Etihad - Dublin to Abu Dhabi

On Christmas Eve we got up at 5am to go to Dublin Airport for a flight to Abu Dhabi with Etihad.  

We always take the Aircoach to the airport.  The bus stop is at the top of our road and luckily a bus arrived just as we reached the stop.  We were greeted by the friendly bus driver and our holiday was off to a good start!

When we arrived at the airport we checked in promptly after getting there in less than half an hour as there was no traffic on the road.

Once we got through security we visited Duty Free where Ciaran bought some Chanel "Blue" aftershave while I bought some vodka.

When we arrived at our gate we saw that our flight was an hour late.  We wandered around and looked at some historical photos of Dublin Airport.

This is what the airport looked like in the 1960's! 

About the flight:

The plane was laid out in a 3-4-3 formation and looked to be full.  Ciaran sat in the aisle seat while I sat in the middle seat.  There were seatback TVs and we were given headphones which were of very good quality (very comfortable with heavy duty padding) and did a good job at cancelling out noise.

The film selection was very good with lots of new releases to choose from along with many newish popular films.  I watched  3 movies:

"Begin Again" starring Keira Knighley (surprisingly wasn't as annoying as she usually is) and Mark Ruffalo.

"Third Person" starring Liam Neeson which was a big load of watchable crap.

"One chance" starring James Corden which is the true story of opera singer Paul Potts who won Britain's Got Talent.

Obligatory Plane Selfie!

Food & Beverages:

I ordered a special seafood meal so I was given a Tuna Omelette which was passable.  

In regards to drinks there were no alcoholic beverages offered and when Ciaran asked for a beer he was told there was none and given no further explanation beyond this......all very strange and even stranger when a full compliment of alcohol was offered and served on the flight home.  I've emailed Etihad about this so hopefully I will receive a response that explains it.

On the way out to Abu Dhabi the Cabin Crew were wearing their uniforms which were grey and had a cream veil/scarf attached to their hats.  On the return flight, however, the crew were decked out in their new uniform.  Wow!  It is so nice!!
It is brown with dashes of purple.  There is no veil but they do wear a scarf jauntily around their neck along with a hat that has a badge that says Etihad on it.  I have to say that I do love a hat as part of an airline uniform and I do wish that Aer Lingus would introduce one in to their uniform.

Basket Brigade 2014

This morning Amy, Alice, Kasey and I met up to take part in Basket Brigade. 

Basket Brigade is where individuals come together as a group to provide hampers of food for needy people.

People fund raise (Thank you to all the companies who made donations) and collect food and on one day we come together and make the hampers and then get them delivered to where they are needed.  A big thanks also to Croke Park - what an amazing stadium to be in !!

The aim was to make over 130 hampers but we ended up making 150!!

There was also food and money left over which will be delivered to the Capuchins who will be feeding over 2,000 people this week.

Click here to read about the 2012 Basket Brigade event.

Getting busy!

Each hamper is filled with fresh veg, a chicken, a ham and also lots of non-perishable foods.  We put in a packet of porridge for breakfast along with crackers and jam for a snack.  Packets of soup are added and tins of tuna and fruit and also pasta and pasta sauce. Tea, coffee and sugar is a basic in every hamper and there is lots of sweet stuff such as mince pies, jelly and custard.  Crisps and biscuits are also additions to the pack of food.  It really is a nice selection of food that hopefully helps families have a nice meal on Christmas Day.  

We made up 3 hampers at a time as per Kasey's clever suggestion!

Each hamper had a list of all of the essential items to be added.

Along with food we added paperware of toilet rolls, kitchen roll and tin foil to the hamper - brilliant for those who don't have kitchen essentials.

All lined up ready to go!

Post Office Pickups

I missed the postman 3 times this week so I had to call to the Post Office to collect my parcels.

In order to collect mail you need to bring your postal slip along with identification.

Normally there is never a queue in the post office for package collection but today there was line of 4 people.  They always take a few minutes to find your packages.  They found 2 of mine really quickly but they couldn't find the large one that had come from the States.

Eventually they were all found and I got to take them home!

The two small packages contained an iPhone 6 cover and a selfie stick(!).  The large package came all the way from friends in the States and contained the most lovely presents! 

Early morning - Conference Centre View

I drove to work early last Thursday.  The view of the lit up Conference Centre was quite magnificent!

Camouflage Cat!

As I approached the work car park I saw this animal among the Winter leaves.  At first I thought it was a baby fox but then I saw it was a cat!

It had really beautiful markings on the tail.

He turned and looked at me before he disappeared in to the bush. You should be able to see his tail somewhere in there.

Got my Christmas Cards done!

An Post give handy advice about putting your return address on the top left hand corner of the envelope. 

I always thought that the return address should go on the back of the envelope.....obviously not!

There is a handy guide to posting dates for Christmas on the back of the booklet of Christmas Stamps I got.

I posted off a parcel to the States the other day - looked like I just made the last day!

Here's my cards all written and ready for posting!

Starbucks Leeson Street, Dublin

When I first moved to Dublin 6 there were no Starbucks in close vicinity (the Ranelagh Starbucks had closed a few years previously).  About a year ago or more a Starbucks opened in Rathmines which at the time I thought was great.  However, it is a very loud open plan style Starbucks and not very conducive to relaxing.

Recently a Starbucks opened in a former restaurant premise on Leeson Street.  There is also another one on Waterloo Road which is fairly close to my house and then the one on Harcourt Street is not too far away either!

I timed my walk to the Leeson Street Starbucks (pictured below) this morning.  It took exactly 10 minutes.

A further 10 mins takes you to Stephen's Green where, guess what, there is another Starbucks.  I call this one the Vampire Starbucks as it is open 24 hrs.

We generally sit outside as we have the dog with us.  They have a great heater in the Leeson Street Starbucks where you can can switch it on for 15 minutes to keep you warm - it does the job and we didn't feel the cold on this cold December day this morning!