Saturday 25 December 2010

If it's yellow...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Our accommodation in Dublin consists of a very nice serviced apartment.  It's not cheap accommodation (although it also isn't the Ritz).  Generally it's very nice, but there are some rather curious features.

Amongst them is this sign:



You may need to enlarge this to read it.  In short, it advises guests that due to the adverse weather, there has been an increase in broken water mains and so Dublin City Council are reducing the water pressure or turning off the water as a way to conserve and build water levels back to normal.  It includes a number of tips to "aid with your conservation of water".  One of these is "only flush the toilet when necessary".  The thing that concerns me about this particular tip is that flushing the toilet isn't a particularly pleasurable or exciting exercise.  I certainly have never pressed the flush button just for fun. Indeed, I suspect that most people only do it when necessary.  So what does this request really mean?  I rather suspect that it's code for "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down".  Now, we may not be staying in the Ritz, but asking us not to flush our number 1s is still just taking water conservation a bit too far.

Friday 24 December 2010

It's been a while

When I warned, in my last post, that I would write only periodically for a while, I didn't appreiciate just how long a period would pass before I would write another post.

I've been busy.  I want to say that I've been busy travelling the world, righting injustice and ensuring freedom and fairness for all.  In fact, it's been far more boring than that.  I've been working two jobs - being a lawyer and a teacher - and have also discovered a passion for running.  It hasn't all been work, however.  I've also managed to squeeze in a trip to Basel (and a 5.5km city fun run in the snow) and been to various gigs, including the National, the Dirty Projectors and Local Natives.

G and I have also been trying to cope with the "big freeze" (as the media have been calling it).  London has been snowed under, with ensuing mayhem and chaos. Flights have been cancelled, Heathrow has started to resemble a refugee camp and we entered an emergency world where anything goes.  The weather seemed to give everyone license to do anything, so long as they prefaced their actions or cut off any criticism by saying "adverse weather conditions".  People started turning up to work one or even two hours late.  This was perfectly acceptable during the big freeze - so long as you announced to the office "adverse weather conditions" with a slight shake of the head, to which everyone would respond with a knowing nod.   "Adverse weather conditions" seemed to excusae anything for a while there - people were turning up to work in jeans and uggboots - "adverse weather conditions", they would announe, and no one would question it.  Similarly, people would duck out of hte office for extra long lunch breaks, returning only to say "adverse weather conditions".   It was actually rather fun. At least it was until our flight yesterday from London to Dublin was cancelled ("adverse weather conditions").  For a while, it looked as though we might not have the planned xmas in Dublin.   and we found ourselves rebooked on a 7 am flight yesterday (meaning a wake up time of 4.30 am). 

Now G and I are in Dublin, where the snow is even thicker.  Our first white Christmas!  I promise I will try to post again soon, to let you know how it goes.  If I don't manage to post soon, well, what can I say other than "adverse weather conditions"?