May 28, 2003
08:14 PM dublin time
we lasted seven months, but had to leave ireland again. just for a couple of days.
on friday a gang of us went to aberdeen in scotland for a weekend visit to a friend.
highlights included; drizzle soaked scramblings round the precipitous towers of a possibly dracula inspired ruined castle; a club where one sat on a turkish style rug and cushion strewn padded floor; a trip acoss the highland passes to scotland's west coast for some camping, ferny hilled sliding and swimming; a calmish white water rafting ride down the river tay; seeing friends and having walks, songs, dances and giggles.
[link]May 19, 2003
08:23 PM dublin time
oh dear. it has been a while...
...well, we moved into our new flat. though that's ages ago now. it's a nice place. in some ways too nice, so we're having the house warming party in stages, so the place doesn't get wrecked.
it's right on the sea, which is lovely, and in the first couple of weeks there was lots of swimming. we've eased off a bit now, what with the weather getting rotten the closer it gets to summer [that's a bit weird actually, that this year the weather has only been conducive to swimming in the non-summer months]. the tide has to be pretty full-in too to make for a pleasant swim, so that hinders us a little. but here's hoping for a summer full of good-weather-full-tide swims.
we're also mighty close to dun laoghaire which has got the most wonderful village atmosphere. it's probably the biggest commercial centre in dublin outside the city centre, but it seems to be primarily full of locals going about their business.
to give you a sortofa hint at the flavour of the place, it has the highest density of pound shops and charity shops i've ever seen in an irish retail district. it really reminds me of smith street in melbourne, australia where you could visit such shopping gems as 'crazy clints bargain stores'. when kitting out our van for our travelling round australia adventure, we spent a [very small] fortune on a heap of stuff in crazy clints. we've done something similar in kitting out the new flat with stuff bought in 'doyles' on main street dun laoghaire. now there's a treasure of a shop!
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