Harry Potter Grand Finale

This is the Elephant House in Edinburgh. It is where JK Rowling started writing the first Harry Potter book way back when. Over the weekend it was thronged with Potter fans and was possibly the most photographed building in the world. There was great atmosphere everywhere for the launching of the book. Me and Niamh went to a midnight launch and lots of people in the queue were dressed as witches and wizards and characters from the book. Here's a girl putting the books in the window a few hours before the launch. A big croud gathered around the shop window clapping and cheering. Mental!

Niamh in Edinburgh

I went to Edinburgh to visit Niamh McNamara this weekend and to get the new Harry Potter book - more on that in a minute. Niamh is officially impossible to photograph. Niamh is just finishing up a masters in Englishy something or other and is living in a lovely (if crooked) flat just outside the city centre. The floors in every room slan in a different direction and it's pretty dizzying to walk around the place. Like a rollercoaster. On top of that she has fantastic pet rats who climb all over the place. They can climb up and down a person in zero seconds flat. Here's one of them legging it down Niamh in a mad bid for freedom on the ground. They have cute little feet that look like human hands with another baby finger instead of a thumb.

Intuitive Gardening Skills

I've taken to trusting my instincts with my plants these days and they are thriving. I can now share with ye my revolutionary secret...

Orla and Nozomi in Dublin

Orla O'Kane and Nozomi Coen were in Dublin last weekend. On the saturday night we were having a quiet night in when Orla noticed the unusual amount of hats that are in the gaff and remembered that she had her camera. Madness ensued.

Crazy Weather

This is a picture of the lovely view from my desk window yesterday afternoon. On the other side of the building though was this monstrous storm brewing at the exact same time. It really looked like the world was going to end just above our building.

Happy Birthday Clair!

This is the birthday cake that Clair had for her birthday yesterday in Japan. I wonder if it's possible to get over in time to sample some of it... Also I wonder if I spell her name wrong or do the Japanese? She turned 26, which incidentally is the same age as my Mom.

The Family

This is a picture of my family from last friday night. There's my Mom's cousin Willie, my litle cousin Peter, his Dad and my Mom's brother Noel, me (with rather bouffant hair), then just in front of me is my aunt and Peter's Mom Antoinette (quite confusing for me as a child, I thought her name was Aunty Net), then Mom and then Willie's fiancée Atchira from Thailand. She's fantastic and really funny and is going to be an excellent addition to the family. Congratulations to both of you!

Lovely Weather

I've temporarily mislaid my camera so haven't any new photos for the last while, but his is one from last year when myself and Clair did an adventure race in Blessington. That's me and Clair in the far boat. One of our team mates had just rather sensibly chucked his oar overboard leaving us with 3 oars for the duration of the spin. It was the same format as the one myself and Emily did earlier on this year, only this one had on road running and cycling and was a much shorter distance. I picked this photo as it accurately depicts the weather we are having in fair Ireland at the moment. Rainyest (sp?) summer ever.

Botanical Gardens

These are the botanical gardens that me and Hugh visited. They are lovely. There are huge fields of different cactii. The ones just below are baby ones, and below that are spotty ones. Spain is a really dry and brown country. From the air it looks as green as Ireland, but once you start walking around you realise that there is no natural grass and the trees are like firs, so cactii and big tall tropical trees are the most common.



There are lots of beautiful flowers too though. I like taking close up shots of plants and animals. These are my favourites from the gardens. The first one was taken by Hugh - a masterpiece!

Blanes

This is Blanes (pronounces like flan-ease). It's another of the beach resorts north of Barcelona. Unlike Calella though this one seemed to be older, and a lot classier. We came here to visit some famous botanical gardens, and took a long walk around the area too (unintentionally - got lost). It's beautiful. The beach is perfect and the cenery is amazing. If we go for another sun holiday in Spain I'd prefer here to Calella, but I imagine it's a bit more expensive. Here's a few more pictures of the area, it's just perfect.

