Food Market in Farmleigh

It's been long time since we've paid a visit to a food market as a family. My husband and I used to go to gourmet-style food markets when we used to live in the city centre, a long, long time ago.

As most people would've guessed, the food markets here aren't exactly like the food markets in Malaysia so you people back home, don't even try to imagne a scene with Nasi Kerabu, Chicken Rice or even Keropok Lekor. It's an Irish food market that we visited so it's basically local people (and some not-so local ones as well) selling their home made produce like bread, juices, pies, flowers, jams, etc.

All I wanted to buy at the market was a simply gorgeous baby mozarella and sundried tomato combo (with a dash of olive oil) but luck doesn't always seem to be on my side these days. By the time we arrived at the market, the seller had sold all that he had for the day.

After a quick round of the market where we scanned each stall for anything of interest, we decided to get this wood-fire baked vegetarian pizza. The thing that attracted me the most was the fact that the owner had put all the effort in bringing his giant traditional oven to the place. Isn't it cool?

We ate the pizza straightaway in the nearby park while the kids enjoyed the open space. They were just so happy to be doing a simple thing like this with Mummy and Daddy. To my Mr. Hubby, how about going there again before Ramadhan starts, OK?

Easter Break's Still On

Today, everyone was talking about the Royal Wedding but here's me, still going on about my stories of the Easter break. Well, congrats to Prince William and Kate. They are just so beautiful. Beautiful wedding, beautiful everything.

OK, so I've posted that our last weekend was really busy and full of activities. I still have two more days to report on but I think I'll cheat a bit and summarise both busy days, today. Hehehe...

On Sunday, the kids' swimming class was on as usual and straight after that we went to Farmleigh for a quick picnic. I just made some burgers and my friend brought some fried noodles and another some chicken nuggets. There was an Easter event going on the park and there even was a live local band by local performing there. My hubby was even convinced to fork out some cash to buy the band's CD. It was a really nice day and we even got the timing spot on - as soon as we finished eating and the kids had enough fun, it started to rain. Phewwww...

The next day was Easter Monday and we attended Mrs Tasya's daughter's birthday party at a theme park of sorts called Fort Lucan. Even though it's just a 10-minute drive away from where we live and we pass by it almost every time we head to Lucan, we've never had a chance to go there, until now that is.

 King Hisham

 Jumping on a trampoline - I wish I could join in

OMG, It was really high. Can you spot Ameera?

It was a really nice place, not too big to let the kids play by themselves and not too small for us to enjoy the day. The price was also quite reasonable for us to go again and the best part was that we can even bring our own food.

We really had a good time that day. Thank you to Mr and Mrs Tasya for inviting us and for MY special Nasi Ayam with Dada... heheheh and Happy Birthday to Heidi.

Another visit to Farmleigh House

Remember my post a few days ago? The post was basically our "discovery" of a nice big public estate in the middle of the city centre? Well, we were so happy to explore it were back there again the following weekend.



This time they had Japanese Day on. Somehow, because the traffic was so bad I totally forgot to take any pictures on the way in. Hehehe. We were stuck about almost an hour just to get in the estate. By then, it was nearly 3 o'clock when we got there. We still got a chance to join in the Origami demo that they had on and, because there were so many people, we decided just to go straight to the same spot as last week to start our picnic. As one might expect, as the theme was Japanese Day they had lots of things Japanese in the estate for the day. They even sold a good selection of sushi in the food market that day.

Husayn's just pretending to know what he's doing...

The weather was so nice that day so, I didn't even want to move at all as I enjoyed eating all the food brought by my friends and I in the sun.

Well, to be honest, I've uploaded most of the pictures from the day on my Facebook account already but do enjoy these ones anyway. Hoping the weather stays like this for a while, at least for the rest of summer.

Farmleigh House - Easter Break

I've been here in Ireland for more than a decade. Yup. A third of my life. I never had a chance to explore the whole of Ireland yet. Well, to be honest, not even the whole of Dublin.

When I moved to Blanchardstown, I've had this nice neighbour. An old lady who lived with her deaf-mute son. She is extremely friendly and if by chance we bump into her we can't just stop at Hi and Bye. We'd be stuck in front of the door at least for about 10 minutes. Hehehe... She's just so nice and friendly. She not only gave my kids presents for Christmas and Easter as well as Halloween, she would also tell us everything and inform us what ever she knows.

This includes letting us know about this one nice place called Farmleigh House and Estate that's just a 10 minute drive from our house in Dublin's famous Phoenix Park.


On the Easter Sunday itself, I Googled again for any exciting events for the day. I found out about plenty of free activities in different places which were being held for the kids to enjoy (as well as grown ups). Farmleigh had lots of events on so, as I've never been to Farmleigh before and as it was very near to my place, we decided to go there. It just didn't occur to me that there was a nice, beautiful yet secluded estate at the end of Phoenix Park.



With some picnic preparation we enjoyed the sunny but quite cold day. During the day, there were lots of activities held for kids such as magic shows, story-telling and Easter Egg hunting. Unfortunately, as everyone had the same thought as us, the places for these events were limited. We decided not to do the kiasu thing so, we enjoyed ourselves playing on the grounds instead. We were rewarded for this as the kids managed to meet the Easter Bunny!


Besides that, there was a food market where they sold gourmet foods, drinks, vegetables, fruits, flowers and plants.


We got a spot right in front of the Farmleigh House for our picnic and let the kids enjoy the open space. It was just so lovely.




After that, we decided to explore the estate. We went to the farm where there were a few animals and later to the back of the house where a live band was performing for the day. And then we went into the maze (more like a secret garden but maze sounds more interesting!)

Right before we left the estate, we stopped for a cup of coffee in the Coffee House within the nice estate and had an ice cream on the way back. Overall, it give the place 2 thumbs up. We will definitely go there again!


Just as a tip, if there are any events on the day, traffic might be heavy, but don't worry. There are surprisingly plenty of parking spaces at the very back of the estate especially for visitors. So don't be turned off if you see lots of car going in there. Your time won't be wasted.