10 Questions About…

We had Ailbhe and Cait for a sleepover this week. (Then their family had all 3 of our girls to stay, which is just one reason we love them.) Back to the sleepover. We walked to Blackrock to have a late dinner at Eddy Rockets. We walked most of the way by the sea. I have to admit it’s just beautiful. One of the best things is living so close now we get to track whether the tide is in or out. (We live about 5 minutes from the sea.) Being from the Great Plains we weren’t so up on what it meant for the tide to be in or out. It’s a huge difference. When the tide is out there can be hundreds of yards of beach. When the tide is in there’s none.

The morning of the sleepover we went swimming at Sea Point – which again is near to us, maybe a 10 minute walk. The water is cold and the tide was in – but the girls actually got into the water. Aine and I collected shells. There was a wave incident reminiscent of Grandpa at Lahinch last year – but not as good. I wasn’t paying attention and the waves kind of went from 0 to 60 in no time and I got pretty wet on a rebound off the walk.

I tend to walk near the sea most mornings. I walk from Monkstown down the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire. One morning I saw a dolphin – or maybe a porpoise, but definitely not a seal. It was pretty far out but I saw the dorsal fin. Another morning I saw a lobster boat pulling up lobster pots. I am a huge fan of Deadliest Catch so I’d like to pretend that this was a death defying view – but mostly it was a calm day and the guy was picking out as much trash as lobster (or maybe even crab) from the nets.

On Saturday we celebrated Rochelle’s (cousin from Florida) birthday. There were 15 people at Irish Grandma’s house since both sets of Rochelle’s grandparents live in Ireland.

We spent most of the day around the house. The Australian cousins went back home in the evening.

Saturday night Irish Grandma babysat and Patrick and I went to our favorite French restaurant ( L’Gueuleton) and had an amzing meal!

So starting about a week ago, we have been house sitting a beautiful house in Monkstown.

We’re still in South Dublin – but we’re much closer to town and very near the DART – and the coast. The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) is a train that goes further south (to Bray and beyond), into the city center and north to Howth and Malahide. The station is less than a 10 minute walk from the house.

It’s a 10 minute walk to Dun Laoghaire and maybe 0 minute walk to Blackrock. Every morning I have been walking to Dun Laoghaire and down the West Pier. On the foggy days we can hear the fog horm from the house. There’s a beach (Sea Point) about 15 minutes away. I’m using the term beach loosely here – but you could definitely swim there.

There’s a castle in Monkstown. There are two big churches – across the street from each other. There are a few shops, restaurants and a pub in the area. (In fact we saw a band at the pub on Saturday night.)

The houses are very nice – including this one. It’s a pre-Victorian house; built around 1830.

There’s a beautiful back garden with flowers, vegetables and fruit, which we can pick and eat if we want. There are 3 floors. Mostly we stay on the ground floor. The house has about a billion books; Patrick has already found a few gems for his PhD. There’s a marble bust in the dining room of the owner’s ancestor.

If you have ever lived in or visited a bedsit, that is what our room is like. In fact the whole house is like a bedsit put back into its original form. I live in mortal fear that someone will break something big while we’re here.

On Wednesday we headed out to Malahide with Julie, Kilian and Aidan (from Australia). Malahide is on the DART. It’s sort of the opposite end of the DART from us. It’s not on the bay – but out north of the city.

Malahide has a castle – but more than that for most of our concern, Malahide has an amazing playground on the castle grounds. The girls thought it was better than the Cabinteely Park! The whole grounds around the castle are pretty amazing. And the weather was perfect – almost too hot and sunny.

We took a quick glance at the castle and even had lunch there. (I will admit that we miss places like Bruegger’s and Chipotle for lunch!)

We walked into Malahide a bit. It’s a suburban area (or urban village as Patrick likes to say). It seems very nice and pretty upper end.

After Malahide we stopped into town for a while – by then it was raining. Unfortunately it was almost 5:00 and most things were shutting up for the night – but we did get to walk around Dublin Castle.

Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. The O’Donnell sons and one daughter in law went with their mom to a fancy restaurant in Wicklow. Julie and I brought the girls and their cousins Aidan and Rochelle to Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire.

We walked from our place to Blackrock Market. Blackrock is a fun market with lots of toys, clothes, art and other. I got a dress and boot for 11 euros. OK I probably wouldn’t have bought the boots for more than 5 euros, but I know I’ll wear them.

After Blackrock we took the train to Dun Laoghaire. The regatta was still going on so it was hopping and we saw tons of sailboats, which is fun. We went to Café Mao, our favorite Chinese restaurant in Dublin. It’s very kid-friendly so I think it was a nice change for everyone. Then we walked down to the People’s Park.

The weather was very much what we’ve learned to expect here. Sunny one minute pouring rain the next. The kids were troopers with all of the walking but it’s a pretty part of Dublin.

This weekend was the Temple Bar Circus Festival. We went yesterday. (Woo hoo!) But forgot the camera. (Boo!) We started out the day with lunch in Dun Laoghaire. It was a nice lunch but between nice lunches and staying with the people who own the house where we are house sitting – it was a lunch too far for the kids. I was going to hog tie Aine by the end of it. She has really perfected her burping, which makes her a less than desirable dinner guest for most of us.

