The Best Man by Gore Vidal - Gerald Schroeder theatre NY August 2012

I was in NYC with Mam in August.  We had planned on seeing a show in (on?) Broadway but as we were queueing for tickets we were handed a leaflet for a play.

The play was The Best Man and we decided to go on the basis of a few things that "must be a sign".
1. Gore Vidal had died just a couple of weeks before.
2. Cybil Shephard was part of the cast.  Only a week previous mam and David's uncle Peter and been talking about Cybil Shephard and Moonlighting and discussing where she was these days.  They both agreed that "you just don't hear anything about her any more".  And there she was! 
3. Kristin Davis was also in the play.  To go to NYC and to see one of the Sex & the City cast on a stage in front of you!!!  I am (still) a massive S&TC fan. Seemed like a definite sign to me!
4. John Stamos was playing one of the lead roles.  John Stamos!!!!!!!!!  Hawt!!!! :-)

The play was excellent.  All the actors were fantastic.  Great set - revolving set/stage.  Set in the 50's/60's so costumes were very Mad Men. 

But the best was yet to come.  When mam and I left the theatre we realised we were just outside the stage door which had a litte baricade set up with cars lined up outside of it (black tinted window cars).  So I said to mam, hey let's just hang here a little, I bet the cast will come out and sign autographs.  Mam was not convinced. But they did!

We met them all.  Told them how much we enjoyed the evening and their performance.  And best of all I got photos with John Stamos (!!!) and Kristin Davis.  They were both very friendly.  Kristin "professionally friendly", couldn't fault her... But John Stamos very naturally friendly and nice person.  Fair play John! :-)

Check my photos out!  I look very star struck!!! :-)  And my makeup had faded from a day in NY city so I look very plain beside Kristin in her full stage makeup...!  Which reminds me by the way, Kristin Davis is absolutely teeny tiny perfect.

Key West - accommodation recommendation

I go to Key West alot!  In my opinion there is no place in the world like it.  For me (who loves vacationing in the United States) it feels like America but with a unique (hard to describe) atmosphere and feel.

It is a very quirky place.  I will blog all about KW, my experiences, and what I like to do there some day soon, but for the moment I would like to recommend a place to stay in Key West!

I used to stay in hotels in KW but someone suggested to me that I stay in a vacation rental.  Since then I have stayed in, a cute little cottage Bahama Breeze.  For me I love this because I like to imagine when I am in KW that I am live there and am not just a visitor!!!!!!

  I especially like the hot tub - we make margerita's in the blender and drink them in the tub!!!

Check out more photos here.  Plus look out for future blogs of mine on the amazing Key West!

Lydia B Cupcakes

My little sister (Lydia) has a cupcake company.  Click here for more info: Lydia B Cupcakes
They are divine!

Having a sister in the cupcake biz is fantastic!  The only bad thing is that we have cupcakes "on tap" and they are just too nice to say no to :-)

Here is a photo from some Halloween cupcakes she sent up to our house today.  "Witch" one is your favourite?! :-)

Dublin Theatre Festival - Talk of the Town

Yesterday I went to see a play with Enid and our cousin Kasey.

Talk of the Town is a play written by Emma O'Donohoe (of "Room" fame) about the life of the Irish writer Maeve Brennan.

It was a bit of a strange experience to be honest!!!  When we arrived we were told that the lead actress (playing Maeve), Catherine Walker, had an accident and was being kept in hospital for observation.  So at very late notice they had got another actress (Fiona Bell) to take over for the last two performances - rather than cancel.  "The Show Must Go On" as they said. 

BUT because Fiona was taking over at such late notice she would "read" from the script (???). Now being completely fair to her she did as good a job as possible and she certainly was not just "reading" she was acting as well obviously.  But, it was extremely distracting to the overall performance.  As Enid said it was like some kind of experimental theatre...and as I said yeah and the experiment did not go so well.

