A Well Deserved Weekend Break

I will update the details in the morning but wow, Inchydoney Lodge and Spa, pure luxury!
Inchydoney Lodge and Spa

Ok so we were spoilt this weekend by the above mentioned 4 star hotel.

Upon arrival, management came out to greet us and personally take our bags to our room.
We were given one of the deluxe suites, the one on the top floor with the BEST view of the beach and surrounding sea/landscapes.
The room (or rooms) were to die for!

This is just the view from the lounge of the suite. You have a whole other section from the other side.

View from the four poster double bed edge.

Excuse the mess we had only just come back from a swim!

The lounge with our very own Nespresso machine, lovely!

So anyway, we immediately pulled everything out of our bags to find our swimwear and headed straight down to the Heated Seawater pool! You could not do "many" laps but the leisure facilities such as the jacuzzi's and power showers in the pool made up for this, the showers were like hands free massagers, bliss.

We ate in Dunes Bar the first evening, and wow, the seafood and meat platters each were enough for two to share, we could not finish them, stunning and all locally sourced food!

As it was late enough when we arrived we hit the hay on the most spacious, comfortable and inviting four poster double bed.

Saturday morning we awoke fresh and went for breakfast, and then went for another swim and opened up those pores in the steam room.
What sets this spa hotel apart from another I have been too was that the ladies changing room was adequately supplied with Elemis products from Shower Gel, Shampoo, Conditioner to Cleanser, Toner and Body lotion, there were even cotton pads laid out with the cleanser/toner etc... and supplies were never low. Bliss. I was in my Elemis, I mean element.

We then went exploring the beach. We challenged the waves to get around the rocky outcrop (ok it was only a few cm's deep and the tide was on its way out), once we got to the other side we jogged nearly the full lenght of the beach as in above pic.

We dined again for lunch in Dunes Pub before we set off back into the spa for our treatments.
I had a Seawater Bath, it was lovely however I was overcome by the heat after getting out of the bath and could really have done with a cold shower to cool myself off as the humidity in the spa was too heavy for me after such an intense bathe, I must admit though the staff in the spa really looked after me and helped me ease the dizziness and nausea.
They even pushed back my second treatment until they felt I was ready for it.
And ready I was, a Classical Algae Wrap, DIVINE!

We retired to our room for a quick nap before getting ready for dinner in the Gulfstream Restaraunt.
I had crabmeat with mango jelly as a starter, monkfish ( a bit too rubbery for me) and a chocolate dessert. Had a few drinks and again we were so overcome by being full and for some reason absolutely tired we retired to our room, where we curled up on the bed and watched the tv and then were out like a light.

For our final breakfast we went all out, tried a little bit of most things, just to sample it.
Again divine.

We then went back to the spa for our final treatments.
I had a stunning Elemis facial which I didn't want to end, and as I paid for it I was bought a little present from my fab husband.
Lets hope it helps reduce these feckin wrinkles! I am not that old but have "ageing" skin. Must be all that stress.

We packed our things and rested up in our room for a little while as lets face it we did spend a weekend eating a little more than we usually do, something to do with all that lovely fruit all around the hotel between meals!
Our very friendly manager Peter who had gone out of his way all weekend to make sure we had no problems met us as we checked out and gave us a lovely jar or Inchydoney Jam!
We got back to Limerick and were absolutely shattered, how on earth can a relaxing weekend away zap so much energy out of you?

We were greeted by two very mucky pups who had spent the weekend driving their minders demented!

Ah that rush of relief / overwhelming emotion

I went back to Semester 4 today in my journey to reach Graduation, only 4 more to go.
We had Business Stats then 3 hours to kill before Applied Organisation Behaviour so I went to the lecturers office for the exam I got that big fat F in and he was not in his office. ugh.
I thought, ok I will take out a book and start reading while waiting for him hoping he would come back.
I met one of the tutors and he took my details, within minutes I had found out I had not in fact failed!
SCORE!
I became overwhelmed with relief and a rush of emotion, I thought I would collapse (and I am not the fainting type). No need to repeat, no need to stress on where I was to get the money to repeat, no panicking on how I was going to keep going with the new subjects this semester and worry about doing this exam all over again.

My lecturer emailed me later today to give my transcript breakdown.

I got a C3!!!
Never so happy as I was today, well ok I have been but really excited about it!

A Lovely week with a Horrible result

So off I trotted from the car to the train station on Monday just gone and chugged all the way to the train station near my parents leaving my husband and dogs behind.

Hubby dearest drove to Dublin on Tuesday and had a great morning on the radio (he is a monthly contributor to a nationwide radio station). Being delayed on his way out his parking ticket ran out, and was clamped, he was only delayed by 15 minutes! They don't take prisoners in Dublin!

So I had a lovely few days at home with my parents and my brother and his family over the road

Thursday however was not so nice. I woke up and immediately logged onto mam's laptop to find out I had failed one of my college exams.
To say I was heartbroken was an understatement.

If I cannot get it changed it means forking out to repeat a subject I find really difficult and put loads into it and was totally knocked back by the big fat F staring back at me...

I have come home to my brilliant husband today and my gorgeous dogs, Kerri's Collar is MIA and Molly has wrecked the garden again!

Tomorrows job? Clean up the doo doo and all the mess she has made from entertaining herself while hubby was out at college while I was away...

