10 Questions About…

We loved the Science Gallery so much on Friday that we went back on Saturday with the kids.

We were able to see everything we saw the day before – except free beer. The girls got a chance to make electronic jewelry. It took an hour but they move enjoyed it. They had little light bulbs with transistors. They had to twist wires together and then solder them. It was very involved but they did have some cool bracelets in the end.

I got to run around with Aine they worked. We learned that a lot of the exhibits that appear to be hands on are really not hands on for 3 year olds. Apparently no one wants a 3 year old touching up the fiber optics. But they were pretty nice about it – after all some stuff was hands on and some wasn’t and there was no way for us to know which was which.

We also went into the daylight room – which is a room that is very bright and entirely bright. There are big bean bad chairs in the room. Aine got in there and decided that she needed to get her book and then sit down and read it.

And we got a chance to try out the drawing with lights thing. I hope it makes sense on video. It was cool:

We finally got on a bus home about 8:00 at night.

On Saturday morning the girls and I went to the Hugh Lane Gallery where they were having a crafts day for kids to make ornaments for Chinese New Years.

One random very fun thing – we walked the length of O’Connell Street – which is a big street just north of the Liffey. They have a new art installment of computerized walkers leading to the Hugh Lane Gallery.

I had seen one or two of these walkers but I hadn’t seen them all – since I rarely head that far north and we rarely go to the Hugh Lane. I have included videos of a couple of the walkers below. I had to be the walker friend since the girls (even Aine!) were too cool to do it. (Aine is not too cool to lick the bus every time we’re on it – but too cool to do me one little favor of walking with the electronic walker.) By the way – I’m wearing two jackets – that’s why I look so pudgy. 🙂

Anyways the girls enjoyed the craft project of cutting out rats to prepare to celebrate the Year of the Rat. We’ll definitely be heading back there. While they were working, I saw some Monet and Degas, so that’s fun too.

Patrick met up with us at the gallery and we headed to the Science Gallery, which I’ll put into the next post. I took some pictures of O’Connell Street and the Spire while we were out. The Spire is a big public art piece.

After a long and cold, too-much-work week, Patrick and I went to the grand opening of the Science Gallery at Trinity College on Friday night. It was so cool. We loved it!!

The Gallery is having events all week to celebrate light. Some of the events are outdoors so we had just planned to get a sneak preview before bringing the girls on Saturday. But we caught the usually slow, but tonight lucky, bus that drove right by the Gallery –where they were having a reception.

So, despite being in jeans and lots of coats (it was still cold and we were going to the outdoor things) we chanced getting through the door of the reception and scored! (OK probably it was open to everyone but it felt like a score and we each got a free beer – so it was kind of like being cool.)

Anyways – the place is very modern and a lot like an art gallery. Here are quick descriptions of the different parts:

Lightmobile – a very cool Oldsmobile covered with light bulbs

Light Drops – light and silky threads drop from a ceiling. Some drop around crystals, some near fiber optics that light up, one near a mirror, which on Saturday sadly Aine ran right into not realizing that it was a mirror

Light Tracer – an interactive system that uses a variety of light sources to allow you to create images in real physical space. I tried to take a video of the girls doing this because it’s hard to explain. I’ll post that in a few minutes.

De Pong Game – remember Atari? Well they have set up a pong game with the controls near a window – the player and the bals that you have to bounce up appear on the building across the street – it’s super cool

OK I think that was it. I’ll post the pictures and the video from tomorrow which is hopefully catch what we missed.

As part of the opening week they have exhibitions around town, so we walked down to Grand Canal Square, which is a whole new part of the city. It’s kind of down the Liffey towards the sea. It’s an area that they are building up. It’s kind of part old, part new and part needs to be built.

The exhibit they had lit up a square that I’m sure will be a super hot spot in a few years. It was fun to see a part of town that is so new.

Then we walked about 20 minutes to my favorite French restaurant, where we amazingly got in and had a great meal. We were home by midnight.

All in all a good night!

Lily had a birthday party on Saturday. So Kate and I hit the town alone. We shared a hotdog and a chocolate crepe (mostly Kate didn’t share that) at the Meeting House Square market. They have a nice selection of produce, cheese, and food you can eat right away.

Then we scored Kate a place at the free tin whistle mini-lesson, which was part of the Traditional Music Fest! You can see the video of the class below. It was great. The teacher was clearly a musician with tons of patience. At the end of the class Kate did know enough to keep learning new songs. Also – they let her keep the tin whistle.

We walked around for a while and saw some fun things. Then we waited to meet the rest of the crew. We were just in time to see a storyteller, who was part of the festival. He was very good. Again you can see the picture below.

We had a nice Italian restaurant and we found ourselves in the rare occasion of being too early. We had tickets to the pantomime at the Gaiety Theatre. (We saw the more budget version before Christmas.)

