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