ManicMammy’s Blog

Trains every hour and a speedy journey make this the most relaxing way to travel intercity.

My three options for travelling from Cork to Dublin return are by car, by plane or by train. The car option is obviously the most flexible, I can suit myself but its hardly the most relaxing as is at best 3.5 hours in the driving seat and means I’ll arrive more tired than I’d like and in addition, theres the ever increasing petrol cost to factor in.

Flying can be cheap but then theres the hassle of check in and all the messing about and hanging around in airports which annoys me and the added possibility of delays or cancellations which are beyond my control.

Lately I have opted for taking the train. The intercity timetable is excellent now. Trains leave Cork very regularly, usually on the half past hour. In the opposite direction, they leave on the hour, every hour from 7am till 9pm. The journey takes just less than 3 hours.

You can now reserve your seat online. The trains I have been on over the past couple of months have been clean and modern. Plenty of legroom, stowage space and drop down tables. Comfortable seats and clean modern bathrooms.

The catering onboard the train is not great. The best that can be said for “cafe noir” coffee is that its hot. It tastes pretty gross. On my last journey, the mobile catering trolley wasn’t available so everyone had to make their way to the catering carriage.As result there ended up being a big queue. It was badly stocked, no sandwiches or anything substantial to eat available, just cold drinks, tea, coffee, chocolate, muffins or crisps.

The facilities in Cork’s Kent station are also very basic. The kiosk there also sells brutal coffee and had ran out of newspapers the last time I visited. Unfortunately there arent any other shops near Kent station so the choice is very limited to using this kiosk unless you have plenty of time to spare before your train departure.

In contrast Heuston station has a good range of food outlets with Supermacs, coffee shops, confectionary, newsagents, Easons book shop etc.  

The return ticket costs €61 which isn’t cheap but after 3 hours sitting relaxing, reading my book and listening to my music I arrive in Dublin refreshed and chilled out.

Rated 3/5 on Sep 30 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: cork, dublin, intercity, rail, track, train, transport, travel
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Not enough cooking, too many stupid stunts. Ramsay’s loud, brash bullying wearing thin.

Just watched the third episode of this latest offering in the Hell’s Kitchen USA series and to be honest, I dont think I’ll bother watching the rest. I don’t really care who wins or loses.

The series is focussed on stupid stunts such as getting the contestants out in their pjs to catch fish thrown from the back of a truck. What the hell has that got to do with running a restaurant?

Ramsay has become a caricature, too loud, brash, bullying. It’s become predictable and boring. Very little focus so far on actual cooking. It doesn’t compare favourably at all to the Hell’s Kitchen Celebrity UK series that has recently finished. Marco Pierre White has a completely different style in the kitchen, tending more to praise and encourage those working for him, rather than berating and belittling them constantly.  I felt it worked better. In addition the demonstration ”masterclass” of specific dishes was interesting and informative. Who could have known Worchestershire sauce was so versatile??

 Similarly Hell’s Kitchen USA compares unfavourably with Top Chef. In that series, contestants from a chef or catering background are again competing to become the top chef and win their own restaurant. However, the focus is much more on the food and cooking and it is, in my opinion, a much more entertaining and interesting program as result.

Hell’s Kitchen USA is overhyped and is trying too hard to sensationalise a series that in reality isn’t very interesting or exciting. It’s a pity but I for one, won’t be watching any longer.

Rated 1/5 on Sep 28 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: cooking, food, ramsay, reality, reality tv, series, tv, tv series
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A facial gel that is very very mild so just my skin feeling tight rather than exfoliating.

This is another casualty in my quest to find the perfect facial scrub/exfoliator.

The Lancome blurb made it sound fabulous: “Formulated with white wax micro-beads, ultra-fine exfoliating grains and a cocktail of Pineapple and Papaya extracts to gently slough off dull skin layers and remove impurities”. Who could resist?

In reality, I do like it’s smell, it’s lovely and fresh. It consists of a rather watery texture gel which contains small white beads that resemble broken up polystyrene, but which disappear when the gel is applied and rubbed on one’s face. It also contains tiny bluish sand-like grains which remain and whose purpose, I would think are to perform the exfoliation.

Unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations. I found it to be too mild. The grains too small, my skin just felt tight after its use, rather more like the effect of a facial mask rather than a scrub.

My complexion didn’t particularly look any more radiant after its use and I didn’t feel it did a particularly efficient job of removing any dry/dead skin cells. Retailing at approximately €27 for a 100ml tube, this is too expensive a product for a very mediocre result. I won’t be purchasing it again.

Rated 2/5 on Sep 27 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: beauty, beauty product, exfoliation, face, gel, lancome, scrub, skin, skincare
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Easy to use clothing website with quick delivery times to Ireland at cost of stg£7.95.

I came across this website a week or so ago. I had been in the Coast section of Brown Thomas in Cork, looking for something a bit different and special to wear for the upcoming anniversay. I had seen a skirt I liked but it was too big and they didn’t have another one in stock. Rather than go through the rigmarole of getting the shop assistant to try and order the correct size and then me having to make a return trip into Cork, I decided to go online and see if I could order it there.

 I found the coast website very straightforward to use. You can browse by collection, occasion, garment, new in or sale.

The text on the web site can be increased or decreased. Different views of garments can be seen. Easy to zoom in on the clothes just by hovering over the particular area of the garment.

Drop down size and quantity selectors and a “contact us” link should your size not be available. Suggested matching pieces for your selected garment in a “complete the look” sidebar is a helpful addition:

One disadvantage of the site, was that I couldn’t find anywhere to change the currency from sterling to euro. It was no hassle to select the clothes I wanted and the usual credit cards were acceptable. The order was completed in sterling and there was a delivery charge of £7.95, which I thought was a bit much as the clothes are  expensive as it is.

That said, my order was delivered promptly within a few days and packaged well.

I liked the fact that there was a returns note included with my clothes and also a “no postage required” address form, so it looks like returns would be easy enough should any of the garments need to be sent back.

Overall it was a pleasure to use this website, it has a nice look and feel to it and it was definitely less painful than having to traipse back into town with baby in tow to get the skirt I wanted. Will definitely keep it in mind for future occasionwear shopping!

Rated 4/5 on Sep 26 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: attire, clothes, clothing, coast, dress, occasion, online, online shopping, online store, shopping, skirt, top, women
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Delicious varieties of seed breads perfect for lunch or snacks.

I recently bought 2 packets of these seed breads or crackerbreads in Dunnes in Bishopstown. Previously I had only seen them in the local health food shop and at the Bandon’s farmer market.

They come in 6 different types. I ate the “classic” which had sesame, sunflower and linseeds added and the “Cheese with pumpkin seed”.

Both were excellent when topped with salad/cheese for lunch. They’re larger than the equivalent Ryvita crispbreads by 1-2 cms all round. But they can tend to be a bit too hard and crispy at times. You’d want to have strong teeth.

Other choices include “roasted onion” containing roasted onions, sunflower and linseeds, “mildly seasoned” baked with fennel, coriander and caraway seeds and 2 spelt-only varieties.

Overall, a welcome and delicious change for lunch.

Rated 3/5 on Sep 25 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: baking, bread, cracker, crispbread, food, good food, nuts, seed bread, seeds, west cork
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Grand, page turning thriller but way too many characters.

I read this book at the weekend on the train from Cork to Dublin. Unfortunately these days, I can’t seem to find a stretch of time to sit and read and as result I’ve about 5 books half-read lying around the house, plots I can barely remember and so I doubt I’ll ever get around to finishing them.

So as the prospect of approximately 3 hours uninterrupted “me time” beckoned, I grabbed this novel for pure escapism and hopefully an “unputdownable” quality for that time.

I must say, I really enjoyed it. As a story it romped along. Crichton is a bit overpowering with his overkill on preaching the message: gene patents are bad. But I did find the ownership of human tissue treatment quite interesting. Who owns and has rights to blood samples/organs/eggs/sperm/genes once they’ve left your body. He takes this a step further, if a research facility is awarded rights to your cells/genes, does it therefore have permission to take this cells/genes too from your offspring.

