Busy Weekend with friends & family

I've had a busy week.  I'm doing a lot of yoga after work most evenings so am only getting home about 8.30pm.

Weekends are generally my time for catching up on things that I didn't get done during the week.  However, this weekend I had a lot on so of course I didn't get caught up on chores at all.

On Saturday, I went to Bikram in the morning and then met with Amy & Alice for lunch.  We went up to the RHA to check out the art which was nice!  We agreed that the small gallery was just enough culture for the day :-) 

From Amy's I then cycled down to the conference centre where there was a surprise birthday party for a work colleague on a boat docked up on the liffey.  It was great and I had an enjoyable cycle home about midnght even though it was very windy weather and I was wearing a very short skirt!

Then Sunday started out with more Bikram yoga with Amy.  After yoga I drove home, got my bike and cycled in to town. I then met my mother and two sisters and we went to Featherblade for lunch to mark my mother's birthday. Everyone had a very enjoyable lunch and we followed it with dessert in Amy's.

A lot of fun all in!

Ciaran painted all weekend while I was out carousing.  Here's his latest piece.....

Moving to the dark side!

I had a lovely evening with my twin sister in Rathmines.  We both cycled separately and then met in Starbucks. It was very chilled out. It's all a new experience for Amy who has moved from the Northside suburbs to an amazing apartment on the Southside (the dark side!)

I tell her she is ruined!

Click here to check out her new digs.


We got samples of coffee in Starbucks - Guatemalan blend.

We were both amazed when we came out of Starbucks - it was so mild.  It positively felt warm.........but it's bucketing rain now!

Being a tourist in your own town!

We had considered going away for the August Bank Holiday weekend. However, with the hassle of getting dog friendly accommodation we decided that we would stay in Dublin and instead book in to a few different restaurants and pretend we are tourists visiting Dublin.

We had a great weekend!

On Friday we did lunch in Bastible.  Saturday was dinner in Farmer Browns (the Bath Avenue one) and then Sunday was not lunch and not dinner (we got a 3.50pm reservation!) in Featherblade.

We both agreed the food was best in Featherblade but the atmosphere was best in Farmer Browns and the food was pretty good there too!  The food was great in Bastible too but we both said for some reason we wouldn't be rushing back.  But then maybe it is unfair to judge a restaurant on lunch service.

Bastible - we did the tasting menu

Salmon Poke to start in Featherblade

Farmer Browns - comfort food,done well.

The weather wasn't too bad for the weekend and we managed to not get rained on when we cycled around to the different restaurants over the last few days.

Back at Bikram!

Today was a good day!

I made it back to Bikram Yoga with my twin sister.

I had seen a sign for Bikram Yoga in Fairview the other day on my way home from work. I checked their website and saw that they did a special intro offer for a month (as most yoga studios do) so suggested to my twin sister that we go on Sunday.

Which we did!

And it was great :-)

We had thought about cycling to the studio (Amy will be cycling most days after work while I will be driving) but because I wasn't exactly sure of the specific location I thought it was better to drive on this first visit.

It was a great studio and we had a fantastic class with a super teacher.  I think we are going to enjoy our month of yoga!

What a Super Sunday!!!

Portobello Harbour Market

As I mentioned in my last blog we visited the Portobello Canal Market on Sunday.  It was a fabulously sunny day and there was a good vibe at the market with a DJ on the decks spinning the tunes.

We enjoyed a cup of coffee and a donut while sitting by the water.

Other than the coffee there wasn't a whole lot of anything else that interested us.  But I did manage to buy three handmade greeting cards which are very cute!

This is the stand where we got our coffees -which were really really good!!

We were there early so it wasn't really that busy.

Only a few food stalls were at the market - including this crepe maker. 

Here's the DJ

This was pretty much the extent of the market.

Pokemon hunting and biking around

Haven't been up to a whole lot over the past few days....just a bit of biking around and Pokemon hunting.  I became pretty bored of the whole Pokemon fairly quickly but it is was a worthwhile exercise to get out and experience it to see what it was all about first hand.

Rathmines Library is a Pokestop!

I've been scoping out good safe places to lock my bike.  I mentioned the under ground car park in the Swan Centre but another excellent place is in the Drury Street Car Park (the one closer to Stephens Green).  It's like Little Amsterdam with the amount of bikes there!

It's in from the weather and there was a sign up saying the area has a camera on it. Sounds safe to me!

Ciaran bought a bike yesterday. We went Northside to get it - you definitely get better value - and he picked up a secondhand bike for 150 euro that should do the job for him!

This morning we plan on cycling up to the Portobello Canal Market with Bones in the crate on the front of my bike. We will park up and then wander along the stalls and get some nibbles to eat and perhaps some nice little knick knacks.  I'll report later on how it was.

Have a great Sunday peeps!

Saturday Chores

Saturday morning was busy. We started in Fumbally which seemed even more hippy dippy then usual.  I didn't mind it but it bothered Ciaran who said he is never going back late on a Saturday morning again (we arrived about 11).  He said he is only going to go at 10am on a Saturday or only visit on a week day. 
Afterwards Ciaran needed to buy new canvas so we called to Evans on Capel Street for those. Then we went to Maplins on Jervis Street where I was looking for a voltage converter to work with a set of outdoor lights that I bought in the States on my recent trip. 

I didn't buy the converter because as the bulbs go they will have to be replaced with Irish bulbs which won't glow as well when used with the converter. It's probably a better idea to change out all the bulbs now and also change the plug to an Irish plug.  

This is turning in to more of a project then I anticipated when I bought them in Strunk Ace in Key West!!

Later on we put silicon sealant around the hot tub and fixed a press in the bathroom.  I felt like we deserved a good dinner later after the days work so we went to Edelwiss in Ranelagh.

I had a hankering for fondue but the owner explained that fondue for one was not advisable due to the size of their pots - an individual portion just covers the bottom and can over heat and is not very pleasant. So I went for the Raclette instead.

We had a cheese platter to start which I forgot to take a pic of. Let's just say I ate A LOT of cheese at dinner last night!!!