ManicMammy’s Blog

Its been a long while since I’ve enjoyed a crime novel. The latest ones I’d read all seemed run of the mill, too predictable or too incredible. I’d almost given up on the genre till my sister in law lent me this book to read a couple of weeks ago.

Its not often I get a few days peace and quiet to read a book of late, but the last couple of nights whilst in mam’s new abode, tv on the blink and kids in bed early worn out after day’s play with their new Christmas pressies, I got that opportunity.

In no time this book had my attention and interest. It opens with an author, Roz, being badgered into meeting a convicted killer in prison by her editor, with the view to writing a book on her. Olive has been in prison for a good few years after confessing to killing and butchering her mother and sister. She’s described as huge, morbidly obese, a bit of a loner, and this apparant unattractiveness is contrasted with her sister’s beauty and seeming “loved by all” personality. Her trial was waived with her “guilty” plea despite, as Roz begins to discover, many discrepancies in her confession and the physical evidence.

Thus begins Roz’s investigation and the whole “did she, didn’t she?” debate.

There’s also a subplot which I found less credible and interesting, of Roz and her relationship with ex-copper Hal. His personality was rather one dimensional. Her previous marriage and its tragic end with the death of her daughter also adds to the development of her character and goes somewhat to explaining her empathy and understanding of Olive.

The plot kept me intrigued, for a change I really didn’t know how the story would end, and even when it did, I was left with an uncertainty as to whether the truth had won out.

 For a few hours escapism, I really enjoyed reading it!

These products sound gorgeous: grapefruit, sugarbeet, coconut and sunflower oils combined with essential orange, lemon and lime oils, I had visions of my tresses being super shiny and me glowing with natural beauty goodness!

They claim to be wonderfully natural, ph balanced, and I’ve no reason to doubt this. 

Unfortunately, I haven’t found their washing and conditioning ability to be anything out of the ordinary. I bought them in the local health food shop a few weeks ago. They were priced on the expensive side, the conditioner approximately €11.50 for a 340g bottle. I find their smell a bit off putting, I’m not particularly fond of it. Mind you, that’s subjective as DH has decided he quite likes it.

Overall, I won’t be purchasing these again as I haven’t noticed a substantial improvement in my hair condition nor shine and so can’t justify the cost of them.

Yesterday was lovely, a typically crisp Winter’s day. The boys all had school but Sibéal had finished pre-school the day before, so herself, myself, Síofra and DH headed into town to do a wee bit of last minute shopping. Thankfully nothing urgent, so all were relaxed and enjoying walking around taking in the Christmasy atmosphere around the shop and festivities.

We decided to go to O’Conaills for coffee/hot chocolate. The shop itself is a chocoholics paradise. So many different varieties of chocolate, so little time. Drinking chocolate packages made up which would make great presents aswell as plenty of standard boxes of chocolates, bars, select your own etc etc. Would highly recommend it.

We headed to the back of the shop which is the cafe. As we had the buggy, upstairs was too much hassle. Luckily there weren’t any other customers downstairs so we got seats immediately.

Lattes for us and Sibéal ordered the kiddie’s hot chocolate. Unfortunately, there did not appear to be any biscuits, scones, buns on sale, just drinks which is a bit of a pain, as Síofra is a smidge partial to a fruit scone every now and then!

Service was pretty slow, the waitresses were more interested in having a chat amongst themselves than serving the drinks, it would seem. After a while, they did arrive and yep, they were worth the wait. The lattes were yummy, warm, not bitter, hitting the spot. All the drinks were served with a tiny paper cup of mini chocolate buttons, a variety of dark, white and milk chocolate. Yummy.

Sibéal’s kiddie hot chocolate was pronounced to be “delicious” and she appeared to thoroughly enjoy it.

Will definitely pop in again, there’s a fine list of hot chocolates and coffees on the menu that will just have to be sampled!

Edited 01/04/08:

I returned there this morning and had a fabulous hot chocolate. The staff couldn’t have been more helpful or attentive as I bought some chocolate goodies on my way out too. Would definitely recommend a visit if you’re in Cork.

I’m not particularly fond of shopping and so, if given the choice, would prefer to do the bulk of my Christmas shopping online and have the goods delivered to my door. For the most part, this works well and I have recently come across some great, well designed, easy to use websites.

Alas however, this was not the case, when I happened upon the easons bookstore website. My father in law had expressed an interest in 2 irish written and published books and as its getting rather close to Christmas, I thought it may be a bit optimistic to expect delivery from a British online bookstore such as amazon or bookdepository so decided to try easons online.

Initial impression of the site was that it looked fairly basic, nothing overwhelming nor eye catching either. Quite dated.

I decided to have a browse in Children’s annuals as my mam had said she’d like to buy each of the kids one. Alas, this and quite a number of other sections were blank.

