belgianwaffle

Dublin

Weekend Round-Ups


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland, Princess

Herself went to Cork the weekend before her birthday. She went by train on her own and, happily, it all passed off peacefully. She had a brilliant time in Cork and came back with a large suitcase full of presents, including a pen for writing on windows. It was wet in Cork, though.

Rainy window

While she was in Cork, we took her brothers zip lining in the Dublin mountains which they really loved. Although, standing around in the hail did nothing for my nasty cold.

The following week herself had all kinds of birthday excitement as well. Her friends took her to see Hamlet which they all enjoyed. Then the next day they went zip lining (Mr. Waffle became a fixture peering up through the leaves in the forest) and she had two friends stay for a sleepover.

Meanwhile, Michael announced that he and Daniel had never got birthday presents as they already had what we bought them (last September) and we gave the presents back to the shop but they never got anything else. This struck me as unlikely but conceivably true. It was certainly true that the presents were slightly disastrous. Neither Mr. Waffle nor I retained any memory of replacing them. So the boys and I cycled in to town and I bought them an x-box game and a fart gun. The latter, for which I grudgingly forked out €24.99, has enjoyed success beyond our wildest dreams. His sister really hated it, so already something of a win as far as Michael was concerned.

On some Sunday since I last blogged (am a little hazy which) we had a very successful trip to Glasnevin cemetery. Firstly we went by bike and it was speedy and no one was knocked over. Secondly, it’s a fantastic cemetery with all kinds of interesting patriot stuff and great, elaborate graves. Thirdly, it’s beside a very nice pub known, appropriately enough, as The Gravediggers, and we went there for tea and crisps after our wanderings in the cemetery. I wonder is Glasnevin the only cemetery in the world with a very nice cafe in the gruonds and a pub practically built into the curtain wall.

As well as the patriots, I see that the father of plastic surgery is interred there. Not a lot of people know that, I imagine or, indeed the link between Robert Emmett and plastic surgery. There’s a great pub quiz question for you now.

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And here’s an arty shot from inside the Round Tower over Daniel O’Connell’s grave:

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The details of the weekend just past are a blur but I can confirm that the following elements featured: bouncy castles, canoeing on the canal, a visit from my sister in Cork and an all day hurling blitz.

Is it any wonder I’m exhausted?

Out and About


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

The weather recently has been cold but fine. We tried to go to Eagle’s Crag a couple of weeks ago but were defeated by a huge traffic jam in the Dublin mountains. A hummer and a horse box had, unsurprisingly, insufficient room to pass each other by on the narrow country road and neither would retreat. My sympathy is with the horse box. We ended up going for a walk in the pine forest instead. And that was fine too:

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Still, I was pleased when, last Friday, we packed a picnic and went off to Eagle’s Crag. The picnic was, from the children’s perspective, the best part of the day. It was bitterly cold in the wind but it was sunny and clear with great views of two lakes.

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1916/2016


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland

So, this is the centenary of the 1916 uprising. Sadly, we haven’t got an additional bank holiday as the rebels chose Easter Monday for their revolution and it was already a holiday. What, what’s your point here?

In fact April 24th is the actual day of the rising but it is always celebrated at Easter so we have had much excitement in the run up to the big day.

Shortly before the Easter holidays started, the boys announced that on the following day (it was ever thus) they had to dress up in historical costume for school.   Daniel was pretty sure that it was a figure from the Rising. Michael felt it was anyone from Irish history. So Daniel went as Michael Collins and Michael went as a druid. Their sister used all her genius to put together costumes for them at short notice. For added authenticity Daniel actually had coins from 1916 in his pocket. He knew they were there which I suppose helped him put in a solid performance as Michael Collins but he didn’t actually show them to anyone.

Michael Collins reads the papers:

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Druid sacrifices a sheep:

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They had the flag raising ceremony on proclamation day in both the primary and the secondary school. Michael was home sick and missed it but Daniel had a starring role – he got to read the Aisling poem aloud in front of the school. The short ceremony seems to have passed off pretty well.

Meanwhile in the secondary school, they had a very long ceremony involving much singing and speech making. Herself got to read her prize-winning 1916 poem out in front of the school. “Did they think it was good?” I asked proudly. “Well,” she said” I think that they were glad it was short.” They had had to listen to Douglas Hyde’s speech on “The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland“. Originally delivered in 1892, I think it may have lacked the zing of the modern TED talk and tried the largely teenage audience quite high. Though, as I pointed out to her, if they really believed in de-anglicising Ireland, the speech should have been delivered through Irish. That got a cool enough response.

This morning we went to inspect the various organised Rising related fun in the city centre on our bikes. The Princess who had, quite nobly, dragged herself from her sick bed to come along, greeted with horror the news that we were to travel by bike but it did work well, particularly when much of the city centre was car free. O’Connell Street, heart of the Rising, site of the GPO etc. was a little dull. Michael looked scornfully at the children singing beautifully on the makeshift stage and said, “I pity them, all the practising they had to do and now they have to wear these stupid clothes [sailor suits] and sing here on their day off school.”

