Imaginosity and Remnants of the Celtic Tiger

Ok, Opa Dykstra, here are some more posts for you. Sorry for the delay. =)

Yesterday we decided to take a trip out to the Children's Museum for Norah. I've heard a lot about this place from other parents so we decided to make the trek.

 Leaving Blackrock - upstairs on the double decker Dublin Bus. This is Norah's favorite seat.

 Imaginosity! Dublin's Children's Museum (Much like the Seattle Children's museum with the tiny grocery store, miniature doctor's office, post office, etc.)

 Wayne really liked this wall. Each of the gears are magnetic and you can move them around.

 Told you he really liked it.

 Holllld on! Vrrrrooooom!

 Gettin ' some fruit.

 This kid was so funny! Look at his cart! I think maybe he was playing "Supermarket Sweep" - remember that show? It was awful but if he was playing, he'd win.

 The Mini-Diner

 This place was cute, but sadly, our overwhelming feeling after being here was wanting to wash our hands. This is not the ideal environment for a germo-phobe. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I used sanitizing wipes on my hands twice while in the museum before using hand sanitizer before we left. Maybe it's because we just had the flu but we were just a little grossed out by the amount of stuff each kid was touching and licking and sneezing on and we mostly just wanted to leave. It's awful, I know. Norah had a grand old time though and fully burst into tears when we had to leave. (which doesn't happen often so you know it was fun)

Let me give a little background though, on the surrounding environment and why we may have felt this way. First, this is in an area called the Sandyford Industrial Estate. This is the most shocking and striking visual representation of the "Celtic Tiger" boom that we've seen yet. If you speak with any local, at least once during your conversation, you will hear the term "Celtic Tiger". It is still very much in the vernacular and the Sandyford Industrial Estate is a huge example of where things went very wrong.  Essentially the time of the Celtic Tiger was the huge economic boom in Ireland where everyone thought money was going to continue to flow from the skies and that there would never be the "bust" (that must inevitably follow any boom). Well, the Bust came and its aftermath is not pretty.
It was honestly very eery to be in this square where the Children's museum is. Surrounding it, on all sides, are these huge complexes, each about 10 stories high and 3 out of 4 of these huge complexes are completely empty. Or, like this one, halted mid-production, probably 5 or more years ago.
You can see the huge 'tarp' covering the outside has pictures of "future residents" on it. Below I've zoomed in on one of them.

 Here's a man, enjoying the view from his balcony in his plush new apartment. Not quite. The covering is also completely torn and bleached by the sun, contributing to the eery feeling.

 If anyone has read the book "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood (one of my favorite books), this square felt like a scene in that book. It's like a ghost-town filled with the squashed dreams of the contractors and builders and architects who must have thought this would be their biggest project.

 To the left of the above building (this is looking out from the Children's museum) is this apartment complex. It's about 8 stories high, with something like 20 or 30 apartments - alllll empty. You can see it's been sitting empty for years. I could see in the windows to each unit, complete with full kitchens, stoves, cupboards, and....dust. It's so sad. And it's just so eery to see multiple HUGE complexes sitting completely empty just wasting away. Whoever built these had to just walk away, and presumably, no one even owns them.

So, given that the Children's Museum, (a place that's supposed to be cheerful and hopeful), is surrounded on four sides by these empty, desolate carcasses, you might be able to imagine why it wasn't as magical as we had hoped.

 And once you're out of that square, across the street you see this HUGE high rise - also completely abandoned, mid-build. And notice the sign - it still reads "High Profile"-something or other and "units from 186" (presumably 186,000 EURO). Well, something tells me they're not selling....

Looks like they only made it up about 7 floors with the staircases before walking away.

 Here are the banners on the wall surrounding this huge complex - pictures of happy shoppers walking with their new purchases, below their "High Profile" apartments. So sad.

Oh wait, you turn the corner down another road and the empty buildings continue for another 3 blocks. I can't possibly convey the scale of this area. It just goes and goes and it's all empty. As Wayne said to me, "Please don't ever make me come back to this place". Poor guy. Despite this, it was still a lovely afternoon and Norah had a great time so that's all that matters. And I got to see a real live ghost-town in the form of fancy high-rise Dublin apartments. I find it sad and fascinating - what we humans get ourselves into when we run into too much money with not enough foresight.

We then took the LUAS train up to the Dundrum Town Centre (similar to Bellevue Square Mall) and had pizza at a great place. When you end any day with pizza, it's a good day.

She's Crafty!

Alright, everyone.....it has come to this. I have delved into the world of crafti-ness. As my sister Mimi would say, I had a "Crafternoon" this week, and there's no turning back. I discovered the wide-world of a website called "Pinterest". Until last week, this was a noun that was on my horizon - I kept hearing the word "Pinterest" from friends and on Facebook but I honestly had no clue what it was. Turns out, it's still very hard to explain but at least I found out what it was and got registered. It's essentially a website where people post pictures and blogs of things they are interested in, and the point is that you can "Pin" these items to your own 'wall'. Hence the word-smash-up: Pinterest. Very witty. Very sharp.