I tried to find the recent David Andrews’ book “Kingstown Republican” by searching “David Andrews”  which gave 152 results, none of which was the one I wanted. This included bizarre results such as “International Interior Design Review” by Daisy Bridgewater as can be seen below:

I then tried “Kingstown Republican” but this returned no matches. The local Easons had 10 copies in stock when I checked. It should also be noted both amazon and bookdepository searches returned the book I wanted when the search term “Kingstown Republican” was inputed on their respective websites.

I gave up and decided to brave the crowds and head to my local bookstore.

Overall, I doubt I’ll ever bother using this website again, the delivery charges should you find the book you’re looking for, are dear enough too, €6.50 for the first book and an additional €3.50 for each subsequent book.

I was thoroughly sick of having bits of paper scattered about with lists for this and that, my vague and ultimately unsuccessful attempt at getting organised, so I decided to splash out and purchase some sort of diary/organiser to keep everything together in one place.

I have never been a diary keeper, I have tried on occasion but never had the commitment to keep it going. So I need less a diary and more of an organiser. I prefer notebooks that are ring bound rather than having to squish down pages, and so was happily surprised to hear a recommendation for the organised mum yearbook on the magicmum discussion boards.

As you can see in the above photo taken from the website, you can also purchase a zip up leather cover for it, which I did. Handy for protecting the notebook from the inevitable spillages that occur in this house and for holding bills/letters etc that need to be dealt with.

Its an excellent organiser. 16 months running from September 2007 till December 2008 so I’ve already started using it. It has the usual, 2007/2008 at a glance pages, notes pages, each month at a glance summary pages and then each week is displayed over 2 A5 pages, with margins at each side for notes. I like it for many reasons, one of which is the equal space given to weekdays and weekend days. There’s plenty of room for mundane lists, appointment and notes.

Additional pages are provided in the December section for presents planning etc etc. The back of the organiser has an address book section. Some plastic section dividers/finders and stickers are also included.

I bought mine online from the organised-mum website at a cost of approx €28 including reusable cover, and I believe they may also be available in Dubray bookstores.

This feels like a new hotel located on western side of Ischgl. It’s location is brilliant. No more than a few minutes walk from bars, restaurants and shops and approximately 10 minutes walk from the ski lifts up the mountain. 

The rooms are large. We were in a group of 10 and shared 3 twin rooms and one double room apartment, which was really just 2 twin interconnecting rooms, complete with 2 bathrooms. The rooms had safes, tvs and all areas of the hotel that we were in were pristine.

Our room had a balcony with breathtaking views out over the fields to the snowy mountains. Fabulous. 

Breakfast was served each morning, the usual array of cereals, hot bacon, eggs, fruit, yogurts, sliced meat, cheese and rolls etc etc. The staff were very helpful and friendly.  

Storage was provided downstairs for snowboards, boots,skis etc.

There was also a sauna to ease all those aches and pains after the day on the piste. 

The cost was very reasonable at €61 per person per night B&B.  Would definitely recommend if you’re on the lookout for somewhere to stay in Ischgl.

Whilst in my local health food shop a couple of weeks ago, I spotted this body butter. I know its supposedly marketed at pregnant bellies and I’m not currently pregnant but it looked good so I decided to purchase it.

Its brilliant. It smells great, cocoa butter & Vitamin E, with a definite scent of coconut. Other ingredients include shea butter, sesame seed oil, macadamia nut oil, rosehip seed oil, rosemary leaf extract and calendula flower extract.

Its very easy to apply, non greasy and absorbs pretty quickly so can be used morning and night.

My skin feels great after using it. It comes in a large tub, approx 187gr which lasts for ages. Would definitely recommend whether you’re pregnant or not!

Our darling son was 6 years old last week and decided he wanted most of his class to come to his birthday party. Children’s parties during the winter months are usually alot more hassle than those in the summer when you can just order a bouncy castle and let them all run about outside in the back garden.

As to be expected, the weather was brutal, rainy and cold, so we had to accomodate all inside the house. As I had enough to keep me occupied, I didn’t want the hassle of heading to the shops to buy all the accessories for the party so I went online.

Little Star Parties appear to be based in Leitrim and according to their website, they have an extensive range of party gear. From the usual balloons, loot bags, banners  and party ware to more unusual pinatas, costumes and table centre pieces. If you want to theme your party, adult or children, they have grouped stuff together.

I found the site very easy to use. I only ordered a few basic items. They were reasonably priced and arrived within a couple of days by courier. I liked the fact that the you could specify the date of your4 party on the order and that the front page told you when was the earliest they could guarantee delivery if you ordered that day.

Delivery cost was €10 regardless of the amount ordered, so I guess the more you order the better value it is.

I would definitely use them again, if in a rush with too much to do, when preparing for a party. Good, no hassle service.