Brigham Vaughn's Blog, page 14

FEBRUARY 2 - NOT A SNAKE IN SIGHT

My Irish Friend (heretofore referred to as S, since I seem to be collecting a lot of new Irish friends) and I spent another day doing a walking tour. We'd originally planned to walk into the city centre to check out the Chester Beatty museum but we stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral on the way and got so distracted we never made it to our original destination.

I have zero regrets, because the cathedral was fascinating. Both architecturally and because of the fact that it covered about a 1000 years of Irish history. He knows a ridiculous amount about the history and I had a few helpful things I knew about architecture and art so it was a really fun thing for both of us.

Most of the time I actually prefer to check out museums alone. You know those people you just *can't* go to a museum with because they want to fly through without reading everything? Or just kinda read stuff and grunt and go, "interesting" but don't elaborate? Yeah, I've met a lot of people like that over the years. And hey, I'm not casting aspersions. We all have our interests and our pacing and all of that. But man is it nice to explore with someone who's at a similar pace who wants to talk about the stuff and relate it to other things you both know about.

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One of the interesting things we discovered there was a book containing Ireland's Memorial Records by Harry Clarke. These illustrations are incredible. I wish I'd been able to see more than one page but what I could see was amazing enough. Look at the gorgeous art deco/art nouveau designs? *swoons*

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I've taken a lot of art classes over the years and art history and architecture were some of my favorite college courses. If this writing thing hadn't worked out, I wouldn't have minded a career as an art historian. So yeah, touring the cathedral was totally my jam. We spent hours there and hope to be able to make it to Christ Church Cathedral before I head home.

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After we left the cathedral, we took a little detour to a semi-sketchy area to check out a place called "The Cabbage Garden".

What was originally a Huguenot cemetery was turned into a garden by Oliver Cromwell to grow cabbage to feed his soldiers.

It is now a football pitch where local children play.

The mind boggles. So much history, now just a playing field, with only some worn headstones that are almost impossible to read. As an American, who lives in an area where "old" is considered anything over a 100 years old, and anything over two hundred years is ancient, it's fascinating for me to see the layers of history and the broad scope of it all.

After that, we did some more walking and took a stroll through St Stephen's Green, a gorgeous park in the city centre that has a fascinating history, including an important role in the 1916 Uprising.

(click on the right side of the photo for the slideshow)

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After St. Stephen's Greene, we headed to Merrion Square. It's also a lovely park but I may never forgive S for taking me to see the most hideous sculpture of Oscar Wilde. I don't have words for how ugly it was. The man was a legendary writer and gay icon! He deserved better than this! *shakes head* I don't know who made this choice but urgh. Not a good one. We had a good laugh about it though so that was fun.

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Both of us were winding down by that point so we went in search of food. Along the way, we saw some pretty buildings.

A gorgeous stained glass window (also by Harry Clarke!). In addition to his amazing illustrations, he was a world-renowned stained glass artist.

And some fabulous art in the back alley of Temple Bar. I wish I'd gotten more pictures because there was a lot of amazing alley art but I'll have to go back some time and get more pictures.

After many miles (and even more kilometers) of walking and covering roughly a thousand years of history, we stopped for food and drinks.

The chicken wrap and crisps hit the spot and I had (several) lovely gin and tonics. I was delighted by the addition of grapefruit.

After a while, a former co-worker of his joined us. She's a Brazilian woman and an absolute riot to talk to. She was delighted to discover what I wrote and even more thrilled that I included a half-Brazilian character in one of my books. We spent hours talking about every and had fun ganging up on S and giving him a lot of shit.

Which, let's be honest, is one of my very favorite pastimes. And, of course, that goes both ways.

After many drinks and great conversation, we all took a bus back. It turns out she lives very close to me so we got off at the same spot and promised to meet up again before I left, while S headed to his place.

I came home tired but happy and got to enjoy a few gifts that I'd brought home.

S and I have an ongoing discussion about the collections of fun, patterned socks we both own (I bought him a pair with bikes and a pair with blueberries for his birthday previously), so he got me a present to add to my collection. Stained glass pattern socks from St. Patrick's Cathedral!

He also gave me two chocolate bars that he swears are the most delicious things ever.

I was skeptical, I'm a dark chocolate lover but so is he so I gave the Starbar a try.

I'm not going to lie. It was totally delicious. Sweet but not too sweet, with a great texture. I've been assured the Boost bar is even better so that'll be fun to try.