After lunch we headed into town. The Festival was great. The Temple Bar Culture Council sponsored various street acts to perform throughout the day. Between yesterday and today we saw about 5 acts. My favorites were the jugglers today – although our front row seats might have edged them into first place over the guy who balanced on a very tall pole. (I’ve included some pictures of my fave act since I had the camera today.) The acts that we saw were juggler/acrobat types. We saw a lot of men in neon leotards – I’m thinking not everyone can say that about their weekend.

The other nice thing about today is that we had a leisurely lunch at the Meeting House market. The girls and I had fried dumplings, a skewer of prawns and chocolate crepes. Very easy, very tasty! We missed the Meeting House Market while we were home.

Back to yesterday – we watched the circus performers until 7:00 or so. The weather was grey but dry and pretty nice. We started to head home with a shortcut through Trinity College. We ran into a very casual game of cricket. Our Australian cousin is a big cricket fan and player. In fact all of this activity while The Ashes (big cricket tourney) have been on over the last week has probably all but killed him. We decide to watch some of the game even before we saw that there was a pub with a beautiful patio on the other side of the field.

So the end of my stressful Friday was a fun pint learning all about cricket from someone who really loves the game. I feel as if I could watch and understand a game now – though Julie (mom of the athlete) warns me that cricket is not a quick game.

The end of my not-stressful Saturday is much wetter. It started raining at 4:15 and has not stopped; it’s now 10:00. They had predicted rain all day so we consider ourselves lucky to have had it start so late in the day.

Regular readers may remember that I *love* the Science Gallery. We went to see their latest exhibit – Infectious. When you go in you get a RFID necklace. When you’re healthy the RFID does nothing. If you get infected, it blinks. It’s to show how quickly people can get infected.

One part of the exhibit grows bacteria from visitors. You just have to kiss the Petri dish – and they post them in the exhibit to grow. You can see a picture of Aine in front of the various dishes. In fact you could buy a coaster of your Petri dish, if you wanted.

There were several arty demonstrations of how different artist-scientists depict infection.

Lily took part in an experiment where they wanted to do something with her DNA – no cloning we were promised. Most of the experiment is happening now that they have her DNA. Lily got to help isolate her DNA – so that was cool. The student scientist did a great job describing what DNA is for Lily. We can look up how her DNA is doing online – though she said we should wait a week or so.

Unfortunately it rained all day for her birthday but really she just wanted cake and presents – and she got ’em.

On Friday the big girls were to school and then to Ailbhe’s house. In fact they ended up spending the night there. Ailbhe’s family are just about the nicest people in the world. When he dropped them home today, Ailbhe’s dad mentioned that they hadn’t stayed up too late – maybe 1 am. I liked other parents who think nothing of late hours.

Anyways that left me, Aine and Patrick to hang with the Australians. We went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art at the old Kilmainhim Hospital. I love modern art! I had 3 faves:

Filament by Ann Hamilton. Really this was just a muslin-type drape hung up like a gauzy tent from the ceiling. It spun around periodically in different directions. So visitors were invited to stand in the middle of the tent while it swooped around. There was enough room for two people; Aine and I loved it. It felt like a breezy summer day.

There was a giant head carve out of wood. It was a little like a giant Pinocchio head – maybe a little creepier but I liked it.

The Mysterious Exhibition from the Children’s Hospital from Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. It  was a scene set up with a hospital bed in a hospital room circa 1930. There was a diorama set up with a little scene. It creeped out Aine but I liked it. Apparently they used to use dioramas like that to cheer up kids in the hospital.

For the interested minority you can see a picture of Filament and Mysterious Exhibition here: http://www.imma.ie/en/page_197017.htm 

Aine, Kilian and Aidan also enjoyed the response room – where there are art supplies for folks to make their own art.

We also liked the back gardens. It is beautiful there. We played a little hide and seek in the mazes. We took some pictures as you can see. We walked down to the cemetery on the edge of the grounds. It’s called Bully’s Acre. It was open to dignitaries and poor folk alike – but it was also know for body snatchers. So I guess you get what you pay for.

I called home at night and Grandma told Aine to remind Patrick that it was my birthday. So readers who are used to seeing me at the Saints game and are wondering what I did here to celebrate in Dublin – the answer would be a big goose egg. Plans are being made for a big party in August!!

The big girls went to school today. So the rest of us went with the Australian cousins into town. Patrick and the Australians went to the Georgian House. It’s nice – but I have been there twice so Aine and I decided to hang out in the neighboring park, Merrion Square.

We found a playground, a statue for the Defense Forces that seemed to include an internal flame and of course the famous statue of Oscar Wilde. The park is very lush so Aine found it a little scary but we had fun. Then we trekked over to the National Gallery. They have a great kids pack that you can pick up and use anytime. It include a scavenger hunt type thing and some crayons and paper. We found exactly one painting on the list – the Little Green Fields by Gerard Dillon. Aine drew a picture of the Earth as her scavenger task.

Eventually we met up with the others for a quick lunch.