10 Questions About…

After our scavenger hunt we were raring to go for fun the following day. Luckily for us there was plenty going on. The girls had their free ride tokens for the rides at the St Patrick’s Day carnival. So that was good. The fun house was the favorite. Then we watched some of the performance artists. I think our favorite was the solar-powered cinema. It was a converted caravan. It fit about 7 people. And we got to watch a quick flick. Then we liked the Dude Juke Box. It looks like a big juke box but holds a real band.

But the best part was that we were there for a Flash Party – a flash tea party. There were people dressed up in Alice in Wonderland type costumes handing out tea and cakes. Out timing was perfect. This was happening in the park (we had been hanging around outside the park) and as soon as we got into the park, the party started.

After the Big Day events we had lunch at the Odeon, where the show movies on the big screen on Saturday and Sunday. What a good idea. We didn’t have a the best seats but it was fun. Then on the way home we walked through the Iveagh Gardens.

St Patrick’s Festival Scavenger Hunt is one of my favorite events of the year. This year 4 of us participated. Patrick stayed home to work, but that was good because he would just slow us down and the teams can only be 4 people.

I tracked the route on Google (today, that is not on race day). I must say, I did very well and our path was very close to the Google route. Google says we walked 7 miles and it should take about 2 hours and 22 minutes. It took us about 3 hours. I’m going to say we walked a lot more partially because I didn’t track out route from the bus, or include the diversions. (Never mind we stayed in town for 3 hours after the hunt walking around!) When we got back to home base they said we were in 30th place. Not bad! Along the route you can see lots of participants on the bus or in taxis, which is actually allowed although we think those people are wimps! We walk the whole way. Also few teams have a five-year-old.

I’ve included a map of out trails. We visited:

A. City Hall ->
B. National College of Art & Design ->
C. IMMA at Kilmainham Hospital ->
D. Lighthouse Cinema Smithfield ->
E. Hugh Lane, Parnell Square ->
F. James Joyce Center ->
G. National Library, Kildare Street ->
H. National Gallery Merrion Square ->
I. Number 29 Fitzwilliam Street ->
J. Wax Museum, Dame Street -> (this is actually wrong on the map)
K. Back to City Hall

We also had a diversion into Trinity and a few places along O’Connell Street to answer bonus questions. We had such a great time. The girls won loads of nice spot prizes – including free passes for the rides at the fun fair, which we planned to use the next day. (We found out that was about a €50 savings!) They got a silly hat, t-shirts, coupons, painted faces. They sang songs for the prizes. We had a little low point at the Georgian House (No 29) when we realized that in the thrill of winning carnival passes, we’d left our stamp sheet back at the National Gallery. So the girls got a few minutes to chill at No 29 and I got a chance to sprint back. They were well placed as there’s a café in No 29 and each visitor is asked to perform a party piece to get a prize – so they were well entertained.

We had visited most of the places before – but the Wax Museum was new to us – partially because it opened recently. I’ve added two pictures from the wax museum – one with flash and one without, so that you could see it as we saw it (without lights).

After the scavenger hunt we hung out in town. We had our favorite lunch at the Meeting House Market Square – dumplings, brats and crepes. We checked out some of the art around Temple Bar, which included a stuffed cat with a stuffed mouse coming out of his back end. I use the term art loosely here, as you can see. I did love the cardboard washing machines. Then we headed to George’s Street Market, since the girls had seen that on TV earlier in the week. And then we sort of winded our way back home. Sadly we ended up on the slow bus home – but that was OK. (That’s a highlight we don’t’ talk about much, ending a 6 hour day in town with a 45 minute bus ride home.)

TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. Maybe you’ve seen some of the videos – they are all available online and they are really interesting! TEDx is an independent TED event. We attended the third such event hosted at the Science Gallery. Apparently it sold out in 15 minutes! But I’m that good I scored us tickets.

