Item of the Week No. 18

Y'know, I love Ireland and being Irish and the fact that we can drink most nations under the table but there's a few things about this country that bug me. Our government, our sense of apathy, government corruption, government incompetence and the lack of nice architecture. We don't have alot of nice buildings because they either got blown up for being relics of British rule or they got knocked down by corrupt developers. So sometimes when we see other places Ireland looks pretty grim, mostly because it's grey and wet but also because it's dull. Especially now with all the abandoned building sites. Ooh, I know how we could make a few quid: rent out the place as locations for post apocalyptic/zombie/dystopian/end of the world films! Enda and Co., are you paying attention to me?! It can't fail, Hollywood loves a good, old fashioned, end of world yarn and here we are LIVING in a good, old fashioned, end of world yarn!

Anyway, my point was that it's easy to forget the places that ARE actually nice to look at. So this week's IOTW is St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.

Isn't it just such a lovely place to shop? This is a landmark building in many senses. It's where you meet anyone if you're on the south side; it's where Loreto girls do their Christmas shopping; it's where fledgling emos buy their first jet black hair dye and it's where many an eighties/nineties kid was treated to an ice cream with sprinkles on a day out in town. Alas, the recession has led to a few empty units but still it soldiers on in all it's greenhousey glory with that big giant clock keeping sentry. I heart St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.

Duuuuurty Old Town

As many of you know, last year I got a dog:

I know, sexy beast, right?! She's a total chick magnet. If I was a lesbian or my boyfriend was single, we would be getting alot of...dates. Ahem.

Anyway, prior to owning a dog, I was a non-dog person. I was firmly in the cat corner with zero interest in dogs but I got talked around and now I can't imagine not having Scully in my life. She's so great! Sure, she's a bit whiney and eats all my shoes and socks but she cuddles up with me in bed in the mornings and gets so frickin' excited when you're about to throw a ball, it's hard to resist her charms. Even my mother likes her, and that's saying alot. My point is, as a previous non-dog person, I know what non-dog people don't like about dogs. (Mostly for me it was their teeth but having read alot and been to classes I can say yes it's true, there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. A dog bites when it's scared, not for a laugh so it's up to the owners to make sure their dogs aren't scared of anything. Simples!)

Back to my ACTUAL point, what I really wanted to talk about was poop. I know, most people don't like talking about poop, it's literally the world's big dirty secret BUT it's time to blow the lid on poop people! As I said before I am a former non-dog lover and the one thing that really bugged me about dogs was poop and stepping in it. And Dublin is full of poop (in more ways than one my friends but that's another post...). There is poop everywhere I go and I have to keep dodging it like I'm running through a mine field. Why the hell can't people pick up their dogs' poop?! It's not difficult, sure it's unpleasant but if you've ever stepped in poop yourself you know that's even more unpleasant so why not just pick it up instead of letting some poor sod stamp it into his carpets?!

Admitedly I wouldn't blame you, not alot anyway, for not picking it up because the chances are you'll have to carry it around with you for ages because for some reason, despite plastering signs all over the place threatening to fine you if you don't pick up the poop, many of Dublin's parks have neglected to provide bins for you to place your neatly wrapped poop. What's with that?! You're gonna charge me €150 on the spot despite providing no alternative for me?! Erm, keraaaaazy!!!! So this is a public plea to South Dublin county Council, please put out more bins! I have a labrador, she poops alot. ALOT.

P.S. Poop is a very musical word isn't it? I kind of like it so I may have overused it here. Poop.

P.P.S. I am still in the cat corner by the way:

This is Sookie. She is nucking futs.

Item of the Week No.17

This is the most delivious drink I have ever had! Ok maybe not ever, the slightly fizzy summer berry drink I had one time in Avoca was probably the best but this is seriously pushing for a very close second. It's beautiful. I imagine it's the kind of thing the gods on Mount Olympus drink as they lounge on big puffy white clouds and meddle in human affairs.

And it's only a euro! Bargain!

I bet it goes really well with Malibu. Or Peach Schnapps.

Someone please buy me a bottle of Malibu or Peach Schnapps.

My New Blog

Hello everyone!

I've been thinking lately that this blog is kind of a bit meandering and it doesn't really have a proper theme or subject, which is fine because sometimes I just like writing, y'know? But aside from being unemployed and writing this blog I also like to do alot of crafty things, which you already know, and even though I put stuff up on here it probably gets lost among all the rants and hot men.

SO I have decided to set up a picture blog just showcasing all the things I make and also some of the stuff I have on my Etsy shop. I'm hoping maybe this will help get my Etsy shop a bit more known and therefore more business and then I won't be so poor and can afford to go drinking every now and then! Anyway, my new blog is:

http://audidoodles.tumblr.com/

I decided to go with Tumblr because I think it's a bit easier to upload photos.

Don't worry, I'll still be writing on this blog, regaling you with Items of the Week and rants about how insane people are but at least you'll know there's a softer, more crafty side to me. :-)

Oh, p.s, I'm still getting used to Tumblr so it may look a bit messy for a while.

Massy's Wood

I've been going for alot of walks recently, since we have a dog now, and we've been trying to go different places to make is a bit more interesting. So for the past couple of weeks we've been going up to Massy's Wood in Kilakee up the Dublin Mountains. It's only about 10 minutes from where I'm living in Tallaght and is about 15 mins from the M50 Firhouse exit. this place is SERIOUSLY cool. Seriously. It's across the road from the Hellfire Club and is a woodland walk with different trails and a river. The site used to be a mansion that was sold off and demolished in the 1940s but it had been there since the 19th century. I found this picture of it on the South Dublin Libraires website:

All that's left is the outline of the house and garden which is now someone else's house and garden. The house also had a walled garden which is still there and is absolutely huge, it may even have been bigger than the house actually. Obviously it's not used and it's basically just the walls and is all overgorwn but it's so amazing to see. You go on this walk through the wood and we followed the river and came upon the garden hidden away behind trees and bushes. And then you can walk through the whole thing and you can still see the out line of the irrigation system and the green house and the whole thing sits on sort of a hill top looking down the river and the river has all these little stone bridges over it. It's such a shame that the house got demolished, it was in such a gorgeous location and the gardens must have been amazing but at the same time the forest has gorwn around the ruins and created this really beautiful, enchanting space; everytime I go I feel like I'm going into The Secret Garden. There's also an icehouse where people kept their meat and perishables in the old days. The forest has been planted with loads of different speices of trees including a Sequoia which is only a baby but will one day be gigantic. There is also the ruins of a neolithic tomb which to be honest you'd thing was just a pile of rocks but it's still pretty amazing to think that people have been living in the dublin mountains that long. Anyway, here's a few photos:

This is just a ruin of either a small house of a mill because it's right next to the river and there's a big stone thing beside the river that could have had a wheel, but that's just a guess and not a terribly educated one at that!

The ice house

The outside of the garden, at the back looking over the river

This was just lying in the middle of the garden, looks like part of a statue, perhaps of some beautiful woman who died tragically and now haunts the place. Or not. I suggested to boyfriend that we make the little Blair Witch stick figure and hang it up somewhere to freak people out but he rightly pointed out the only person I'd freak out is myself.

 

The tomb.

Not sure what this was but it looked like it was something once.