The Gaiety production is the big production. It was Beauty and the Beast. The theatre is old and fancy – kind of like the Orpheum or State Theaters back home. It was fun to see both productions. This was a little more high brow. The other used a lot more street humor, which I think the girls preferred. The Gaiety production included two narrator/jokers types and one was a little person. As Aine pointed out, he was little like a kid and that’s why she liked him so much. He was very funny.

At the end of the night (very late given the kids were with us) we took a cab home. It had been a long, cold day – so the cab home may have been the highlight to me.

Friday night we’re back out with Sheila! We met us with Mary (who usually lives in MN) and Sheila’s friend from here, Pauline. Our goal was to take part in the free Traditional Music Festival pub crawl. I must admit there was more beer than music.

The idea of the traditional music pub crawl was nice – but in the end there were 2-3 musicians in each pub, which really isn’t enough to be heard very far or to set a tone in the busy Temple Bar locations. We did manage to get to: Purty Kitchen, The Clarence Hotel, and The Auld Dubliner. I have to say that I actually enjoyed the Auld Dubliner, a pub I have walked by 100 times before. We went upstairs and there was a musician. It was kind of hokey – but friendly and enjoyable.

Wednesday night I met my friend Sheila in own. First we had a nice Indian meal – then we decided to try to get tickets to iKeano. We didn’t realize it but it had been sold out for quite a while.

So we back to the pub to retrench and meet up with Patrick. We decided to try to scalp tickets and were successful. Well, we got two tickets – we were able to score another seat for Patrick who met us after the first half – but it was just me and Sheila for the first half.

I, Keano is a part Roman epic, part musical and entirely focused on the Irish World Cup team of 2002. Here’s a brief description of I, Keano from RTE:

The decision by McCarthy to send Roy Keane home from the 2002 World Cup divided a nation. Those, with only a passing interest in the beautiful game, soon become embroiled in much heated debate as to who was right and wrong. Coming shortly after a mundane General Election campaign, what was to become known as the ‘Saipan affair’ enlivened those rain-lashed days at the end of May 2002.

About 90 percent of the show went right by me – since as most readers will know I have absolutely no interest sports – Irish or American. The part I did get was funny. We were in the upper circle at the Olympia. I did learn that I would never pay big money to sit there again – since you can’t really see the whole stage – but this was a good show to learn that.

After the show we went for a drink at Mulligan’s on Poolbeg Street – a pub I had completely forgotten about. It is still a super nice pub!

The girls were off school today. We’re not sure why – but that was OK. We don’t get as many random days off here as back home and we miss it. We had planned to go into town on Saturday but that didn’t work out so we decided to do it today.

House of Lords
First we went into the House of Lords. Well it used to be Ireland’s parliament but now it’s a bank. There used to be 2 parliament buildings – but when they were sold to the bank they were under instructions to raze them. I’m not sure why this one wasn’t but the other, larger building was. (The bank guy didn’t know why either.)

Anyways the bank/parliament is across the street from Trinity College. It is a bank but they keep the main room and several other artifacts out for folks to see.

Christ Church
Then we went to Christ Church. We used to live very near to Christ Church but I don’t think I had ever been there before. It’s very large and was built around 1030. The stained glass is amazing, the size of it is amazing – but the most amazing thing is the crypt under the church.

The crypt is a super old, open basement. Apparently in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was a pub. There is even a stockade in it. The girls thought it was very creepy. I thought it was cool.

Sunday afternoon we headed to Johnnie Fox’s in Glencullen. It’s the highest licensed pub in Ireland; it’s about a 20 minute drive from the house. It was established in 1798. It’s huge.

We didn’t realize when we decided to head there that we’d be seeing live music over lunch – but it was fun. The food was good – even the girls ate their whole meals.

So I decided that our New Year’s resolution was to get out and do different things. No more just going to the pub, unless we were meeting someone. So that is what inspired me to get us tickets to a dance performance – Next to Skin.

Here’s the description from the web site that got me interested…

Constructing structures with bodies – marking time with movement – discovering space with each other ‘Beckett meets Python’ – this whirlwind of breathtaking leaps, sensual partnering and comic joy should not be missed.

Here’s the line from the program that was a little red flag…

…The cast of different body types, levels of training, skin colour, race, melt together as one.

Different colors and race – clearly no problem. Different body types and levels of training – whoa there. I don’t know very much about dance but I must say one rule of thumb is that I’d like the people on stage to be fitter and better dancers than I am. My new rules include – I don’t want spoken word or screaming to be part of the dance.

The good news: it was only an hour and people remained clothed the whole time. There were a few very good dancers and it was fun to watch them do certain moves. But I have to admit that to me, the dance spectator novice, the comparison to Beckett and Python may have been exaggerated.

After the dance we headed to Neary’s Pub off Grafton Street. I had completely forgotten what a nice pub it is. Patrick saw two actors that we have seen on stage but he didn’t point them out until they were gone. I guess that was retribution for my dance performance selection.