A Brief Adventure

The Grand Canal Theatre

Photo by John Byrnes

I went on a little adventure this week, hence the lack of blogging. I was in Dublin for a bit, which is where my family are originally from, and where I spent years working in my late teens/early twenties. It was nice to hang out in some old haunts, but even nicer to see how much it's changed in the past 10 years. I was up around the canal area and the IFSC, and it looks like a completely diferent city. There is some great arcitecture, especially The Grand Canal Theatre, and the Samual Beckett Bridge I had two firsts this weekend, I was on the Luas and I was also on a ricshaw. It seems crazy that I had never been on the luas before, but out of laziness I always automatically hop on the bus when i get off at hueston, but with the help of my sister i managed to figure out the ticket machine. It was fun, it didn't feel like I was in Dublin at all. The ricshaw was a blast, the Brazilian guy cycling it was rather charming and handsome, and it was a novelty to see the street lit night flying past at speed. It was ceertainly much nicer than getting an over priced cab and listening to a grumpy taxi driver. 



After my couple of days in Dublin I went to visit my ex housemate Cecily in Belfast. Even though it's only really up the road I had never been up North before, but i was delighted that I made the effort. It's a vibrant city with bit of an underdog feeling to it. It has lots of really nice bars and cafes, but it's not as flashy and showy as Dublin, which is a good thing. On Saturday night we went to see Fionn Regan is a quiet church gig. It was a really fantastic performance, but I was a little disappointed that the only beverages on offer we tea and biscuits, it was a little too subdued for a grand night out in the big smoke.

 Belfast City Hall

 I wish I could remember the names of the places I went to, but some highlights were:
A double rum and coke for £5 in a huge bar that played great music
A beastly breakfast that could have fed a starving family
A 3 hour chat in a lovely coffee shop with very cozy sofas
A magical chinese that lets you get a little bit of everything in in tray for a single set price(I didn't pay so I've no idea how much it was) but it was amazingly unhealthy and delicious,perfect 3am food!
Getting to listen to everyones' accent, which is rather tasty too
Getting to hang out with Cecily, I miss her lots.

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Getting Ready For Halloween

I've been working on some Halloween designs for badges/magnets/bottle openers. I figure I'll make the badges into party packs so people can give them out as treats at their door instead of sweets. Also if you were having an adults Halloween party a pack of the beer bottle openers would be fun things to give out to your guests. I simply did some pencil sketches, scanned them in, cleaned them up a bit and coloured them on photoshop. I find it much easier to work from a pencil drawing, as starting a piece on the graphic pad never has the same sense of strenght in the drawing.

I'm a huge fan of Halloween and I love making my costume every year, it's not such a big thing here in Ireland but it's massive in the US so hopefully these pack do well online. Here is a sneaky peek at my designs so far...I'm open to suggestions for more ghoulish images...

Bon Voyage...to me

At long last I'm taking a well deserved break, and going on a long weekend away with the girls from home to Edinburgh. I've been stressed up to the eye balls lately trying to get lots of things done, which means I haven't had much chance to look forward to it. Which I think is a good thing;no expectations, so therefore I should be pleasantly surprised.....hopefully. I'll be back on Tuesday,and I'll have some lovely photos to post.