But, the obvious distractions aside, it was quite enjoyable. The story of Maeve Brennan herself is very powerful.  She moved to New York and wrote for The New Yorker during the 1950's while living the life of an archetypal New Yorker.  But over the years she suffered mental health issues and ending up dying lonely and destitute (she gave away her possessions indiscriminately).  I did find the play a little slow moving at times, but I don't go to the theatre very often so maybe that was just me...

The costume design was by Peter O'Brien so in homage I wore my very Peter O'Brien - a beautiful coat that I got for my birthday 7 years ago!

Afterwards we went to The Mint bar for a cocktail!  I had a cosmopolitan - I just fancied drinking out of a martini glass after watching all the martini drinking on stage!  Kasey had a White Russian.  And Enid had a Ciaproska.

Fashionable Nana

Most Sunday's I go for dinner in mam's.    Fair play to mam she does an incredible spread - will blog again about another time!

Last week it was very funny. When Nana took off her jacket I realised we were wearing very similar clothes!!!! 

So either Nana dresses like a 34 year old, or I dress like an 80 year old!!!

Here is a photo. I like it a lot :-)

 

 

 

Health & Wellbeing week in work

Great week in work this week.  Throughout the week there was lots of activities and freebies which you could partake in as you wished (or not).

Here are the things I did:
1. Arrived in on Monday to be greeted by my gift of a coffee mug - nice!  The thinking behind the mugs are that they are better for the environment than the disposables we normally use.  Plus will also save money for the company rather than buying all those disposable cups.

2. Lunchtime running group (Monday)
I ran a mile non stop!!!  15 minutes - very slow I know - of non stop running.  I was very proud of myself.

3. 5 point 5 minute Health Check.  We had nurses in the office who did a 5 point health check: BMI, Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose, Cholesterol, Body fat percentage.  I was within normal range for everything except my cholesterol was a little high :-(  I really need to think about my diet to reduce this...

4.  On Tuesday & Wednesday I was out of the office on a course.  I missed out on: free smoothies and also a very good talk on breast cancer/breast checks from a lady from the Marie Keating foundation.

5. Thursday.  I did a 40 minute spinning class!  It was excellent.  I did spinning a long time ago but I pushed it too hard from the start and felt nauseas and faint during the class. Because of this I have always been turned off trying it again.  This time I knew what to expect so I took things at a better pace.  It was a super class.  I really enjoyed it.

6.  On Thursday I also got my flu vaccination.  I have got this every year for the last 12 years (through my company) and touch wood I have never got the flu.

7.  We had a Wine Tasting social on Thursday evening.  It was really nice.  Our canteen manager did some fabulous cheese boards and the wine was really nice.  My FAVOURITE wine of all times was one of the featured wines:  Malbec (An Argentinian wine).  Apparently I am very much on trend (!) as this wine is gaining huge popularity with Irish wine drinkers.  So said the wine merchant who was hosting the evening anyway.

8.. Friday - Lunchtime Treasure hunt.  I went out with some members of my team for a nice little 30 minute walk/treasure hunt.  The clues were not too taxing and it was nice getting some air at lunchtime.  We completed all the clues and two of our team won 20euro vouchers so that was cool!

9.  Finally Health & Wellbeing week came to a close with an ice-cream van outside our building from 1 - 3 pm.  At 15 minute intervals the tinkly music of the ice-cream van sounded over our intercom and we all went down for an ice-cream cone (99's!) - once, not every 15 minutes :-)

It was a brilliant week.  And whoa! Reading all of the above I really took advantage of all that was on offer.  It has really inspired me and hopefully I will get into a habbit of doing regular daily exercise.

Nail varnish

I've got really into nail varnishes!

Normally I only ever wear nail varnish for weddings.  But I have been thinking about sharpening my image up in work - and I have been wearing skirts and dresses alot lately - so I figured the next good step should  be nail varnish.

I am really enjoying it.  A good week is just one application, but generally I have to do two applications per week (i.e. change the colour mid week) - that's okay in my opinion.  I can handle that :-)

So far I have bought myself a coral colour, a fabulous winter wine/berry colour and my latest a lovely green: