Tag: dublin

2017 started with Music

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The New Year Festival went on also on the very first day of the New Year and we were not too lazy to get ourselves out to see what was going on. And a lot was going on, especially beside the St Stephen’s Green, where different groups performed to celebrate the New Year despite the cold weather.

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Enjoying the first Concert of 2017

At first, we listened to the Garda Band, which was very cheery and joyful. It seemed that the members were from all over the Ireland and enjoyed themselves a lot. And we enjoyed them too, we even didn’t mind the cold and frosty weather. Especially we enjoyed the  WMCA song when they asked some children to join them on the stage and make the movements. They knew perfectly how to perform.

 

After the Gardas there was a Gospel Choir which was really talented. Their repertory consisted of rock and pop classics, like Led Zeppelin, Queen and other well-known stuff. At the end, there was really cold but as they were so good we didn’t want to miss it and stayed till the very end.

Goodbye 2016, Welcome 2017

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I love to stay at home on New Year’s Eve. For me, it’s perfect to have some nice delicious food, watch some nice shows on TV and drink some sparkling wine at midnight and feel that I am loved, happy and enjoying the moment when looking forward to the New Year to come and surprise me.

newyeareve_dinnerThis year we planned to do it quite the same way – we cooked our NewYear’s dinner, ok, Sean cooked, I just stayed there beside and enjoyed it. This time we had a duck with vegetables and of course, some snacks before and also during the night. I have cooked lots of New Year’s dinners on my own, and also lots of Christmas dinners – all the time when there were just me and my children and sometimes my neighbours, and now, when my children are grown up and having their own Christmas in different parts of the world (who could imagine that years ago), I am just happy to enjoy, that someone is doing that for me and my part is just to be there and enjoy it.

After the dinner, we went to see the Sky Dance – the next show that was taking place at the Custom House. We were well prepared, booked the FREE tickets online and printed them out and took a walk down to the river. It was good that we noticed that the free tickets had to be printed out to get to see the show.

The Sky Dance was very different from anything I had seen before – the dancers were up in the sky, hanging from the tall cranes over the river, on the top of the Custom House and climbing on the walls of the building. that was an amazing way to end the year, with all these flying angels, drummers and girls with floating dresses above your head.

After that, we headed back home to watch Dawn French show and enjoy the Old Tallinn Irish Coffee – a delicious mix of Estonia and Ireland that probably no-one else in Ireland had for their New Year’s Eve 🙂 Ok, there’s not such a secret, you just have to use Old Tallin liqueur instead of Baileys but of course you have to have some Old Tallinn to do that.

And then the New Year Came, 2 hours later than in Estonia 🙂 and we opened our sparkling wine. I hope that all my wishes that I sent to the Place Where the Wishes are Created to Reality are gaining their strength to come back to the real life during this year.

Christmas 2016

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It’s not the best thing to get the flu at Christmas time but this year I was so unlucky to have it. It wasn’t the worst type of flu, not a high temperature which would have kept me in bed but just an annoying and long-lasting bad feeling, headache and cold and so I couldn’t enjoy the Christmas parties as much I would have wanted to. And as it didn’t start with a high temperature I supposed that it would pass with some pills and didn’t pay enough attention at first but unfortunately, it didn’t and so I had to keep myself going with taking pills and suffering from a headache the whole Christmas days.

But anyway, there was a lot of nice things too, like the presents and loads of good food that I didn’t have to cook but only enjoy, nice wine, nice people around me and fun and joy. And I must say that I still enjoy these Christmas Crackers with the stupid jokes that nobody understands, ok they do and I also do but sometimes I have to read them twice to get the fun out of it. This year I got to know that besides these jokes there are also some Charade things written on the paper clips and we had a lot of fun with all that. When we got done with the Crackers but still didn’t feel that we are really done, one of the girls showed us an app game, which was quite a similar. for example, you had to guess the names of the Christmas Carols or other Christmassy things, just by watching the others acting them out. Not so easy as it sounds, especially if you don’t have the same background and language 🙂 Try to guess the word “cupcake” just by some movement if you even don’t exactly know the word. But I am very proud that I guessed “The Winter Wonderland” and the whole line of Jingle Bells, which was “the one-horse open sleigh”. And not to mention that I still had my flu.

A lot of photos were taken as well, and I am still hopeful to get some one day but as I didn’t feel well, I was not very eager to take any on my own. Here is just one of our Christmas table before we started to eat.

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Belvedere College Annual Sleepout

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Belvedere College Annual Sleepout is an old tradition and it means that a group of Belvedere College past and present students spend two nights sleeping out on the streets of Dublin and collecting money for the charity, especially for the homeless. With sleeping on the street, the students experience how does it feel if you really have to spend your nights outside but at the same time with the help of the public they also raise money for those people who are homeless.

The boys who stay out for the night are the senior year students. The younger ones give their part with the Christmas Carols concert in front of GPO. I was happy to enjoy their singing and the marvellous performance of their conductor for the second time already.

Winter Solstice

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7th annual City of Dublin Winter Solstice Celebration Festival took place on 21st of December. The activities started at DIT Grangegorman Campus in the evening at 6 o’clock, and it was announced that after that there will be a parade and lighting the fire. We have never taken part of the previous Festivals but it seemed interesting to go and see what is going to happen.