Sagrada Familia

The Sagrada Familia is Gaudi's famous cathedral in Barcelona. It's still in construction, around half way finished, and has been going for nearly a hundred years. There are people working on it constantly, and it's like walking around a very fancy building site. Here's the man of the moment, our Lord, on the front of the cathedral. The feel of the carvings at the front is very modern, considering that it was designed a hundred years ago. It's almost cubist in it's approach with very stylised shapes.



Above is Hugh at the front of the building. Note the same stylised approach as the crucifixion, and the plain backdrop. Here's me then at the back. It's much more gothic here. The back face is very elaborate and has carvings representing the whole Old Testament. It's amazing. It's an enormous wall covered in hundreds of huge life size carvings. No wonder it's taking so long to build! There's John Hearn playing the basoon, Mom on the violin and uncly Noel on the banjo too (with girls hair).




Gaudi was strongly influenced by nature and the colours and shapes he uses are inspired by plants and animals. The colums supporting the cathedral inside are modelled on tree trunks. The are huuuuuge. The light on the top left of the picture is the hole in the roof. At the moment the front and back towers are built, but there is still a larger central tower to even be started.


This is looking up at the front towers. Each of these is as high as the spire in Dublin. You can take a lift to the top of one of them and walk around. It's very high up. These are pictures of the tops of the towers adjacent to the one we were in. Gaudi is using his fruity influence here. On one of the towers is a load of carvings of birds taking flight. It's fabulous.




Here is a random hole in the wall. This is when I started to get a bit freaked out about the height. See the lads building away. I don't know how they don't fall off.



You have the option of getting the lift back down or climbing down a narrow windy staircase. It's not so bad at the start, just narrow and steep. Here's hugh showing off his no fear of heights walking backwards. Soon after though, the centre of the stairs disappears and you are left clinging to the walls trying not to fall down the middle. I caused a huge tailback of amused tourists with my slowness on the way down. Never again. Next time it's the lift!

Gaudi's Barcelona

Gaudi designed a huge number of buildings around Barcelona. They are everywhere and look like fairytale castles. He uses very unusual colours and shapes for all of them. Many of them are residential, but some are open to the public too. It's very strange to see them in a row of terraced buildings as they are so different to everything else.





He also designed this gate. It's not a great shot, taken from the top of a bus, but it's a gate in the shape of a dragon. Apparently when the gate is opening it moves by flapping it's wings or breahing fire or something.

Market in Barcelona

There is a market in Barcelona which runs down a long centre island on a main street. It has lots of different sections. There are flowers, pets, restaurants and street artists, to name a few. These are little packets of tiny tiny flowers in the flower section. They are a euro a bunch and the cutest little things ever.


There are loads of pet stalls too selling all kinds of little pets. There are loads of different sizes of terrapins and turtles. The one above is swimming happily around in his tank. The photo pelow is very blurry, but these 3 lads are trying to escape.


There are loads of bird vendors too. When you buy a bird they put it in a litle cardbard box for you to take home. Very strange.


And aren't these the cutest baby hamsters you've ever seen? They are all tired from a day of being adorable.

Barcelona

Myself and Hugh took a day trip to Barcelone while on holidays in Spain and the first thing we saw on leaving the bus station was a massive Bulmers poster all over a building! Of course there it's called Magners, I never got to the bottom of that mystery.


There are loads and loads of statues and amazing buildings in Barcelona. The whole city is amazing. There isn't one ugly building to be seen.


We took a bus tour to see most of the sights. Everyone was given a set of earphones to plug into the back of the seat in front of you, and you could scroll through selecting different languages. it was a fantastic tour, and you could get on and off at any stop you liked. Hugh fell asleep promplty after getting on the bus, but at least he was still minding my bag. It was very funny; there was an old lady at the front of our row on the bus and she fell asleep too. Whenever we went over a bump of a car horn sounded, the 2 of them would wake up and look around confused for a moment before going back to sleep.


The waterfront of Barelona is like Kinsale or Crosshaven with yachts lined up along huge long banks. Here's Hugh having a chat with one of the locals.