Over The Hilda

The Merchant Hotel is perfectly located in the heart of Belfast. There is so much within a short walking distance of the hotel: great shopping, a variety of pubs and restaurants such as The Crown Liquor Saloon and plenty of iconic/historic landmarks e.g. City Hall, The Albert Clock and the Titanic attraction. But to be

Hello my friends. ‘The trees are in their Autumn Beauty’ and so I decided that Autumn Hues might be an appropriate prompt for ‘Style Not Age’. Can you believe that we are heading into November? In Ireland, we have changed over to our winter time and we all had an extra hour in bed on

I have always wanted to visit Istanbul. There is something exotic about the name which conjures up images of past civilizations, beautiful palaces, mosques and emperors. And divided by The Bosphorus, it is the only city to span two continents. The city has had several names throughout its long history, each reflecting a different period

Let me tell you why I ended up on a tour around the George Horn . a few weeks ago. I met co-owner Gerard at the launch of Helen McAlinden’s autumn/winter collection. More on that later! I had taught Gerard about thirty years ago. He had been living in New Zealand, but returned to Dublin

Second-Hand September was Gail’s idea!  And I knew it would be a challenge for me. I used to shop in second-hand, charity and vintage shops when I was in college! But I got out of the habit in recent years. My favourite was Jenny Vander, which opened in George’s Street Arcade in 1974, the year

WHY DID I HAVE A CO2 LASER TREATMENT? I want to look as good as I can for my age. That’s the truth.  I eat healthily, I walk and I ‘do’ yoga. I go to a physical therapist regularly to look after my aches and pains. So, when it comes to my face, I have

Hello friends. Lovely linen is our Style Not Age theme this month. I wore a linen dress from Whistles which is about eight years old. But a shirt dress never goes out of fashion. Right? I might not have worn it much recently, but this gave me the perfect excuse. The weather has really changed

GG and I have been eager to explore Ireland more and Derry has been on our must-visit list for years. One of the advantages of getting older is that we both have free travel passes north and south, so we took the train to Belfast first and then another one on to Derry. It was

Festival Finery is Emma’s choice for July. And, of course, summer is festival season. I am thinking of music festivals, flower festivals, literature festivals and so on. I have actually been to two fabulous concerts locally in June, but was more concerned about keeping dry and warm than dressing in any festival finery. So what

Jacqui chose our ‘Style Not Age’ theme of ‘Dreamy Dresses’ for June! Perfect, I thought, I will have had plenty of opportunity to wear my summer dresses and take lots of photos. But, in reality, summer (and therefore dreamy dresses) has been a bit of a non-event until this weekend. While in Derry/Londonderry last week,

Have you had a HydraFacial?  I had attended an information event at South William Clinic a few weeks earlier, so was excited to head to their clinic in Clontarf for my first. WHAT IS A HYDRAFACIAL? A HydraFacial is an award-winning multi-step facial treatment from America, performed using the handheld wand of a proprietary machine.

Gail chose this month’s theme French Girl Style.  What is French Girl Style 2024? Well, it depends on what magazine or which blog you read? But I think we can all agree that it is effortless, yet sophisticated. The French girl/woman is chic. What they all have in common is a strong sense of personal

The Dublin to Pisa flight with Aer Lingus on our Travel Department Holiday to Tuscany was pain-free and on time. We were met in Pisa by our guide Claudia and were in our hotel by 11 am on day 1. Our first impressions of Tuscany were that it looked very much like Ireland. Its terrain

Are you aware that one in five people will develop at least one skin cancer in their lifetime? Do you get regular skin cancer checks? Have you a dermatologist? GG and I go to Australian Dr Steve Karagiannis (a.k.a The Skin Doctor) at SkinCheck in Bayside Medical Centre. For some reason, we missed our yearly

Hello, my friends. It was my turn to pick the theme for our ‘Style Not Age’ gang and I chose ‘April Showers’. Well, let’s face it, we have had more than our fair share of wet weather here in Ireland. A new trench coat has been a priority for me for a while. I have

I love going on holiday but I dislike airports. Remember when travel used to be fun, but now airports are so stressful, particularly until you get through security. And then there is the packing. I nearly always get it wrong, returning home with half of the clothes never seeing the light of day. But last

This month, we at ‘Style Not Age’ pay homage to the style icon, Iris Apfel. This legendary lady died last month aged 102. You can check out our post two years ago on this amazing woman HERE. IRIS APFEL’S STYLE Iris Apfel was not an advocate of minimalism. I have her book ‘Iris Apfel Accidental

Yes, I had a CT Coronary Heart Scan, also known as a CT Angiography or CAC scan. There are so many different names for it that I found it quite confusing. Why did I need one, I hear you ask? Well, here is the background. BACK STORY I have had high cholesterol since I started

‘Put a bow on it’ was Emma’s choice this month. So that is what we did. I seldom wear this red top (years old from H&M) so decided it deserved an airing. These wide-leg trousers (Paul Costelloe) are also years old and I wish I had them in a few different colours. The fit is

Today’s post is about self-love. It may be Valentine’s Day tomorrow and I am all for LOVE of others, and having a loving partner to support you is wonderful, but not everyone has that. I am one of the lucky ones. The pic below was taken a few months ago when we stayed in a

How do you react when you are told that you have Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer? Dee Flannelly was understandably devastated. She was shocked because she had symptoms, but had not been aware that they MIGHT be signs of Ovarian Cancer. So now she is making it her mission to increase women’s awareness of the possible

Hello, my friends. The girls at ‘Style Not Age’ are on Red Alert. Maybe Jacqui was thinking ahead to Valentine’s Day, when she gave us this prompt. Red is one of my favourite colours, so I was happy. In fact, I had two outfits with me on our recent stay at The Rabbit Hotel and

Happy New Year and welcome to my first post of 2024. A special welcome to new subscribers; I hope you will find something of interest in my posts. So here is my review of 2023, loosely titled ‘Health and Holidays’. Well, they begin with the same letter and it is important for your health that

Have you heard of Fraxel Laser? I am blown away by my results following just one treatment at RIVER MEDICAL Dublin. The photos below (taken just 10 days apart) tell the story. There is still some pigmentation that has come to the surface in the second photo, which continued to flake off in the following