Oscar recieved one of these Little Tikes Toddler Gyms for his 2nd birthday. He has just turned 8 and its now still going strong and being used by Fionn, the almost 2 year old and the other kids in between.

Its basically a tough, plasic cube with a slide. It allows the child to climb through it and up it, hide in it, slide down it. Its extremely versatile and robust. Ours has travelled from Dublin, spent years outside in all seasons and still looks great. The younger and older kids love it.

In the summer the end of the slide is placed in the paddling pool and they enjoy sliding down it into the water.

Excellent value for money!

Of late, I have been in a “what to have for breakfast?” quandry. I need something that can be prepared fast and eaten on the run, as its usually mayhem here in the mornings as no matter how early I am woken, its the last minute before the 5 kids and myself are ready for the school run. 

Toast- boring and hardly too healthy when loaded with melted butter and marmalade, cereal- never have been a fan, porridge- gives me heartburn. I’ve been relying on the wolf down a yoghurt and a banana alternative, which leaves me starving an hour or so later and therefore picking at food mid-morning.

Then I read fatmammycat’s recent post. The stable diet toasted breakfast cereal sounded tasty and the perfect ingredient needed to add a bit of oompf to my usual glenisk raspberry yoghurt. Off I set to my local Supervalu, as, alas, the nearest Superquinn is in Kilkenny, to purchase.

It costs €4.45, comes in a clear plastic tube, containing 460g, so its not the cheapest cereal. It’s basically a granola, ingredients: oat flakes, oat bran, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, coconut, almonds, walnuts and sugar. Sounds good. Tastes yummy added to aforementioned yoghurt. The only quibble I have is that it’s a bit sweet, brown cane sugar is the second ingredient listed on it so I guess its present in relatively high amounts.  I should perhaps use a natural yoghurt instead of a flavoured one.

I had a gander on the Stable Diet website, its a Wexford based company. Their serving suggestion of the cereal accompanied by ice-cream is just pure evil....yuuuuummmmm.

Why is it that within minutes, well, days really, of purchasing a new tumble dryer, that the auld washing machine decided to give up the ghost and die noisely on us? To be fair, it had been going strong for many years, though in recent months had gotten progressively louder.

So, a new machine was needed pronto, as the mountain of dirty laundry continued to grow unabated. As the new dryer was manufactured by Bosch and I’ve been very happy to date with it, I decided to also go the Bosch route for the washing machine.

Priorities in washing machine for me are:

• At least 1400rpm spin to get as much water out of clothes prior to drying.
• Large drum to maximise amount of clothes (at least 6kg), that can be washed in one go, and therefore minimise amount of washing cycles I need to do per day.
• A quiet machine that doesn’t entail all doors in house being closed to hear the conversations/TV/phone whilst a wash is running.
• Not too expensive.
• The option to just do a spin and/or rinse cycle without doing full wash.

The new machine was delivered about 3 weeks ago and I’m delighted with it so far. It’s quick and meets all the above requirements. It had a beep to tell you when the wash was finished which I wasn’t particularly enamoured with, but thankfully, there was an option to program that out, which was done without delay.

It’s so quiet compared to the last machine, its made us realise just how loud the old dodgy bearings one was. It has a large choice of temperature and clothes type settings: from 30 to 90 degrees, cottons, delicates, woollens and easy care.

It has been in very frequent use since it arrived and there have been no problems with its operation to date. I’m delighted with it!

In a fit of madness, or was it just a “splash out and treat myself” moment over 6 months ago, I purchased this leave in conditioner on  http://www.hqhair.com. It was very expensive, in my opinion, for a hair care product, but the gruaig was looking brutal, so I decided to give it a go.

It smells lovely and apparantly contains plenty of “nurturing” ingredients such as aloe vera, camomile, wheat and soy proteins.

But I have found it to be too heavy, despite applying varying amounts on damp hair and then either blowdrying or leaving to dry naturally, it has left my hair rather dull, greasy looking and very lifeless . Maybe it would work better with much longer hair as mine is fairly short at the moment.

On the plus side, it is long lasting, one tube goes a long way, but I won’t be purchasing another one.  

 

Last Monday evening, Granny Mary offered to babysit, so we decided to take her up on her offer and head out for a bite to eat. Alas, the majority of eateries in Bandon do not open on Monday evenings. So it was a choice of travelling further afield or opting for more informal pub grub. As we were both wrecked after the weekend’s excitement, pub grub it was and we headed to the Brogan Inn.

It was quiet when we arrived with just a couple of other people  there, but we were greeted and ordered a couple of pints of Guinness whilst we perused the menu. It consisted of a few starters, some desserts and 6 or so mains. Conor ordered a fillet steak, whilst I went with the sirloin steak.

These were accompanied with generous portions of mushrooms, onions and chips, pepper sauce or garlic butter and were cooked to perfection.  We ordered a bottle of house red and Conor had a coffee to finish as we were both too full for desserts.

The bill came to a very reasonable €65 and we left after a very relaxing and enjoyable couple of hours. Would definitely recommend it if you’re in the humour for good, basic, tasty food without any hassle.

