Happy 27th Lloyd
So I already talked about last Saturday's sparkly-vampire-athon, but I neglected to mention that it was also Lloyds birthday.
He was working all that Saturday so we had time set aside to spend Sunday with him.
We sort of went back and forth on a couple of different presents to get him, but they were all quite random, and pointless if he didn't get any use out of
them.
So I decided that we'd just try and have a fun day with him, and that we'd pay for everything so it wouldn't cost him a penny.
First up we arranged to meet him at the Dun Laoighre Farmers market, which is a really cool little thing where a bunch of different ethnic tents set up in
the town park, and you can get a wide variety of stuff there. If the weather's not terrible there's usually performers too, who seem less like buskers and more like a bunch of people having a day-long jam session for the hell of it.
Last time we went for example Lauri and I for lunch split a small tray of gyoza dumplings, each had a small skewer of pork, and finished off by splitting a hot apple cidar (juice apparently) with added apple brandy (not juice).
Also while there we grabbed some very tasty sausages and goat cheese to see us through the week. If only there was a coffee bean tent here too we'd never
have to go to the (in my opinion inferior) Temple Bar farmer's market.
This time for food we got some savoury crepes that were a LOT tastier than I expected (I had ham, cheese and tomato, Lauri went with salmon and cream
cheese), and the crepe seller also had Hot Chocolate with Bailey's whipped cream that was basically amazing. We came back here again later to get another.
We arranged to meet Lloyd here because he can funnily enough get to Dun Laoighre faster on the Dart than he can to our place.
He had already eaten which killed a part of the plan, but I at least got him a tasty hot chocolate to warm his blood (the Crepe seller at this point had ran out of Bailey's cream, and was just pouring straight Bailey's into the drinks. Yum).
Fortunately my main reason for bringing him was still valid:
DOGS!
Lloyd really loves animals, dogs in particular, and one thing that struck me the most the first time I came to the DLFM was the vast amount of people out
walking their dogs, and sheer variety of breeds we came across. So many different types of dogs it almost seemed like a comical random dog generator was at work. One week when we saw a really beautiful pitbull/dalmation I decided I had to bring Lloyd here at least once.
He's the sort of person who has no qualms about approaching complete strangers, inquiring about their dogs, and giving them a good petting (er, the dogs, not the owners).
And this he did. There was some sheepdogs out, a lot of really tiny terriers and poodles, and a really beautiful Samoid, which is a kind of pure white husky my sister has, but this one looked like it was actually properly cared for. Almost looked like a completely different animal =/
So I think he enjoyed this part of the day, even if I felt a little bad I couldn't expose him to more ethnic foods (he tried a dumpling!).
After this we headed to the Dundrum shopping centre. I had a sidequest to try and track down some "sticklebricks" for my sister, because she had a sudden
onset of nostalgia and remembered how much I loved them as a kid; and wanted to pick some up for her son. This part of the day was a failure, but with a bit of research later we discovered they'd actually been discontinued due to being a choking hazard. Kids these days. Bunch of wusses. No gag reflex...
ANYWAY in this quest we went to Hamleys, which reminds me of the toy shop Tom Hanks goes to in "Big" (sans giant keyboard). It's the only toy shop I'll admit to being excited while visiting, because the place is basically distilled Christmas. I can't help but smile while I'm there. Lloyd had a good time there too, and Lauri picked up some Astronaut Ice Cream, which is thing we Irelanders had never heard of, but proved to be an interesting eating experience.
After that we let Lloyd choose the movie. He chose "UP" (in 3D), which was a prett decent, but much like Bolt 3D, I don't see the point in the 3D effect when it's just used to clarify what's in the foreground and background. The first ten minutes of UP were a pretty heartwrenching montage of how all our lives are eventually going to go. Perhaps made even more heartbreaking by the fact that UP's portrayal wasn't even particularly tragic; on the contrary, it was
probably an absolute best case scenario of living to a ripe old age with someone you love. What a downer!
The movie also had some quite funny representations of DOGS! So unexpected bonus there.
Once the movie was done we had dinner in Dante's in Dundrum, which is a pretty solid Italian restaurant and had a good chat throughout.
