Inchoate

The Dublin Freeze

As seen in London, New York... Prepare your pose.

Sunday 25th May 2008

18.33 - 18.39

Halfway along Grafton Street, near the clock outside Barratts: map

The Grand Central Freeze:

Kiting

A little while back I impulse bought a landboard and little beginner (1.4m²) kite. Took it out to Sandymount beach with almost no wind and kind of flew it; had a hard time. Then last week there were more winds and up it went, woohoo! it wasn't enough to drag my ass around the beach (that came later) but enough to get the hang of which line to pull and figure-of-eight it through the power zone.

As Fortune would have it, also out kiting was Ben who very kindly let me have a crack at Samurai 5m² monster. Here's a few pics, including it dragging me around,

(Yes, Jez, I should've looked into this when you first mentioned it a decade or so ago :-))

Dublin Santacon 2006

A week after the madness that was London Santacon, Santacon arrives in Dublin! Go here for more info: Santa's on Bebo.

(I've always wanted a megaphone, and jaysus, is this thing loud. That's a "tequila belt" I'm wearing, complete with shot glasses--possibly one of the coolest and most destructive Christmas presents I've ever got [thanks Eva!]. Accompanied by Jack Daniels, and a pound of chocolates, Santa is ready!)

Magic weekend

Euroburner (European Burning Man) crew Lady C and John put on a house-warming in Malahide (20km north of Dublin) and folks from as far as London showed up and partied - including a very cool folk band, complete with accordion and bizarre upturned metal tub cello. Was fab catching up with friends and meeting new ones. Especially keeping an eye on (and helping out where I can with) Ian, the Irish Burner agitator's ambitious plans...

Fortunately, I got lost and ended up scootering to Howth along the coast road, rather than inland. Once corrected by a helpful drunk local I got some more twisty coastal road to Malahide, and then to party. Late next day, giving a lovely new burner native Dubliner friend a lift back we rode back down along the coast as the sun was setting and took a night tour of Dun Laoghaire and Dalkey, with its "Bel Air" of Irish real estate (Neil Jordan, Damon Hill, Enya, etc). Evening finished extremely pleasantly with a roast duck dinner and fabulous Irish hospitality chez Billings, and an invite to go sailing, land yachting, and paint boats in Galway!

Time to drag me and my grin to bed.