Lunchtime trips to the deli often entail getting salads and other takeaways in plastic containers. If you are trying to cut down on the amount of packaging you throw away, consider using a three- tiered stainless-steel tiffin (right), like the vessels Asians use to transport their food to work and school. Available - as are delicious salads - from Lara Lu Foods, in Market Arcade, South Great George's Street, Dublin 2 (087-9908003, www.laralu foods.com), for €20. PM
curtains for adams
Gerry Adams singing songs from Oliver!is not something you see every day. But that's what audiences will be treated to at Gerry & the Peace Process, a musical running at Dublin Fringe Festival from Tuesday. A hand-shaking, baby-kissing Adams, played by Liam Hourican, is followed across the North in his efforts to promote the peace process. But there may be Troubles ahead - largely in the shape of Big Ian. It's at Players Theatre, at Trinity College Dublin, for six nights only. Tickets from www.fringefest.com. Gillian Hamill
inside track
Printed linen, chandeliers, etched glasses, needlepoint rugs . . . Anyone who laments the passing of Far Pavilions, the shop in Bray, Co Wicklow, that excelled in the French-country-manor look, will find some consolation in Violette Interiors, a shop opened by Rachel Gibney and her sister Jennifer Murray. Look out for these jolly Indian parasols, which come with weighted stands in a variety of appealingly lurid colours. Quirky gift ideas include old-style luggage sets updated with wheels, or vintage cake stands made up from two or three china patterns. Practical ideas include handbag liners - when you change bags you lift it and its contents out of one bag and into another. Women of a certain age might also appreciate the aromatherapy fans, sweetened with lavender oil. Most unusual, though, is the jewellery and tableware by Michele Michau: beautiful salad servers in the shape of hosta leaves and fragile raspberry earrings. It will be hard to escape with your credit card unblemished. You'll find Violette next to a wonderful coffee shop called Gusto Italiano, on Goldsmith Terrace, Quinsboro Road, Bray, Co Wicklow, 01-2040993. Patsey Murphy
easy does it
Have you ever looked at a painting and thought: I could do that? Well, don't be so sure. John Nolan's work looks simple, with clean, bold lines and vivid colours, but don't be fooled. "Some people have tried to copy my style, but I use a few secrets," says the Dublin artist of his portraits, motifs and abstracts, which use a style developed over 30 years. "Colour is my thing. I love discovering and exploring it." Nolan's latest exhibition, which includes Homage to Modigliani, opens next Tuesday evening at Gallery53, on Capel Street, Dublin 1, running until October 11th. (The gallery will be staying open late next Friday for Dublin Culture Night; www.culturenight.ie.) See www.nolanart.com. To attend the opening, call Louise Cody on 01-8782844. Claire O'Connell
Champagne lifestyle
There is a feel of Santa's workshop about it. At the building site that is the new Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt, in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, more than 700 workers are hammering away in 21 languages to ensure that the hotel opens, according to plan, on October 1st. It's quite a production, an alternative community worthy of a documentary. Caroline Downey is hoping to be the first to inhabit the ballroom, with an event in aid of Childline and the Rape Crisis Centre on October 5th. A succession of weddings are booked thereafter. No one is saying who the first occupant of the presidential suite - at €5,000 a night - will be, but, one hopes, whoever it is will give as much to the charity. The hotel represents an investment of €200 million. That's a lot of balls, so to speak.
There will be a chef's table in the kitchen of the Gordon Ramsay restaurant, and they've got a few early bookings for that, too (01-2748888). There, a gathering of 10 can have a bird's-eye view of chefs' tips and tantrums and the mayhem, mastery, mishaps and mischief that go on in a kitchen under pressure.
Novelties? Almost 170 Swarovski crystal lights in the pool. A hot tub on the roof. Tea in the Sugarloaf Lounge. But here's something you can try at home, inspired by the award-winning Ritz-Carlton in Istanbul. Find an excuse to have a glass of champagne. Accompany it with little slices of apple that you dip first in a tiny dish of honey and then in a tiny dish of cinnamon. An autumn twist on the mimosa or Bellini.