Dining at the Lava Rock..

As you might of known by now I had quite a lot to celebrate last weekend after receiving some really exciting news about my job with Fafinder (frockadvisor). Colin and I rarely ever go out to restaurants and sit down for dinner unless we have a special occasion ,for the simple reason that we rarely have the time  between work and sport. Last weekend we finally pulled ourselves together and decided to head out to the Lava Rock in Castle Street, Cahir to celebrate. I had only ever been there for lunch with my Mam and Colin had never been there before so we thankfully didn't have to have the whole "where will we eat? " argument and we both decided that the Lava Rock was the perfect choice. Those of you who know me, will know by now that I am possibly the fussiest person ever when it comes to food and I actually freak out about what will be on the menu that I would eat-  as I am the definition of a Plain Jane.

Firstly, something I loved about the Lava Rock was that the Menu is lit up with LED lights just outside the entrance to the Restaurant - which is ideal for someone as fussy as me as you can make your mind up before you go in and avoid the mortification. There's so many choices and variety on the menu between starters, main courses and desserts.  Personally, I was torn between 3 choices of main course - which is something that I find very rare for me when I go to a restaurant.

I am not a vegetarian but I am the worlds worst when it comes to meat- I'm just not a fan of it but I eat it on a rare occasion.   I had  heard so many people raving about Lava Rocks Homemade Chargrilled Beef burger which was served with Homemade cut chips so I decided to brave it and opt for that as my main course and Colin followed suit, and I can assure you that it lived up to the standards that I had set for it. One word A-M-A-Z-I-N-G to be honest that was the one word that I would use to sum up the whole dining experience..

We were served our food 20 minutes after ordering which we were so shocked about as everything is made to order.   The kitchen is situated at the top of the dining room so you can see the Chefs hard at work  creating your dishes, which was something that really impressed me as you could see how clean the kitchen surfaces and appliances were and how the hygiene of the staff was second to none. From the minute we stepped foot into the Restaurant we were given 5* treatment. Both of us literally couldn't pick out one single fault. The table plan is done in such a way that each table has their own privacy, you are not sitting on top of the people beside you in the next table, there is literally nothing worse than been able to hear the conversation beside you - so me been the unsociable person I am you can probably guess I was well impressed with the table plan. The staff were top notch on the night super friendly and helpful and lastly the most important bit the food was obviously absolutely out of this world, it's probably the first time I've ever cleared my plate, no exaggeration.

As party season is slowly approaching, I would highly recommend the Lava Rock for your party night destination. As I've said numerous times now,  I am possibly your worst nightmare of a customer as I am so picky so if you can impress me you are doing fairly alright. You can check out their Facebook by clicking on this link-->Lava Rock or you can check out their website -->Lava Rock where it has there menus online. That's all for this week I hope you enjoyed reading my post.

Until Next Time.

Much Love,

Caoimhe X

Trust The Timing Of Your Life..

In September 2012, I entered Transition Year in School for many people it's the best year of your life and for others it may not be,  for me it was pretty bitter sweet as I parted from my group of friends that I had spent my whole childhood with, as I was the only one out of my group of friends to opt for Transition Year. I previously told you all that 2012 was possibly the worst year of my whole life as it was the year when my health was the worst that it had ever been. I decided that participating in Transition Year would be the best option for me as I was in and out of hospital and it would only result in me missing out on too much school.

From 2012 onwards my whole life became a worry. I began to worry about literally every little thing in the world. My biggest worry was my career, when you hit the age of 15 or 16 life gets that little bit more stressful as you have to start preparing yourself for the big bad world.   The conversation about what you would like to do in College is something that is talked about on a daily basis and I used to freak out about it as I literally had no idea what I wanted to do or on the other hand what type of career I would be physically able for with my illness.

1st to 3rd year I was achieving really good grades in school but as the time went on and I started to get sicker and sicker.  I was missing more and more school and as you can imagine that resulted in my grades drastically dropping, so of course that was another factor I had to worry about. When you are 15 years old all you should be worrying about is what you are going to wear to the next disco not worrying about where you will be in 3 or 4 years time, but unfortunately I wasn't that type of teenager.

Stress and ME (Caoimhe Hickey) and M.E ( Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) don't go well together,  you can imagine the effect that all of the stress was having on my body, so I decided at the beginning of 6th Year that I would take a year out of school once I had the Leaving Cert completed- that way I wouldn't be beating myself up over having to achieve a specific amount of points and what would be  at the end of the day.

I finished the Leaving Cert and I actually surprised everyone including myself with my Leaving Cert results  so you're probably thinking that by settling on taking a year out that everything settled down and I started to relax again but in reality things got worse. I was watching everyone's snapchat stories of been on nights out in College having the time of their life and I was still sitting at home freaking out about what I would end up doing with myself. Keep in mind my friends that I parted with in Transition Year are now in their final year of College which was extremely over whelming for me as I knew they would have a Degree and I was still deciding what I wanted to do, I lost my appetite, I was loosing out on sleep and over all I turned into the most moodiest person in this world. No joke, I became miserable.

I Finally decided that I had to pull myself together and stop worrying about the future and what will be will be. The minute I stopped beating myself up,everything began to fall into place. I found a new found love for writing, I decided to share my passion for fashion,beauty and health and I began to share it publically.  6 months to the exact date I began blogging I have over 1000 followers, I have a slot on TippFm Radio every Tuesday at 2.30p.m. on the Owen Lonergan Show. I have written an article for Stellar Magazine(which should be in the November edition), reported for Dublin Fashion Fetsival and lastly the news I have been dying to share with you all.....

I am now a Regional Reporter for Brendan Courntey and Sonya Lennon,s Company FaFinder- previously known as Frockadvisor. Brendan Courtney asked me to be the Regional Reporter for the south of Ireland on the very last day of Dublin Fashion Festival. I was waiting to clarify all the details before I announced it.  . I will be bringing you the latest updates of fashion available from each county in the south of Ireland which is so surreal.

This is something I have always wanted to do ever since I was a young girl and I am absolutely blown away with the amount of opportunities I have been fortunate enough to be given at such a young age. I finally found something that I was passionate about and the minute I found my inner happiness my whole outlook on life changed. If there is anyone out there who might feel or have felt how I did over the past few years- please please please don't give up on your dreams. Do not compare your situation to anyone else's  "what's meant for you certainly won't pass you", my mother has always told me that from a young age and its only now that I am realising that she has always been right, but we all have to learn the hard way and expierence it for ourselves. At the end of the day there is no elevator to success you have to take the stairway.

That's all for now, I hope that you enjoyed reading this weeks blog post, I will be starting my Regional work with FaFinder within the next week or two so stay tuned as ill be filling you in on all of the details and just remember......

Until next Time.

Much Love,

Caoimhe x