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28th February 2003 (Dublin) Breakfast at Cafe on rd parallel to Harcourt St. My vegi breakfast is fine - eggs, mushroom, tom, tasty bagel.

Pop in to Temple Bar Gallery and Studio to see photos by Shirana Shahbazi (iranian artist living in Switzerland) - quite a mix of portraits, garden scenes, what looks like a fight on the street, and one giant painted portrait of a woman.

Then to Project Gallery where there is an installation of pieces called Permaculture, by around 25 to 30 artists! The space is quite small, and crowded. There's a network of thing ropes spanning the space - they're made out of plastic carrier bags! There are a number of videos, the function "R=v^2 / W" on the wall made out of lots of small pictures and fragments of stuff. Painted on 2 walls are the names of (coastal?) irish towns and on the other 2, the names of birds. There are small vibrating motorised thingies whirring here and there and a large vibrating spider in one corner. There are also piles of "TheMetropolitanComplex" a round table discussion by artists and curators.

Walk on to Dublinia - e6 in, OK. Displays aimed at kids, while printed stuff for adults. Quite large.

Eat at Aya - Sushi bar. Very nice. First time I've been to a conveyor belt Sushi bar but it works very well. Chef stands in middle and prepares dishes. Different plate colours indicate price. Have about 6 dishes of 2 Nigiri pieces each. Very tasty. Need to checkout my sushi etiquette. I know how to eat the Nigiri (long thin ones with fish on top) - you hold them with thumb and 2nd finger and eat in two bites) but not sure about large rolls (Hand Rolls) or cones. Food very nice.

27th February 2003 (Dublin)

Visit Dublin National History Museum. Good display of stone age and bronze age flints, bronse tools and great collection of gold artifacts. Lunala, disks, torqs, fastenings,... must be worth millions.

Eat at a place called Capucino Bar in Temple Bar - have a very nice veg quiche.

Go on to Jameson's Whisky tour - our guide is Spanish with quite a strong accent. Other people on the tour are miserable, and it's not really a great tour - very quick, not much to look at. Miss film at start and chance to volunteer for whisky tasting.

I go round catherdal, which costs e5, and isn't really worth it - esp. as the exhibition section had already closed.

Eat at Taste Of India, food OK, but not great.

26th February 2003 (Dublin)

Visit Newgrange Neolithic tomb. Arrive 1:15. Get 3/4 hour in tomb. Summer visitors get much shorter.

Back in Dublin, eat at 101 Talbot St. Restaurant is upstairs. I have Sole in a cheese sauce, with boiled potatoes, carots and mange-tout.

As a starter I have a very nice feta and olive salad - tomato very flavoursome, leaves good too. For desert I have poached pears with homemade biscuits. The waitress also brings biscuits for all with the coffee.

Over all a very nice place to eat.

25th February 2003 (Dublin)

Breakfast at Bewleys Oriental Cafe on Grafton Street - very nice windows, not great value though.

Go on the Guinness Tour - Good, but bad lighting and signs - it would be virtually impossible to experience it properly if you had any visual impairment (or were over about 50)!

Visit Dublin Museum Of Modern Art, have nice Spanish Omlette in cafe and see exhibitions by Painter John and William(?) Doherty (photos related to troubles, on the theme of memories).

Get interviewed by radio 2 on way to theatre - they want quotes on favourite sci-fi moments. Give cheesy one on H 2 G 2 vogan poetry "It's really terrible poetry, but an excellent moment." Just get to theatre on time.

Saw All My Sons at the Abbey Theatre by Arthur Miller. Set excellent. Good story bit of a rollercoaster with so much thrown in. Audience like it but they're tourists! I like it too. Accents are good. Story set post war in the backyard of a typical amrican family. Pop ran/runs a mechanic shop which supplied the U.S Airforce. His partner is injail for shipping cracked engine parts which crashed planes. Now his son wants to marry his dead sons's girlfriend...

24th February 2003 (Dublin)

Got "Dart" to Pearse Steet Station from Ferry (note for travellers - all the other stations have lot of signs telling you their name, Pearse is the 1st one which doesn't - it's an old fashioned, cavernous place, like a real mainline station).

First impressions: No street signage for tourists, obviously that would just pander to them... Lots of lost French people... Cars seem different somehow - maybe it's just the registration plates. Seems cosmapolitan.

Found Harcourt Hotel on Harcourt Street with no problems. Seems quite nice.

20th February 2003

Saw The Man Without A Past at The MAC and several comedians at The Comedy Kav

13th February 2003

This guy had the great idea of wearing a nametag all the time. He's done more than 2 years now ! http://www.hellomynameisscott.com/ There's some nice, gentle stories of his experiences on the site.

12th February 2003

Added blogchalk...

This is my blogchalk: United Kingdom, West Midlands, Birmingham

Heard a radio programm on Influenza Pandemics. An InfluenzaPandemic is probably the thing which will kill you.

Geo URLs let you find websites near you. I haven't added them to my site yet, but here's a list of sites close to me - http://geourl.org/near/?p=http://www.jgarden.org/gardens.asp?ID=238&dist=500

Added Sub Rosa Blog - http://www.stuarthomfray.co.uk/subrosa/bloG/index.php and Stuart Langridge - http://www.kryogenix.org/ to my Birmingham Bloggers page. The info on Geo URLs and blogchalk came from Stuart L's blog.

Updated my Web Statistics

I know that you shouldn't laugh at your own jokes, but I re-read some of the Dump The Pubs stuff at - http://www.dumpthepubs.com/ - and really enjoyed it.

7th February 2003

Saw Misty's Big Adventure at the Market Tavern.

6th February 2003

Found this recording of computer music generated by a line printer in 1970. I knew that this had been done, but had never heard it before. It's not bad! - http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/1403_godrestye.mp3 More similar stuff from here - http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/23321

5th February 2003

Saw Pram, Mike In Mono and Floach at the Medicine Bar.

Previous: Blog January 2003 Next: Blog March 2003

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See Also: Web Changes for other recent updates, All Blog Pages for previous blogs

This is my blogchalk: United Kingdom, West Midlands, Birmingham