“If you like the Light House cinema please help support it against greedy developers and keep it open. Come along to a film this weekend and if possible bring someone along who hasn’t been there yet so they can see how great it is too.
If you feel more strongly drop an email to your local councillor or TD, especially if you live in Dublin 7. The landlord is looking for a crazy rent increase that was based on the Smithfield Regeneration being completed in two years, all the nearby retail units being let, and DIT moving into the neighbourhood, non of this went ahead. Plus the whole development only got the planning permission in the first place based on the developer agreeing to give a certain amount of space for cultural purposes.”
I had the pleasure of working with the owners of the Light House Cinema in 2008 in the run up to the opening of the cinema. It was a rare pleasure to work with two people so passionate about film in Ireland, global arthouse cinema and just jolly good movies and about their new cinema.
Apart from anything about protecting Irish culture and cultural venues this is a truly astonishing building. (I’ll add some of the photos I took at the opening later) and it would be a shame to see it left to decay or to be used for other intentions.
I remember well going to see a few films in The (original) Light House on Middle Abbey Street before they closed all those years ago and so was very excited to be asked to help them with some online work in 2008. The general sense I got through my online research about the imminent re-opening was that many people had very fond memories of the Abbey st venue. People wrote eloquently about how in the midst of the gloom of the 80s Neil Connolly and Maretta Dillon managed to find gloomier films enlightening films from around the world to cheer them up, inspire them, stretch their imaginations and broaden their horizons at a time when there was precious little of that going on in many other aspects of Irish life.
In recent years I have visited the Light House Cinema on a number of occasions (but to be honest probably not enough). The highlights for me in those three years have been Persepolis, Kisses (but I’m biased!) and Precious. Where else would you see films like this in gorgeous, inspiring, state of the art surroundings?
Go now and book a ticket to see something in the Light House this weekend
Ah the Irish Summer! Well so far this year we cannot complain too much. Most primary schools will finish up this week so expect a turn for the miserable in no short time. This year, however, I am uber-prepared. I have a list of things to do, I’ve sorted the toys and with quiet optimism I have purchased* a pair of children’s wetsuits from Puddleducks. I say quiet optimism because, while I hope to hit the beach, I am presuming it will be cold enough to require said wetsuits. About 3 years ago I bought a wetsuit for Himself so that he could “enjoy” surfing when visiting friends in Donegal even in November. Either the wetsuit or male bravado enabled him to stay in the water for up to 3 hours while myself and the other surf wag chased children up and down the beach purely for the purposes of keeping us all warm. We soon realised after one weekend in Donegal when the kids were paddling with their Puddleducks raincoats on and nothing else (I kid you not!) that wetsuits were a no-brainer for the Irish weather.
Last year we holidayed in lovely Lahinch. (I never did rustle up the energy to post about the lovely holiday we had there. We rented a holiday home in Ballyellery from Trident Holiday Homes. Photo on right was the view from the cottage on one of the truly Irish days 🙂 Ask me if you need more details.) Lahinch is a major surf destination so Himself and some of our friends had a great time. Yet again I missed an opportunity to surf as I was pregnant and too bloody tired even though I wasn’t so far gone. The weather was only okay at the time and we looked at wetsuits in the surf shops in town. The available range wasn’t great in Lahinch and even the second hand ones were pricy so we left it. However there were a number of days where we had to quit the beach as children’s lips turned blue!
I sent a tweet to Puddleducks earlier this year asking them if they were planning to stock wetsuits ever and Aedan replied to me that they were researching the options. A while later Suzanne contacted me and said they were sourcing two different types of wetsuits from suppliers and would I like to try them out. We opted for the full length suits in XSmall and Small. They have since launched a range of different beach products including these suits, a shorty version and various UV suits and beach shoes.
Due to the fact that their father has a wetsuit the Nippers were already favourably inclined. Considering the pair of them had to date refused to even put a two in the water we were concerned that it would be money badly spent regardless. Well the Nippers seemed to think that these suits would make them invincible and Nipper 2.0 even had great plans to go bodyboarding! (Where does he get these ideas!) Their first outing was literally a wash out which involved a real Irish picnic in the car before putting on all our raingear for a walk and some sandcastling in the rain on the beach. Our next outing was on one of the hottest days in this recent hot spell. My sister and I rustled the two of them up after school and headed for Sandycove. While I wouldn’t recommend Sandycove for a hot day, even midweek it was jammed, it was perfect to get the boys in the water in their suits. It’s a very calm inlet which helped them get over any reservations they might have had.
