June Bank Holiday Weekend

Right, today is to be the best day of the weekend so we decided to cram in the many, many things that were on in Dublin this weekend into ONE day.  Yeah!

We collected Harry's mate Jordan (a magic kid who says please and thank you and seems to think we're actually nice parents) and headed to the point village market where we had an absolute blast.  Met many people who were fantastic (more later) and the only bitchin thing was being fleeced by the ice cream chap.  I wasn't paying attention and paid SEVENTEEN euro for 6 99's and one bottle of water. 

What was lovely and I mean VERY lovely were the pie people.  What caught my eye was the rocking tshirts they were wearing and the smell, the smmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeell of the gorgeous pies.  I have a feeling the pasty is proper old school pastry and made with lard or the like and came with gravy and mash.  Oh good God but it was fab.  Check out the guys when you go to the market and check out me stuffing my face.  I, incidently, got the 'moo and blue' which is beef and stilton and frickin gorgeous.  Sharon is the rather cool lady posing with the very lovely boy, aren't the t-shirts great?  Actually, am looking at one of their postcards as I type this and would give right arm for their thai chook pie - free range british chicken, fragrant thai green curry, sweet potato and lime in that lovely pastry again.  Yum.

Who else did we meet, when walking down the street???, a very nice fishmonger who also has a bit of a problem eating octopus due to their cleverness.  Excellent fish though, shame we couldn't buy any as we were out for the day, on the doss.  Also, there is a veg/fruit/flower guy from Kilkenny who has both the nicest flowers at most excellent prices and really, really nice fruit.  Good for chat too.

The balloon buy made most excellent balloon stuff and worked for tips.  Arthur gave him two euro and Jordan gave him 5c as that was all he has.  Think balloon chap was, er, disappointed.  Hey, so would I be if I made an excellent alien.

Here's some stuff you can do. 

Market rocks but AVOID rip off ice cream van!  Esp, as there is so many other nice things to try there.

What else?  Over to DunLaoghaire's People's Park via where I grew up in Sandymount.  Went down the 'avenue' and showed the kids the house I grew up in and Oz and Arthur wanted to know what kind of car we had when I was little.  Told them I didn't have a car when I was little whereupon they asked 'did you have a horse and carriage?'  How old do they think I am.  Tried to show them where I used to work/go to school/hang out etc. but they didn't care.  Jaysus.

So the People's Park bit, they are having a weekend of free open air cinema and we chose to go see 'Aliens vs Monsters' as they put it.  Oh bliss, picnic blanket, falafel, coke cola and popcorn and sunshine.  Happy, happy days.  We were so close to Teddy's yet didn't get icecream as this morning's icecream turned us off.  How shite is that?  Kids loved the movie and me and Darren napped.  Oz got candyfluff and dropped in the grass but ate it anyway and Arthur whinged because he didn't notice the candyfloss machine until too late.  I know everyone has to earn money but surely €3.00 is a lot of money for what essentially just some caster sugar and colouring.    Today, and we did nothing major, cost the guts of €150.  That's a lot of money or is that just me?  Kids had a great time and we'd been building up to this weekend so it was no bother but it would be so nice if maybe things were a teeny bit cheaper.  Just a little.  Please????

Wandered past a friend of my ma's house today and caught up with her for a while.  It was so nice to see B but so hard too as she reminds me of, well, me ma.  She made me promise, B not my ma, that when she dies I stick a pin into her to ensure she is dead.  Mad woman.  But what a woman.  She was the one who gave me the expression 'mouth like a crow's hole'.  Which, you have to agree, is a great saying.  Love that woman.

Then to the Tall Ships in town where the kids ate MORE.  They are bins.  I'll let the pictures show you what they had.