Well... I haven't updated in a while but of course it doesn't mean I haven't been up to much. First and foremost, I am sad to report that I was in my first proper bike accident (we won't count that time when I was 14 and I wiped out on a sandy road). I was going straight through an intersection, and was hit by a car coming from the opposite direction who was turning. She didn't see me (remarkably, since I was right in front of her). Here's my poor little bike:

It took two weeks and two x-rays, but they finally decided that my wrist is broken, so I got a huge cast! It's very annoying. I can't do yoga, go running, ride a bike, or do anything sweaty! Here I am looking very tired after getting my cast:

So it's been taking me a long time to do things without the use of my wrist -- but on the up side, my left hand is becoming more dextrous! The accident was a month ago, so I'm mostly over the feeling sorry for myself stage, however I still have at least a month to go with this cast, so I reserve the right to self-pity at a later stage.

I've gone on a couple of outings with friends who were kind enough to cart me out of Dublin to the "mountains" (large hills).

Visitors Centres in Ireland never cease to amuse me -- this nation sure loves its taxidermy. Here's the visitor's centre near Glendalough:

and here I am with a yak:

Not surprisingly, the yak looks better than I do, as I was feeling rather car sick from the journey. I will try to refrain from posting too many nature scenes:

What else? We had a fun time a couple weeks ago at Seomra Spraoi's first ever Karaoke night! I co-MCed as "American Diddly Idle" with "Darby O'Chill" -- it was a St. Patrick's day theme, so I wore my father-in-law's green Ireland sweater vest with an Ireland scarf.

My co-host held up signs to increase audience participation:

(audience:)

(photos by Andrew Flood)

And who can forget last week's big protest against the Household tax? I have a lot to say about it, but unfortunately I don't have the energy to say it all here. It was moving. It was energizing, but it was also sad. It was also funny! As always the signs were clever and heartfelt.

CLICK HERE for photos of the rally

But wait...there's more!

Way back when it opened, we were all wondering what the HELL could be in the National Leprechaun Museum. Every time we walked by, I'd ask, "What's in there??" So when a LivingSocial coupon came up for it, I couldn't resist paying 9 euro for two tickets. Then the challenge was finding someone to go with me! But go we did, and let me tell you, and I don't say this lightly, it was shit. Total shit! Our tour guide/story teller was a nice dude. He was someone I'd totally love to have some pints with. But it isn't his fault that the Leprechaun Museum is 100% a complete waste of time and money. Though I don't regret paying the 9 euro to sate my curiosity.
Here's a pot of "gold":

Here's Una and little Lola sitting on a giant chair (designed to make visitors feel like Leprechauns)

And last but not least, we went to the last ever Miss Alternative Ireland. I have a real knack for ending up with the worst seat in the house. I don't know how I manage it! I'm always in the last row. Despite paying to be in the circle, our seats were not so great. But it was still a good time! I liked the set design this year.

There's more stuff that I've been getting up to, of course, but I'm going to end it there. The weather was glorious for a while, then it went cold again. Hopefully we will have some warmth soon because I have a fantastic new yellow spring jacket that I want to wear!

So clearly I have a problem updating lately! Don't worry, dear readers. I have been up to lots of fun and exciting things! But I have not been up to a lot of blogging, unfortunately! So I have devised a small plan that will hopefully ensure that I update at least a fair amount more: shorter posts! I know this may seem as a cop-out, but sometimes these blog entries take me such a long time that I procrastinate, and then I put it off so long it doesn't happen!

Still, I'm going to try to do a small re-cap of what I've been up to over the past couple of months (besides working!). Let's see...

Dublin Feminist Walking Tour in March. I was honoured to be asked to design the guide pamphlet to this year's DFWT. The tour was interesting, of course a little depressing, but a lot of fun. You can hear the audio of the tour and see photos by clicking here.

photo by Andrew Flood.

Alternative Miss Ireland! It was a little birthday present to myself, and I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly! I splurged and got us decent seats, so no nosebleeds for us! While I will admit that it wasn't quite up to the quality of 2009's show, it was a really good time. I took a couple of short movies, but of course I have to apologize for the quality (one thing I haven't gotten around to in the past two months is getting a new camera!):
Will St. Leger covers "Don't you want me baby" I stopped filming only seconds before a small man dressed as Satan ran out from underneath this huge ball gown:


The winner performing "Love is a Battlefield."


The winner was a true performer:

photo by Peter Fingleton

And finally, a little clip of a Julie Mandrews act. I think Julie had the best staging of the night:


We had some really nice weather in April. I had a nice time hanging out at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park for the Experience Japan festival. The line was a bit too long for sushi, but they had drummers and harpists as well as people walking around in all sorts of Japanese dress.

We took the opportunity to hang out with some Donkeys, too.

Here's our friends Winty and Laura enjoying the gardens:

A greenhouse:

The topiaries in the formal garden:

We went to Kilkenny for Easter Weekend. I will have to post Mark's photos that he took with his film camera at a later date. Kilkenny is a cute little town! Though I will say that there were a lot of "hen parties" (gaggles of women celebrating upcoming nuptials, aka bachelorette parties) there that weekend! And I don't know if it was just the holiday weekend, or if Kilkenny is like that every weekend, but there was some serious partying going on, let me tell you. I felt like I was at Mardi Gras! We went with Mark's parents and Uncle Billy, and the five of us had a very pleasant time indeed. And I even got to take advantage of the hotel pool, jacuzzi, and sauna, so it was an added bonus. Stay tuned for photos (at some point!).

