Blogger. Swimmer. Mid 20th Century Devotee. Twin. Reader. City Cycler. Irish abroad. Ex Dublin.
Transplanted from Dublin to Key West.
Follow me as I blog from this wonderful little island that I am lucky to call Home.
How interesting is this new perfume from Moschino which I spotted in Debenhams this morning.
The packaging is certainly eye catching but I think it would feel funny spraying this on your wrists and neck every morning!
At the moment if you buy the perfume you receive a free gift of a Moschino backpack. It's a pretty cool designed bag too, with a graphic design of American registration plates.
A couple of months ago after seeing some Roller Derby on tv I said to Enid we should do it if we could find somewhere in Dublin. She thought that was a super idea! So I started investigating on facebook and found a club who were due to start their "fresh meat" course soon. As it happened that has not been scheduled as of yet but I found another club who were holding an open evening yesterday.
We were able to hire all the gear for €5. Hello what can you get for a fiver these days??!!!!! Plus how cute are these white skates I got to use!
Here we are all ready for action!
Can I just explain this outfit and say it was not planned...I should have got my gear out the night before but instead just grabbed it that morning. And I couldn't find any of my cut offs/3/4 length leggings. These are shorts I normally wear for bikram yoga and I hadn't realised how short they were for roller skating! Everyone else was wearing leggings like Enid, which is what I shall be wearing next week!
More important than what I was wearing, was how good it was.
AMAZING!!!!
We loved it.
I was so happy I could actually still skate. The last time I was on a pair of roller skates was over a quarter of a century ago when I was ten years of age! The Boomtown Rollers were all so nice and were great at giving instruction. We had an absolute ball skating around (derby direction!) and practicing stopping (falling is a valid stop apparently!) and other skills.
At the end of the session we were given a demo of Roller Derby. Whoa it is brutal! I cannot wait to have enough skill on the skates take part in it proper!
So, dear reader, any suggestion for my roller derby name?!!!! Answers on a postcard please!
Back in January 2015 I first blogged about my collection of vintage Barbie dolls. I sold a whole bunch of them in the summer of 2015 at a rockabilly festival - funny what sells at this type of thing - and am now selling the final 10 remaining dolls.
These dolls are all from 1995 thus making them 21 years of age. I think they would make a perfect (unusual and special) gift for someone who is turning 21.
Do you have any 21st birthday parties coming up?!
These range in price from €8 to €24 and I am open to offers/to do a special price for my friends :-)
Check out my facebook page here for more photos and details on price of each!
Down a side street beside my office, on Sackville Place, I spotted this funny little building.
Can you imagine dropping your child off here for dance classes of a Saturday morning??!
I certainly can't!!!
Also on Sackville Place:
The sign above the hairdressers is for the offices of Phish International Services - a Philippine/Irish company. I wonder what services they provided??
On Wednesday evening my friend Declan O'Donnell held a launch to celebrate the publication of this first book Rooms. It's a really nice read with some great advice on what makes a good home. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of making some design changes in your house. Or if you just like looking at pictures of other people's houses :-)
Myself and Cousin Kasey
Enid and Kasey
Svetlana & Enid
The launch was on in the Dean Hotel which is pretty cool. If you have not been there I recommend you go right up the rooftop restaurant where there is a fantastic view out over Dublin city.
Myself and Kasey went for the 8pm train which was perfect and meant we were not home too late - 'twas a school night afterall!
This morning Enid and I went to see (and Enid bought) a Lilly Pulitzer dress which I had seen on one of those local facebook Buy and Sell pages. It was really good condition and priced at €20 so it was a great bargain - Lilly shifts are approx. $150-200. And as you can see it looks totally cute on Enid!
I've never seen Lilly's (as they are known) here in Ireland. The one Enid bought was brought back from Australia by the seller. This is my one above which I bought in Key West.