There was a huge number of characters and stories in the book  for a relatively short novel, which resulted really in fairly light treatment of all, there wasn’t any deep characterisation of any of them really. The end of the novel was a bit too contrived even for me, too many of the unrelated characters meeting up.

But for a few hours’ escapism which was a bit different from my usual thriller it worked and I enjoyed it.

Rated 3/5 on Sep 24 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: book, fiction, gene, genetics, novel, story, thriller
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Easy to use, plug into socket, solid mini vapouriser that releases vapours to soothe children’s colds.

The baby is getting her next big front tooth and for some reason, whether coincidentally or not, she’s caught another cold and has a very snotty nose. As result, she’s finding getting to sleep a bit more difficult.

The last time this happened, Auntie Orla came to her aid and bought one of these SudaCare Vapour Plugs. Its basically a plugin mini waterless vapouriser. You slide in a damp refill pad which contains aromatic oils such as menthol, camphor and eucalyptus and then plug it in. The vapours are released for approximately 8 hours. Its very straightforward and easy to use.

We have found it great to plug into the girls’ bedroom socket just as they go to bed. Within 10 minutes or so, the room is filled with a lovely menthol smell. It seems to soothe the 10 month old and hopefully it eases her breathing whilst she’s got the cold.

Whilst the plugin itself is a onceoff cost of approximately €8.50, this includes 5 refill pads. From then on, you can purchase packs of 5 refills from approximately €6.  

Definitely handy to have in the house for when the children get blocked noses.

Rated 4/5 on Sep 21 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: children, colds, flu, medicinal, menthol, nose, smelly, soothing, vaporiser, vapour
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Brilliant toy shop that our children love, choc a block with fun games, toys and books.

This is an excellent toy shop. It stocks a wide variety of developmental toys and games ranging in suitability for babies to much older children.

For the babies there are lots of Lamaze soft toys and books and plenty of WOW toys. There are dollhouses and constructions sets with furniture and accessories. Selection of peg boards, scrapbook making kits,  creativity for kids kits, beading kits, wooden railway and trains, wooden tables and chairs, rocking horse, brick walkers.

For the older children there are national geographic kits, Thinkfun games, a huge range of orchard toys and games and plenty of books amongst other treasures and educational toys and games.

The shop assistant is very helpful, offering advice on best suited toy or game for a particular age group. Our kids, especially the younger ones really love it.  Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Cork city centre.

Rated 4/5 on Sep 19 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: cork, developmental, educational, fun, games, kits, play, shopping, soft toys, store, toy, toy shop
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Blank white umbrella + fabric paints + permanent marker= fun arts and crafts hour for myself and 3 year old.

A week or so ago when in Cork city centre with my two cailíní, we headed into a really good toy shop on Maylor Street. It’s name I can’t remember but its located a few yards before the giant Smyths toystore.

Anyhow, its packed full of arts and crafts kits, games, jigsaws, wooden toys, baby toys, dolls houses and plenty more. The children love it. Whilst there, the rain and sun umbrella kit took Sibéal’s fancy so we bought for €11.99.

I must confess I usually run a mile from doing painting or arts stuff with the kids. I prefer baking, reading or playing a game with them and Conor’s the papier-maché king here. But this looked straightforward enough so yesterday we had a go!

The kit contains a plain white waterproof kid’s size umbrella, a permanent marker, a small paintbrush and a set of 6 minipots of fabric paint. The instructions were clear and gave suggestions to mix the paints to create different colours and to water them down if you preferred a more watercolour look to your design.

Basically we outlined a few basic shapes on the umbrella using the marker and then painted them in. The umbrella was left to dry for 12 hours et voilá:

It was great fun to do and we both really enjoyed it. The result as you can see, is no great art masterpiece but it’s totally unique to Sibéal and she loves it. She was delighted that it was raining this morning so she could bring it out to show all her pals.

Definitely a success and we look forward to trying out more of the creativity for kids kits.

Rated 5/5 on Sep 16 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: activity, art, art and crafts, children, colour, craft, drawing, fun, paint
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