Big news for my workplace, Rediscover Fashion. We had a big fashion show at the Guinness Storehouse! It was covered on television, radio, and in most of the newspapers in Ireland. The sold-out show was hosted by Brendan Courtney, a presenter from an Irish fashion show called "Off the Rails." There was a lot of stress (and one sleepless night on my part) leading up to the event, which included a pop-up shop and reception, but the show was brilliant and we sold quite a bit of our collection already! Click here for photos of the event. Here I am, walking down the runway with the designer, Carrie-Ann (front) and the rest of the team:

I worked on several of the outfits, so it was a blast to see my handiwork come down the runway. I look forward to someday seeing my own designs on the stage, but for how it's fun to learn a heck of a lot about construction. I have excellent teachers at Rediscover Fashion, for sure. Here's my favorite look that I sewed (on the right, the dress and bolero jacket):

As part of the Mindfield festival, we went to see a discussion on Maeve Brennan and Alice Mulligan.

"Chaired by the novelist Anthony Glavin, and featuring the critic and fiction writer, Dr Angela Bourke, and the recently appointed Trinity College Dublin/National Library of Ireland Cultural Coordinator, Dr Catherine Morris, Rediscovered Women explores how, in each generation, certain women writers can be written out of the narrative of Irish writing. Their conversation explores the lives of two fascinating, radical Irish women writers – who, for different reasons, were forgotten, and are only now being rediscovered." I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, and immediately went to the bookstore and bought a collection of short stories by Maeve Brennan.

But there other cool things afoot as part of Mindfield in Merrion Square that day, including this massively cool puppets, which I just couldn't get enough of!

What else? Picnic in the Park with my comrades from RAG:

For our anniversary, Mark surprised me with tickets to see the band Explosions in the Sky at Vicar Street. I wasn't sure how I'd like seeing an instrumental band, but the experience was quite moving, and I recommend their live show to anyone. Click here for photos of the show (not taken by me). The show far exceeded my expectations, and I was really glad we went.

Last week our friends William and Eilis had a Wickerman-themed party, and it was a really fun time. It was a costume party (they call it "fancy dress" here) and some people really went all out! Here are some of William's photos of the festivities:

But for a real idea, you have to CLICK HERE for video of us dancing around the May pole.

Well this post has taken me over two hours, and my backside is sore! I know I've left out a bunch of cool stuff, like a documentary about Dublin architecture and a panel discussion about the hunger strikes. Maybe I'll post about those later. For now, I'm going to try to update more regularly, if not with as much detail.

Last year at this time, I was in the US and disappointed to have to miss the 2010 Alternative Miss Ireland Pageant, which happened to fall on my birthday. This year, it's happening on the eve of my birthday, and I treated myself to tickets to the show. And I even splurged on good seats!

If you're in Dublin (or will be next week), you really should go to this show. First off, it's a guaranteed GOOD TIME. And secondly, proceeds go to Irish HIV/AIDS organizations, so it's for a good cause. But more than that, it's worth every penny! You will laugh your budunkis off.

Watch this entertaining promo, and then book your tickets! See you there!

Watching the Saint Patrick's Day Parade alone is kind of depressing, I'll admit it. Mark and I were not planning on going down for it, and then we were, and then I chickened out. And so now I'm watching it on TV and Mark is reading in the other room pretending not to be annoyed at me. Now I'd like to go, but I know that if I do, I won't get a glimpse of anything but the backs of people's heads. The problem is that I don't really like crowds. I'm afraid I would just become frustrated and annoyed. Then again I might be amused and delighted! Who knows? Since I am apparently not going, apparently I will never know.

But at least you get a good view of the pageant on television. There are some wonderfully creative costumes and floats!

Speaking of pageants, Mark and I attended the The Alternative Miss Ireland pageant at The Olympia Theatre. What a fantastic show! We were in the "Upper Circle," which is a third story balcony so steep that it's disorienting when you first get up there. I was sure I wouldn't be able to see anything up there, but when the show started, I could see well enough. Here are some images and audio from the Irish Times of the event, whose proceeds went to charity. A recurring theme of the night (though I'm not certain how intentional it was) was Gay Marriage, which did make the both of us a little teary at bits.

Coming from a place where same-sex couples can marry, it was a little sad in that respect to return to life without such rights. (Not to mention illegal abortion, but that's a topic for another day.) But the feeling of hope on the stage and in the audience permeated the mood completely. And I do believe that it's coming within the next decade. I hope it does! I don't like being a have when there are have-nots, when it costs nothing to give.

Anyhoo... we moved on to PantiBar for a drink. The music was fun, but the place was PACKED. We were a couple of sardines in there. After we got our drinks, I was moving over to find a better place to stand, and I got positively SHOOED by this pushy drag queen. I couldn't be mad though. I mean, she had places to go and be fabulous, and I was holding her up with my little midget self getting in the way!