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19 December 2009

Keeping Christmas Simple...

Keeping Christmas Simple...

Some people work themselves into a froth during festival times.

Buying flowers from street traders is one way to cut down on the drama...



Camden Street Flowers

17 December 2009

Ye Brat, Yeh..

... or, No Profanity, We're Irish.

The air was blue in Dublin recently and bloggers got plenty to blog about
due to a verbal kerfuffle in the Dail. I used take bets with myself about
how long I could watch any parliamentary debate on TV before turning off,
due to boredome mixed with awe. The thought of getting up every morning
to do a job that involved roaring invective at people seated on the other side
of a room continues to amaze me. But that is what politicians do.

For more than forty years I have listened to Radio 4 and for much of that time
"Today in Parliament" has lulled me to sleep at night. "Order! Order!" is a useful
phrase to add to one's repertoire when rearing small children.
That it must be persistently addressed at grown adults is...
well... entertaining...

Rules in Ireland are a bit different.
It seems that the strong Anglo-Saxon word used
by one deputy to another recently is not actually
banned by Dail protocol.

"Brat", however, is a very wicked word indeed...
It is used so often in Ireland that I had come to
think of it as a term of endearment.

16 December 2009

Have Yourselves a Soothing Little Christmas...

Red is the Colour of Danger.

It is also the Colour for Christmas.

Apt?

I have decided to go for soothing in all things
this year...




Happy Christmas, One and All !

That Would be an Economical Matter

From today, Radio Stations in Ireland are banished to as far away as I can get. Off Button applied now as the persistent cruelty of interviewing people in tears has become the latest fashion.
Why it should be considered newsworthy to have wall-to-wall sobbing is not for me to ask.

"Never ask a question to which you do not already know the answer", one wise Dublin friend advised recently.
Dubliners exude wisdom and share it, volubly, to anybody who is still around to listen.
Since most of my friends have emigrated (again), listeners are thin on the ground...

15 December 2009

Yesterday I just wandered round town for a few hours, absorbing the Christmas cheer. "The Moral Maze" at the weekend on Radio 4 had a few pundits philosophising about the Festive Season, some for some against.

How one could be "ag'in the Christmas" is one of life's mysteries, but "Live and Let Live" say I.
It takes all sorts.

I dropped some film off to be developed in one of my favourite camera shops in Wexford Street. This part of Dublin has always been a favourite, with stores that have not changed, in many cases, for decades. It's a street that always has a sense of continuity and I used cycle in to buy vegetables and fruit from the street traders there in leaner times.

A visit to Brown Thomas turned into an adventure. I decided on some imaginary shopping and looked at the designer clothes, imagining what it might be like to afford over 600 euro for a cocktail dress. I have a vivid imagination...
The sales assistant in the Kitchen Shop turned out to be very friendly and allowed me to take photos of his beautiful display. Some day I hope to visit the factory in Italy, where designers are encouraged to find their personal style and develop objects that are both a pleasure to the eye and functional.


The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity has an exhibition that could inspire anybody to take to art. James Castle, whose work is described with vigour in the link here, made beautiful and strong drawings that are beautifully mounted. The space is always a welcoming one and I remember chatting with Dorothy Cross there years ago when she presented a remarkable exhibition with Sharks as the theme.

Then home on the Luas at peak time. I have reminded myself, yet again, to never buy a mobile 'phone. After a short journey I was privy to the professional angst and private social activities of several of my fellow travellers and was perplexed by the obsessive clicking and peering at screens by the most of the rest of the assembly.

Strange days, indeed...

Christmas Cheer