I almost missed the deadline to apply for the Register of Electors for Friday’s election. You can imagine my delight when I found my reminder card in the mail last week. It said that I should vote at the primary school on Lower Baggot Street. (more…)
8 June 2009
3 June 2009
Face Posters: Set #2
Are you ready to get another set of your very own trading cards of the best Face Posters of Ireland 2009?
Set Two: Download the PDF today!
Now that Set Two is available, it won’t be long before Set One is gone forever!
1 June 2009
Face Posters: Trading Cards #1
For a very limited time
Download and print out your very own trading cards of the best Face Posters of Ireland 2009! Each PDF will be available for just a day or two, so be sure to check in frequently, so that you can…
COLLECT THE WHOLE SET!
Set One: Download the PDF today!
24 May 2009
Busy, busy — but time for art
Anita and I so busy that we’re just now watching the Eurovision 2009 broadcasts from last week. (Fantastacular! Glorilicious!) Mostly, we’re preparing for the big move to Luxembourg in three weeks.
Today, we completed a task 18 months in the making: we bought a lovely painting from one of the regular exhibitors on Sundays at Merrion Square. We’ve strolled around the park at midday on dozens of Sundays, knowing that we would leave Ireland with a souvenir someday. (more…)
19 May 2009
Dracula in Dublin
I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me! …
Safety and the assurance of safety are things of the past. Whilst I live on here there is but one thing to hope for, that I may not go mad, if, indeed, I be not mad already. … For now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for repose. The habit of entering accurately must help to soothe me.
Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, begins with a series of diary entries from the journal of one Jonathan Harker, who travelled to the Carpathian mountains to provide legal services for a certain Count Dracula. I humbly suggest that we follow him. (more…)
9 May 2009
Dublin Politics = Face Posters
This week brought the return of Anita’s beloved “face posters,” the primary form of campaigning that we’ve noticed. These posters, of uniform size and a standard design, are attached to nearly every pole in the neighbourhood. Here are two examples near Baggot Street:
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The upcoming election (in Dublin) is for two levels of government: representatives to the local councils and to the European parliament. The newspapers lead me to believe that there is a close parallel between these elections and mid-term Congressional elections in the US. In both cases, the media and the parties take the results to indicate the popularity of the parties at the national level.
21 April 2009
Caption Seven
Hello, friends! After a bit of a delay, the Bugle staff prepared another photo for your captioning virtuosity. Remember that your entries for one of Captions Six, Seven and Eight will be worth double-points.
The staff will award points for Caption Six in the next twenty-four hours, so contribute your best work to that post right now! Will says that the submissions so far are outstanding. Go Bugle Readers!
(We’ll also award a prize in the Guess the Number Taken!™ contest today. If you haven’t guessed yet, take a stab at it!)
12 April 2009
Talking on the street in Dublin
The Irish government presented its emergency budget for 2009 on Wednesday, and I’d picked up a newspaper to learn about it, after finishing some frivolous shopping. I was sitting outside a cafe, with coffee, reading that the changes would be hard on lower income residents of Ireland.
A women approached me to beg for spare change. I’d seen her around the area quite a bit. She didn’t recognise me, but that was no surprise. (more…)
18 March 2009
16 March 2009
St Patrick’s Anticipation
Tomorrow is March 17th, 2009 — Saint Patrick’s Day! It’s a national holiday for the Republic of Ireland, and the city centres of Dublin and most other towns will be devoted to massive parades.
On last year’s Saint Patrick’s Day, we watched part of the parade. We were meant to fly to Venice that evening, so we could not spend the whole day in Dublin. It was a cold day that threatened rain, but the crowds along Dame Street were enormous nonetheless. (more…)