Here were the live speakers (one presentation was a video of a past TED speaker (Ken Robinson); none were dead as I realized the last statement might imply):

• Margaret Wertheim, The Institute for Figuring – She started a project crocheting coral reef. Apparently crochet is the perfect medium because of hyperbolic geography in both. We’ll be learning a lot more as that’s the next exhibit at the Science Gallery.
• Luke O’Neill, Professor in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology – he talked about how immunology has changed in the last 15 years. How they have been able t understand that the “inactive” part of the immune system is actually more important than the “active” and how they are creating new proteins to help the immune system protect humans.
• Mark Cummins, Creator of Plink – He created a visual search engine application. You snap a shot of a work of art and the search engine can tell you what it is no matter how crappy the snapshot is. Very interesting to hear how they are teaching computers to learn images.
• Simon Berrow, Founder of Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation – He talked about basking sharks and how they/he realized that you can get their DNA through their slime. Basking sharks are also called sunfish. They aren’t like sturgeon, but like sturgeon they are endangered and largely unknown.
• Damini Kumar, Programme Director of Product Design at NUI Maynooth and Ireland’s Ambassador for the 2009 European Year of Creativity and Innovation – She created the drip-less teapot and talked about lateral thinking.

Each speaker has 18 minutes to talk about their thing. The focus, if there is one, seems to be on creativity and innovation. Or at least each talked about how they were able to be creative or innovative. I don’t know how interesting it is to have me paraphrase the talks, but here are a few things I noted:

1. Each seemed to define creativity or innovation as a unique thought that provides value.
2. One speakers said if you’ve failed, you probably aren’t being creative. It was remarked that America was more accepting of failure than Europe and that kids kind of get that freedom to fail knocked out of them in school.
3. All of the speakers had a deep passion for what they did. Each knew the history, the science and the mythology of their industry as well as the ins and outs of their specific invention or innovation.
4. They all started with research and motivation.
5. Collaboration was also key. There’s no point in reinventing the wheel – but there may be ways you can make the wheel better.

It was a great night. All of the speakers were amazing. You’d think that given the jobs each had that there’d be some that were way more interesting to me than others – but each had that super passion that draws you in – even if you’d never really heard of a basking shark before. (Now I was to go to Donegal to see them!)

I thought this was timely – sadly I don’t have any pictures but…

On Wednesday we all went to see the Irish animated films that have been nominated for Academy Awards at the Irish Film Institute. What was fun is that the 3 films had representatives there to say a few words about each movie. The guy from The Secret of Kells was great. He was French, he accent was pretty thick, but he was clearly so happy to have been nominated that you had to be excited for him! So first we saw Granny O’Grimm (posted below – I got it from YouTube, I didn’t bootleg it!). It is very funny.

Then they showed The Door – but it’s not for kids, so we left the theater. (The movie is only 20 minutes.) So we were hanging out in the lobby and one of the IFI directors sort of took pity on us and started talking to us. Then she suggested that maybe we’d like to see an Oscar – and she let us hold it! The Oscar belonged to Josie MacAvin, she won it for set decoration in 1985 for Out of Africa. The Oscar is pretty heavy although it feels as if it isn’t solid. I’m not a big movie goer or follower but I have to say every year when I watch the Oscars I wonder what’s it’s like to hold one. Now we know.

After that big thrill we watched the third movie – The Secret of Kells. It is a beautiful movie. Again, not a movie goer, but I was happy to see it on the big screen. Coincidentally, we went to see the Book of Kells just a couple of weeks ago – so we had an added interest.

Quick update – last night Patrick took the kids to see Alice in Wonderland and everyone loved it. I worked, but that was good too.

1. On Saturday we went to Phoenix Park – to see Áras an Uachtaráin (the President’s house). Our plan was to leave early and get our tickets earlier – but no go. We didn’t leave early and of course we didn’t really know where to get the tickets once we got to Phoenix Park. We’re not really as organized in real life as we may appear on the blog – but we got there early enough to get the ticket somehow.

