Ireland Day 2

After a day spent attending the conference, we had a free night to roam the streets of Dublin. So we decided to head down to the Temple Bar Pub for some live music and grub.

The guys tried some Irish beer/lager and the ladies had wine (yes, we know, how can order wine in an Irish pub – well, neither one of us likes beer).

The sandwiches were very tasty

Outside the pub where lots of people were stopping to take pics

 

Band playing down the street – notice the middle dude is headless.

We then walked by the river…

And ventured down little alleys…

Another band with a very expressive lead singer. He reminded us of one of colleagues…had to take a pic.

Still loving the Gaelic

We walked down to St. Stephens’ Green park

Where we saw ducks and a ton of baby swans!

Gorgeous grounds

The guys headed out to another pub and the ladies back to the hotel.

Interesting fact: It stays light much later here than back home. Sunrise is at 5am and sunset is at 10pm.

Ireland!

I’m in Ireland for the next few days attending the International IT Conference for the firm I work for with three of my colleagues. Since we took an overnight flight to Dublin, we arrived in the morning and our hotel rooms weren’t yet ready so we spent the day doing a bit of sightseeing. We got tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus and got to see lots of the main highlights. I love HOHO tours – they really give a good overview of a city.

One of our first glimpses of the local Dublin architecture

European equivalent to the dollar store. :)

Festive!

Christ Church Cathedral

St. Patrick’s cathedral

Guinness Storehouse

I loved seeing the Gaelic on all the signs. :)

Second largest obelisk in the world – the first is in Wahsington D.C.

The preisdent’s house

The light you see in the window between the first and second columns is lit to represent the president’s wish for peace in Ireland.

Dublin mountains in the background…

Nicknamed the “floozy in the jacuzzi”

O’Connell Street

The spire of Dublin

Janet Gallagher – this one’s for you! :)

Street actors

Grafton street

Beautiful building

We then headed over to St. Patrick’s to visit

Inside – can you say WOW?!

Breathtaking

Photo of my hotel room – modern and comfortable

Awesome shower

And separate tub

We’ll be visiting the inside of the Guinness Storehouse during one of the evenings of the conference – I’ll probably get some more pics then.

Might be Moving

We’ve been toying with the idea of moving. Not that we don’t like our house – we do – but it’s still missing a few things that we’d really like to have in a home. Some things we’d be unable to do with renos (i.e. enough room for a good-sized outdoor living space). Some we would be able to do (walk-in shower in the master ensuite).

We’ve contacted our real estate agent and he’ll be coming to see our house today to set a list price, etc.

So over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll be visiting homes in and around our area to see if we could find a house that has everything we’d like. If not, we’re probably looking at some renos.

Either way, this will be a fun project over the next few months.

Things that make you go hmmm

I remembered this post and thought it deserved a repost!

 

May 11: Things that make you go hmmm.

Loblaws savings this week: 22%

I had originally planned to go Walmart this weekend but then I saw the offers available through the new PC Plus program available at Loblaws and that cat litter was on sale for $5.99 so I changed my mind. Not too bad this week, a couple of freebies and I got to redeem my PC points for $20 off my bill:

Value of products: $202.45
Paid out of pocket: $156.94
Savings: $45.51 or 22%

I had a free product coupon (FPC) for one Scrubbing Bubbles Kitchen and a BOGO Windex, so that was cool.

My husband also wanted to get PC speakers so we stopped by Future Shop and picked some up, using a $50 gift card, for only $34!

Savings this week at Loblaws (16%) and the Bay (69%)

We needed to get some lightbulbs which threw off our savings (no coupons for lightbulbs and they’re expensive.. $12.99 each!)…but our savings at the Bay more than made up for it!

Loblaws:

• Value of products: $132.80
• Paid out of pocket: $112.60
• Savings of:  21.01 or 16%

The Bay:

We needed to get new towels, a new bath mat and replace 2 pieces of luggage since the wheels were busted and the frames were damaged. We had already redeemed enough RBC points to get two $100 HBC gift cards. The Bay was having a sale this weekend on both the towels and the luggage, as well as a “spend $50 get a $20 gift card” promotion so we took advantage of it.

• Value of products: $1,129.91
• Paid out of pocket: $351.40
• Savings of: $778.51 or 69%

Included in the savings were the $200 of HBC gift cards as well as three $20 promotion gift cards and we redeemed $10 in HBC points. The cashier was happy to split our purchases into 4 transactions to give us more of the $20 promo cards – it was awesome! Not to mention the incredible sales – HUGE savings!!

I’ll be able to redeem $20 in free groceries next week with PC points.

The Hotel Collection bath sheets, hand towels and Gluckstein bath mat. The towels are super soft.

TravelPro MaxLite 2 luggage – these scored high in the consumer reports and they’re super light (the largest is only 8.9 lbs)!  I’ll be test driving the smaller one this month when I go to Ireland for a work-related conference. And we liked the steel blue colour so we can spot it more easily than our old black ones that look like everyone else’s on the luggage carousel.

Our cat loves empty shopping bags – preferably plastic or any crinkly material…

Sorry Gizmo – we didn’t buy you anything this time. All you get are the empty bags.

New Samsung ad – Never gets old :)