067. Visit 5 countries I've never been to before (2/5)

IRELAND: Dublin

We were in Dublin to see Take That play a concert at Croke Park stadium. We made the most of having to go so far to see the show and stayed an extra night and day so we could have some time to explore the city. More on the show later!

We bought a three day city bus pass which let us use the airport's Airlink transfer bus, the Dublin Bus network and the hop-on, hop-off open top bus tour for our entire stay. At just 26 Euros each, the passes saved us so much money - such a great idea, they don't put the posters in the toilets just for the fun of it!

We flew out from Stansted on Saturday lunchtime. Once in Dublin, checked in and rested for an hour or so in the hotel room we headed out for a walk into the city. Our hotel was in Parnell Square right at the top of the central O'Connell Street. We intended to hope on a bus all the way down to the river and Temple Bar, but it wasn't really that far so we just kept on going. Our exploring turned into a hunt for somewhere to eat dinner, finally we found the familiar TGI Friday's restaurant.

Sunday was our full day for exploring and doing the tourist thing. It was a shame because everything is so slow starting on a Sunday morning - with Irish hangovers and the church-goers, nothing really came to life until lunchtime. While we waited for the shops and restaurants to open we hopped on the bus tour to Dublin Castle and walked back towards the Trinity College through Temple Bar and Grafton Street.

I didn't take many photos of the city at all, there aren't really that many infamous sites recognised by everyone. So I stuck with a few of the statues (Parnell and Larkin), Temple Bar and Dublin Castle.

013. Eat at 10 new restaurants (2/10)

For my birthday we booked a table at a restaurant in Norwich that we'd been meaning to try for such a long time. We went to The Library located on Guildhall Hill.

The decor inside is amazing, it was once a library and lots of the old fittings still remain. You can even get a discount on your meal if you 'bring a book' - amazing!

I ordered the steak and James had a mixed grill. For dessert I went with the chocolate brownie and chocolate ice cream, James tried a baked Alaska. All was enjoyed, we will be going back.

089. Try 20 new recipes - Cookies & Cupcakes

I quite fancy myself to be quite the baker nowadays, I've been trying out different things for a few weeks now.

Firstly, I adapted a chocolate chip cookie recipe to be a bit more fun! I added lemon flavouring, white chocolate chips and some citrus sugar strands into the cookie mixture. There was a lot of cookie dough, when baking the cookies merged together to form, more-or-less, one giant cookie on the sheet! Amazing.

It was then my birthday, so James bought me the latest Hummingbird Bakery baking book - Cake Days. The first recipes I wanted to try was for the soda cupcakes in orange and cola. I bought the syrups from Soda Stream and all the equipment needed and set about the mixing! I finished the orangeade and cola cupcakes in time to take to work and spoil everyone for my birthday (surely that's not right?).

I think the orange ones came out great, especially when frosted and decorated with jelly beans!

The cola ones also looked good and were the ones that made my work colleagues most curious.

Next up will be Red Velvet Cupcakes - always wanted to try making those! I also have a lime ready to zest and the lime Soda Stream syrup - limeade cupcakes, anyone?

097. Do something amazing for our 10 year anniversary

James and I will have been together for 10 years on Tuesday July 31 2012.

Yesterday I had £96.00 taken from my bank account for, what I assume, are London 2012 Olympic tickets! I don't know which event they're for, but we only applied for two events. The £96.00 adds up to £90.00 for tickets to see the preliminary round two of the men's basketball and £6.00 for the processing/fulfillment fee. The other event we applied for was a Wimbledon ground pass, amounting to just £40.00 in total.

The basketball event we applied for is scheduled for the late session on Tuesday July 31 2012.

Happy Anniversary.

No Buy May 2011: Week Four (and finish)

I was a huge £294 better off at the end of May, I had that amount of money left when I was paid - amazing! My payrise took effect from May 1 so I saw that come into my pay last week as well as the quaterly company bonus. Overall, May was an amazing money month and I think No-Buy really helped.

May 01 - £0
May 02 - £0
May 03 - £198.77 (£37.62 quarterly TV Licence Payment); (£19.63 monthly minimum Credit Card payment); (£41.52 monthly Car Insurance); (£100.00 monthly savings direct debit);
May 04 - £47.24 (£47.24 Asda grocery shopping);
May 05 - £61.30 (£61.30 Emirates Cup tickets);
May 06 - £0
May 07 - £65.00 (£26.00 dress from Dorothy Perkins); (£36.00 haircut) (£3.00 car park);
May 08 - £0
May 09 - £0
May 10 - £0
May 11 - £0
May 12 - £1.20 (£1.20 staff shop @ work);
May 13 - £0.30 (£0.30 staff shop @ work);
May 14 - £2.95 (£2.95 magazine);
May 15 - £0
May 16 - £312.50 (£312.50 rent);
May 17 - £0
May 18 - £62.02 (£62.02 full tank of diesel for my car);
May 19 - £0
May 20 - £0
May 21 - £0
May 22 - £0
May 23 - £47.86 (£41.00 water bill); (£4.07 Lovefilm); (£2.79 eBay magazine);
May 24 - £0.90 (£0.90 staff shop @ work);
May 25 - £0
May 26 - £79.25 (£79.25 train tickets);
May 27 - £33.40 (£33.40 gig tickets);
May 28 - £0
May 29 - £0
May 30 - £66.98 (£30.00 Next - hoodie); (£6.99 Waterstones - Berlin guide book); (£3.50 magazine); (£10.50 John Lewis - OPI nail polish); (£15.99 New Look - top);
May 31 - £115.47 (£19.47 monthly minimum Credit Card payment); (£96.00 London 2012 tickets);

Total 'No Buy' Days = 16
Total Spent = £1213.94