New Experience... LOL

Well I woke up this morning and thought, right enough is enough of this lazing around lark while I am "waiting" to go back to college.
So took my bicycle out of the shed, dusted it off.
Went out to bring the dogs in out of the dog run, surprisingly Molly was still in the dog run!
I put their reflective straps and leads on.
It took me a minute or two to settle them down as the "thought" they were going out for a walk.
Surprise!
I sat up on the bike and just took off!
Molly went into Greyhound mode and just galloped and galloped, there was a guy sitting in a lorry outside and he just gawped at me.
I was laughing so hard inside at his face, on the outside I was pulling at her lead to reign her in a bit as her instinct was to get up on the path and a bit of a, how do you explain it, a giddy leaping around run?
Does that make sense?
Long story short, it was hilariously dangerous but I thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks the powers that be that there was no traffic at the time!
Lets see if this is going to be something that helps with Molly's hyperactivity and make her calmer on a post run walk?

First Challenge of 2012

So on Sunday just gone we got up at 6am and finished packing our bags/car and set of for Mayo.

We got to the base of Croagh Patrick outside Westport in County Mayo.
We could not see the top of the mountain because of cloud cover. The shop was not open so we could not rent walking poles so we set off, I was carrying our bag which contained a few bottles of water, some food and my camera.

We went up the laneway to the statue of St. Patrick and we set off.
The first section (Stage One) is a long winding trail of rock, shale and mud.
There are clear instructions signed in several places to stay on the path and not to stray off of it as it is dangerous to stray as the rest of the mountain is boggy and steep.

To get up to the gate you have to tackle the first of the rocky paths.
Once you opened the gate this is what lay ahead of you for... Stage 1 alone!

If you can see it through the cloud, that black line which forms a dip in the picture is the completion of Stage 1, to reach the Ridge, which is Stage 2 a flat trek to the base of "the mountain" Croagh Patrick. Stage 3 is a steep incline of Shale to reach the top of Croagh Patrick where a little church rests.

This picture may not do the trek justice, it is a tough climb and for novices like us.

As my husband is on a life long challenge to lose weight we were sensible enough to take plenty of breaks and people passed us many times on our ascent. All were very friendly, one group of young men flew past us and one said hello, the second said,"taking a break already?" without considering the man sitting beside me was just under 29stone and to get as far as we did even at that stage was some achievement!

It did not phase my husband, I dont know if he even heard him.

Considering this time last year he weighed 42stone 3lbs I am so so proud of him and this was just the first step in 2012's challenge.

We persisted on further up our climb, at one stage we watched the clound sweep down the mountain like a plume of smoke, wave over us and get sucked back up towards the ridge, you almost expected to smell smoke! You just got a wave of mist.

To give you some idea of Half way of stage 1... on the middle left section of this picture there is a little grey  square between a ridge of the montain and the waters edge, this is the car park!

The closer to the ridge we got the less you could see around you and the more uncomfortable you felt about where the edge of the path was.

This picture was as the clouds came down again with a very strong wind and the rain was heavier (naturally it was heavy cloud so larger water droplets).

Once we reached the top of Stage 1 we felt as novices we should turn back and tackle all 3 stages again later in the year on perhaps a clearer day.

So we commenced our descent.

I would definately recommend for any novices to dress well, ok I had no walking boots, hubby did.

Wear a few layers of clothes and luminous or Hi-Vis clothing, a simple vest like this is good enough for day time climbing. For anyone like me who suffers from earache from breezes dont attempt without a head hugging hat, wool or fleece. I found the gloves very handy as you will spend some stages of your climb hugging or holding rock for balance, especially on your descent.

The descent certainly worked the other muscles you did not use on your ascent. This is where the walking poles I am sure would have aided us, I ended up on my rear twice, not as bad as I thought it could be but for someone with hubby's weight I guess gravity pulled on his body a bit more than mine and altough he did not slip or fall at any stage he really had to take it slow and gingerly.

We were never so happy to see the statue of St. Patrick and know how close we were to the car!

We got fresh clothes out of the car and straight into the public toilets to change.

I drove home as hubby drove up.

It was only on Monday I felt any aches and pains, poor hubby had some blisters but after walking the Dublin City Marathon in 2011 these blisters were nothing.

I thoroughly I enjoyed it and cannot wait to do it again.

keep going...

well  I was starving last, not much but woke up hungry!
disaster, ate a big meal at 11am!
My hubby had gone out this morning to training and came back with groceries for me.
I was delighted, all sensible food with 2 treats, but mostly fruit.
Just need to be drinking more water now also.
My skin on my face is gone to crap from the lack of it.
We did not get out for a walk with the dogs today, gutted.
Extra long walk and possible swim for the dogs tomorrow.

Goals.. not resolutions

Seeing as my husband has been on a goal setting journey since this time last year and reaching those goals, I have decided I am going to do the same.
We are hoping to start IUI Fertility later in the year.
So my goal is to get down from what I weighed in today at 204lbs down to 150lbs.

Thats 54lbs this year.

Here's hoping I reach that target and dont let myself, my husband and our future children down because of my failings.

I walked the dogs last night into town and back in an hour, today I took them down to the river, it was fun for them a struggle for me as in one walk they have become the worlds worst behaved dogs, I couldnt get over the difference in their walk last night and midday today!
Today they just pulled and pulled etc... all the way to the swimming spot, I think it was my own fault today cause I let them see the toy I brought, as soon as they saw it the knew they were going to the river.

So my arms are feeling it now, so it was like a small workout...
Here's hoping tomorrow's walk goes better, its all in aid of losing thouse lbs for me and Kerri cause she too needs to lose a few lbs