Where Has the Sun Gone?

Depression has hit with the disappearance of the sun. I'm not sure why I am surprised as we were lucky to get the sun for as long as it lasted. I was lucky however to have a weekend in Kinsale with the girls planned - and while Kinsale is lovely no matter what the weather is like, it is INCREDIBLE in the good weather.

We headed down first thing on Saturday morning and I started the day with a cup of tea, a banana and a teaspoon of peanut butter for 1pp. I had all my weeklies saved up for the weekend and I wanted to have a good day with them so I wasn't wasting them on breakfast. The plan was to stop somewhere along the way but we managed to miss all the petrol sailings and I was free of temptation until we got there (apart from the maoam sweets we ate on the way down).

We arrived at lunchtime and after a few chicken sandwiches and a bottle of wine between the 4 of us,  we took to the town to wander. My friend of course brought us by the most amazing chocolate/ice cream/macaroon shop and I was weak and had the most delicious scoop of mango and passionfruit sorbet (a small one) and the most indulgent salted caramel macaroon. Luckily the day was filled with walked. We first found our way to a bar (of course) that overlooked the town and stopped to enjoy the view and a beer shandy, surprisingly refreshing. 

After that we took the lovely coast walk to a gorgeous little pub right beside Charles fort. There is a car park right on the water out front where you can sit with your drinks and look out over the gorgeous view (as seen above with my second beer shandy of the day). We tried hitching a ride back on one of the speedboats but we had to make the walk back to town.

Its pretty much a rule that when the sun is out you have to BBQ, and luckily my friend was prepared and had bought this lovely little bucket BBQ. After all our walking we were pretty tired and so an easy dinner of roasted vegetables, cous cous and BBQ'd chicken and sausages all polished off with a bottle of wine. All very delicious. All that was left was a lot of chatting, a little bit of chocolate and a (very very strange) movie before we were all crashed out for the night. 

Woke up to next morning to another glorious morning and so we decided to take a trip to the beach before heading for brunch in the sun. My friends talked me into a dip in the sea which was FREEZING but I felt amazing afterwards. Also happy to report I did not feel like the chubby friend nor was I self conscious in the bikini.

I had decided that I was having one day off where I wrote off all my weeklies and I was to get back on track on Sunday which was harder than anticipated. We went to a gorgeous cafe in Ballinspittle called Diva and everything on the menu sounded amazing. I was incredibly jealous of my friends brunches which consisted of stuffed brioche french toast, pancakes with peanut butter, banana and maple syrup and mexican scrambled eggs. I had my granola with low fat yoghurt and loads of fresh fruit and it was amazing and just what I needed to keep me going for the day. Honestly if in and around the Kinsale/Ballinspittle area, find this cafe and try it. Staff and food both get top marks from me! 

We hung around Kinsale before hitting the road back to Dublin. Even though we were just a few hours away, with the weather and everything it felt like a brief holiday abroad and it was just what I needed. And my plan worked a treat, got to weigh in last night to find I was down a whopping 2.5lbs. Makes up for my mysterious gain last week and gets me 100% back on track! 

I hope everyone enjoyed the weather while it lasted!