All in all, another great day.

FEBRUARY 1 - LONGTIME FRIENDS

I began my day with museli and milk, and a coffee, which was lovely.

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Though is it just me or do you see a face in the coffee mug? It reminds me of a happy little manta ray or something.

I spent the day working, going through the edits for my upcoming release of Bending the Rules. The book was such a struggle to write (mostly because my head wasn't in a great place when I worked on it) but it really came together beautifully in the end. If you haven't pre-ordered Noah and Simon's book, now is a great time to do it. Grab it here.

I also snapped a shot of this pretty Irish magpie in the courtyard of my building!

After my workday was done, I met up with a friend. I've known her for decades but it was the first time we met in person.

In my early twenties, I was part of an amazing online group. It started out as a website and message board and it was aimed at people (primarily women) in their early twenties who were looking for affordable ways to cook and decorate their first apartment/home. It became so much more than that and now almost twenty years later, there's a group of us who are still in regular contact on Facebook.

One of the most amazing parts of this is that we're spread across the United States and sprinkled around there world. I've met a handful of these women in person over the years. I didn't have a chance to connect with the friend in Ireland when I was here last time. I'll redact her name to protect the erm, innocent ;) and call her AM from here on out.

I made it a priority to meet with her this time though and it was delightful. I took the Luas into the city centre and met her at the Smithfield station. We walked to St. Stephen's Green (are you sensing a theme here?) to check out the St. Brigid's Day exhibit.

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Here's a little info from an Irish Times article about it: "Drawing inspiration from the Celtic goddess Brigit, from which the Christian saint originated, Brigit 2022 celebrates the contributions of Irish women through the ages, highlighting their stories and promoting their contribution to society ... The February festival will commemorate St Brigid and also the ancient Celtic festival Imbolc, which marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox."

These projected images featured art of Ireland's lost goddesses by artist Bernie Sexton from the Goddesses of Ireland book by Dr. Karen Ward and TAIN: The Women's stories written by Karen Tynan and illustrated by her daughter Kathy Tynan. They were really lovely, though it was a little bit disappointing that there wasn't more information on which goddess was which and where you could learn more about them.

Love the Irish and the country of Ireland but they're sometimes a bit short on helpful signs ...

After that AM and I wandered Dublin for a bit, checking out the sights and catching up. The great thing about having known each other for so long was that it was easy to pick up from our previous online friendship and talk about mutual friends. All of that awkward "getting to know you" stuff was already out of the way.

The city was really beautiful at night and it was loving being out and about on both the pagan holiday of Imbolc and Lunar New Year.

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After a few hours of walking, we went to a lovely Japanese place for drinks and sushi. We split a smoked salmon and cream cheese norimaki roll, and I had a basil smash cocktail with gin, elderflower, lemon, and basil, miso black cod, and a very decadent flourless chocolate cake. We left feeling very full and very content.

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She walked me to the Luas station, we took a quick selfie together, and promised to see each other again before I head home at the end of the month.

It's a great feeling to know that if I do decide to relocate to the Dublin area, I already have so many amazing people here who are excited to welcome me.

JANUARY 31 - SMALL BUT MIGHTY

Today I took the Luas tram into the city centre to check out the Little Museum of Dublin. According to one of my friends here, it's referred to as the "Jerry Lee" as in Jerry Lee Lewis. lol. It's a fantastic service and so easy to use. After being used to people in the US who refuse to wear masks, it blew my mind to see security on the tram watching to be sure people were masked up. At one point, a guy's mask slipped under his nose. He politely asked him to pull it up and the guy said, "sure, no problem."

I know there are people here who protested wearing masks too but the difference between Ireland and the US is stark. Suffice it to say, I'm not enthusiastic about the idea of going home at the end of the month.

It took me about 25 minutes to get from Kilmainham to the city centre, and from the Luas, I walked over to the Museum, which is just outside St. Stephen's Green.

(Click on the right side of the picture to go through the slideshow)

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I had more blue skies and I was so busy enjoying the view I didn't take many pictures until I arrived at the museum. Although the museum itself isn't overly large, it's filled with all sort of interesting things. There's a copy of James Joyce's book, Ulysses, and the most fabulous green velvet couch that I drooling over. I've wanted to own either a green velvet couch or chair for years! Do you think they would have noticed if I'd walked off with it?