It is actually a little big for me so Enid did a job on it and altered it to fit. So now we are set for Key West with our two Lilly resortwear dresses :-)
Afterwards we went to Starbucks for hot chocolates, it is very cold in Dublin at the moment.
Earlier on today I blogged about my new phone. I have learnt my lesson in the past so next on my shopping list was a screen protector and case for the phone.
Normally I get my screen protectors in Dealz - a sheet of sticky plastic for €1.49, job done. However there were none in Dealz so after comparing prices in all the phone shops and Argos, I settled on this product below for €18.
Well! I am saying it here and now, I will never be getting the Dealz one again. This one might be much more expensive but it is also much much better. It is thicker plastic (tempered glass as they call it), I know it will protect so much better. Plus it was incredibly easy to apply. Much more easy than the Dealz one - and looks much better, no bubbles whatsoever. I cannot recommend this enough.
Last week I set out to do a little gardening (unusual for me!!) but I didn't have the right tool to do it. I was pottering around the towncentre today and saw the exact thing I needed in Tiger.
A fiver - that'll do I said!
BUT!
Later on I was in Dealz, looking for a phone cover, when I saw THIS. Exactly the same, but for only €1.49. And endorsed by Charlie Dimmock :-)
Note to self. Check Dealz before making a purchase anywhere else in future!
For a while now I have been thinking about getting a new phone. My screen is a little cracked (which I can live with) and my battery life has been draining (which I can kind of live with too - ish). What I can't live with is the performance of the phone which has been slowing down over the last few months. Does this just happen to modern phones or is it me with all my apps and all the photos I take??
I had gone on to the Vodafone site and found it very user unfriendly. It told me that I was eligible for an upgrade but to get a price for each phone was impossible as it kept routing me back to sign in "to see if I was eligible for an upgrade"
I went in to the store today and spoke with a human being and within about two minutes had made my mind up what phone I was getting. While I would have liked to move from my S4 to an S6 or even the S7 I really did not want to pay additional money on top of my current contract. So I ended up deciding between the A5 and S5 which would be free after changing to a different package - which I think should actually work out cheaper/better value than my current package (after my add ons etc).
In the end I went with the S5 as the specs are slightly better then the A5.
I am in the process of setting it up and it's pretty painless. There is a new (since my last upgrade) functionality where you can just place your old and new phone back to back and it automatically transfers a lot of data and apps over. How cool is that!
And in other news for the first time ever my name was spelt funny in Starbucks. If you follow my twin sisters blog you will know that "Enid" gets combobulated into some hilarious names but "Amy" tends to be ok. I did think I sounded slightly congested/blocked up when I said it so no surprise it came out like this :-)
My plan to visit the Phoenix Park visitor centre (at Ashtown Castle) went a little awry this morning. Due to the a running race, most of the park gates were closed and when we eventually got to the centre we were advised that we should be out by 12.30 otherwise we would not get out until 4.30. We only arrived at 12.10!
So with literally 15 minutes to spend we didn't even get to watch the video about the park.
I spend the time looking at an exhibition of the Pope's visit to the park in 1979. Above is a model of the altar which was designed by architects Scott Tallon Walker.
We then headed to my mams for a nice Sunday dinner
Dessert!
The wreath on the front door is Summery, but the weather is not!
I have been tagged on a video in facebook and I thought it might be funny to share over here.
It's hard to believe that this video is from over a quarter of a century ago!!
Back in the day (in the 80's) our parish used to be big into amateur dramatics/variety shows.
Pride of the Parish was a competition where the parish was divided into four areas (The Glens, The Down Town Navan Roaders, Kinvara and Villa Park) and each group produced a play or variety show. Over the course of a month, each group performed their show over one weekend - so for example on week 1 The Glens would perform on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then on week 2 Kinvara would do their show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And so on.
