Asador Haddington Road

 

 

 

It's a Bank Holiday here in Ireland so yesterday evening we visited Asador on Haddington Road (just off Baggot Street).
To start I had mackerel (so fresh and tasty) while Ciaran had wings which were covered in a sweet chilli sauce.  For main I had a rib eye steak cooked rare (it was perfect) and Ciaran had the burger (which had bad "bun-ability" - when the bun started breaking up I suggested he just eat it with a fork). After dinner we shared a cheese plate which had a blue, a smoked Gubeen and a Rocquefort.

I thought the food was good and I would certainly return.  Our only issue which was rectified satisfactorily was that a large family arrived at about the same time us.  All the adults sat at one table while all the children were placed at a table, a little bit away from the adults, right beside us!  The children were very young ranging from toddlers upwards and were particularly noisy.  We had to ask to be moved to a quiet table down near the kitchen - there was no way we could have enjoyed our meal with screaming and shouting children sitting beside us.  As we left the restaurant, the staff apologized to us once again as we collected our coats from them.  Personally I think the adults should have been told by management that it was not appropriate to abandon their children  and it was not allowed. As it happened the restaurant staff then ended up minding the children and I am sure there might have been complaints from other diners.  All in all it was very slack parenting and I'm sure the children wouldn't have been half as noisy if they had been supervised by an adult.  
What do you think readers?  Were we right to move table?

UPC Pay per View Fail: Mayweather versus Pacquiao

The scene was set yesterday for a great event.

I booked the Pacquiao v. Mayweather pay per view event with UPC at about 9.30am on Saturday morning.  I then invited friends over to join me to watch it at 3am.

I bought a spread of food and drinks for my guests and went to bed at 10.30pm planning to get up later for the fight.

So.......

We got up at 3am to discover that the pay per view channel was not working.  It was a fail.......

My sister and brother in law then knocked at the door (it was 3.30am by this point) and I had to tell them the bad news......another guest arrived then.  You can only imagine how embarrassed I was at this point!

After searching for it online with no success, Ciaran got on the phone to another friend to see if he was watching it and where he was.  

Thankfully this guy was fairly close by so we all piled in to my sisters car and "booted" it to Booterstown to watch the fight in two lad's (that we had never met) apartment!

Thankfully it all worked out in the end (not thanks to UPC who I will be calling tomorrow to discuss what happened) - it was a fight of the decade and it was really worth getting up in the middle of the night to watch.

However, to say I am unhappy with UPC is an understatement. Their customer service centre closed at 9pm yet the PPV event only started at midnight.  I would think that there should have been technical support for this PPV event for the whole time the event was on.  It's not good enough.

 

After the fight it was back home to my house where I cooked breakfast for everyone and then back to bed by 7.30am!

Update
On Sunday I contacted UPC through twitter.  They confirmed the order did not go through and then asked did they want to put the order through now!!  Seriously?!  

Today is Monday and I have currently been on hold to UPC for over 40 minutes (I am only ringing today as I didn't know they were open yesterday).  I also see on their Facebook Page that a lot of people ordered the PPV event and then it did not work for them either.

Yes for Equality!

 I called in to the pop up Equality Store in the St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre which is selling items to fundraise for a Yes vote in the upcoming marriage referendum on May 22nd.

I bought a bunch of badges and also some car stickers 

("Tá" is the Irish word for Yes) 

I stuck car stickers on both the Smart Car and also my IQ.

I plan on sharing my badges with friends and family who are in support of equality for all!

The pop up shop is staffed by volunteers and will be open for the duration of the campaign selling t-shirts, tote bags, badges and other Yes equality goods with all proceeds going to the yes campaign.  The shop is also a centre point for people seeking information on the Marriage Referendum.

If you want to donate to the campaign you can do so here.

L'Occitane Foot Cream

I really like this Dry Skin Foot Cream from L'Occitane.  It smells great and is really rich.  It is absorbed in to the skin very quickly and makes your feet feel so good!

The Rose Hand Cream is very good too and it smells amazing!!

I was introduced to L'Occitane by my twin sister and I have to say that it very quickly became one of my favourite stores!  Amy and I visited L'Occitane on Thursday evening and we wanted to go back today.

This morning I called to Amy's house where she made me a lovely breakfast and I helped her sort through her clothes as she was doing a big clear out.  We then set off for the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre to go to L'Occitane.  However, it was lashing rain here and the traffic was so bad around the centre that we had to turn around. It was so bad!  I just then went home without having looked in any shops :-( 

While We're Young

What a film!!

We went to see this on Sunday evening and thought it was incredible.

There is so much going on in this film and there are so many messages.  It's ironic, clever and fun.  It's about hipsters, young people, old people, having a baby, not having a baby, life, family, ambition.........I could go on.

With it's deadpan humour and great soundtrack this is a must see film that will make you think about your life and changes you can make.....if you want.

......Then on Tuesday evening we went to the cinema (to see the new Avengers movie), calling in to a packed Rathmines Starbucks beforehand.  I remarked to my husband - Look at us being all "While we're young" hanging out having coffee on a Tuesday evening!

Have you seen it yet?!  Go see it!!!

Good Deal on Coconut Oil

I bought this Coconut Oil in Tesco today - only €1.99!  It's normally way more expensive than that - what a bargain.  I bought my younger sister some too as I was calling to see her.

This one is 100% pure coconut oil.

Per 100ml it has 99.5g fat and 0g of Carb.

I use coconut oil for cooking with and also for Oil Pulling.

Bye Bye iPhone

After a small bit of deliberation I decided to change my phone.

There were two issues I had to give consideration to.  

The first was whether I wanted to commit to a monthly package for phone connection and which plan to go with.  The second issue was whether I would get an iPhone (which I've had for the past while) or change phone to an android.

Having been "pay as you go" for a number of years, but having been constantly spending more month on month, I decided to go with a monthly plan.

The plan I chose offered a free HTC phone or else I could pay an extra €240 for an iPhone 5S.

I chose to go with the HTC as I have been coming around to the idea of getting away from an iPhone for a few different reasons.  One reason is that the battery on the iPhone is brutal - seemingly it is far superior on the HTC.  The other reason I want to change from the iPhone is that I a, sick of iTunes on all the password malarkey that you have to deal with.  I want a less hassle free option.

I've been messing around on the HTC for two hours or so and I have to say that I am finding it quite user friendly.

Watch this space and I will report further the more that I use it.