Well look at this lovely surprize gift that arrived in a little envelope from my twin sister all the way in the USA - a fab ELVIS necklace!
I LOVE IT!!
It's my new favourite thing :-)
Before I start work tomorrow I'm getting my flu vaccine and then after work is the start of the Bank Holiday weekend. Woo hoo!
"Nyad" the movie about the amazing Diana Nyad's 100 mile swim from Cuba to Key West opened here in Ireland this weekend. It is a Netflix presentation so it seems like it was a limited cinema release with it then going live on Netflix in a month.
After searching around I saw that it was in Dundrum Centre Cinema on Sunday afternoon so we headed off on the Luas to see it there.
Wow was it inspirational!
After being beaten by the cruel Florida Straits in the 1970's as a young lady, Diana made a plan to do it at the grand young age of 60. With her trainer and best friend Bonnie, she made attempt after attempt (4 times) until she finally succeeded on 2nd of Sept 2013, with a team of support around her. The film is so great and in particular the acting by both Annette Benning and Jodie Foster - they deserve Oscar nods, I think.
And speaking of sisters, look who my twin sister actually met in Key West this Saturday - only Diana Nyad who was in Key West to mark the 10 year anniversary of her epic swim.
Amy went to the movie also yesterday, and you can read her blog about it here.
And for us, after our trip to Dundrum, we stayed on the Luas until it got in to the city where we strolled down to Capel Street for wings in All Bar Chicken.
On the way to Capel Street we stopped off in Arnotts where Ciaran got a new Secrid wallet as well as getting his old one repaired by the fantastic counter assistant. So now he has two Secrid wallets. He plans to continue to use the old paint splattered one for a while more, before he switches to his new one!
L'Or coffee (which I love) had an offer recently for a bundle of coffee with a coffee machine for the princely sum of 70 euro.
I generally buy their coffee from Tesco on a weekly basis but it made sense to buy in bulk with this offer and pretty much get the coffee machine for free.
Here is the new machine on my bar pictured beside my old Nespresso machine.
Along with some decaff that are the blue coloured ones
It also makes my takeaway cup coffee quicker which I make just before I head for the train to get to work. I make it in my Two Friends Key West Cup and it fits in the cupholder on my bike. It's so nice to get to the train station and enjoy a coffee on the platform while I wait for my train - one of the small pleasures in life!
It was about 5.30am when we were woken by the first chirp. And shortly thereafter, there was another chirp.
No, it was not the sound of early morning chirping birds, but instead the loud chirping sound of a wired smoke alarm detector with a dead back up battery. Ciaran got out of bed first and located which smoke detector was emitting the sound. He then went about unscrewing the detector and locating the battery that needed changing. He had difficulty removing the detector from the wiring fitting so I went online to find a user manual with instructions. In the heel of the hunt he was doing everything correctly but the chirping stopped anyway without the battery being changed. So we went back to bed and tried to get back asleep quickly. He fell asleep straightaway but it took me about an hour.
And then when I woke up about 9am Ciaran had already left the house to meet a friend for coffee and about 30 minutes later guess what started up again?! Yup the chirping.
Well don't worry we got it sorted. When Ciaran returned home, in the light of day he was able to get the fitting down, the battery changed and the detector back on the ceiling. All good!
So after all of that excitement(!) we went up to Nicks in Ranelagh for a coffee and to browse the two pop up shops.
Both "Feel Good Cycle" and "Pilllows & Patterns" had lots of lovely merchandise on display in their pop up shops in the coffee store. I was so glad to see the lovely cushion covers from Pillows & Patterns as I had been meaning to buy some to replace the ones that are currently on the couch in my conversation pit.
And so these are the ones I chose. They have a great mid century modern look to them and I think they are very unique and nothing like I had seen before. I'm very happy with them.......and always glad to support and buy local!
After a slow walk with the dog and then back to the house for a little bit work, we then went in to town for a spot of lunch. We headed over to Capel Street again and enjoyed wings in All Bar Chicken. It was actually warm enough to sit on the street so it was nice to enjoy the people watching on the car free street.
And then just as we finished lunch I checked out cinema times for the new "Blackberry" movie. We had just missed the start time of the film in Cineworld and the Savoy cinema but I saw that the film was starting at 3pm in The Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield. Given that it was 2.50pm, we knew we would make the film if we walked smartly to Smithfield.
When we got to the The Lighthouse Cinema, and bought our tickets, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the cinema had a full bar at the concession stand. It sure was nice to enjoy a prosecco and a beer while watching the film. This cinema is really nice and it felt like a far more special cinema date than when we visit the Omniplex in Rathmines. I'd be inclined to visit again as the seats were comfortable, the screen was great and the general atmosphere was very nice. It is also easy accessible from were I live by bus or by Luas with a short walk.
I may have mentioned that I bought a new pair of flip flops for my recent trip to Montenegro - they were a pair of pink croc flip flops and I found them to be so comfortable.
So I then decided on getting myself a regular pair of crocs clogs and began to look for a nice pair in Dublin.
I searched in Schuh, Size, Foot Locker and JD Sports to name just a few places that I visited.
Well my search ended on Friday when Ciaran sent me a link to a pair in Lifestyle Sports. I bought them online and they were delivered to the Grafton Street Store on Saturday, with Ciaran picking them up for me while I was in work.
I had previously chosen a gorgeous pair on the Crocs Europe website but they were not available in my size. They were kind of white with a marble effect but honestly I prefer these bright vibrant pair.
I have to also mention how impressed I was by Lifestyle's online service. Can you believe that I put the order in at 2pm on Friday and that DPD had delivered them to the store by 12pm the next day. Delivery was free to the store for pickup or 5 euro for delivery direct to your door. Given that we live about a 25 min walk from Grafton Street and Ciaran planned to be in the city anyway, it was a no brainer to pick up from the store. In some ways this is easier, than perhaps having to wait around for a delivery to the house.
Ciaran wore his grey crocs the whole time while we were sailing in Montenegro and in fairness they are a good shoe to wear when you are hoping on and off a boat as you can slip them off easily when you board.
A funny story is how he ended up with a bright pink pair of crocs kind of by default. As I mentioned above, I was on the hunt for a pair of crocs for awhile and I actually ordered a pair online just before we went on holidays. They took about 6 days to arrive and when they got to my house they were the wrong size to what I had ordered. I contacted customer support to arrange to return them but it was not terribly convenient.....but I still planned on returning and exchanging despite the inconvenience.
But then when Ciaran arrived home and saw them, he said that they were his size and that he would keep them. Good for him and he now has 3 pairs - grey, black and now bright pink!
Happened upon a trailer for an Australian show called "The Newreader" and then saw that series 2 is currently in the middle of being shown on RTE.
It's a TV show centred around a TV New Show in the 1980's and in particular it is focused on the personal story of main news anchor Helen Norville along with other key characters.
Woven in to the stories are true life news stories such as the Challenger Space Rocket explosion and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as well as more Australian stories such as the release of Lindy Chamberlain whose baby was taken by a dingo. All fascinating stuff to see how a news desk reacted to these stories and put together a broadcast in times with no access to instant information through channels like the Internet.
Anyway I found series 1 on the RTE player so I binge watched that before moving on to series 2. I am now completely up to date and can continue watching it as it is broadcast on regular TV on Wednesday nights going forward. However, it is on too late for me as it starts at 10.30pm so is not over until well after 11pm (it's about an hour long) so I will just watch it the next day after recording it.
Is The Newreader available where you live? Let me know if you have seen it!