The tour guide was really charming, very fun and engaging as she told stories and explained the items on display. It was a brief whirlwind tour of some of Dublin's more recent history including a lot of pop culture and I loved that there were some things I recognized from conversations I've had with some of my friends who live here.

(click on the right side of the image to go through the slideshow)

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At the end, there was an adorable display of tennis balls discarded by the dogs of Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery, if you're curious). It was just such a sweet little display and it made me smile.

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They also have a reproduction of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels and New Testament. The original is at Trinity College (which I saw in 2017) and it's a stunning book.

After I left the museum, I walked around for a bit. It had clouded over and was a little bit hazy so I got this very cool picture. I'm still not sure what this building is but I'll have to look into it.

I stopped for lunch at a little Italian café on Dawson street which is a rather swanky area. I ordered a cappuccino and a prosciutto parma pannino with parma ham, artichoke cream, aubergine, fresh tomatoess, and rocket. It made me smile to eat Italian food in Dublin while listening to American music play.

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One of the things I really love about Dublin is how multicultural it is and it certainly isn't difficult to imagine myself living here.

JANUARY 30 - FINALLY, RAIN!

Today was another writing day. I made progress on my hockey story and got to work on plans for promoting it when it releases in late February. I also updated an old free book I have (more on that soon!) and did some more editing. All of which was helped by the fact that I brought a portable second monitor with me. It's roughly the same size as my laptop (but about half as thick!) and the case also works as a stand. Along with a folding keyboard and small mouse, it was pretty easy to pack into my laptop bag along with some cables and have a really functional mobile office.

With books to edit, covers to design, and promo graphics to make, I wanted to make sure I could do everything as efficiently as I did at home and I think it's going to work out great.

Also, I know I shouldn't be complaining about all of the beautiful sunny days here when it's been well below freezing at home and a good portion of the US just got buried in snow but I was genuinely excited to see it rain today. lol. Weird, I know, but I usually run very warm, and cool, drizzly days are actually my favorite. There's something so cozy about them too, especially when reading or writing.

That was the view from my window, though I did venture out into it this evening for dinner. I finally put my new rain jacket to the test and I can say it worked quite well!

What was for dinner? Fish and chips of course! I wasn't expecting such a huge portion and I definitely wasn't able to finish it all.

It wasn't the best I've had in Ireland but it was very tasty and made for a perfect comfort food dinner on a drizzly evening after a hard day of work. And you can't beat that.

JANUARY 29 - IMMA LOOK AT SOME ART

So I totally stole the "IMMA look at some art" line from my friend Kyle but I DID visit the IMMA today. It's the Irish Museum of Modern Art and it was fabulous. Free to get into! And they limit the number of visitors at a time but I was easily able to book my ticket online the day before.

It was another lovely sunny day today (seriously, I am starting to think this rain in Ireland thing is a myth!) and I had a very pleasant walk to the IMMA.

The museum is inside the 17th-century Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The building was modeled on Les Invalides in Paris and arranged around a courtyard (complete with a super cute food truck). It's a gorgeous formal building and I love the contrast with the modern art!

(Click on the right side of the picture to go through the slideshow)

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Their current exhibition is called The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now which has four chapters. Here's a little info on it from their website: "Exploring the past three decades through different thematic approaches. The chapters are: Chapter One: Queer Embodiment; Chapter Two: The Anthropocene; Chapter Three: Social Fabric and Chapter Four: Protest and Conflict."

I somehow missed Chapter Two but the others were amazing. So many interesting parts of Irish history and culture and how feminism, queerness, and conflict all intersect.

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One of the parts I loved most about the protest and conflict section was a film called The Long Note about women's fights for social justice in Derry (Northern Ireland). I was only planning to watch a few minutes but I ended up staying for the whole 90 minutes because it was so fascinating.

If you can find the film I'd highly recommend it. It left me in a contemplative mood (in a good way!) so I headed home after that. But I definitely think if I have time I'll be back to visit the IMMA again to see all of the sections I didn't quite make it to this time around.

The sun had gone behind the clouds when I left and it was very windy on the walk home but I went a slightly different route and it was still very pretty. (click on the right of the image for the slideshow)

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After I got home, I did a little more work, then threw together a quick dinner of leftovers. One of the nice things about this working vacation is the flexible schedule. It's nice to work at my own whim and take a few hours in the middle of the day to go exploring.

The past few years had been amazing for my writing career but it required a lot of long working days. It's a great feeling to be able to take a little time away and just *enjoy* life, you know?