Sunday Swim!

I had been "paying as I go" to swim in the Swan Leisure Centre in Ranelagh, but today I bit the bullet and took out a years membership.  In fairness it is a great pool and there is also a gym and lots of fitness classes available.

I'm not sure if I mentioned before that my sisters and I have signed up for a 12.5 mile swim around Key West this June.  We will be competing as a relay team so we will all end up swimming around 3 miles each.

Before I swam today I was working out how many meters 3 miles converts to, which is 5000 metres.

Therefore when training in a 25m pool we will need to get 200 lengths under our belts (this means we should be fit enough to swim against the sea currents which will be way stronger than in the pool).

I haven't been swimming for the past few weeks since I had minor surgery and was easing myself back slowly.  Today I finally I felt like I was swimming well and that I can do the KW Island swim!

Awesome!

I'll blog regularly about my swim training and how I am getting on and do look out for my blogs about the actual race when I complete it in June!!

Obviously you can see from this sign that Linn Snamha is the Irish for Swimming Pool.  (I think if you had asked me to translate it I possibly might have said it was Snamhlann)

I put this photo up because my American friends get a kick out of the fact that we call swimsuits "togs" here in Ireland.  In fairness I think it is fairly funny that English people tend to call their swimsuits "costumes" - it sounds as if they are putting on a performance or something!

Proposal Ring Box

Many times when someone proposes marriage to their beloved they use a fake ring so that afterwards they can choose the engagement ring together as a couple.

Today in the Kilkenny store I saw the most amazing silver ring box that could be used as part of the proposal.

The box had a ribbon on it so afterwards the box could even be hung each year on the Christmas tree!

I think it is the most adorable thing!

It's made by Newbridge Silver and retails for €25

I think it is a lovely keepsake and would make a great family heirloom.

"Digital Speak" - A new language

A few days ago I received the following What's app message:

#Bookshelfie is trending on Tumblr.  You need to take a selfie of you in the library and tweet it and share in on FB"

So I followed all of the above instructions and this was the result

(I should mention that a library all the way in Ohio shared this pic with their followers too!)

This got me thinking.  If someone had said the above message to me 10 years ago I would have had no clue what they are talking about.  Has new technologies and social media given rise to a new language which I like to refer to as "Digital Speak"???

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this 

- do you speak digital???...........

Here's my final thought:   #Digitalspeak

Digital Marketing Course - Wk 2

Here's what I learned in Week 2 of the Digital Marketing Course that I am currently studying.

The following relates to use of Social Media by businesses.

Bitly!
I had used Bitly to shorten links to share on Twitter, etc.  
A better use for Bitly is to sign up to track your links to gain useful information like where clicks on your links are coming from.

Images
Images add value to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if tagged properly.  Use keywords when saving an image that you are then going to share on Facebook

Chat with and endorse other brands that have shared interests or shared target audiences 

When tweeting someone put Hi before @----- in order for the tweet to show up in your followers feed

Second Screen
Have you heard of the Second Screen?  This is when you are watching TV but also tweeting about the TV show at the same time. In Ireland the Late Late Show has been broadcast every Friday night for about 40 years.  There is a large live thread/discussion about the show on Boards with lively discussion about the show as it is broadcast.  We have changed the way we watch TV and there has also been changes to the way that TV shows are produced.  TV shows have social media ad-ons like hash tags and actors are employed to, as well as act in the show, engage with viewers on social media.

Hashtags
When hosting an event, create a specific hashtag for it.  If people tweet about the event they should include the #tag which may get it trending.

Facebook check ins
"Check ins" are crucial - they endorse your business.

Status Updates
Status updates can be scheduled - spend an hour or two to schedule all your updates for the week.
Look for the clock on the post/status update - put in times and dates you want the updates to go live.  This allows you to mange your time more effectively on FB.
But do remember to react to timely events and take down scheduled updates if they are no longer appropriate.

And finally, always include a link to your website in "about" on Facebook and Twitter, etc.  This creates the all important back link.
Remember that the reason for using social media is to drive traffic to your website.

Hope all of the above was useful and look out for my post about what I learn next week in the third week of my course!

Tunnocks Tea Cakes

Is there anything nicer on your morning coffee break than a Tunnock's Tea Cake???

Open the cool retro box to take one!

Unwrap the printed tin foil to reveal the chocolate jewel!

And Voila!  The Tunnock's Tea Cake in all it's glory!!

Soft marshmallow on biscuit enveloped in chocolate.  The perfect food!!!

Here's the Tunnock's Tea Cake stash in work!!

Snowboard fail

My twin sister was snow boarding in France recently.  Here she is in action - the best bit starts at about 30 seconds!!

Sunday Funday!

It was Mother's Day today in Ireland and UK so we called to both of our mother's with gifts of flowers, wine and chocolates.

We didn't stay for dinner in my mother's as she is having an operation on her back this Tuesday.  She was hosting my two sisters, my brother in law, my nana and my uncle for dinner so I didn't want to put more pressure on her by adding two dinner guests + dog!

After my mother's we called to Ciaran's mother.  She was delighted with her flowers but had already got a bunch from Ciaran's brother. He lives in Galway so he arranged for a florist to deliver them to her. Nice! 

Ciaran's Dad spoke to us about how much he enjoyed the Patrick Scott exhibition in the Imma so we decided to go once we left their house.

His works are spectacular and we whiled away the time looking at them.  

Scott passed away just before this exhibition opened.  He was 93 and seems to have had an amazing life.  Starting out as an architect he worked for the famous Irish architect Michael Scott for 15 years, and worked on the well known Bus Aras building -  he completed the main work on the stunning mosaic patterns in this building.  I also learnt that he designed the black and orange livery for the trains in CIE!

A very worthwhile exhibition to visit, do go if you get a chance. 

Happy Mother's Day to all you mammies - hope you had a great day!