The Phoenix Park is a huge park. We rarely go there because it’s really the opposite side of Dublin – but I think it’s the largest park in Europe – definitely the largest walled park. There’s 6 miles of fencing surrounding the park. It was created as a hunting park in the 1600’s (going off memory now, not Wikipedia so don’t go making any bar bets on the following but…). So the British brought over a herd of deer – in fact you can still see the herd in the park. We only saw one, big deer, but we have seen the herd in the past.

1. We went past the Wellington Monument and the Cross, which was built when the Pope came to visit in 1979 (again making up that date). Patrick must have told us a million times that he was there for the Pope’s visit. We walked past soccer fields, polo fields, cricket grounds, and the zoo. We went up to the Ashtown Castle. (That’s where we were able to get the tickets for the tour of Áras an Uachtaráin.)

Ashtown Castle has a nice café and we were starving. We went into the interpretive area; they started the movie just for us. We walked through the walled garden, played in the playground and eventually got the bus to the President’s house.

Sadly we couldn’t take pictures in the house – but we did get a picture outside. The house is beautiful, but I have to say the view of the Dublin Mountains is amazing. The tour guide was great. She repeated some of the stories we heard last weekend in the government buildings – but her delivery was much better!

I remembered the story of the fireplaces (in the house and government building). They were designed by Pietro Bossi. He found a way to color marble. On his deathbed his eldest son hoped for the secret to dying the marble – and Bossi just said, “there’s only one God and there’s only one Bossi.”

Also they had a bowl created from wood found at the Battle of the Boyne – at the time of the Battle. Apparently one bowl went to the President and one to Ian Paisley – in a peacemaking/peace-appreciating effort. I actually could rattle off a few more tidbits except that I suspect that without pictures the stories lose something.

One last tidbit Phoenix Park isn’t named after the phoenix rising, it’s actually an English corruption of the Irish Fhionn-Uisce, which means clear water. There’s lots of clear water in the park.

Last night Patrick and I went to see Christ Deliver Us, a play by Thomas KiIroy produced at the Abbey. When Patrick ordered tickets the box office told him that the play contained sensitive materials, there were no refunds, and only front row sees were left. Gulp!

So we were a little nervous going in – but while the show was bleak and certainly not for kids it wasn’t what I imagined. The show is a picture of Ireland in the 1950’s. So there are some statements about religion and sex – but the nudity was minimal and absolutely no audience participation. When I say the show was bleak – I mean the themes. It was very black. So that’s a little bit more my style than Patrick’s. The staging was really impressive.

The action in the first act was a little choppy but the staging was so creative that it worked. One scene includes a group playing hurling on stage – something that makes you a little nervous if you’re in the front row and not know for your quick eye-hand coordination. There’s a dance class scene that goes from awkward (dance class in a single-sex school is rarely everyone’s favorite) to fun to watch when two dancers are able to find the music. One character is killed and then buried under the floorboards in a clean easy sweep that is so surprising – and other great moves.

We started the evening at the Winding Stairs, a restaurant we have tried to visit before. It was worth the wait!

Last weekend we wrestled with a lot of kids activities. Kate had a birthday party. Lily had a slumber party. But in the midst of the social schedule we managed a quick trip into town for a tour of the government buildings. We were very proud of ourselves for getting out of the house in time to get tickets to take the tour.

Sadly we couldn’t take any pictures in the building. And we were followed by security everywhere (everyone on the tour, not just us!). But it was fun. We saw the cabinet rooms and some the slick technology they use. The walls of the building are full of very modern art, which I liked. We got to see the Taoiseach’s office. The Taoiseach is like a Prime Minister. (There is also an Irish president; we’re hoping to visit her house tomorrow.)

The tour guide provided a lot of information – maybe too much to take in on a Saturday but it was fun.