Month: April 2006

Dublin Community Blog

Things have gotten hugely busy for me of late. Work is ramping up as a major deadline looms, I’m involved in a couple of fund-raising events for Barretstown and at the end of the week I will be going to England for about three weeks on business. On top of all of that, Eve is now a full-blown toddler with the ability to hone in on all the dangerous and/or fragile items within the first two seconds of entering any room.

So, what do I do? Why take on more projects of course. Daragh McGrath very kindly asked me last week to join in as a contributor on the new Dublin Community Blog and I jumped at the chance. Of course this means I’ll have to actually start leaving my house and seeing what this city has to offer but that’s no bad thing.

Photography

Signs Of Life

Canon 10D 28-135mm lens.

Personal

Robbed!…Maybe

shed

A break-in around these parts is not so unusual. In fact, if we’ve not had something happen on our little street in a month or so then we start to feel very paranoid. Usually the thieves will be local kids and they will use our backgarden (being the end house) as the entryway to all the other backgardens in our row, jumping fences until they find a house with an unlocked kitchen door.

Well, this afternoon they managed to get past our high-tech security (a sliding lock on an old wooden gate) and broke into our shed. They must have had a skeleton key because the padlock was still intact and was hanging from the open door when Matt discovered the scene. It makes me smile to think of the sight that met the would-be burglars when they finally managed to get inside:

anything missing? who knows...

I wouldn’t be surprised if they took one look and decided it just wasn’t worth the effort. If anything has been taken they’re welcome to it because it just frees up space for more clutter.

Photography

Kites And Big Kids

I took this photograph over the weekend down at my usual haunt, Killiney Beach. I enjoyed watching the excitement of the little boy but he lost interest in the kite far quicker than his Dad and uncle did.

Personal

Back In The Saddle

OK, I’m back! I’ve not been ill in a very long time and that flu really knocked me out; every time I thought I was getting over it it would hit me again and I was back to the Night Nurse.

It’s times like the past fortnight that highlight the downside of freelance…if you don’t work you don’t get paid. So I dragged my diseased self to my computer monitor everyday because there was no way I was going to take two weeks of unpaid time off if I wasn’t going to be spending it on a beach somewhere balmy with a large fruity cocktail in my hand. On the whole, freelance is a positive experience: I’m a pretty easygoing boss. I’m not picky about punctuality, if I decide to start work at 11am instead of 10 then that’s just peachy. If I hit a wall at 1pm and feel like having an extended lunch break then I take myself off to the beach or go play with my daughter and nobody gives me any dirty looks. If I get through a lot of animation and finish up at 3pm then I pack up and go downstairs and nobody gives me “the talk” about being a teamplayer and staying late with everyone else for the sake of team solidarity.

On the other hand, communicating with workmates via MSN can be kind of lonely compared to long chats over the desks, especially when they all sign off to go to the pub on Thursday evening with a long weekend ahead of them.

Am I the only one working today?