They played happily for the 2.5 hours that we were there in and out of the water. No blue lips and we are saving a fortune in suncream! The suits are great and a good fit with some growing space in them. The Nippers are very different shapes and both at the smaller end of the scale for their age. You can see from the photos that the limbs require a little turning up. Nipper 1.0 is whip thin and so we managed to pull the suit onto him no bother. Nipper 2.0 still has some of his baby fat (he recently turned 4) so we struggled a fair bit to get him into his. Let me put it like this: a child who was disinclined to put on their suit would win that particular battle! That would be my only issue with the XSmall size – it doesn’t seem to allow for the fact that a child that age might be likely to have a little more pudge. Add neoprene, however stretchy, to the mix and there’s a bit of heave ho-ing. But they were both very easy to remove and because of their size far easier to rinse than an adults. In fact I rinsed them in the sink and there is no way you would fit even a small adult suit into a sink.
We subsequently spent an afternoon on Curracloe strand in Co. Wexford which was far less sheltered and there was a stiff breeze that day. Again they played very happily in and out of the water although Nipper 2.0’s courage failed him somewhat. (Who’s talking about bodyboarding now, eh?!) Of course, I put them all to shame by swimming in plain ol’ togs. Due to the ongoing fluctuations in my body weight over the last 8 years there has been no point in getting a wetsuit for myself!
At €35.99 for the suits I think they are well worth it. They seem to be well made (I’m not expert) and include all the features you would expect on a wetsuit: tight ankles and cuffs and a turtle neck with adjustable fastener. The zip is sturdy with a strap for closing and it tucks away neatly. All the tech specs are included in the Puddleducks listing. Look at it like this: on an overcast day you might decide that the beach is just too cold for the kids so you go to the swimming pool. In Lahinch last year that notched up €21.00 for 3 of us. Alternatively if you compare it to the cost of suncream at circa €10.00 per bottle which may get wiped off as soon as it’s on it’s also a far longer lasting bargain. I also really believe it’s the way forward for holidaying in Ireland. I’m the only family member who doesn’t have a suit but I noticed in Lahinch last year that most of the families were all kitted out in them and many of them were not surfing at all, just swimming.
*Disclosure: I received these suits at cost-price from Puddleducks.
Last February Irish blogger Jason Roe had his 15 minutes of fame after an online tussle with some of Ryanair’s staff. I don’t know if it was a wish to prove that all bloggers, twitterers, whatever, are not actually idiots or lunatics that prompted Jason to start organising the BTW (Blogger, Twitter, Whatever) Meetups but they have been going from strength to strength since. I made it to the last one and it was a great opportunity to put a few faces to names. Embarrassingly it was rather difficult for me to keep those names attached to those faces in one instance but it had been a long day!
The next BTW meetup is on Thursday 3rd September in the Kudos Bar in the Clarion Hotel in the IFSC. There’ll be eating and drinking and it kicks off at 7pm. It doesn’t matter if you are new to blogging or tweeting or if you’re an old hand, you should come along. It will be fun, you’ll meet new people and maybe learn a few tricks about gaining international notoriety from the man himself!
Abigail is playing at the King Kong Club on October the 16th at 9pm with her band. Come along and support her – I’m hoping to be there too. It’s a free and fun night. Tasters of lots of great bands. 5 Acts play three songs each. Then you clap loudest for your favourite band….it better be Abigailsong!! Abigail says “Ah no, everyone who gets up and shares their music is a winner. I’m looking forward to it. Bring your Granny.” You can let her know about your imminent attendance on Facebook or listen to her on MySpace.
Check out the King Kong page for more details on http://www.myspace.com/kingkongclub
So Saturday morning I says to Himself, “Why don’t we buy a barbeque and invite a few people over?” I figured at that late stage most people would have their Saturday night plans sorted. All this time while we sat at home, being all domesticated, convinced all our peers were out raving it up, it turns out they’re all looking for stuff to do too. All jokes aside though it was great to have everyone over to see the new place and I think everyone was well fed: we cooked up lamb kebabs (big thanks to KH for helping make them), mediterranean cous cous salad (the recipe for which is no longer on the BBC website since they dickied it up) and the ubiquitous chocolate fudge dolled up with some strawberries and cream. Himself has just arrived home from London so I gotta go…