In the end when we dropped Lloyd off home he said this would have been his most depressing birthday ever, had we not spent the day with him. So in the end, good present I think.
He was working all that Saturday so we had time set aside to spend Sunday with him.
We sort of went back and forth on a couple of different presents to get him, but they were all quite random, and pointless if he didn't get any use out of
them.
So I decided that we'd just try and have a fun day with him, and that we'd pay for everything so it wouldn't cost him a penny.
First up we arranged to meet him at the Dun Laoighre Farmers market, which is a really cool little thing where a bunch of different ethnic tents set up in
the town park, and you can get a wide variety of stuff there. If the weather's not terrible there's usually performers too, who seem less like buskers and more like a bunch of people having a day-long jam session for the hell of it.
Last time we went for example Lauri and I for lunch split a small tray of gyoza dumplings, each had a small skewer of pork, and finished off by splitting a hot apple cidar (juice apparently) with added apple brandy (not juice).
Also while there we grabbed some very tasty sausages and goat cheese to see us through the week. If only there was a coffee bean tent here too we'd never
have to go to the (in my opinion inferior) Temple Bar farmer's market.
This time for food we got some savoury crepes that were a LOT tastier than I expected (I had ham, cheese and tomato, Lauri went with salmon and cream
cheese), and the crepe seller also had Hot Chocolate with Bailey's whipped cream that was basically amazing. We came back here again later to get another.
We arranged to meet Lloyd here because he can funnily enough get to Dun Laoighre faster on the Dart than he can to our place.
He had already eaten which killed a part of the plan, but I at least got him a tasty hot chocolate to warm his blood (the Crepe seller at this point had ran out of Bailey's cream, and was just pouring straight Bailey's into the drinks. Yum).
Fortunately my main reason for bringing him was still valid:
DOGS!
Lloyd really loves animals, dogs in particular, and one thing that struck me the most the first time I came to the DLFM was the vast amount of people out
walking their dogs, and sheer variety of breeds we came across. So many different types of dogs it almost seemed like a comical random dog generator was at work. One week when we saw a really beautiful pitbull/dalmation I decided I had to bring Lloyd here at least once.
He's the sort of person who has no qualms about approaching complete strangers, inquiring about their dogs, and giving them a good petting (er, the dogs, not the owners).
And this he did. There was some sheepdogs out, a lot of really tiny terriers and poodles, and a really beautiful Samoid, which is a kind of pure white husky my sister has, but this one looked like it was actually properly cared for. Almost looked like a completely different animal =/
So I think he enjoyed this part of the day, even if I felt a little bad I couldn't expose him to more ethnic foods (he tried a dumpling!).
After this we headed to the Dundrum shopping centre. I had a sidequest to try and track down some "sticklebricks" for my sister, because she had a sudden
onset of nostalgia and remembered how much I loved them as a kid; and wanted to pick some up for her son. This part of the day was a failure, but with a bit of research later we discovered they'd actually been discontinued due to being a choking hazard. Kids these days. Bunch of wusses. No gag reflex...
ANYWAY in this quest we went to Hamleys, which reminds me of the toy shop Tom Hanks goes to in "Big" (sans giant keyboard). It's the only toy shop I'll admit to being excited while visiting, because the place is basically distilled Christmas. I can't help but smile while I'm there. Lloyd had a good time there too, and Lauri picked up some Astronaut Ice Cream, which is thing we Irelanders had never heard of, but proved to be an interesting eating experience.
After that we let Lloyd choose the movie. He chose "UP" (in 3D), which was a prett decent, but much like Bolt 3D, I don't see the point in the 3D effect when it's just used to clarify what's in the foreground and background. The first ten minutes of UP were a pretty heartwrenching montage of how all our lives are eventually going to go. Perhaps made even more heartbreaking by the fact that UP's portrayal wasn't even particularly tragic; on the contrary, it was
probably an absolute best case scenario of living to a ripe old age with someone you love. What a downer!
The movie also had some quite funny representations of DOGS! So unexpected bonus there.
Once the movie was done we had dinner in Dante's in Dundrum, which is a pretty solid Italian restaurant and had a good chat throughout.
In the end when we dropped Lloyd off home he said this would have been his most depressing birthday ever, had we not spent the day with him. So in the end, good present I think.