We had better luck in the playground near the fruit market where children were in their 1916 gear and playing authentic games from the era. Michael joined in with enthusiasm and fitted in better than many with his slender frame and slightly pinched features (he’s like a supermodel, never eats enough). Daniel sat by the monument to deceased Irish patriots, site of former Bridewell, and looked appropriately gloomy. The children in the playground had obviously been given a bit of background about 1916 and told to go out and talk about it. I particularly enjoyed the young one who said, “The Volunteers, they think they’re amazing with their guns.” She then proceeded to sashay round the playground with her imaginary gun in a contemptuous manner. I heard another girl call out, “Hey guys, what do we think of the Volunteers?” So, you know, some anachronisms but actually quite endearing.

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Michael picked up a sword balloon outside the fruit market which was probably the highlight of the day for him. You see him here posing with two members of Cumann na mBan.

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“You know, my granny was in Cumann na mBan,” I told him. Level of interest: zero, alas.

For reasons unknown, there were a number of tanks and soldiers stationed on Smithfield Square also and we had an interesting chat with a soldier who had been in Chad and the Lebannon. Probably a highlight for me. The children ran into some classmates who had dressed up in 1916 gear which was exciting for them. We bought them food from the extensive range of food stands. It was, dare I say it, reasonably successful.

The Great Filing Catastrophe of 2016 and Other News


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

Mr. Waffle and I are tidy. I am the queen of filing and he is the king. People gasp in amazement when they see my tidy office. All of our domestic administration is carefully filed away and (somewhat) regularly sorted through to throw out papers that we no longer need to keep (although, to my knowledge, Mr. Waffle’s bank statements from when we lived in Belgium are still filed in the attic, a fact of which I deeply disapprove – you may recall that we last lived in Belgium in 2008). All this to say that, you know, we are not the kind of people who can’t find guarantees or passports or papers when we need to. You know how this is going to end, I assume. Stay with me anyhow, why don’t you?

Herself is going to Rome horribly early tomorrow morning for a mid-term school trip. She has been counting the days since September when she first heard about it. The programme is daunting. They are going for five days and will visit Rome (Vatican museums, the Forum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and anything else they feel up to – one of the teachers seriously suggested to me that they might go bowling one evening, insert your own sardonic comment here), Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast.

She spent the weekend packing. After dinner this evening I went to get her passport out of the drawer and it was there. Of course it was there. I went to get her European health card from the shoebox where we keep these things. Daniel’s was there. Michael’s was there. I emptied out all of the non-EU currency, the Belgian bus tickets, the Paris metro tickets and the foreign stamps which also live in the shoebox but there was no sign of the Princess’s health insurance card. We searched in all the likely places: the desk drawers, the health insurance folder, the folder for herself, all the other folders just in case. It was unfindable. She had had to bring it into school twice so that they could verify that she had it. In light of this I felt that the authorities were likely to check in the cold, pre-dawn Dublin airport whether she had brought it with her. We kept searching. It turned up sticking out of the Lonely Planet guide to Paris on the book shelf. I am not the better of it.

It was also Valentine’s day and my husband got me lovely flowers and a card. I got him some stroopwafels and only because yesterday morning, herself said to me, “I hope you know that Daddy is getting you something for Valentine’s Day.” He took the boys to a reading in the National Library while I scuttled around hoping to find something he might like. I am not sure that he was absolutely thrilled with the packet of biscuits, now. Sometimes I feel that Mr. Waffle gets a poor deal. Guess who is getting up at 4 in the morning to drive our precious first-born to the airport? Not me, I fear.

Have a photo of the boys checking out the National Library reading room:
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Earlier today we climbed Bray Head. This was inspired by Michael who needed to do it for some scouting badge. He was pleased to be going. The others, possibly less so. However, we met the cousins and they were all happy to see each other and ran up cheerfully despite the biting wind. A further aim of the trip was to ensure that herself and Mr. Waffle were tired enough to go to sleep early. Any benefits in this regard were entirely offset by the health insurance card trauma.

Still, nice views from the top:
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Rug – Further Developments


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Siblings

So, I went to Cork at the end of January and collected the rug. It was packed into an impressively small parcel:

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I was able to transport it to Dublin by train with the aid of my sister’s suitcase:

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I have to say that it looks pretty impressive now that it is installed:

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The children and the cat absolutely and unreservedly love it and spend a lot of time digging their toes/claws into it.

I love it too. However, it brings to crisis point our need for new curtains, sofa and armchairs. When we moved into the house in 2013, we kept the faded pink regency stripe curtains and the orange chintz furniture as a stop gap measure. Already the existing colour combination was exciting but the addition of the rug has tipped us over the edge. You may not have fully appreciated this from the last photo. Have a look at this photo which still doesn’t do justice to the real thing:

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It’s even more thrilling when the curtains are closed. I think the sofa will have to be first to go – at least the curtains aren’t uncomfortable.

More home decorating news as we get it.