Until quite recently I worked weekends which meant I often missed interesting events as more often than not they were scheduled for Saturdays and Sundays when the majority of folk were off work.
Category Archives: Dublin
Arran St East Shop and Studio
Filed under Craft, Dublin, Shops/Shopping
Art: The Oratory, Dun Laoghaire
This year as part of its excellent Spring into Heritage programme Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council has once again opened to the public, on certain days, some of the historic buildings they own/manage. By a country mile the smallest of these, at 6M by 3.6M approximately, is The Oratory on Dun Laoghaire’s Convent Road.
Coffee Chez Max
I am back slightly later than I said I would be. Mea culpa!
The Tuesday before last, the 14th July, was the French National Day: La Jour de Bastille. Its celebration is many degrees different from St Patrick’s Day. Whereas our national day is: party central, a riot of all things green, and, for some, an excuse for a monumental piss-up; Bastille Day is, in contrast, celebrated in a more sombre way, the highlight being a carefully curated set piece military parade down the Champ Elysees.
Filed under Celebrations, Coffee, Dublin, Food/Wine, Restaurants/Cafés
Dublin: The Cross Café
Painting by John Boyd
When I first heard about the Cross Café, a myriad of months ago, I thought that it sounded ‘just so’ and exactly the type of place I would like. At the time I mentally filed its name and location thinking I really must visit it some time soon. Then the weeks leapfrogged into months and the months into almost a year so I only got to try the Cross Café a few weeks ago. I was not disappointed: in an ideal world it’s the sort of café that every neighbourhood should have.
Filed under Coffee, Dublin, Food/Wine, Restaurants/Cafés
Cabinteely House and Cabinteely Park
As Urbun, a café in the South Dublin suburb of Cabinteely, is on my caffeine trail and as Cabinteely Park is next to Urbun I often meander around the park post my latte fix. I normally stick to the lower reaches of the 80 odd acre park as there is plenty to see there such as: the small pretty lake with ducks and swans gliding across it; paths along which centuries old trees stand sentinel; and in the summer the apple orchard, close to the lower gates, is gloriously underplanted with a dense carpet of colourful meadow flowers.
Retail Therapy of the Spending Kind and Some Cake
Feeling in need of something to cheer me up I headed to the city centre for a spot of retail therapy. I say of the spending kind because as often as not I am as happy to browse as I am to buy.
Filed under Cake, Coffee, Dublin, Fashion, Restaurants/Cafés, Shops/Shopping
Monkstown: Howbert and Mays
There is no need to send for Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery of Dublin’s disappearing garden centres because even the zebras in the zoo know that those centres, many of which were on large sites, were hovered up during boom times for development.
Filed under Dublin, Shops/Shopping
Helicopter Trip
I am neither a risk-taker nor an adrenaline junkie. So there are certain things I am as likely to do as a family of penguins is to arrive on a beach in Florida for a spot of sunbathing . Items on my unlikely to-do list include: leaving a plane at a surreal height and relying on a parachute to get me safely to the ground, bungee jumping off a vertiginous building, and white water rafting.
Filed under Celebrations, Dublin, Photography
Blackrock: Fish Shop
The Fish Shop is a new kind of fish and chip shop in the South Dublin suburb of Blackrock. Although it has customers who come from near and far I suspect that many who regularly walk down Blackrock’s Main Street don’t know of its existence as it is located a little off the main drag to the rear of The Blackrock Market.
Filed under Dublin, Food/Wine, Restaurants/Cafés
Second Sight: The David Kronn Photography Collection
In a little short of two weeks, from now, I start my full-time photography course. My feelings about my forthcoming studies are dual in that I am eagerly anticipating them and yet am apprehensive about my ability to wrap my brain around the theoretical aspects of photography.
Filed under Culture, Dublin, Photography
Just Add Attitude 