The best things in life are free

The best things in life are of course free - But sometimes either not what we expect or very challenging and testing of our limits

I have decided to try and be an outdoorsy person - to the best of my ability - in 2012.

I started to realistically contemplate whether sitting in staring at my laptop for hours on end watching The Twilight Saga, The Vampire Diaries and True Blood was starting to affect my mindset.
If you spend enough time indoors  gawking at a computer screen you do begin to look like a vampire.
Not the glittery stunning kind, more the withdrawn- anaemic looking version. Not so hot.

So... I decided that I would visit the park and feed the ducks and take a few snapshots.

I love ducks from the yellow rubber kind to the real quacking kind. I didn't realise that in Stephen's Green Park there are seagulls marauding themselves as ducks. As I threw the big chunks of a sliced pan in the pond, feeling all serene and nice a battle ensued. And seagulls are massive they really look like swans except menacing! Stephen's Green Park is really pretty but it is jam packed with pigeons and seagulls.

Seagulls are kind of scary

The seagulls started to get vicious almost decapitating the innocent ducks who fled. It almost ruined the moment until I strategically threw little crumbs in for the little ducks.

My next attempt at an interesting outdoor pursuit was to climb Mt. Leinster. I thought I was seriously clever clad in my unattractive yet practical winter wear and bringing 3lb wrist weights that I sometimes use in the gym.


I felt like I was carrying two bags of sugar concrete up the mountain. As I slowly ascended the face of the mountain  - using muscles that had not been used in months - I condemned New Years Resolutions and craved a quad or a personal slave.

Needless to say I only made it three quarters of the way up. So my next escapade is Mt. Leinster round two in the next fortnight. Detoxing attempts and serious exercise are no craic in the month of January.