Home & Away

TRAVEL

Home & Away with Robert Walshe

Home and Away Extra

Leading airline, British Midland International (bmi) has launched a new business Class and econ-omy cabin for its mid-haul routes. The major refurbishment of their A321 and A320 aircraft in-cludes new leather interiors, new comfortable cushions, as well as a dynamic new lighting system. Customers travelling to mid-haul destinations such as Addis Ababa, Amman, Beirut, Damas-cus, Cairo, Freetown, Khartoum, Moscow, Tbilisi, Tehran and Yerevan.. Brown leather covers with black stitching have been fi tted to all seats complement-ing the recently introduced new carpet and headrest covers. In addition, new multi density foam cushions will be onboard all of these aircraft providing increased customer comfort in both cabins. New lighting, bulk heads and curtains add to the spacious new look and feel to the cabin. BMI fl y direct from Dublin up to four times daily and from George Best Belfast City air-port six times daily. Visit www.fl ybmi.com Von Essen hotels has acquired Llangoed Hall Hotel in Brecon, Powys, and Wales. Set in acres of beautiful landscaped gardens and dating back to 1632, Llangoed Hall Hotel is a truly im-pressive destination and, joining Michelin-starred Ynyshir Hall, is the Collection’s second Welsh property. Offering 23 stunning bedrooms, the house showcases the style and fabrics of Laura Ashley, whose husband, Sir Ber-nard, created the hotel. www.vonessenhotels.com

Robert Walshe is a freelance contributor / broadcaster and is guest travel writer for River Media newspaper titles across the island of Ireland

LivingMy favourite luxury Irish hotel Ritz-Carlton, Powerscourt was the only hotel to win two awards at the Condé Nast Johansens 2011 Annual Awards for Excellence. The hotel received the Best Venue and Hotel that accommodate groups of over 100 and the Most Excellent MICE Award for 2011. The glamor-ous event at The Mayfair Hotel in London was attended by some of the most luxurious and reputable hotels in Ireland, Great Britain and Europe. www.ritzcarlton.com

Weekend HotspotAt the crossroads of Golden

Lane and Chancery Lane right in the heart of Dublin’s city centre, sits the recently -built Radisson Blu Royal Hotel. The property is a modern, elegant and sophisticated hotel offering 150 exceptionally spacious bedrooms and suites in-cluding business class rooms, ex-ecutive suites, one bedroom suites and a presidential suite. The Radis-son Royal is within walking dis-tance of top city landmarks such as Trinity College, Dublin Castle and the famous Grafton Street, a paradise for all shoppers. Thea-tres, restaurants and night clubs are also just a few steps away. close to St. Stephen’s Green and O’Connell Street. Verres en Vers is the Radisson Royals interpretation of the French brasserie offering ever-changing plats du jour, as well as signature dishes including scal-lops, beef and snails. accompanied by a selection of the fi nest French wines and champagnes. In my opinion Verres en Vers is far more glamorous than you would think for a hotel based eatery and design is an integral part of this unique Dublin restaurant’s friendly atmos-phere. The ultra trendy.” Sure” bar across the lobby enjoys an Irish contemporary feel and is defi nitely the place to be seen There are many things to see and do includ-ing Guinness Storehouse, Trin-ity College, Dublinia, Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin Castle, Temple Bar, Grafton Street and Henry Street. The Christmas markets of Germany are famous for evoking an unparal-leled magical festive feeling. This year that authentic Germanic magic is coming to the IFSC in Dublin’s

Docklands at the Docklands Christmas Market, run-ning until December 22nd. Now in its fifth year, the Docklands Christmas Market is being brought to Dublin by German events com-pany, Go GmbH and will now ex-tend to 20 days, featuring some of Germany’s most experienced Christmas marketers. Also to beat the recession blues this festive season indulge in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin’s lavish Christ-mas Day three-course dinner in the spectacular Brasserie de Verres en Vers. This package includes: Two-night accommodation in a Stand-ard room a Super Buffet Breakfast, Three-course Christmas meal in Brasserie de Verres en Vers. This offer is valid for a two-night stay on 24th and 25th December 2010 and the price is per room per night and based on double occupancy from 225 EUR www.radissonblu.ie

Weekly Best Buy GoHop.ie bring you the ultimate

honeymoon package to the stun-ning west coast city of San Fran-cisco and beautiful Outrigger Beach resort in Hawaii. Combine an excit-ing city break with a lazy few days on the beach. San Francisco & Ha-waii package from €1,649 per per-son sharing The package includes; return fl ights from Dublin to San Francisco and Hawaii, 4 nights at the Hotel Westin San Francisco and 6 nights at the Hotel Outrigger on Beach Hawaii on room only basis. Travel date: 4th May 2011 to 31st May 2011 www.gohop.ie Parknasilla Resort & Spa is looking forward to

once again hosting a festive season which will include cocktails and car-ols by the fi re, indulgent breakfasts, lazy lunches and delicious dinners, all with the magnifi cent bonus of the 500 acres of rolling countryside just outside the door, and all of the extra activities that set a Parknasilla Christmas apart from all others. Their Christmas package is a 3 night stay in a standard bedroom from 24th - 27th December including a lavish breakfast each morning, a glamorous dinner with cocktails and mulled wine on Christmas Eve, the full traditional Christmas day lunch and relaxed buffet dinner in the evening, a St. Stephens day brunch, dinner and cocktails, and a broad

