10 Questions About…

Monday night we went out with some of Patrick’s friends from school. Sophie was traumatized over turning 23. I hated to tell her that my kids were closer to her age than I am.

On Tuesday Kate’s class got their Communion pictures done. It took all morning. Everyone looked great again but I have to say that I prefer the option of getting the pictures done on the day of the event.

But we were OK with hanging out since Lily had a music performance soon after the pictures. Her class had been studying African music for a few days and was doing a performance for the younger kids. I was very impressed with the girls’ ability to watch a screen for cues while playing their instruments. They did a great job!

I don’t know if you’ll be able to make out Lily in the video because she was naturally positioned behind a tall girl with good posture – but I thought it would be fun to hear her anyways.

Sunday was Africa Day at the Dublin Castle. The weather was amazing! And either the weather or tourism season seems to have people coming out in droves. There were swarms of people.

There were information booths, great music, food and drinks. Sadly we missed the Republic of Loose and Sinead O’Connor at the end of the evening but the bands we heard we a lot of fun. It was great to see some of the African dancers. You can see some pictures of Aine on the dance floor.

Saturday was Kate’s First Communion. It’s a much bigger deal here than it is at home – but it was very nice. She looked beautiful and it was fun to see all of the girls in their best. There was one little girl who had a fur jacket sort of thing. Many girls had their hair done and several had been tanning or had manicures.

Kate did a reading and did a great job!

After the First Communion w went to lunch at the Herbert Hotel in Dublin. It was very nice. We were the only table for the first tow courses, which worked out very well for us since they were able to give us full attention.

After a nap we then headed to Bray. The tide was in and the waves were really high so it was fun to be on the beach.

Thursday night we went for a nice dinner at a place called the Beaufield Mews. It’s not far from the house in Stillorgan, which is an area I usually associate with the bowling alley, not nice dinners but this restaurant was like a place in the country.

There was an art gallery upstairs. We saw one painting that cost €10,000. There was also a big garden in the back – in fact we saw a fox in the garden.

The food was good and the waiter was a character. We had a very nice night.

We met up with friends from Minnesota – Brenna, Quinlan, Rowan, Kevin and KC. They are temporarily living in Galway but also hail from St Paul.

It was fun to meet up with them at our neighborhood park. We met for a picnic because it was another gorgeous day! Then we played around the playground equipment. Brenna and Aine are the same age and quickly became best friends again. Quinlan is about the same age at the big girls – I think he falls right between them and they seemed to get along very well too.

Aine and I met up with the crew again on Friday too. The big girls were in school and the crew was leaving Friday afternoon but we enjoyed a great afternoon in Dun Laoghaire.

It is always fun to talk to folks who are in a similar boat and to hear what experiences and opinions we shared (too expensive but fun) and which we didn’t. Because they lived in Galway, a smaller town that Dublin I think they had more of a routine whereas we saw a lot of different things. It would be fun to be able to do both as I think they had met more people in their routine – but I think we got to see a wider variety of things.

After the MOMA we went to visit the Science Gallery to see the TechnoThreads exhibit. I wrote about the exhibit a week ago (or so) when Patrick and I went – and forgot the camera. So I’m just going to let the pictures and video speak for themselves…

No, no more accidents for Aine – we went to the Kilmainham Hospital (home of the Museum of Modern Art) for a picnic. We took the bus into town and then walked past Euston station (and 10 miles in kid steps) to the museum. We were getting hungry, tired and crabby and then we finally came up on the amazing gardens of the hospital.

They are beautiful!

It’s kind of a hidden pocket of tranquility in the middle of a ton of buildings and construction. We had a great picnic because it was a beautiful day. And then we ran around the gardens. It’s not super maze-like but mazy enough for Aine.

Then we visited the art gallery. The art is very modern so I liked it. The big girls and I had a good game of “what would you name it?” We had fun helping Aine not touch anything. We really enjoyed the make-some-art room, which was really just a room full of art supplies. What a great idea! We spent about 30 minutes in there making our own masterpieces.

Yesterday we went to visit Dalkey Castle. The weather was beautiful so we took a bus to Dun Laoghaire and walked the mile (or maybe 2) to Dalkey. It’s a very nice area – like a mile away from Bono’s house nice.

We stopped in to see the Dalkey Castle. Actors toured us around the castle and I have to say that we maybe saw some of the grossest things we have seen in Ireland in the castle – but I mean that in a good way.
We had a few etymology-type lessons. Although I guess it was more history of signs and symbols rather than words.

We met a barber-surgeon. She had a pole that she used in her work. Around the pole she tied bloody bandages to dry. The effect was a red and white striped pole – just like a barber’s pole you might see today.

The cook showed us the plates for the gentry, which we pewter-type plates that looked fairly similar to what we have today. The hunters had square wooden plates – ensuring that they always got a “square meal”.

The archer taught us the history of the 2 finger salute, which is much bigger here than back home. The gesture is pretty much a backwards peace sign – and pretty much means the same giving someone the finger back home.

Well, when the archer told us that when the scavengers would come down from the hill to rob and ransack the castle the archer would show them two fingers, indicating that he was primed and ready with the bow and arrow. If an archer was ever attacked the first thing they’d do was remove their fingers so that they wouldn’t be able to shoot an arrow.

Other interesting facts – the cook hung the clothes of the gentry in the latrine because the ammonia in the urine was supposed to help with the cleaning process.

The barber-surgeon asked for a volunteer for some blood letting. Guess who quietly but forcefully raised her hand? Aine – but the blood letting did not change her humor at all. We learned a little bit about how the job of the barber is to keep the humors in the body balanced to keep everyone in good health. How did they test the humors? By drinking the urine of the patient. Also we learned that puss was very good for curing wounds. So, when they amputate a limb, they put dung in the wound before they cover it up with a flap of skin to promote faster healing. (I warned you – gross!)

The castle was attached to a heritage center that celebrated various authors from the area such as: James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Maeve Binchy, Joseph O’Connor, and plenty of others. Most weren’t from Dalkey – but we from the surrounding area.

Just wanted to proudly point to the article Kate and Lily had published in the recent edition of the Irish Gazette (Top 10 Places to Visit with Kids in Dublin).

Poor Kate has been sick all week. Lily, Aine and I left Kate at home to recover on Saturday and we went into see Block Party, a show in the Dublin Dance Festival.

In typical Dublin fashion the show was relocated at the last minute – so we hiked to the Grand Canal Square to learn that we needed to go to George’s Dock. We caught the last 10 minutes of their first show. We had to sit behind the drummers – but that was OK. It was fun to watch the drummers.

After the show we talked about whether we should stay to see the show again (it was only about 30-40 minutes long) or go have lunch. Aine made the decision. She really wanted to stay.

The dance was fun. First it met my new rule for dance, where the dancers must all appear to be fitter and younger than I am. (A rule created after a not-so-great dance experience.) They jumped around very aerobically around huge blocks. They also worked with the blocks to create various shapes. The dancers had a lot of energy and were actually dancers who could move well and while there was a playful chaos to the dance it was clearly choreographed. The drumming was great too.

The very fun thing is that I knew one of the dancers. Well had met him before anyways – and I thought he was one of the better dancers. Also this kind of renewed my interest in dance and the girls really enjoyed it too.

After the dance we headed out to lunch and shopping. I won’t pretend that I got any bargains – but I did get some clothes!