Dublin Day Out!

Spent the most wonderful day in Dublin with my sister today.  We pottered around a few shops and places of interest.

After a breakfast in Kylemore Cafe, we visited Clery's one of Dublin's oldest department store.  We spent awhile looking around here.  It's a really beautiful building - I adore the entrance doors to the tea rooms.  They do nice cream teas here and the food menu looked pretty good too.

Something that caught my eye in the Benetton Concession in Clery's were these cute jackets and jumpers for dogs!

After visiting Brown Thomas we went to Bewley's Tea Room on Grafton Street - again another old historic Irish shop.  This was very atmospheric and we enjoyed looking at the famous Harry Clarke stained glass.

Here's Amy enjoying her Americano in Bewleys.

After Bewleys we went on Marco Pierre Steakhouse on Dawson Street.  We both had the lunchtime steak special.  

Don't I look happy to get my steak?!!

We ate the steak but didn't eat one single chip.  Too many carbs!!

I should mention the little guys pictured below.  When I met Amy I promised her I would buy her a Christmas Tree Ornament so she would have a memory of this day when she was dressing her tree each Christmas.  

Amy does her tree in silver and white so when we happened upon this really cute Polar Bear Family in Brown Thomas we knew we had to get them. How adorable are they?!

After our time in the city we walked to my house and took a dip in the hot tub.  

The perfect end to a perfect day!

Day 1: Fitness Blender’s Free 5 Day Workout Challenge for Busy People

Join me on a 5 Day Workout Challenge.



Daniel and Kelli will take you through a 30 minute exercise regime - perfect for busy people who only have a short amount of time to workout.



I have just completed the first workout and my muscles are burning.



Let me know how it goes for you!

Parcel Motel

For the first time ever I used Parcel Motel for delivery of a book that I had ordered.

It is so convenient!

I received a text with a pin number and then visited my chosen parcel motel entered my phone number and pin number and then one of the doors popped open to reveal my package.

Using Parcel Motel means that you don't have to be at home to receive delivery of packages which is very handy when working full time.

The other reason to use Parcel Motel is to save on shipping. Postage to the Republic of Ireland can be very expensive while it is less expensive to ship to the United Kingdom.  Therefore when buying things on line you can ship to a UK address which is the Parcel Motel Depot in Northern Ireland and they will then bring it down to be collected in the Republic.  

Quite ingenious!

There are lots of different sized parcel motel slots/boxes for various different sized deliveries. 

There's the book that I bought which came all the way from the USA.

Have you ever heard of Parcel Motel?  What do you think of the concept?

Dunnes Stores - Swan Centre

Dunnes Homewares in the Swan Centre has had a renovation.  It has an updated look and also a new range - Considered by Helen James.

The new store has a great look - kind of like a toned down version of the very cool "Industry" store on Drury Street.

It would definitely entice me to buy lots!!

Look at these adorable mini tart pans........so cute!

That red couch is part of the Carolyn Donnelly range and is very reasonably priced, in my opinion at €1,000.

Helen James also does gourmet designer chocolate!

Vintage Kitchen Poolbeg Street

I've been trying to get a reservation in Vintage Kitchen for the past few months with no success.  It probably is not helping my case to know that they are taking bookings 3 months in advance and I am always ringing looking for a reservation within a week!!

Anyway I emailed them a few weeks ago to try and get a booking for Ciaran's birthday weekend.  At the time they had nothing but they said they would contact me if they got a reservation.  They contacted me at 11.30am on Friday to say they could fit us in at 6pm that evening.  Result!!!

I was so happy!

I rang Ciaran immediately with the good news.  BUT then he turned me down!!!    It seems he had made plans with some lads to go boxing,

It all turned out ok though.  My twin sister suggested I try change the reservation from 2 people to 4 people and then meet with my cousin and her friend over from London for a visit.

They were able to accommodate the 4 of us so we all made plans to meet later that day.

Amy, Kasey and Erica all met for a predinner drink in O'Reilly's while I drove all the way from Donabate through the city to my house and then hopped on a bus back in to town and finally arrived at the restaurant at 6.25pm (I had left work at 5pm, arrived home at 5.55pm and was back out the door at 6pm!!).  Luckily they had not ordered yet (and sorry again Ladies!).

I should mention that this restaurant is BYOB and they don't charge for corkage if you order two courses.  I think that is a fair policy as I am not a fan of corkage charges even though I know there is a cost to the restaurant for this service.  Kasey very kindly offered to buy wine and she brought along 2 very nice bottles of malbec(!) - a favourite with Amy and I (Thanks Kasey!) 

The food was pretty amazing.  Lots of different ingredients and some that we had never even heard of - check out the chocolate looking sauce on my slate plate below.  Guess what this is?  It's...... black garlic!

For a description of each dish - have a look here on my sister's blog.

We had Risotto, Pate, Ling and Chowder with mussels for starters (all very generous portions except for Amy's ling which looked just right).

For mains, Amy and I had lamb shank while the others had poussin.

After dinner we retired to the very authentically Irish pub Mulligans on Poolbeg Street.  Hopefully our London friend got a good feel for Irish food and craic on this night out!

Nutrition/Twin Study - Visit 1

Today we were up and out at UCD at 7am for the first Study Visit. 

After meeting with the researchers we were brought to the Sports Science Building where a number of tests were carried out.  These included out Body Fat being tested in the Bod Pod.  Along with our weight and height being measured.  Our blood pressure was checked as well as blood samples being taken in order to do further testing on it.

We spent less than 3 minutes in the Bod Pod.  It is a little disconcerting as the air is being sucked out - you can feel pressure in your ears at some points but nothing to be alarmed about. Perhaps someone who suffers from claustrophobia wouldn't be too happy about sitting quietly in the pod but for us it was fine!

Here's all 5ft 6 of me getting measured.

Here's Amy giving blood - she doesn't look bothered at all!  It took the nurse awhile to find a vein as Amy's are so hidden and small.  

We were finished up in about an hour and a half and because we were fasting they gave us a snack to take away with us (apple juice, an orange and some biscuits).  We had been hoping that they would give us a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs!!!  

Nutrition Study in UCD

As outlined here  my twin sister and I are part of a Nutrition Study in UCD.

Today I had to pick up our "Study Packs".  I got a lift up to UCD but walked the 40 mins back.  I had Bones with me so he got a good stretch of his legs.

When I got home I investigated what was in the packs.

 

They basically consist of ice packs, a questionnaire and a urine sample container.   

The questionnaire is fairly detailed.  It asks about your personal circumstance, your health, the level of exercise you take and then about your dietary habits and attitude to food.

I'll report back further after our first meet up with the researchers on Wednesday morning.