30
Aug 13

Dublin

Thursday-Saturday
For the rest of the working week my little routine continued uninterrupted and pleasant – sunny in Dublin. I got sweet little shorts for our trip and was then ready to go. On Thursday, we went for a delicious dinner in Skinflint, where I got awesome grape – goat cheese – rosemary combo pizza, and Iestyn got something with loads of garlic. Their lemonade is almost as good as mine, but no mint in it, and may be a tad too much sugar.

Brother Hubbard Coffee!

Brother Hubbard Coffee!

On Saturday Iestyn needed to get a few last bits for the trip, and we made it a day with going to see the “We’re the Millers” in the cinema – which I originally thought would be stupid but then my fav review guy gave it 80% so we went, and it was actually really funny summer film to see.
Dinner at Mushashi japanese restaurant was scrumptious, and afterwards we just rushed home to pack everything and get to bed early.
I also finished my book and packed The Red House by Mark Haddon for the trip.


28
Aug 13

Dublin

Moday-Wednesday
Iestyn had to go to work this week, so I just set on a regular schedule of:

  • Lie-in and reading,
  • Huge breakfast of oatmeal with chocolate, honey, yogurt, blueberries and strawberries + coffee,
  • Looking into the Portugal trip and deciding what to do,
  • Going to explore the town in the afternoon and meet Iestyn after work.

The weather is OK, mostly cloudy with some streaks of sun. On Tuesday we went for dinner to Pifko, where I had Gambrinus beer and nakladany hermelin (pickled brie-type cheese), not too bad considering it’s in Dublin, but paying €5 for Gambrinus is an abomination, it goes for like €1 in Prague and it’s prolly better there. Afterwards we went to meet the guys in Mulligan’s where iestyn tried to persuade me that some bizarro Icelandic beer is metter than any Czech beer, but obviously he just made a fool of himself. Truth told, he just likes the Viking picture on the bottle.
By now, there are two arsenic poisoning and some non-fatal shooting in the dark in my book. Who can be behind that?! Did they really mean to kill with the poison and failed or was that just a warning? I feel like a lot of people are not saying all they know!


25
Aug 13

Sunday

After a lazy Sunday lie-in and epic breakfast we went to town to meet Iest’s friends for a coffee and a joint trip to Dun Longlilong, where there was a Sunday fair going on in the park, along with an all-day ukulele music festival, in which one of the friend’s sister was playing.

02_Uke

It was epically sunny in Dun Longlilong, a beautiful day for a fair and ukulele music! After we had enough of the fair, we went for a walk on the pier and watched boats and seagulls do their thing. We also saw a seal! Probably on a trip from Wales. Just sticking his cute little head out of the water.

04_MrSeal
03_Dun

After getting back to Dublin we bought tickets for Elysium in IMAX and killed the remaining time to the screening in Eddie’s diner with milkshakes and burgers (only Ryan and Tony for these). Elysium was an epic summertime Hollywood blockbuster, quite violent and not as good as District 9, but still quite entertaining if you didn’t think about it too much.

05_Dun


24
Aug 13

Vaycay time

Vaycay – well, it’s Europe-bound again, what to do. Iestyn only got like 10 days off in his new job, so it’s not really worth going somewhere further. Hesitating between Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Portugal, we finally decided on Portugal because why not, they got surf.
I got the LP in the ‘burg but didn’t really have time to go through it before the vaycay. But that’s OK because I’ll first go to Dublin and look into it while Iestyn is still at work. So we just bought tickets and booked a car up ahead – flying to Porto and back from Lisbon. In between – the possibilities are wide open. I also bought a super-light summer sleeping bag, I hope I’m not gonna be cold. It’s a pretty colour though.

Saturday
I spent the most of the day at home, cleaning up a bit so that I don’t return to a huge mess, finishing packing, watering plants, going to the post office, etc. At 4pm I boarded the train airport-bound, and thus started my vaycay officially. I started reading my vaycay book on the train – I packed the “Case of the Drowsy Mosquito”, a case for Perry Mason, wonderfully old-fashioned and US-fashioned crime story. First edition from 1943, my copy of 1969 taken last year at the street book exchange in Liechtenstein’s capital Vaduz. I was a bit too early at the airport, which is still better than being late, had no problem with my carry-on bag (that might still come with RyanAir later),and generally experienced no drama.
It was super cold and rainy in Frankfurt, which made me question my decision of not taking any shoes with me on the vaycay (only flipflops and sandals), but only a little bit and for only a little while. After a non-eventful flight next to a family with a first-class brat of a child, I arrived in Dublin at about 10pm, and Iestyn was already waiting for me. Iestyn’s friend Matt was on the same flight but given my below-average memory for faces I didn’t recognise him, and only said hello to him in Dublin when Iest did the facial recognition for us.
We took the bus home, gobbled up a “slice” of pizza each on the way and arrived home mightily tired. I had pressies waiting for me – a pretty map of Snowdonia trails designed in London tube style and coconut chocolate too. Also a beautiful card with a cat and weekend Guardian for my upcoming Sunday morning – woohoo!


11
Aug 13

How do you organize a space party?

You planet!

oh poor Pluto