Recycle or reuse

2 million take away coffee cups go in to landfill every day here in Ireland.

That's a fairly shocking figure.

I think many of us are under the impression that coffee cups are recyclable but unfortunately that is not generally the case.

So the solution to this is of course to bring your own reusable cup with you.

I am making a concerted effort to bring a cup along with me when I go for coffee as every little helps.

Many cafes also give discounts if you bring your own cup which I think is a good incentive for people to change their habits. Here's a list of some of the places that give discounts.

I have lots of different cups and to be honest it is alot nicer drinking out of your own cup instead of some of the cardboard cups that cafes use.

As I say, every little helps. I also think there will probably be changes in the future - for example the government may start to put a tax on takeaway cups like the plastic bag levy. So I might as well change my habits before external factors force me to change my habits.

Today's the day!

I had one plan today which was to buy a frame in order to frame a shell that it was given to me by the lovely Jean T. as a gift for my 40th Birthday. The shell is so special - it was picked off the ocean floor by Jean when she was diving the Atocha wreck a few years ago with Mel Fisher off the Florida Keys.

 Amy, Alice and myself all received a shell which we were all beyond delighted with. What a thoughtful birthday present!

Well here is, the final result of what it looks like, now that I finally got round to framing it.

I had planned to put a Key West postcard in the frame but couldn't lay my hands on the one that I had bought specially for this project. Luckily, I had been clearing my bookshelves and had made the decision to throw away all of my travel guides as they are all about 15 years old and way out of date (if any of my Librarian friends saw them on my shelves they would be shocked!). Lol!

So I made the decision to frame a map of Florida from an old USA travel guide.  It looks perfect I think!

On the back I stuck a little paragraph of info about the Mel Fisher Museum.

I am considering buying stickers to add to the picture frame and perhaps writing out the famous Mel Fisher saying "Today's the Day!". But for now I am happy with how it looks.

A big thanks to Jean for this present and what is now a piece of artwork in my house.

And above is what Amy did with her shell. Fabulous!

Edit!!
I found the Key West postcards and switched it out.  Here is my shell pic now:

Taming the mane

I have fairly straight hair that generally is not that knotty. However, after years of getting my hair highlighted, I find that my hair can be difficult to brush when wet after a shower.

I decided to buy a Tangle Teezer brush as the last time I was in the hair salon the hairdresser used one and it seemed to get my hair brushed quickly and easily after washing.

This is what the Tangle Teezer looks like

It is €14.50 in Boots.

This morning after meeting friends for coffee I visited TK Maxx where I found the Kent Pebble Brush for sale for €5.99. It looked very similar to the Tangle Teezer so I decided to buy it.

I am just out of the shower now and I brushed my hair with the pebble. It is very ergonomic and I am pleased to say that I found it really good. All the knots in my hair were brushed out so easily with very little pulling of my hair. 

Job done!

Flying British Airways to London

We flew British Airways to London on Saturday. Since swearing off Ryanair, Aer Lingus has been our first choice but a good price popped up for flights with British Airways so I snapped them up.

It was a pleasant experience travelling with BA and I loved the cabin crew's uniform, especially their smart navy hats. 

I was very impressed by the food & drink options on board with food offerings by M&S.

We were on an early morning flight so we didn't order any food or beverages, instead choosing to try sleep for the whole flight. Ciaran succeeded, I didn't.

The drinks selection were excellent with vodka options including my favourite "Grey Goose".

 

On our way home from London we were impressed to be offered a selection of newspapers to take on board the plane with us. We took an English Times and also the New York Times. This little extra would make us choose to fly Speedbird at any time in the future that we get a chance to do so.

Back at Basquiat!

Last week I bought flights to London for Sat 27th of Jan as I planned on us visiting Boom For Real for a second time.

It was a bit silly but after booking the flights I went to get tickets on the Barbican website where I then discovered they were sold out!!!  Aagh!

I emailed the Barbican Centre to see if there was a wait list for cancelled tickets. They told me there was no cancellation list but there would be a small amount of tickets released on the day.

And so yesterday we flew to London and arrived at 8.40am and dashed to the Barbican on the Heathrow Express and tube.

We got there at 10.10am to discover a HUGE queue with easily over 300 people ahead of us.

After waiting in line for over an hour and a half it was hard to see if we were going to get in. There was very little movement and they were only letting in a handful of people every 15 mins. And although they were open until very late with entry up to 10pm, we had a flight in the evening so we were somewhat restricted by the latest time we could go in at.

We heard someone ahead of us mention that if you joined as a member there was an opportunity to get tickets for this exhibition as they had a different batch set aside for members.

Leaving Ciaran in the queue I went inside to suss out membership and see if they still had tickets available.

There was another line to set up membership along with ticket pickup for members so I got in to this and when I got to the top I was advised that if we joined as members we could get tickets for a 2.30pm entry.  I jumped at the opportunity! After travelling all the way from Ireland, it would have been a big disappointment to not get to see the show. 2.30pm was also the perfect time as we had plans to go visit a gallery in another area of London where we also planned to have something eat. We could then return, see the show and then head directly to the airport at about 4pm for our flight home just after 6pm. It was perfect!

And now we are members of the Barbican Centre we can get lots of other benefits on future visits.

The exhibition was just as good if not better on the second visit as on the first. The only thing is that I find Basquiat's art so immense that once I have seen a few of his works I begin to feel overwhelmed. So in actual fact I would choose to visit a third time if that was possible.  But of course it is not possible as it has closed now.

Hopefully it will open in another country and with any luck I will get to see it there!

I had hoped to buy some postcards of Basquiat prints but they were all sold out. However, I did buy my twin sister a little gift to say thanks for minding our dog while we were gone for the day - I got her this cute little enamel Basquiat crown pin. Thanks Amy!

"THE MALL"

Really enjoyed watching this 1980's report on a mall in Kansas. And then after this I started watching videos about abandoned malls in different parts of USA - strangely addictive!

Daytripper!

We are heading back to London this weekend. We will be making a dash to the Barbican to try get day release tickets for the second last day of the Basquiat exhibition that we visited a little while ago.

This time we are flying British Airways and once again I've booked the Heathrow Express.

It will certainly be hectic.  We land at 8.40am and then we need to get over to the Barbican to get in line at 10am. Fingers crossed we get tickets.