 

Celebrating Solstice is an old pagan tradition and quite familiar also in Estonia and why not to celebrate the coming of the winter. Of course, we both don’t like it too much but maybe it’s a good way to get a better and milder winter 🙂 The good news which is worth to celebrate is that the days are going to be longer again and we are slowly going to move towards spring again.

We didn’t manage to go so early, so we missed a lot – for example making the Solstice Lanterns, pleading the Solstice Wreaths, making the wishes for throwing them into the fire and dancing Irish Dances, which we saw a little bit and we were also not so well prepared, so we didn’t have any lanterns, decorations or costumes either.

We marched with the colourful and noisy crowd with different drums and other jingling things to the Smithfield Square and took part of the Solstice fire Ceremony.

Despite haven’t prepared our papers with wishes we didn’t let this moment pass without making any, so we had to be creative. I found a napkin from my bag, so I pulled it into two halves and we both whispered our wish into the napkin, make a knot and send it away with the fire. Sean was a bit surprised because that creativity came from my side but a woman from this Solstice team heard me explaining it and said that it’s just the right way how these things will work. Of course, they are, I am from Estonia, I know how to talk to Nature, especially with Fire 🙂 Now our wishes are sent to the place where they are going to come true and they definitely will, I know it.

We wish you a Merry Christmas

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That was exactly how Dublin welcomed me this time. When I stepped out from the airport exit door, a children’s’ choir with red elf hats was standing in front of me and singing Christmas Carols. I think it’s such a good idea to give the children a reason to learn the Christmas Carol,s and every visitor of Dublin a special feeling when entering the country. So I got my special feeling and afterward when I was walking in the town and doing some window shopping it really felt like Christmas. All the Christmas lights, decorations, shop windows, music, crowds of people and Christmas tree, a bit on a wrong place this time, but somehow a bit taller, or maybe it just seemed to me like that.It’s hard to describe how happy do I feel to be back again. And how much I like that I am able to feel how Christmas make me happy and light-hearted.

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Adams Family

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The fabulous school musical at Belvedere College with unbelievable talented children. It was absolutely not less good as any other musical in London and I was so happy that I got this opportunity to go to see it. Just wish that once I can go and see the one where Little Sean is playing as well. Actually, I would like to see them all, I just like such kind of school performances so much – just ask me or give me the tickets 😀

Irish night out

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The Irish night out that was organized by our nice hosts from Léargas took us to the oldest pub in Dublin – to Brazen Head. I visited it first two years ago but then we just had a drink there and looked around and I took some photos.

This time we were offered a big dinner with a story-teller and Irish music. The story-teller was fabulous and he entertained us with different Irish legends about fairies and leprechauns and what happens to those who don’t take it seriously. So if you want to survive in Ireland you must definitely get on well with fairies and never cut down their trees or steal their pots of gold which usually are hidden somewhere at the end of the rainbow. I have tried to accept these rules so far and I hope that the fairies are on my side. And all that story-telling gave an idea to write a project about different stories and legends of different countries – let’s see if that plan works out but if it does it could be something that I would like to do. The evening ended with our hosts singing us Molly Mallone and everyone who knew the words sang together with them. It was a short Irish night out but it was grand and after that Sean came to meet me and we walked back home.

I must say that the seminar in Dublin was the best of all the contact seminars I have visited and hopefully, I also got some useful contacts to go on with.

Some memories from my first visit to Brazen Head in 2014 summer.

VET connected … GET connected

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8-file_005-1Wow – a seminar in a castle and not just in a castle but in a castle in Dublin, in Clontarf Castle. I have been trying to connect my work and my life, more of course in my dreams, a little bit less in a reality but for the first time I managed to do it properly – I applied for a grant for a contact seminar in Dublin and I got it. It was probably the one and the only Erasmus+ VET seminars that they have held in Dublin and I was lucky to find it at the right time. When I found it in September, it wasn’t such a right time because at the same time there were lots of different things going on and I kind of wrote this application standing behind my desk, with my left hand and talking on the phone or something very similar. But anyway, it worked.

And it was worth it because it was one of the best contact seminars that I have attended –  it was so well organized, the premises were perfect, the people were nice and friendly and hopefully, I got lots of new contacts, especially from Ireland. And I cannot leave out that it’s always good to meet people who are doing the same job and hear them talking about things that you have gone through. Even when you feel that you have lost all your energy to do that job any more, it somehow bumps you up and shows some things from a different angle.

Yellow leaves and Christmas lights

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It’s always so nice to be back and feel that nothing hasn’t changed, only some things have appeared or disappeared and this time the Christmas lights had been lit just a few days ago. The lights in Grafton Street were turned on earlier but the lights on Henry Street had been turned on just at the weekend before I came. This time they had changed the lights and there was again something new and Dublin had got a bit different face for these Christmas. When I am coming back for the real Christmas I will definitely look around a bit more – do some window shopping and some real shopping, check the Tayto Crisps Sandwich display at Arnotts and visit the Christmas Markets all around the town, go to listen to the Christmas Carols, see the Luminosity Festival , the New Year Parade on the last day of the year and enjoy every single day of these weeks.

But despite the Christmas lights on the streets, the trees in front of our home were still yellow and it felt like in October. That’s OK for me – I will get snow in Estonia anyway if I want it or not 🙂