random things

This weekend seemed really long. Not "I wish it would end", more like "the days are just packed". Lying in bed last night. the previous Friday seemed much further away than usual. I guess in part it was down to my guests; having people around to do stuff with, and doing more than just sitting in front of the idiot box or the laptop (which is in some ways a different sort of box that's just as idiotic) meant that I packed a whole lot more activity into the day than I normally would. Maybe I should take some sort of lesson from this.

Taxi on Saturday night: as we left the quays, we passed by the building where Handel's Messiah was first performed, according to local folklore. I mentioned this fact to the tourists in the back of the taxi, then went back to a somewhat stilted conversation with the driver (didn't have much to talk about, and a few of the conversational gambits went nowhere). Back at the house, I asked Dan if they'd heard me passing on this little tourist nugget; he replied to the effect that they'd heard me say something, but I'd slipped into a completely different dialect once I started talking to the taxi driver and they hadn't caught what I was saying. Much amusement on my part at this.

stoat hasn't changed a bit in the time since I last saw her, at least as best I can tell anyway. Dan reminded me of both mrbalihai and Joey Pants. Zack (Zach?) and Dave also reminded me of people but I've not yet figured out who.

"w00t!" "Now I know you're on the internet." "NO W00TING!" (stoat, either Zack or Dave, and me)

"Can I get a new fork? This one's broken" "that's a lucky fork" (Dave and our waitress at Johnny Fox's, who also reminded me of someone)

one further weekend note

I bought a jacket. Specifically, we wandered along the seafront between Sandycove and Dun Laoghaire, and then decided to head straight into town rather than going back to the house. This meant I had nothing to wear over my tshirt if it got cold or started raining. So we stopped at a tourist trap^Wshop in Temple Bar and I poked dejectedly at the stack of hoodies with "Temple Bar" and "Ireland" emblazoned across the front, before discovering a natty Guinness jacket in the back of the store which had just a small Guinness logo on the left breast and was otherwise a plain black jacket. €45.00 isn't much of an impulse purchase, but it's probably more than I've spent on clothing in the last year or so.

fanboy moment

Is jwz's site being replaced by a Domain Registrar placeholder some sort of sign of the net.apocalypse?

wait, computer-controlled surgery?

16:00:00: Bug causes surgery cessation in Navan

Oh. Right. "Bug" as in "germ" or "virus". Gotcha.

our very own Down Street, almost.

Apparently we have a rail tunnel under Phoenix Park. Poking around on Maporama, it appears that a spur breaks off the line into Heuston a few hundred yards before the station proper (i.e. the enclosed section) and disappears on the map when it hits Conyngham Road, and there's another stub line to the northeast of North Road which could well be the other end. I might wander up and have a look at the weekend, see what I can see.