photos, from the bright lights

Hey, realized I had some photos from Dublin and thought "There's this crazy new thing called the Internet, where you can do such things as display photos for those at home". Or something like that. (Sorry, high on caffeine and tap dancing...I just figured out how to do those wings from standing on my toes, and was tapping off a wheelbarrow like Adam Garcia...more or less. Yay!)

Ok.

Enjoy. :)

St. Stephen's Green. Mm, sun. :)

I think I found what Roary did before he left the home country, B.
In the green beside the Dublin Camphill (it's the conjoined part that you can't see.)
Ha. This one's for you, TF.

These two go together, and were just too pretty to pass up. Plus, I'm a sucker for the stories.

Part one...

...part two. Banksy, je crois. :)

Totally telling a story, right? Just not sure what it is yet. :)
This is the parking garage where Maud's St. Stephen's Green house used to be. Oh, "progress".
How many Higs make 5?

the Spire, O'Connell St.
rooftops, because I think they say a lot about Dublin.
Blurry me, post-busking in ye olde Irish pub. (With L). :)
Why not?
My first coffee bought with busking money. And it was good, too. :)

LOVE.

the bright lights of dublin

Heya. So, here I am, sitting on my own in Clai, still in my pjs (at 1 in the afternoon) and totally free to do whatever I want (aka write, read, watch tv, walk Bobby). Yay!

(Everyone's still on holidays, and part-time coworker's gone home for the weekend, and Inis is chugging along by itself. So yay! Freedom!)

:)

Also, just got back from the trip to Dublin (we were there for two nights and three days). It was really lovely. I quite like the city itself (we spent a lot of time around St. Stephen's Green, and on Grafton St, but also got up to see O'Connell St across the bridge -- took a photo of the General Post Office where the 1916 Easter Rising happened. There was a guy outside promoting a socialist party and inciting people politically. Fitting. :)) And I did get to see that Maud researcher, who was very nice and chatty (which was lovely -- I didn't really have to ask any questions, which is good cause I didn't have any. I wanted anecdotes and that's what I got for, like, an hour and a bit. Yay!). And I saw the Yeats' exhibit, with a little on Maud. And the best bit of it was that the researcher gave me access to a recording of Maud made for a radio station when she was in her late 70s/early 80s, all about her politics and history and such. And it means I get to hear her voice! It's so exciting!

All this researching was going on while L was trying to sort out her visa...which ended up meaning spending 5 hours waiting in the visa office and then being told that she doesn't need to change it at all. ARG! But it was ok, cause then we just wandered around the rest of the day. Went to Temple Bar (in the rain :)), bought a hat, checked out the buskers. Because, the other thing we did there was busk. We fashioned a portable wood floor (looked like an art portfolio) and she brought her rhythm instruments and we had masks and people took a thousand pictures, and we made ten euro in an hour and a half. :D

The place we stayed for the nights was a Dublin Camphill, and it was really interesting to see how they work in the city. Well, suburbia, but still. Lovely people, beautiful garden, really confusing street layout (but we found it eventually), and a lovely old dog. All good. :) And we left a little thank you note on which I drew some tap shoes...because they saw the floor and we explained and they seemed interested. :)

And now we're back, and I'm quite enjoying the uninentional time off alone up here. And fresh from busking, L and I are working towards Electric Picnic (I've been invited to join a bunch of people who are going, and who've named themselves the Invisible World Music and Theatre Guild. I'm bringing the tap shoes, of course, and it means I get to see the music and all that is there -- including some spoken word poetry. Yay!).

Anyway, more on that as it arrives (first weekend in Sept).

And that's about it. Off to watch the rest of Aladdin now.

Love and miss you all, and of course hoping all is well. :)

LOVE,

me

a not-so-eloquent post

Wow. Again, huge long time between posts. At least it keeps you on tenderhooks. Anything could be happening! :)

And yeah, stuff has happened. (She says eloquently).

One: M has gone back to England (Stroud) for school. Which is okay now that some time has passed (she left last Thursday) but at the time was really emotional. We'd gotten really close over such a short period of time...and, pragmatically speaking, now there's a whole lot more work for me to do (she took on a lot, and now it's just me and R and R and A...and R is off on her holidays tomorrow. So...hm. We'll see). Anyway, I'm excited for Sept and Switzerland...and then we'll see. She's wanted to go to Vancouver forever...so maybe we'll meet up again.

Oh, and it was quite hard the day she left, because A kept saying 'oh, is she gone yet?' in an unmistakably I-want-her-gone way. Hey, A. Be nice.

And, nicely, both A and K have pretty much said 'I'm really glad you're here' to me, which feels lovely. A even said 'I'll miss you when you go'. Yay! :)

Two: I'm coming home on Dec 15. YAY, because I get to see the family all together over Christmas :D....and not yay, because the date changed so rapidly in such a short time, and I was set on staying here for Christmas. But c'est la vie, and I'm getting over the disappointment quickly in the face of the excitement of seeing the fam. :) But that's enough about that for the next four and a bit months -- I'm tired of thinking of leaving when there's still so much time here.

Three: Yeah, R's off on her holidays tomorrow, and then it'll just be me and R and A (and L, although I'm not sure she's staying overnight during the week and is for sure not going to be here on the weekends) and P (although I'm not sure when he's moving in...or for how long). It's going to be interesting...but I think I'm in a good space to start doing it (I'm emotionally okay with both R and A, at least on my end, and I'm really interested to see what happens when it's just us. Big change in the house dynamics, from being under a house mum to being roommates (cause let's face it, I'm not going to pretend to be R. Not even close. I'm guessing it'll be more like we're sharing a flat than anything else)).

Four: I finished the play (again)! I'm much happier with this one, and at least I'm done in time for us to read it through, even if it doesn't get performed.

Five: L and I are going to Dublin next week (when R/A/P are on vacation, because there will be no one else left in Clai but her and I). I'm going to try and meet up with the woman P put me in contact with, who's researched Maud, and see the Yeats exhibit. And the Book of Kells, with L, just cause. :) I'm excited to be in a city for a bit.

Six: I earned my first money busking on Sunday. There was a fair in Scariff, where we had a stall and were selling things from the weavery (and providing info on Camphill). L and Grampa were there busking on Sun, and I called E and he brought my tap shoes (which I'd forgotten), and I joined them for twenty minutes (right at the end of their time). We took over the stage (unused at the time) and there was quite a big group of people watching (or felt like that, at least). And we each made 3 euros! (Small, sure, but enough to get a coffee...and all I did was dance). I think L and I might try it again in Dublin...we'll see. :) Yay! Tapping IS a buskable skill. :)

Right. I think that's about it for now...

Hope all is well with you, and that the summer is going peacefully. (It's officially autumn here. What?)

Love and miss you all.

LOVE,

me