And then on the final Sunday night the judging committee would announce who the winner was i.e. who was "Pride of the Parish"
My sister and I are in this video (age 9/10) and appear at 1.25 on the left of the stage. We seem to be the biggest/oldest girls out of this group and I have no idea why this is. Possibly we arrived late one day and were just grouped in with this ballerina group - rather than other girls of our age who we were in school with who appear as Rag Dolls at 4.40. Or maybe because poor Enid and I were not blessed with any dancing and music talent we were made go in with the babies. Lol!
Enid is in the green, and I am in the peach costume. I do remember absolutely loving my dress with it's tulle skirt and you can see how I am holding it proudly (probably thinking I look like a real ballerina).
I am delighted that someone took a video of the show, and that they still had it all these years later. If you like this sort of thing you can go on to Youtube and you can see some more videos of the show with the adults from the parish doing their thing.
My tropical plant/bush thingy is looking a little bit crazy so I said I'd get out today and prune all the brown old leaves(??) or fronds(??) out from underneath the fresh green ones.
It turns out that the those fronds (what is the correct word I wonder!!!) are tough little bad boys and I need to get a better tool to cut them with as what I was using just didn't cut the mustard. Can you see the start I have made? I will see if my dad has something better and will finish it off tomorrow.
I got a photo right inside it - you can see where I have cut out the section of the brown - I like the look of it already, it's like a pineapple. Which as you may know I do love!
Edit. Finished Result:
Looks so much better doesn't it. And it's surprising how much extra light it allows into the front room also.
Arjanne arrived into Dublin airport on Friday evening and made her way to the city centre where Cousin Kasey and I met with her in Oliver St John Gogartys. We had a nice time having a drink and listening to some good live music.
Stacked around the pub are the above straw hats! I had seen people wearing them around St Patrick's Day, But either someone in Gogarty's made a massive over order on them, or else they are a year round thing and not just for Paddys Day!
Arjanne bought a lovely gift of some Dutch chocolate in some lovely Dutch Blue wrapping. And - my favourite - stroopwaffles! I enjoyed coffee and stroopwaffle for breakfast this morning :-)
On Saturday I spent an afternoon relaxing by the pool, sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi.
I love the tropical planting around the pool area.
I brought three fantastic books with me and this is the one I chose to read. It's terribly good. The perks of having a twin sister who is a librarian is you always get great book recommendations.
And here I am enjoying the relaxation.
Em and looking a bit strange...but nowt I can do about that!
Enid and I have been having a debate for the last week about what is the best streaky rasher (yes that is the minutiae of Enid and I's conversations!).
Enid is convinced it is O'Neill's and up until today I would have agreed. That is until I tried these little bad boys!
Look how thick they are
They didn't shrink much in the cooking process at all
A great flavour and texture. I thoroughly recommend these - available in Dunnes as part of their Simply Better range. Price €2.99
I didn't have a great nights sleep and was awake early this morning. I was mooching around the house not doing much when I decided I should make the most of being awake (although feeling tired). So I made myself a massive cup of strong coffee (in a big American size mug that I bought in Key West a few years ago) and got into some cleaning.
My plan was to be ruthless in my declutter but I do find it hard - sometimes you find things and although you know you will never wear it or use it again it's still just so hard to throw out.
Like this bracelet/wrist strap for example. I bought this about 15 years ago when my friend and I were travelling around southern Spain. It just brings back so many memories for me. Plus it cost a lot back then (as is usual when you're in your 20's I was on a tight budget that holiday). It's quite hickey looking at it now, but back then I thought it was fabulous - and it is made out of lovely materials; silk ribbon and then lined on the other side with pink suede.
Anyway I hit on the brainwave of taking a photo of anything I didn't want to throw out/donate to charity. So this wristlet is now gone from my life but I have this photo and the memories for ever.
My "walk in wardrobe" is looking so much better after the clean and declutter! I have put inverted commas around "walk in wardrobe" because it is a work in progress. Some day I will spend money on this little room and get it properly boxed out as a proper walk in wardrobe but for the moment this will have to do.
