What are you reading at the moment?

 I'm reading an excellent book called "Back from the dead" by Joan M. Cheever. 

 

From the author's website, the author explains "Back From The Dead is the story of 589 former death row inmates who, through a lottery of fate, were given a second chance at life in 1972 when the death penalty was abolished; it returned to the United States four years later."

 

As someone who does not support the death penalty I am finding it very interesting albeit very moving and quite upsetting in parts.

 

 

 

A new Victoria's Secret (the only one in Ireland) has opened in Dublin Airport.  I browsed it before my flight to Copenhagen but didn't buy anything.  I was glad to see that there was a VS in Copenhagen Airport so I visited it before I got my flight home. 

I bought a nude lip gloss and a little make up bag.  The make up bag is perfect size for popping in to my hand bag and carrying around with me.

 

I made more fat bombs today.  This time I poured them in to my mini bundt cake moulds.  The moulds are silicon so the fat bombs popped out easily.  They look so good and taste even better!!

 

I saw this in the English Times.

 

Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to put this statue of a sleepwalking man in the grounds of an all-female college in the USA??!!! 

Denmark

I've just returned from a 2 day trip to Copenhagen, Denmark.

I didn't get to see much of the city as I was on a work trip, however, I found all the Danish people I met to be extremely friendly and helpful.

Check out all the great light fittings - typical Danish style, I think.

My hotel lobby 

Airport Bar

Airport Duty Free

Copenhagen Airport

Sunday morning walk and Pantigate

After breakfast of rashers (bacon) and eggs we went for a walk around Ranelagh.  We passed Litton Hall (built 1877) on Leeson Park next to the Wesleyan Church.

 

Northbrook Clinic is in an attractive building.

 

 

Our dog passed by this point without even noticing the cute kitty popping out to say hello!

 

We made our way back up to Ranelagh village and stopped in Coffee Society for coffee and a read of the Sunday papers.

In the afternoon I met my sister and we attended the LGBT Noise protest over Pantigate

 

If you have a few minutes to spare I urge you to watch this video of Pantibliss which gives some of the background to the protest against the Irish State Broadcaster for their shutting down of the discussion of Homophobia and Gay Equality.

 

 

Here's my little sister.  We had Irish flags with us because we went to watch the Ireland v. Scotland Rugby game in Sinnots after the protest.

 

I expected to see lots of Pride flags at the protest but was a little disappointed it was not a more colourful affair.  It was attended by lots of different people including many families with their children.

When I got home I made curry broth for dinner.  After dinner we got in to the hot tub which was so good.  It's probably been about 4 weeks since we were last in the hot tub!!

From Monday's Irish Independent

Mr Muscle

Cleaned my oven with Mr Muscle today - wow it is strong smelling and over powering.  It comes with a warning that if you get any on your skin you need to rinse under water for 20 minutes.

Here's my oven before the clean.  You spray on the noxious Mr Muscle and leave for half an hour.

Wipe down your oven and this is how it looks!

Voila! A beautiful clean oven.

I have two ovens - this the large one that I very rarely use.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Blanchardstown Shopping Centre have nice balloon decorations to mark the Chinese New Year.

2014 is the Year of the Horse!

Georgian Mile

I had meetings in the city yesterday.  One of my meetings was in a building on Fitzwilliam Street which is home to rows of preserved Georgian Houses.  Most have been converted to offices.

Here is a pic  in the other direction. To the right of  the photo is Merrion Square (the area with trees).

Go Cars are an interesting concept.  It is a car sharing initiative, offering short term car rental to members on a hourly basis.  Unlike renting a car, users of Go Car pay a monthly subscription in order to then pick up a car from many different convenient locations city wide at a very reasonable hourly rate.  Parking in the city is also free when using a Go Car - perhaps one of the biggest benefits of partaking in the car sharing scheme.

Fat Bombs

When eating an LCHF diet it can be hard to find a snack that is high fat.  A fat bomb is the perfect solution to this problem.

 

To make my fat bomb I mixed 325g of butter with 125g of melted 85% chocolate. To this mixture, I added toasted coconut flakes and ground almonds.

 

I then spooned in to baking cases and sprinkled with more toasted coconut.

 

They taste so good and are the perfect way to add more fat in to your diet!

I got the chocolate in Aldi and the ground almond and toasted coconut in the Hopsack in Rathmines.

 

Fat bombs need to be stored in the fridge or freezer as they melt quickly due to their high fat content.

 

To make the fat bombs look nicer they could be pressed in to candy moulds.  I will probably do this on my next batch.

 

Variations include using peanut butter in addition to regular butter.