Vintage Vintage Vintage

Our house grows more and more awesome, with ever more vintage candle stands in the alcoves and on the book shelves that our living room features and a growing numbers of inspiring items on our walls. There is for instance the polished mirror showing a map of how people viewed the world in older times, bought at an antiquary in Carlingford, and added today is an old map of Ireland caught in a warped wooden frame. The latter has already three drawing pins punctured on its surface, indicating the places in Ireland that we have visited. Needless to say that the explicit endeavour is to have the entire map dotted with colourful pins in three years’ time. We found this unit this morning in a lively what used to be shop floor someplace west Dublin, filled with people selling antiques, posters, paintings and woodwork. American sixties music was played, and the rear featured a number of stools, chairs, tables and couches where people could eat organic food and drink fair trade coffee. Spending all the cash money we had on as much stuff as we could carry back home we ended up with a whole lot of new decorative stuff. Awesome!

I had already been assured by my former fellow trainee Jan (who spent 10 weeks in Dublin) that the restaurants here are first-class. Until yesterday we had eaten at some decent places indeed, yet those humble experiences were altogether dwarfed by the tapas feast we gorged on yesterday night. Spending well over three hours on the spot there was excellent wine and delicious food to make sure I felt more than satiated by the time we got home. Olives drenched in garlic and herbs, stuffed peppers, an astonishing combination of artichokes and ham, chorizo as it should be, thin strips of beef, and figs with soft ice cream need little verbal amplification I reckon.

Lets close with the standard line of my favourite radio station here (they literally play my own peculiar mix of music listed in my playlist) in their paradoxical attempt to attract both people appreciative of good music and the broad segment of proletarians who are usually all too keen to keep up with quasi famous people’s day to day frivolousness: “More music less talk on Q102, let’s move on to the celebrity news flash”. Fortunately the latter lasts adequately short to make up for the good stuff. Soon more and better, tomorrow morning week IV in the Irish capital commences!