It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Christmas tree is up in work!

And Insomnia have their Christmas coffee cups out.

 

I love Christmas :-)

Furniture exhibition and then: FOOD!!!

Enid & I went to a very cool furniture exhibition last week.  It was held in a little tiny exhibition space on North Great Georges Street called Darc Spaces.  But I think the furniture display was arranged by the furniture shop Lost Weekend.

 

Two pieces stood out for me:

 

"Spun"

A seat which you can spin on it's axis and not ever fall off.  Fun :-) 

It was designed by the guy who designed the Olympic Flame for the London Games this summer - Thomas Heatherwick.

I always have loved this stool.  Great to see it in person.

 

 

 

We then went on to Jimmy Chungs for some quick, cheap and cheerful eats.

 

Hmmm. 

All these photos don't actually look that appetising but let me assure you it was actually all very nice.  In particular the prawn toast! And the sweet and sour chicken.

 



Enid with her coconut dessert.

 

 

It was a lovely evening and very nice to catch up with Enid.

Merrion Square at lunchtime

 

I visited Merrion Sqare during my lunch break this week.  I enjoy the signs outside the park for some reason...can't explain why but I just always find civil service "rules" amusing in a strange way.

 

 

It's an interesting park with some quirky sights.  First up is the underground air raid shelter built for the second world war - which apparently could hold up to 1100 people.  I walked around the mound which it is built under but I couldn't see any door/entryway in.  Wonder where the entrance is?

 

The park also contains a collection of different Dublin lamps - from a time when gas lamps used to light up Dublin streets.

 

This ball shaped lamp is unusual - I have never seen this kind before in Dublin.

 

This chair is in memory of the late great Dermot Morgan (best remembered for Scratch Saturday/Fr Trendy/Fr Ted). I am not sure if it was errected by his family or by Dublin City Council.

RIP Dermot Morgan - taken before your time.

 

 

Finally as a lovely finish to my lunchtime tour I found a beautiful holly tree! 

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Christmas party - nice location - shabby chic!

Last night we attended our kayak club's annual Christmas party. 

It was held in the Angler's Rest on the Strawberry beds beside the river Liffey.

I love the Anglers as a party location.  It has a fantastic shabby chic feel to it.  I have some photos below for you to look at but to be honest they really do not capture the feel of it - the flash really lit it up whereas it was just nicely dark :-)



 

 

 

 

The food was delicious!  I wish I took photos of the starters and mains for you :-(

 

I had duck liver parfait with toast to start, and then fabulous turkey and ham as my main - sure it was the Christmas party - you'd have to.

 



 

 

 Check out my dessert - Belgian Chocolate tart, mmmmm.

And here is a picture of how the Apple Crumble was presented - in a jar - how quaint.

 

 

 

As you can see from this photo I had a great night - with my antlers and my ear-rings made from Christmas decorations!!!!!!  :-)

 



The Gasworks building Dublin

The Gasworks is a structure which from approx 1895 housed a gasometer which supplied gas across Dublin.

I believe it would have last been functional in the 50's/60's.  By replacing the metal internal wall with glass, the structure was converted into a pretty cool residential building around 2006.

It's a very impressive building in my opinion.



The atrium in the centre.  The entrances to each apartment is via here.



I like the industrial look stone used in the courtyard/atrium.



Another exterior shot.  Check out the foundations of each pillar/post.

Cool cool building!  I'd LOOOOOOVE to live in one of those apartments!

Except for one reason (time for a rant!!!!!):

There is a serious amount of stupid signs all over the complex. The management company seem to have gone completely flathiulach on the signage????



How to ruin a nice courtyard with a beautiful tree - stick a load of signs below it.



Seriously???



In my opinion the sheer volume of these signs detract from this cool building/complex.
BUT I would still like to live here! 


Edit.
If you liked this blog post I think you will very much like my blog post on my very cool upcycled cocktail bar/drinks cabinet project! :-)

Building from within a building

I was on a work course during the week.  It was held in one of our buildings with a fantastic atrium in the middle of it.

I've been in this building millions of times and have never before thought of looking up. Something caught my eye, I looked up and lo and behold I caught an unusual view of Liberty Hall.

 Check out the photo I took.

Action on X / Never Again

Enid, Katie, Lydee & I were back outside the Dail on Wednesday.  While we were outside, inside the Dail the proposed abortion legislation was being debated and voted.

It was a freezing cold night.  There were a group of young women (early twenties) who had camped out on the Tuesday night so as to be there when the politicians were arriving at the Dail on Wednesday morning.  Fair play to them.

The speakers were very good and there was some great loud chanting which would have been heard inside the Dail:

- What do we want?
- Action on X
- When do we want it?
- Nowwwww

"Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate"

"20 years is too late, it is time to legislate"

"Never again. Never again. Never again"

Inside the Dail however the motion was defeated.  However Enid has assured me this is just the beginning - this was a hasty and rushed through wording. 

I will be at the Dail every Wednesday until we get the law changed. Never again.