  

 

 

Our last tumble dryer was purchased just over 8 years ago and was getting totally useless. Recently it had been taking forever, well, at least 2 hours to get any size of laundry load dried. This,  on top of the fact, that from day one, it has been noisy and had an awful loud triple beep to inform you that the drying cycle was ending, which could not be turned off,  finally drove me to look into getting a replacement.

As our family has grown to 5 kids and 2 adults, I have gotten more dependant on using a tumble dryer. These days it is used very frequently, that is, at least twice a day and often more than that.

My main criteria for a new tumble dryer were:

• that it could dry a large amount of clothes at one time.
• that it was quiet
• that it didnt have a “helpful” buzzer to signal when the dry cycle was ending.
• that it wasn’t overly expensive.

I finally purchased the bosch WTV74104 as it was mid-price range (€435 including delivery) and  I have been very happy with it.

It can hold up to 7kg. Instead of the old method of specifying the amount of time you wish the drying program to last, on this machine you specify how dry you want the clothes to be. Eg “iron dry”, “cupboard dry” or “very dry”. The dryer then finishes its cycle when it senses that this level of moisture has been reached. It then goes into an “anti crease” cycle which does what it says, that is, it intermittently tumbles until you remove the laundry or 60 minutes is up, whichever is sooner. This is also great as I am of the opinion that ironing should be avoided at all costs and this aids this aim.

I have found that the clothes take a very short time to dry using this method and it is more economical for me as the precise drying time is used instead of my guessing at the amount of drying time needed and over compensating.

It also has a “low heat” option which I haven’t needed to use as yet. The controls on front of it are very self explanatory and easy to use.

The only very minor improvement I would like to see, is some sort of child lock.

Overall I am definitely happy with this purchase and would recommend.

On the occasion of Oscar’s first communion at the weekend, I decided to order a cake and some smaller tarts. I had noticed the “Heaven’s Cakes” stand at the Bandon farmer’s market 

http://bandonfarmersmarket.wordpress.com/

and as Conor has always been a fan of their berry tarts, I approached them last Saturday to see if I could order some for collection the following Saturday. No bother, they supplied a lovely vanilla and chocolate mousse and sponge cake, which was huge and customised with an inscription for Oscar in icing on the top.

 

This did for dessert with some icecream and was yummy. We also bought 5 smaller tarts/cakes which had a pastry base and then pear or berry with almond sponge or set custard fillings. All tasted great, though I find these type of cakes a bit dry. 

The total bill came to €65, which I felt was reasonable, and we collected them happily at 8.30am on the morning of the communion without any fuss or hassle.

 

Would definitely recommend to try if you’re in Bandon on a Saturday morning at the market or in Cork city at the English market throughout the week.

Last Saturday, I headed out in Dublin with my sister Paula. As it was a last minute decision to visit her, we hadn’t made any firm restaurant reservations. We were both dressed informally and not looking for anything too fussy, more somewhere we could have a bite to eat, drink good wine and have a good auld natter and catch up.

She suggested the Porthouse on South William street, and thought we may be lucky to get a table on arrival. Fortunately we did. The restaurant was almost full, we appeared to get the last table for 2, in a corner. Initial impression was of a very dark room. The restaurant is located in the basement, and is candlelit. I found it a smidge claustrophobic, as the ceiling is quite low and painted a dark colour.

The other downside was that the tables were very close to each other, which I find off putting. I would have preferred a bit of distance.

I like eating tapas. I like the fact you can enjoy a selection of flavours in small amounts. We ordered olives marinated in garlic and chilli, which were good. Next, patatas bravas, which are potato cubes served in a fiery tomato sauce. I didn’t find the sauce particularly fiery but the dish was tasty. Plato De Chacineria, which is basically a board of sliced meats and bread, came next. This, though very simple, I enjoyed. Serrano, chorizo, jamon iberico. Yum.

The Pisto Manchego, consisting of diced aubergine, courgette, tomato, onion, garlic topped with cheese,  I thought was a bit bland. The cheese board that followed more than made up for it though.

We drank a lovely rioja -Marques de riscal reserva.

The final bill came to €65 which I thought was good value for money and we left full and happy.

It is definitely one to return to, still plenty of other dishes on the menu that I would be happy ordering. I liked its relaxed atmosphere, though maybe I’d prefer to be seated nearer the entrance to avoid claustrophobia!

 

I bought this product on www.hqhair.com for approx €19, about 6 months ago in an effort to give some life and lustre to my tired, dry hair.It didn’t disappoint. You apply a very small amount on damp hair and then dry naturally or using hairdryer. It gives a great sheen to my hair and gone are frizzy dry locks.

Great product to recommend.

From time to time, I like to vary my daily moisturiser. However, this is the one I tend to come back to most frequently.

It has a lovely light consistancy and absorbs quickly, leaving my skin feeling great, so that I can apply make up without delay in the morning rush.

It smells great and apparently doesn’t contain any artifical fragrance or colour.

The only improvement I would like to see in it is some sun protection factor.

It is relatively expensive but I have found that a tube lasts for many weeks.