So there are various interests you can choose to follow (crafts, kids items, recipes, fashion, travel) and then you get pictures of what everyone is doing, on your own page. Anywho, I signed up for things like travel, the Home, kids crafts, etc. Hence, my trip out to the craftstores of Dublin in search of googly eyes, a glue gun, felt and colorful pom-poms.

I am now a crafty-stay-at-home-mom. Might as well embrace this thing right? If I'm going to be home full-time with Norah, I better get on this crafty-mom bandwagon and start makin' crap!

First on the list, a sock-puppet. Keep in mind, this was all acquired so that Norah could join in, but make no mistakes, I sat and did this craft while she played her games on the iPad. Ahh, yes, this is bonding time. Maybe she'll be interested in this stuff sooner or later. For now, I shall continue to hot-glue everything I can get my hands on.

 First, cut off the end of my socks with holes in the heels. =)

 Cut out a cardboard oval for the mouth - and matching felt ovals to glue on.

Next, I glued the mouth into the puppet, and then went to town glueing (gluing?) anything and everything else to the sock puppet - eyes, dinosaur 'spikes', and polka dots.

 

When Norah's older she'll probably say "Mahhhmmm, that's a terrible picture of me!". But she gave Mr. Puppet a kiss, so I had to show it.

Next on the docket: Crafty Piece of Art that I will probably be emabarrassed of in two weeks. =)

 First you buy a canvas. (This is about 1 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet)

Next you paint it. Hmm, that's not the dark gray I thought I bought, is it??

Nope, didn't get any lighter as I continued to paint. Despite it being called "Gray", it is, in fact, Black. Black, black. So, the next day I had to go back to "Art & Hobby" in order to buy more paint. The intended color of this was a dark gray.

 

This is NOT the finished product, but this gives you a general idea for what it will look like. I put the petals on to see where I want to place the flower center, but I have yet to decide on the final colors for the petals, (and the background is still black). I have since finished painting it gray but now need to re-place the petals, hot-glue each one of them down and then plaster the whole thing with this great stuff called "Decopatch". This is like "Modge Podge" in the States (which I've heard about in lots of craft blogs) or, better known as, Decoupàge. It will look much different. I'm a little disappointed with the petal-colors as there is only one craft store here in Dublin and they do not have the selection of scrapbook paper that you would find in the States. At a store like Michael's, for instance, I could've picked the perfect colors and patterns to compliment eachother but instead, this is what I got. No worries though. It'll turn out. I'll be sure to post a picture of the final product. And this will probably be something to go in Norah's room.

Drive to Wicklow

On Saturday: A lovely evening in, as a rainstorm is descending on Dun Laoghaire. We watched the blue skies fade as the dark cloud came over us and it was really very peaceful to watch the rain start. Norah is busying herself in her toy baskets and we're listening to the Fleet Foxes.  

And then on Sunday, our friend Loren was very gracious and let us borrow his car for the day. It was a beautiful, sunny, Spring day (here's hoping for Spring...). We decided to drive south to Wicklow which is only about 35 minutes from us, but far enough that it really feels as if you've 'gotten away'. We were so thankful to Loren for the use of his car because it feels so amazing to get out of the city. We've been carless now for over 2 months (well, actually since November when we sold both of our cars, back in Seattle). This has been great in many ways but we also fail to realize how claustrophobic it has made us feel, as well. We don't realize it until we're in a car, by ourselves, with no timetables, and no constraints. Then we realize how confined we have actually felt in Dublin. I do like not having a car and being so active in our transportation, but it is hard. No doubt about that. It's hard to walk with a 1 1/2 year old to train stations and bus stops. It's hard to inevitably wait 10-15 minutes for the train or bus, then spend the time in transport, only to spend more time walking to your final destination, upon arrival. I romanticized this, and I do still want to 'stick it out' but mannnnn, does it feel good to have the freedom of driving in a car.  So, Loren, if you happen to read this, we're immensely thankful that you afforded us that freedom for a day. It's much more than the simple favor of borrowing the vehicle.

We stopped in at the Mount Usher Gardens for a coffee and a treat.

Annnd, unfortunately, it wasn't until after having our coffee and treats, and walking through the courtyard that we saw this sign: "Gardens are Closed until March 2012". Norah was NOT amused by this. Maybe they could put this sign outside in the parking lot before you drive through to the 'overflow lot', walk through the stores, and buy your coffees. Oh wait, that would defeat the purpose wouldn't it? Better to put a small sign, on the tiny gate, deep in the courtyard, affffter you've been enchanted by the Avoca market and cakes.

We continued driving South to Wicklow and at the edge of town was this beautiful golf course overlooking the ocean.

Golfing with Irish sheep on the countryside and the ocean below - not too shabby.

"NOTICE: Because of the danger of falling debris, this beach is unsafe to use until further notice"

Sooo... naturally, here we are on the beach. As Loren told us later "The best way to get an Irishman to do something is to tell him it's not allowed". So, turns out, we ARE Irish. (It was worth it)

In the town of Wicklow looking back toward Dublin.

Wicklow

Ruins of the Black Castle - built in 1170 AD. This was destroyed in 1640 and has remained a ruin here, ever since.

Driving up into the Wicklow Mountains.

This road us juuusssst wide enough for two cars to pass each other but your mirrors are nearly touching. It can be a bit terrifying.

The Wicklow Mountains put on a show for us...