Litter Picking Friday - Team Dublin Clean Up

While browsing twitter on Friday morning I came across a Dublin wide clean up campaign called #TeamDublinCleanup.
I tweeted for further info and found out that there was one going on in both Ranelagh and Donnybrook along with other areas of the town including Stonybatter, Finglas and Phibsboro.

Amy said she would be interested in doing it also and so we went along to the Ranelagh Arts Centre at 11am.

There we got Hi-Viz vests, litter pickers, plastic bags and gloves and off we went litter picking!

There were a fair few volunteers out cleaning - one man did great work at the entrance to the park and another group did a job on the lane at the side of Supervalu (which is a bit of a litter blackspot, I think). Amy and I picked litter from the luas flyover to the triangle and then back down the street on the Arts centre side.

It was brilliant to see the community engagement and spirit and I like the optics of the community getting out to help. This was the 2nd annual #TeamDublinCleanUp and I think it will get bigger and better year on year!

There is a Dublin Canal Action Day next Saturday, click here for info. They are looking for volunteers so do go along if you are free and want to get involved.

Venice - what a marvellous city!

We spent a few days in Venice this week and had a marvellous city break (Venice is only 2.5 hrs from Ireland!).

I received a recommendation for the Al Codega Hotel and it didn't disappoint. It was very well located close to San Marco and rooms were clean and comfortable.

The food was great in Venice - I ate lots of pasta and even more tiramisu! 

The gondolas are fun to watch and feel authentically Venetian. 

We visited the Peggy Guggenheim museum 

We went on an architectural tour on our first day which was really helpful in seeing lots and also getting our bearings. 

All in all a super trip to Venice and then we had a lovely few days off in Dublin before we had to go back to work.

Liffey Cycle - Sunday 2nd April 2017 #LiffeyCycle

Here's a video of the cycle that I blogged about yesterday that Amy and I took part in.

Dublin Liffey Cycleway

This morning Amy and I took part in the #Liffeycycle to demonstrate to the government the level of support for the Liffey Cycleway which is a planned segregated cycleway of 4.6km from the Phoenix Park to the Point Village.

It was a lovely sunny day in Dublin and it was a very enjoyable event.

I took loads of live video which I put up on twitter so unfortunately took no pics.

Here's a photo I found on the internet in which I've marked Amy and I in red.

I estimated there was about 300 cyclists involved but I saw people giving higher numbers on the internet.

Afterwards Amy and I treated ourselves to donuts and a chat in Off Beat Donuts - sure didn't we deserve it?!

EatYard Dublin

For brunch on Saturday we visited the EatYard on South Richmond Street. It's a little food market set up in a yard beside the George Bernard Shaw pub. 

When we went through the gates, we found lots of containers with different food offerings being sold from them.

Ciaran got a grilled cheese sandwich which he said was pretty good. I was undecided what to have and considered getting "fish and chips" at Veginity's stall until I discovered it was a vegetarian version of fish made with cassava and 4 different types of seaweed!!

I was also tempted by some bao buns from Pow Bao.

In the end I chose to have a buttermilk chicken burger (I didn't eat the bun!) from Pitt Bros and a portion of sweet potato fries from Burger Box.

The whole place is very laid back - the furniture looks like it is made from wooden pallets. We enjoyed it and will visit it again - but of course it would need to be on a sunny day as the whole place is outdoors, including the eating area.

After the Eatyard, Ciaran got given 2 tickets for the Leinster v. Wasps game in the Aviva. We set off walking to the stadium at about 2pm and got to see a very enjoyable game of rugby with Leinster winning!

Saturday seemed to go on forever because after the game I then called to Amy's for a cocktail and then we went on to the Gaiety Theatre so see The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

What a play!
A depressingly brilliant Irish tale.
In someways not quite the most enjoyable play to be watching on a Saturday night but sure it's always good to go to the theatre and to expose ones self to a bit of culture!

Going for gold!

Close on two years ago I wrote a blog about changing from an iPhone to a HTC phone.

Today I'm writing about the change from the HTC to a Samsung.

For the past few weeks I had been considering breaking up with my phone as it was slowly starting to die. I was struggling to charge the phone without placing it in a position where the cable was slanted over to the side. Then I experienced a situation where the phone went from 20% to 0% battery as I took a photo.And after that I couldn't get it charged up higher than 30%.

It was time to get rid of it.

I visited the Vodafone shop in the Pavillions in Swords on my lunchbreak (45mins) and pretty much bought the first phone that was suggested to me.

I got to choose either a black or gold version and as I said out loud "Ah sure I'll go for gold" I knew it was a possible mistake and I possibly should have just picked the black!!

Any way here it is:

It's a Galaxy A5 and so far I am finding it very similar to my last one and I'm happy with the change!

Smart Sunday

Even though the clocks went forward last night we were up early as we had a chore to get done.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about our new car which we bought in Northern Ireland and as such were technically importing a car in to the Republic of Ireland. 

In order to get Irish plates and and Irish registration book, we needed to take the car to an NCT centre to have the car examined and then pay the vehicle registration tax that was due to the Irish government. This all needs to be done within 30 days of purchase.

I had made our appointment before we had even been up to Belfast to collect the car but even still we could only get one 2 weeks after buying the car.

Our appointment was for 11.30am and we were out of the NCT centre within half an hour or so and at that point we went straight to Halfords in Airside Retail Park to buy new registration plates which Ciaran straightaway fitted on the car.

 

The next thing we need to do is to pay our annual motor tax which we can do online from Tuesday onwards and then we will receive our log book in the post.

All has been quite smooth so far and I would have no issue buying in Northern Ireland again if the sterling rate is still in our favour.