Rathmines Dublin 6

After a swim this morning I took a few pics of some interesting things I saw in Rathmines this morning.  

This is the Rathmines College that is housed in the Rathmines Town Hall.  I have passed by this building numerous times but never look up at it.  The clock tower caught my eye as there was a crane above it (building the new cinema in the Swan Centre).

It's a stunning building with so many details.  On sunny days the red bricks look fantastic.

Across the road from the Town Hall is the Rathmines Public Library.  I always thought it had the look of a Carnegie Library and I was right!  Check out the plaque.

There were a fair few Carnegie Libraries built in Ireland and you can find more information here about them.

I saw a Fiat too.  
I think it is the Fiat 500 - the original Smart Car!!!

Afterwards my friend called over for coffee (she was at meetings in Rathmines) before heading back to work.

I had Pain au Chocolate for with the coffee but Alice had picked up beautiful sweet treats from the Natural Bakery.  The rice crispie cakes were good but the bright pink donuts tasted like bubblegum!!!

Seafood selection

Had a fun Bank Holiday Monday!  I started with a great swim where I felt like I could have swam forever.

Afterwards I took the dog to the vet to get his booster shots.  After waiting about 10 mins the dog started to get bored and annoyed that he had to wait.  He started making an annoying whining sound.  Everyone in the waiting room started looking at him and one lady even said that it sounded like he was talking to me!

After the vets we went in to the city.  I needed to pick up some Nespresso Capsules for the coffee machine in work.

When we came home I cooked a dinner of trout, sea bass and sweet potato.  I have to say, I think fish is overrated - by the time you pick through all the bones you have to wonder is it worth it.....

May Bank Holiday

It's the May Bank Holiday here in Ireland.  We walked to Lidl to buy the paper and eggs for breakfast.  Ciaran also bought pain au chocolat which were warm and straight from the oven!

I got some shrubs for our small front garden too.  I have a dead lavender plant that needed to be pulled out and replaced.  

After breakfast, Ciaran did work while I designed and ordered t-shirts that Amy and I plan to sell at an upcoming festival that is organised by our Uncle.  

Later that day we walked for an hour, up to Rathmines and the long way back to Ranelagh.  I bought sunflower seeds in the Rathmines hardware and planted them when we got home.  I hope they do grow.  Most things that I plant tend to not do so well but seemingly sunflowers are one of the easiest flowers to grow. We will see!!

Clever packaging - Cadbury's Egg and spoon

I love the packaging on these mousse filled chocolate eggs!

They come with two cute little plastic spoons for scooping out the mousse (available in chocolate and vanilla)

You can bite off the top at the indent!

Water in the ears!

Water in my ears after I swim!  What is with this???

Currently I am training for a 12 mile relay swim around the island of Key West in June.  The training is going great except for the water in ear condition that I am experiencing.

Having swam competitively through my childhood,  I don't seem to recall having this issue.  Now after I get out of the pool I can't hear anything and as I shake my head I can feel the water rolling around my ear drum.

The only way I can get it out is to bend forward and shake my head vigorously and then turn my head to the side and shake more.  Huge big drops then come out and land on the floor!

What is with it???!!  Very annoying!

Laura Geoghegan holistic Massage

Are you based in Galway?

A good friend of mine, living and working in Galway, is a very talented Holistic Masseuse.  I can personally vouch for her magic fingers - I was relaxed for weeks after getting a massage from her.

Laura does a range of holistic therapies including full body massage along with Reiki and Indian Head Massage. 

She has just started to begin marketing and promoting herself on Facebook and is looking to grow her business.  I'd love if you could give her support and click like!

And if you are ever in the Galway area of Ireland - do yourself a favour and book in a massage with Laura Geoghegan!!

Her contact details are on her Facebook page.

Oh and as well as being a great therapist Laura is also a swimming teacher too!!!  So if you want the kiddies to learn to swim - click here.

The Natural Bakery

The Natural Bakery is now open in Rathmines.  It seems that it has branches in both Donnybrook and Kilmainham.

The bakery has a stylish frontage and display cases full of nice treats.

There was some great novelty cakes in the window.

They do cakes, pastries and breads.

There is a huge selection of breads.  They all look great.

Ciaran got an Apple Danish.  Look at the size of them!!

Although you can sit in and have a coffee we took ours to takeaway.  Ciaran thought his Danish was nice but not as good as the Danish he used to get in Bretzel Bakery.

I got a cupcake.  It was a bit "meh".  There was not enough frosting and it was quite tasteless.

Next time we visit we will buy some bread as it all looked super!