City Bin

A few years ago the Dublin councils privatized and sold off their waste services. Since then a few companies have come online and have offered services to the people of Ireland.  We are currently signed up with City Bin.

I rate City Bin very highly and have found them to be brilliant.  On the very one occasion that our bin wasn't collected I rang them and they picked up the next day.  I also rang them to mention that our bin wasn't very visible because there was a car in the way.  The lady I spoke to said she would text the lads on the truck and tell them to look out for it.  How great is that service?! 

We have 3 rubbish bins - Black for general waste,  Green for recycling and Brown for compostable waste.  Every month City Bin sends me a report on how much waste I have disposed of and how it compares to other customers.  As a family of two we have very little waste - and because of this City Bin charges us a lower yearly charge.  

It is obvious from dealing with this company that they are focused on customer service - it is the little things like they always put your bins back to the spot they took they from.  Having been with another bin company before, I am extremely happy that I made the switch to City Bin.

         How do you dispose of your waste - are you happy with your waste company?

Coffee time - Nespresso capsule system

My twin sister and I visited the Nespresso Boutique in Brown Thomas to look at coffee machines.

I was under strict orders to buy a black machine so I bought a "U" made by Magimix.

A special offer was running where you got a €50 voucher to use against coffee when you bought a machine.  A "Welcome Pack" of 150 different coffee capsules along with a perspex storage box was on sale for €57 so I used my voucher for this.

The machine I bought was €149 so for €156,  I got all of the below.  What great value!

I set the machine up on my wet bar turning it in to a coffee bar!

It is incredibly easy to make a cup of coffee.  Pop in a capsule and choose what size coffee you would like (there are 3 sizes - espresso is the mid size)

Lovely creamy coffee on the make!

The midsize coffee fits perfectly in to my Smart Car espresso cups.

The perspex box is very convenient and very dinky looking.

My sister (check her blog here) got the very funky limited edition "Bright Orange" Inessia coffee maker.  This machine cost a ridiculously reasonable €99.  I would have been happy to have bought this model but unfortunately the black colour were all sold out.  I love the bright cheeriness of the orange machine.

Have you got a capsule system coffee maker? I know that Keurig is a popular range in USA but unfortunately you can not buy K Cups in Ireland - otherwise I may have considered buying one in the States.

Salt Lick pop up in Ranelagh

Salt Lick is a new restaurant in Ranelagh that is based in Hobarts on Friday and Saturday nights - a variation on a pop up restaurant, I guess.  In true hipster fashion they only take bookings through their social media on their Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr pages.  I facebooked them for a table and they fitted the two of us in for 7.30pm on Saturday night.

Salt Lick has no licence so it is both BYOB and BYOC.  You might be wondering what BYOC is!!  It's Bring Your Own Cocktail - well bring the spirits that you want to add to their delicious cocktail fixings.

I have this great wine bag that my cousin brought back from New York City for me.  In to it I put a bottle of Chateau Neuf du Pape (a young 'un - perhaps not the best choice to go with taco's) and two little baby bottles (1 of vodka the other of bourbon for Ciaran).

The food in Salt Lick is themed each month.  This month is taco month - how fun!

For starters we got bacon bites served with three sauces/dips (I will edit and put up what they are when I get home and check the menu again).  We found the bacon bites to be very salty and over fried which made them very tough.  We wouldn't be rushing to have them again.

For main there was tacos in three different varieties - lamb, pork and beef.  You could choose three so we chose all of the above.  Both of us agreed that the lamb was our favourite.  Ciaran said he would have three of the lamb if he was reordering.   Our least favourite was the beef - neither of us are a fan of horse radish (maybe we should have left it off?) 

For dessert I had the coffee milk pudding which was creamy, sweet and smooth - very tasty indeed.  

As we ordered dessert we handed over our babies and they made us a Moscow Mule with the vodka and an Old Fashioned with the bourbon.  Both were quite delicious and a lovely finish to our evening in Salt Lick.

Our bill for all of the above came to a very reasonable €51.  

Saturday swim

I got up this morning and set off to the pool for a swim - only to find it not open until 10am!!!!  

I walked back to Starbucks and settled in  with a coffee until the pool opened. 

Ceiliúradh

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins (Uachtarain na hEirinn) is currently on a momentous and historic State visit to Great Britain. Hosted by the Queen of England he is staying at her private residence Windsor Castle.

On the third night of his visit a celebration of all that is Irish was held in the Royal Albert Hall (which is amazing!).  Called a "Ceiliúradh" it consisted of performance by Irish dancers, musicians, poets and storytellers. Very enjoyable altogether!

Pictured is President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabine

At the Library!

Recognize anyone in this video?!

Does your library do all of this too???

Share if you love libraries!!

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!