efforts. This was very timely as a new recycling list came out in Ireland.

The new rules lay out very specifically what is recycled and what is not. Soft plastics was one I was unsure about but now I can see that it is not acceptable to put in the green recycling bin.

My bin company are excellent.  They are City Bin (I've blogged about them before) and every month they send me a report of my waste disposal.

I enjoy receiving the report as it spurs me on to continue to separate my waste.

Going forward, I endeavour to loosely bin my clean recyclables in order to ensure that they all get recycled.

All my kitchen waste - vegetable peels, food scraps, etc goes in the brown bin and then the rest goes in the black bin.

To see the new recycling list go to www.recyclinglistireland.ie 

Further to all of the above I am also going to try not bring items home that need to then be disposed of.  One big way I am doing this is I am bringing my own reusable takeaway cup when I go for a cup of coffee in Starbucks. I have no issue doing this - once I remember to!

Meatza!!

I haven't eaten sugar and chocolate since New Year and I am very much committed to low carb eating (it's working - I'm losing the weight that I put on over Christmas!)

So this week I am all about "Meatza"

It's basically mince topped with cream cheese and a small bit of tomato paste and then grated cheese along with pepperoni.  Like pizza but minced meat instead of regular pizza crust.

It's seriously tasty!

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but one great thing that I have noticed since I put fat back in my diet is that my hair has stopped thinning and I am actually getting new hair all along my hairline - so much so that my hairdresser asked if I had just had a baby.  I say it's all down to Kerrygold butter!!

Aswell as making "Meatza" this week, I also made "Crack Slaw" - you can see a video here all about this cabbage based LCHF dish. I am not a fan of cabbage but Ciaran loved this and even brought leftovers for his lunch the next day after having it for dinner.

RIP Dolores O'Riordan

RIP Dolores O'Riordan

This amazing Irish singer will be missed worldwide

Sign her condolence book here

Halo Top has arrived in Ireland

Do you know about Halo Top?

It's an ice cream that is marketed as healthy due to it being low sugar and low calorie while being high protein.

It comes in a variety of flavours and it has just arrived on Irish shores.

My sister told me that it was available in Tesco so I went this afternoon to buy some. I reckon there had been a rush on it as there was only 4 left in the freeze. 2 vanilla, 1 mint and 1 chocolate.  

I bought the chocolate.

I sat down to watch The Jane Austen Book Club and cracked open the tub of chocolate. 

Well......my verdict was........ that it was good.  Not Ben & Jerry's good. But when you are off sugar you don't have much options.

I will say that I found it very sweet but I was able to solve that by putting a big dollop of whipped cream on top which took the edge off the sweetness.

So all in all a nice treat at the end of the weekend before the week ahead.

Clearing out and Bookcrossing.....

I was doing a little clear out of my bookshelves and rather than give the books to a charity shop I decided to have a little fun and register them on Bookcrossing.com

I used to bookcross years ago - it means you can register your books and then track them when you let them go.

I left a little stack of books for people to take in my local Starbucks.

There's some good ones in the pile, hopefully there is some interest from readers and they go to a good home.

Homemade Clotted Cream

So I made Clotted Cream!!

Have you ever tasted it? It is an intensely flavoured cream that tastes somewhere between cream or butter.

It takes a good length of time to make.  You need to put it in the oven at a low heat for 12 hours and then it sits in the fridge for another 8 hours. Whoa.

Click here to see a video about how to make your own clotted cream.

Once fully made I put the clotted cream in to a jar to store.

 

And then I slathered a load on to the keto bread that I made this morning.

It was delicious!

I may make a strawberry trifle with the keto bread (it is nearly like sponge cake), strawberries and the clotted cream. Watch this space!

Keto Coconut Flour Bread

I found a recipe for Keto Coconut Flour Bread online last night and as I had some coconut flour in my cupboard I decided to make it this morning.

There are not too many ingredients in the bread and you would probably have most of them in your house.

The recipe can be found here on Diet Doctor. As you can see I substituted butter for coconut oil. I made the substitution because I always have more butter than coconut oil in my house. The bread tasted very coconutty when cooked so I was glad I did this. I love the flavour of butter so I was glad I added it to the mix.

This is how the bread turned out.  I left it to cool for about an hour before I cut it.

It cut well.

I toasted a few slices.

Then I smoothered it in butter.  I think cream cheese would be a good option on this bread - or even clotted cream.

It is more cake like than bread but if you miss bread I think it is a good substitute and would work perfectly with smashed avocado and a fried egg. How filling does that sound?!

It is quite dry so you certainly need to put a creamy filling on top - but that is great to get additional fat in to your daily intake.

My Le Creuset Butter Bell came in to it's own as I slathered the bread in butter. It keeps the butter fresh room temperature at and perfectly spreadable. Delish!

I was impressed with this bread. I thought it was easy to make (mix the wet ingredients together and then add the dry) and it was a tasty loaf when made.

Let me know in the comments if you have ever made Keto Bread and what you think of this one.

Irish Life Mall - Dublin City

I met my twin sister at the Irish Life Mall this morning before we went for coffee in Starbucks on O'Connell Street. 

My twin sister works close to the Irish Life Mall so she gets to see the mall in all it's quirky glory most days of the week. 

I am rarely in this part of town so it was quite the experience for me to park in the mall car park and then walk up the stairs to the mall.

Here's a few pics which show you what it is like.......

                          Welcome to the Irish Life Mall!

This plaque is in the car park of the Irish Life Mall. 

It reads:

The Moland Street Stone

Moland Street appears on old maps of Dublin in the 18th and early 19th century. This stone originally marked the site of the street which was in the vicinity of the present Irish Life Centre.

 

The plaque is situated to the front of these plants - you see it to your left as you come out the doors to head up the stairs.

Love the stone work!

This place it unlike any other in Dublin City. When I visit, it reminds me of childhood trips to town. 

They have some nice Christmas decorations in the Irish Life Mall.

Thank you for visiting the 1980's!

Happy New Year - 2018 is here!

2018 is here after we had a lovely celebration yesterday. We had dinner in Dillingers and then returned home early and watched a film before switching on the TV just before midnight for the countdown.
We cracked open a bottle of prosecco and toasted in the New Year and made it to bed shortly after.

Earlier in the day, Ciaran had painted and videoed him and broadcast live on both Facebook and Periscope. You can watch the video here.
I also took a few pics of him for posterity on the last day of the year. Here's one of them.

For my New Year resolutions, I intend to give up my diet coke habit as I drink far to much of it. A far better option is to substitute with sparkling water at first and then switch out for regular water.

I also am going back off carbs as I have started back eating them since November and quite honestly I feel better when I am not eating a big load of processed sugar.

I'll let you know how I get on!

In the meanwhile here's a handy guide on what to eat and what not to.

Happy New Year to you all and Good Luck with your new year resolutions.