selection of afternoon ac-tivities to keep every member of the family happy, from archery, clay pigeon shoot-ing, pétanque and a treas-ure hunt to access to the spa pool, out-door hot tubs

and thermal suite. The price for a gorgeous Parknasilla Christmas is €699 pps per adult and €255 for children. www.parknasillahotel.ie A new range of Sunworld Superior accommodations including villas and the addition of cruise holidays feature in their new summersun 2011 brochure. Value remains a mainstay of the offering, with thou-sands of child-free places available and savings of up to €160 per cou-ple for early bookings. Sunworld’s new selection of cruise holidays includes lavish Italian and Western Mediterranean cruises with Royal Caribbean, with connecting fl ights and transfers from/to Dublin from €1059. www.sunworld.ie

Pet’s Corner...with Kathleen Murray: Animal Behavioural Therapist

with Kathleen Murray

The Christmas budget – and petsBUDGETS are very tight for many people this year. Christ-mas is coming, and trying to fi nd ways to fi t in money for food much less presents is very hard. If you have pets they also still have to eat. Lots of pets have been abandoned as a result... yet a new wave of pets will cross thresholds as presents at Christmas.

This is very worrying. If you are one of those people that is planning on giving someone a pet for Christmas (which I am against) then there are two things to think about very seri-ously. The fi rst one is “Can the family or person afford to keep the pet after you’ve turned and

gone”? Pets are very costly, vets are costly, food is costly, to mention but a few. They can’t live on fresh air. The sec-ond thing is “What kind of life will this animal have”?

Do the owners have enough time for it? Will it be a family pet or just shoved out into the back yard with the empty boxes and torn wrapping paper on Boxing Day? In the present fi nancial climate many people have to work as much as they can to make ends meet. Absent or stressed out people do not make good leaders or owners for their pets. Tension in a house can case animals to be anxious and tense also,

often resulting in behaviour or medical problems.

When some people are wor-ried, tense or anxious they drink too much and this leaves them unstable and often threatening in the pres-ence of helpless animals. No-body’s life is perfect. We all do the best we can with what we’ve got and many animals are living in very tense and unpredictable circumstances.

Do we need to push more innocent animals into situ-ations like that, just so that we can feel good? Before you give someone an animal, think about the life that this animal will lead. It’s life span on av-

erage (for a cat or dog) is 10 – 17 yrs. Some have shorter lives, some live longer. Small dogs live longer than big dogs. How high are it’s chances of making it to adulthood let alone the end of it’s life? Mov-ing animals from one family to another or whatever causes upset and can often be very traumatic for an animal.

Pets should only be moved on if the owner has died or has fallen on hard times etc. This is not the case for many ani-mals. Many pets are indulged and played with when they are young for a while because they are cute and then they are discarded because they have

become unruly and destructive because no-body thought to teach them some basic manners when they fi rst arrived.

This is letting an animal down, it is shallow thinking and very downright scary for many animals as they find themselves at the mercy of some one else, maybe worse than the last family. Taking an animal into your life or giving someone an animal to raise and keep as their pet is a very big deal. There is a huge re-sponsibility, there are many

hidden costs on top of the great many that are obvious, and there is guiding this ani-mal so that it turns out well as a pet. It’s behaviour refl ects your effort. Some people are “good with animals”, some very definitely need help. Please check your budget, your energy, your teaching skills and your commitment level before you accept an animal into your life.

tivities to keep every member of the family happy, from archery, clay pigeon shoot-ing, pétanque and a treas-ure hunt to access to the spa pool, out-

■ Sure Bar Radisson Royal

a dynamic new lighting system. Customers travelling to mid-haul destinations such as Addis Ababa, Amman, Beirut, Damas-cus, Cairo, Freetown, Khartoum, Moscow, Tbilisi, Tehran and Yerevan.. Brown leather covers with black stitching have been fi tted to all seats complement-ing the recently introduced new carpet and headrest covers.

selection of afternoon ac-tivities to keep

selection of afternoon ac-tivities to keep

Livingwith Robert Walshe

Home and Away Extra

Leading airline, British Midland International (bmi) has launched a new business Class and econ-omy cabin for its mid-haul routes. The major refurbishment of their A321 and A320 aircraft in-cludes new leather interiors, new comfortable cushions, as well as a dynamic new lighting system. a dynamic new lighting system. Customers travelling to mid-haul destinations such as Addis Ababa, Amman, Beirut, Damas-cus, Cairo, Freetown, Khartoum, Moscow, Tbilisi, Tehran and Yerevan.. Brown leather covers with black stitching have been

■ Radisson Blu Royal Dublin

TRAVELTRAVELTRAVELTRAVELLivingLivingwith Robert Walshe

■ Brasserie de Verres en Vers Radisson Royal

with Robert Walshewith Robert Walshewith Robert Walshewith Robert Walshe

Docklands Christmas Market, run-ning until December 22nd. Now in its fifth year, the Docklands Christmas Market is being brought to Dublin by German events com-

■ Radisson Blu Royal Dublin

Brasserie de Verres en Vers Radisson Royal