Dances with deers

Seeing that the Phoenix Park in Dublin is my usual route to and back from work almost five days a week, I would occassionally travel on the main road through the park later in the evening. It's during these occassions where I would sometimes come across the park's main residents - deers.

The strange thing is, you could never find the deers anywhere near the main road in the light of day. Well, at least not easily and not by yours truly. So, the discovery of the deers' daylight hangout was always left as one of those personal quests waiting to be fulfilled on another day or to be included in the list of useless information worthy as an answer to some random pub quiz. That was certainly the case until a few days ago...

That's my son, not a deer. He's running away from the deers in the background (just in case they get hungry and decide to eat him).

A curious turn off the normal route and hey presto! There I was in Lapland . Without the snow and a big fat man in a red suit, of course. Yes, I had found the Holy Grail. The spot where deers go to during the day in Phoenix Park!

That was during the week (ridng solo on my Vespa) and as I was so happy with my find, I just had to bring the whole family to the same spot again (to prove that I wasn't delusional and just imagined the whole thing as well).

Directions to ultra-secret deer hideout: From the city centre, head towards Conyngham Road (don't enter via the main entrance) which should bring you to the Chapelizod Road. Once on the Chapelizod Road, watch out for the first side entrance into the park. At the entrance, make a left (sign-posted Farmleigh) and follow the road. Watch out for Bambi and Co. on the right of the road!


 

Mini explorations on the Vespa

My wife left me. She took away the kids and left me all alone.

I’m dead serious, although that was last summer. We just had our third child and my wife was aching to go home to beautiful and sunny (but smoggy) Malaysia. We hadn’t been home in over three years before then so, to maximise her stay back home we devised a plan whereby my wife and kids would go home a month or so, in advance of my own visit. Obviously, she didn’t leave me, leave me. How could she? Heh.

Anyway, what would a man do to occupy all this time without the wife and kids around?

With all due respect to the wife and kids, loads of course! Well, at least loads of things that didn’t involve spending a bucketful of money (the recession had officially kicked-in when I was told I was getting a 10% pay cut). To cut a long story short, one of the things involved exploring the area around where I live in even more detail.

Allow me to explain, I’m sure like me, lots of you out there must have wondered:

Where does that lane just off the normal route to work lead to?

And, like me, either never had a chance to look into it or never thought twice about it again. Well, with no wife and kids to go home to, a bit of exploration was at the top of my agenda.

This then conveniently brings me to a spot I “discovered” on one of my explorative jaunts on the way back from work-Farmleigh House and Estate. I had heard of the place from my next-door neighbour before but for some reason or another, I never did take her seriously. Until last summer that is.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the place. It was as if someone had gone off to a more rural part of Ireland, plucked it right out of the ground and dropped it right at the edge of Phoenix Park. I get the feeling that the OPW and people in general want to keep this place to themselves. As an example, I’ve been told that road signage in Ireland is bad but, in Farmleigh House’s case it’s almost non-existent.

It’s like a nicer version of Area 51, without the tumbleweed, government experiments and UFOs.

Unfortunately, by the time we got back from Malaysia, the place was closed. The place closes from September and only re-opens in the spring. I can only assume that my wife was a little bit annoyed to hear me yapping on about this place knowing full well that she won’t be able to see it at all for at least another six months!

Well, we eventually made it there as a family last weekend and it didn’t disappoint. The kids enjoyed all the open space and were amazed to see the cows, horses, ponies and donkeys on the grounds, smack bang in the middle of Dublin. There was also a good Farmer’s Market as well as a Plant Fair if the adults fancied spending some hard-earned cash. We missed out on the Magic Show, story-telling and seeing that it was Easter Weekend, there was also an Easter Egg Hunt. We’ll take note of this year's experience so we don’t miss out on these activities next year.

Credit where it's due

I’ve been unfair of late. I’ve been unfair because of my persistent ranting about the weather here in Ireland. It’s not that bad. Really.

I had what I considered to be a good week at work last week. One of those weeks where most things go as planned and even if some didn’t, it worked out for the better. Added to that, I was so psyched-up to get things done most of the work for the week got done by mid-day Wednesday.

After that, I was in cruise control mode and got to enjoy more of the little things around me. One of these little things was enjoying the views and general feel of my journey back from work. Last Friday was the first time in an age that I managed to get off work at 5.15, on the dot.

The advantage of that is that I get to see my surroundings in broad daylight. And, what a difference that makes. So amazed was I with seeing Phoenix Park in such good weather, I stopped my Vespa and relaxed for a while on the side of the road, looking as the traffic went by.

OK, it wasn’t actually t-shirt and shorts type weather (it was probably just above 5 degrees) but it was great to have the sun shining and everything relatively dry. Great. More of the same please!