belgianwaffle

Dublin

Cultural


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

We went out on the town on Culture Night a couple of weeks ago. The overwhelming disaster of the evening was that the sweet shop in Temple Bar was closed when we got there. The children were very mournful. On the plus side, we all quite enjoyed our trip to Dunsink Observatory where we got to look at the old observatory with the moving roof. The grandmother of the man giving us the tour had worked in the factory that built the telescope which was rather nice. We all got to see the moon though from a small modern telescope rather than the impressive old one but still, the moon, quite big when you see it close up, isn’t it?

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Riverrun


Posted in: Liffey Journal

I saw this talk about the Liffey on youtube and I thought that it was fantastic. If you live in Dublin, you should watch it too.

I love rivers in cities. In Brussels, they covered up the river in the 19th century. I really missed living in a city with a river. My husband always says that Dublin turns its back on the river and he’s right. I cross over the Liffey most days and I almost always pause to look up and down the river. And now I’m going to take a photograph every time.

Letting Go – A Bit


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Mr. Waffle, Princess

The Princess got the bus home from school alone the other day. She managed it without difficulty. And she was absolutely delighted with herself.

When I was her age, I was frankly not delighted to get the bus home from school as it was a dreary part of my routine [not so much the bus ride really but waiting forever for it to arrive]. But when I was her age there were a gang of unaccompanied children getting the bus home every day. Furthermore, on my bus route the chances of meeting alcoholics or strung out junkies was close to nil. Her bus route on the other hand does offer these options from time to time. On the other hand, people are kind and she is sensible. I asked whether anyone spoke to her. “Yes,” she said, “the bus driver asked me whether I was on my own and a nice woman talked to me when I sat down upstairs.” What you might expect really.

This daring action was inspired by Mr. Waffle who felt (correctly) that she was well able for it and I was sustained by thoughts of this woman who described her child as being “ecstatic with independence” after riding the New York subway. Well, that’s how my girl felt too though I don’t think that she’s ready to tackle the NY subway just yet.