Busiest weekend ever!

First up, Friday evening, Enid and I went to an Oktoberfest event in the Burlington Hotel

It was a lot of fun! I entered a stein holding competition (I came 5th out of 12) and ate a massive ham hock and a massive German sausage.  There may gave been wine and vodka involved in the night too ;-)  Enid had work the next day so we left around 9pm which was perfect.

On Saturday I went for wings in Wishbone with Katie.

The wings were awesome as always.

After dinner we met Enid at the Bord Gais theatre for the last night of the musical of Rock of Ages.  We've seen a few different productions of it over the years, and this show was just as awesome as we expected and as always.

 

And then on Sunday, more loveliness!  I met some lovely folk out in Howth. We had a really nice catch-up and a great lunch of Irish seafood fresh from the sea!

 

Dyson airwrap review

I am still in shock!!  On Thursday night Enid and I went to the launch of the Dyson Airwrap in Arnotts and I WON THE PRIZE OF AN AIRWRAP!   It's a serious piece of kit for serious money - the one I won retails at €499!!

 

So does it work?! 

 

Well here's the results after literally 10 minutes of messing around with it, before Katie and I went for dinner on Saturday evening.  I think you will agree the results look great.  And I can report that it is simple to use.  Way easier than any tongs/wand/ghd curler I have ever used in my life.  And it left my hair shiny. soft and well conditioned.

BUT!  The curl did not hold all night.  Now that may well be because it genuinely was just a quick 10 minutes of use.  It also is likely not helped that Katie and I have completely poker straight hair that never holds a curl well.  So, I'd obviously like to try it again (and again) - using a product (mousse or hairspray) - plus pinning the curls in place while they cool down and set.

 

Further reports will come...

 

P.s. I would suggest that if you are putting this on your santa list that you pop into Arnotts where they have a Dyson stand where you can try it out.  As I said, it's a serious price so you would want to be very very sure that it works for you before investing that kind of sponduligs

Lakehouse hangs

It's very difficult to describe a great weekend with amazing friends.  What I mean is, it's very easy for me to describe what Enid, Alice, Katie and I did last weekend.  But you know, sometimes the whole, really is bigger than the sum of all parts (thanks Aristotle!).  So, while yes, we did a lot of really fun things in a really amazing part of Ireland, in a beautiful house, in a glorious setting...that alone doesn't capture just how joyous it was to spend time with my twin and my best friend (of about 33 years, since primary school). 

Anyway let's see if you can feel the vibe of what a good weekend it was!

Alice kindly did the driving in her fancy new car which was a fab ride indeed.  Enid felt bad bringing Bones with us in the new car (it had NOT been planned!) but to be fair he was no bother at all and slept all the way down, and all the way back.  He was also very good in the cottage.  He loves it there!

All in all it was a weekend packed with good clean fun - a nice dinner on Saturday which Katie drove out from Galway for.  Mmmmm lovely filet steak and fab wine.  Then afterwards we had a rowdy game of scrabble.  Cheaters the lot of them!!  I swear I was ganged up on! Did I mention the lovely fire as well?  There is nothing like an open fire right!

On the last morning we got up early and Enid fried up a lovely big breakfast (thanks Enid!).  We ate breakfast looking out on the lake view while listening to a Christmas album on the record player.  How hilarious!  But it just felt right! 

After breakfast we took a clamber down to the lake and took in it's beauty.  All to soon it was time to go and we had the car loaded up and were on the road back to Dublin. 

Thanks for the great weekend darling girls!  I'll hold the memories close for a long time

Discussing how to gang up on Amy!

The sunsets over the lake are surely some of the best in Ireland?

Bricfeasta!  Mmmm

Sure what else would you be doing but listening to Christmas songs?!  :))))

The 3 amigos down by the lake on Sunday morning

Bonesie.  He's not a bad little doggo sometimes



A Star is Born

I'm not a big cinema goer - pure dictation of circumstances - I am a cinema fan when I do go,  but I just don't go very often.  However, every now and then a film comes out that I absolutely make it my business to go to.

Falling into that category is A Star is Born.  So good that I have seen it twice.  And so good that I will see it more than twice! 

It is incredible.  An emotional rollercoaster with two amazing leads - the chemistry between them is terrific to watch.  And the cinematography!  It's beautifully shot and lit throughout. The colours in the cabin in the woods are to die for. The music of course is incredible (hello, it's Lady Gaga!)

It's just such a beautiful film...sighhhh. 

 



Be warned!  Bring tissues!!!

London - Trip report

Where to start??! 

I think I shall just do a splurge of text summarising parts of the trip and then load up a few photos at the end which capture the atmosphere.

As you know this was a "working holiday" because I was helping Irish artist Pigsy present his work at The Other Art Fair.  First things first, the exhibition was a tremendous success!  We calculated that between Enid, myself and Pigsy we conversed with approx. 600 people across the weekend.  Everyone loved his paintings and really seemed to connect personally with Pigsy and his story.  And yes, he made some sales!  But more importantly, he got offers from galleries to come show - in London and further afield.

It has to be said it was a lot of hard work from start to finish, but it was a good bit of fun too.  The three of us, we make a good team. We were delighted with the results and we had some craic getting them too.

Eats

We ate in a number of different places and I must say all were either good or very good:

We had some nice hamburgers in Byron Hamburgers on the first night when I arrived off the Tube from the airport.

A superb little find was the café in Le Cordon Bleu culinary school - very close to our hotel - and only the best scrambled eggs I've ever had in my life :-)  And the bread.  The bread!!! Doughy with an intensely kicky yeast flavour. 

Marco Pierre White - we ate here on the last night to celebrate a successful weekend.  I had the most amazing prawns and a good malbec.  Service was excellent too

All Stars - this was a fun place!  A small 1950's style bowling alley with a cool restaurant and bar.  Pretty good food to boot!  I got the crab chowder.

Boozer! Local boozer!  We found a local pub.  The Queen's Larder was a nicely dingy and authentic London pub :-)

Accommodation

It was panic stations when just four days out from our departure our airbnb cancelled on us. Can you believe that?!! Thankfully Ciaran found us an alternative at that short notice.  We stayed in the Grange in Bloomsbury and we could not have had a better location.  It was literally 60 seconds from the venue which was exceptionally handy for running back to get supplies of information sheets and business cards when stocks ran low.

Visitors!

It was great to see our London family on Sunday.  Special mention to Jem and Kristina who travelled in from outside London with their three month old baby for the meet up. So great to meet baby Arthur who is absolutely adorable. As well as being a little cutie, Enid and I  worked out that he is our youngest (or newest born) of our SECOND cousins - out of about 15 other second cousins. We have a big family lol.

Nice to see Ciaran and Enid's friend Ronan. He was working in London for the weekend and took the opportunity to pop in to see the Pigsy exhibition.

And very nice to meet the lovely Aisling and lovely Catherine.  So kind to come support and say hi.

All in all I had an incredible weekend.  I simply cannot say more than that.  Oh I can actually!  Thank you Enid and Pigsy for bringing me along for the ride.  I am super proud to be part of the Pigsy story.

Edit. One of my regular blog readers has been on to point out that Arthur is actually my first cousin once removed rather than my second cousin. What would I do without you Cousin Kasey?! :)))))

Interview time!

Pigsy and Aleesha who interviewed him

Pigsy's friend Ronan

 

Aisling & Catherine

 Cousin Kim, first cousin once removed Arthur and his dad - Cousin Jem