Rock of Ages Athlone

As I wrote in my last blog, we traveled to Athlone to watch the best (in my limited opinion!) musical ever - "Rock of Ages". Not only do I love this musical, but my younger sister was performing in the production by the Athlone Amateur Musical Society.

I have to say, I was blown away by how professional the set up was upon entering the Dean Crowe Theatre. Then when the show began the performers wowed me even further. They were incredible singers, dancers and actors. I thought my sister Katie was brilliant (I may be biased) and was nearly distracted from all the other performers when she was on stage because I wanted to focus on her and see how good she was!

A big Well Done to all involved in this great show!

The stage looked just as good as London or Dublin on a slightly smaller scale.

Two proud big sisters with Katie!!

Cousin Kasey with our star of the show!

On Friday night I prepped for Saturday by watching Rock of Ages the movie on DVD. When this came out originally in the cinema, Katie and I had gone to see it together.....and of course loved it!!!

Click here to read about when I saw Rock of Ages in Dublin.

Road Trip to Athlone

The IQ was packed up and my twin sister, cousin and I all set off for Athlone yesterday. We had tickets to see my younger sister perform in the musical "Rock of Ages" (which just happens to be my very favourite musical - having seen it in London & Dublin!)

We took it easy getting down to Athlone, stopping off for food and coffees in the first Applegreen that we found.

After checking in to our accommodation (above Murphy's Law pub) we went for a walk to Athlone town. It was great to see the Shannon. It's very scenic and it was a fairly mild day.

I climbed down the bank of the river and went out on this old decking to get close to the water. Both Kasey and Amy thought I was mad but I found it fun!

Here Amy and I are on the bridge over the Shannon on the way back to Murphy's Law for some food.

As we were going back to Murphy's we got a text from our mother to say our Dad and sister were in Sean's Bar so we called in for a drink with them.

Sean's Bar is a real traditional Irish pub and it is also the oldest pub in Ireland!

From Sean's we then went back to Murphy's where we got food.  I had been craving a burger and a glass of red wine so this is what I ordered with barely a glance at the menu. Amy ordered hot wings which came with a warning that they weren't allowed to be ordered by children. Then when the wings were brought to the table the server warned her to make sure she washed her hands before she touched her eyes!! She loves hot food and enjoyed them - but said they weren't that hot at all!!

After the food we got changed and made our way to see the show which was amazing. Check out my next blog for photos, etc.

Breakfast was included in our room booking and we all ordered a full Irish fry the next morning. We all agreed you can't beat a full Irish for brekkie!

We washed our full Irish's down with white coffees and then got back on the road to Dublin.

All in a fun road trip out of the capital!

Holiday Tan Prep

I've been looking out for special offers on the sun creams in Boots. On the way to Tesco tonight I slipped in and had a look. Most were buy one, get the second half price. I didn't really have time to have a good browse but what I did pick up was this Family pack of creams.

The Family Pack contains a 15, 30 and a 50 factor cream as well as an after sun. I generally start on factor 30 and get down to the 15 and I will use the 50 on my face particularly when I am out on a boat fishing.....which I plan on doing a lot! For the first two weeks, I am on holidays with my parents and then my sisters are joining us. My dad and I are hoping to do a good few fishing days when there is just the two of us and then a few more when my twin sister arrives.

Call the Doctor!

Call the Doctor!

The Hot Tub Doctor that is....

Our hot tub panel went a little wonky the other day so I emailed the guy who fixed it for us last time. He is based in Northern Ireland but seems to do a lot of work all over both Northern Ireland also the Republic of Ireland. 

The Hot Tub Doc called this morning and luckily was able to get my hot tub up and running in about an hour. It needed a new thermostat which he fitted and switched on the hot tub and left. 

It was 15 degrees when I left work and 25 when I got home.  It should be 38 degrees by tomorrow - we will be back hot tubbing by tomorrow evening!

Vesta 1205 Twin Landline by Binatone

My landline has been slowly dying. For a time it was usable however the battery seemed to have no life at all once it was off the holder. However, it took a turn for the worse a little while back whereby it would instantly go dead when I answered it.

I don't actually use my home phone for a whole lot. The only person who rings me on it is my twin sister. She was getting very frustrated by the whole thing as it was sounding like I was hanging up on her from her end!

So anyway I finally got around to buying a new phone.  I decided to buy a double handset in order to always have at least one charged up and ready to use and to avoid all of the above!

So this is it.

I bought it in Argos in the Pavillions on the way to work. I put one phone back where the original one was and the other one is in my bedroom. I have to say I'm very happy with the set (I'm sure my twin sister is even happier!) and it's got a dinky little ring on it too!

Richmond Restaurant Portobello in Dublin

On Friday night, friends texted us and asked would we like to go out for dinner on Saturday night. We said yes even though we had planned to get up on Sunday morning at 4am to watch the Conor McGregor UFC fight. 

I went to work on Saturday and while at work Ciaran rang a friend of his who supplies produce to all of the top restaurants in Dublin. He recommended a few restaurants but said our best bet was Richmond as the others would be booked out.   Richmond is a new restaurant in the old Gig's place and we got a reservation for 8.15pm.

We stopped off for a drink in J O'Connells pub before dinner and then made it to the restaurant at about 8.20pm. When we got their we all thought the owner looked familiar and then found that he was the former manager of The Butcher Grill in Ranelagh.

The menu looked great and the specials even better.

Here's pics of our food....

 Scallops

Gravalax with crab mayonaise on a muffin - this was the special starter

Croquettes

 Blue Cheese salad

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Cotes du Boeuf special

I thought I took a pic of the two desserts (chocolate mousse and date pudding) but it didn't save. I can only say that the desserts were spectacularly good!

We had a great night and would go back to Richmond (it had a nice ambiance and small restaurants remind me of Key West).  We got home about 12.30am and yes we did get up and watch the fight at 4am.  Unfortunately McGregor lost and we despondently got back to bed about 6.30am. We struggled up at 10am (with both of us describing as feeling quite jet lagged) and visited both our mothers for Mother's Day. 

We had a great weekend all in all.....I hope you did too!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Irish Mammies!

It's Mother's Day here in Ireland so I called over to my mam this morning with some gifts.

Here she is reading the card I got her. I wish I took a picture of it as it was not an actual Mother's Day Greeting Card but was instead a black & white photo of Ireland in the 1920's. It was a photo of a shop in Waterford (where my mother's family is from) called "Patricia's" with the ladies who work in the shop standing in the front of the shop in their uniforms of white "shop coats" over their everyday clothes. I thought it was the perfect card for her due to the family connection to Waterford and also her second name (baptism name) being Patricia!

The gifts I bought her included a nice bouquet of flowers, a box of Butler's chocolates and an adorable little Carolyn Donnelly butter dish which I think will look great on the table at Easter time!

If you are a mother I wish you the best today and I hope you have a lovely Mother's Day!