Ted and I had actually a very nice couple days in Dublin. Despite my initial impulse to leap out of bed and take the 8:15 train in and get to Ikea the moment it opened, wiser minds prevailed and we went in at 10:15, had lunch, and then … well, actually, then we had a complete and total failure to communicate with the bus driver about getting to Ikea, so we ended up taking the *entirety* of the bus route. Furthermore, it happened that we’d selected the route that went through Ballymon, which is a slum that they ran out of money for gentrification before getting to it, so it was quite the ride.
Ikea, which I frankly dread, was quite soothing after over an hour on the bus. :) Actually, it wasn’t bad at all, probably because 1. we had shopped online first and already had the list of things we needed and where to pick them up, 2. we managed to skip 90% of the rat maze (that’s why I really hate Ikea: it’s hard to get through it without going through every. goddamned. showroom…and I don’t like shopping to begin with), and 3. there were not 8,000 people there like there were in the Berkeley Ikea, which is the only other one I’ve ever been to. Anyway, we got our loot (a couple of new bookcases) and only spent slightly more than intended (because we decided little door things for a couple squares in one of the bookcases were irresistable) and arranged for home delivery, which costs too much and made us feel like we should go back in and buy some more things until we reached the 300 kilo limit for the price of that delivery. But we didn’t. :) And we said we lived in Longford, and yer man at the delivery counter looked alarmed and said, “Do ye’s need it before Christmas?” and we said no, which made him look slightly less alarmed. And then somewhat hopefully, he said, “Do ye’s need it before New Year’s?” and we said no, and I said, “We need it before April 15th,” and he looked affronted and said, “It’s no more than two weeks and we’ll ring ye’s the day before to say we’re comin’!” :)
The bus ride back, which was on another route, was far less time consuming than the one in, and we got back to Dublin in time to go see a reasonably early showing of Avatar. Of course, because we opted for an earlier showing instead of dinner, we had ice cream sundaes and popcorn for dinner, but oh well. :) And I liked Avatar quite a lot more than I expected to, although watching it in 3D made my eyes very, very tired. (This is only partly because it’s 165 minutes long. Coraline, at 88 minutes, also made my eyes very tired. I think it’s just the 3D.) We’re going to go see it again this afternoon in 2D, because we both sort of feel like we didn’t see it as clearly as we could’ve, and I have no real sense of how good the animation was because the 3D altered the experience. It didn’t, though, overwhelm it: this was the first 3D movie I’d seen where I kind of felt like the 3D enhanced rather than drowned out the film. So that was kind of cool, and so will seeing it in 2D be.
Saturday we were up and out of the hotel by not quite even 10am, and swung through a few stores on Henry Street in search of gifts for the nephews (and didn’t find any, which was just as well because it turned out their mother had already gotten them what we were looking for) without experiencing the Christmas Crush, because even in Dublin the Saturday before Christmas, the Irish do not get out and about before 11am in any numbers worth mentioning, and indeed only by noon were the streets beginning to get packed. But by that time we’d long since dawdled over to the Grafton Street area, where we were prevented from going nuts in the excellent kitchen store by dint of 1. so many people in there you had to leave to change your mind (it’s a very, very tiny store, so even without people being out en masse it’s just crowded) and more importantly, 2. them being out of some of the things we intended to get. But Ted has a doughnut cutter now, and more chocolate molds. Om nom nom. :) And we popped into a couple vintage shops, which were kinda cool (there was a really great 20’s era dress at one of them, but I didn’t have the €275 to blow on it, and some fine tweed jackets with leather elbows at another, but none to fit Ted), and wandered through St. George’s Street (or something like that) Market, where I found a derby that actually fit Ted. The following conversation ensued:
Kit: Oh my. That’s very good. You should buy that.
Ted: I don’t know. It’s black. I’d need a new coat. And shoes. And slacks or Dockers. I don’t need it right now, anyway.
Kit: I’ll buy you a new wardrobe. We’ve never found a derby that fits you before. You should buy it.
Ted: We could come back for it some other time.
Kit: No, really. I insist. You’re giving Jude Law a run for his money.
Ted: *buys it*
I’ll post a picture later. :)
Then we went to Breic’s seventh birthday party, where Seirid tried desperately to impress the sole (and very cute) little girl who attended, by, among other things, hitting her over the head with a foamcore shield. *laughs* It was a very nice party, really, and Breic got a bunch of good loot and the adults stood around shouting to be heard over the children until it was time for us Longford folk to all head home on the train. And because we are *clever*, we went to the Drumcondra station where the 4pm train stops (many of the others do not), and were able to get on and get *seats*, which struck us as miraculous, without going back into the city centre. So yeah, an absolutely lovely weekend all around, and to top it all off, today it is snowing! Hooray! *beams* (Apparently I need to live somewhere where it’s sunny 80% of the year, there’s 4 or so months of winter, I can bike and recycle, and there is health care available. Is that asking too much? :))