Recycled Orchestra

What an amazing and heart-warming project. More info here 

Normandy

Snapshots from my uncle's beautiful antique and painting filled house.

                                   Hand-made lampshade

Home-made Sushi

I was born in Tokyo, Japan and lived there until the age of five. Even though I've lived in Ireland almost ever since, my family has always continued eating Japanese food and I love rice the way most other Irish people love potatoes!

My brother taught English in Miyazaki for two years and brought back fancy fish cutting skills so we bought fish from a fishmonger in the local harbour and all the other ingredients in the Asian Market and had a lovely home-made sushi day. 

Ingredients

Sushi: sushi rice, rice vinegar, nori (dried seaweed), 

selection of raw fish (we used salmon & tuna)

Miso Soup: scallions, tofu, miso paste

and, of course, some Brown Rice Green Tea to drink

Preparing the rice

 Rolling time! Good tip is to keep your fingers wet and use a rolling mat.

Rock en Seine

Festival Style

Rock en Seine (seine/scène - get it?) is a music festival which takes place along the banks of the Seine just west of Paris. 

I went to the final day of the festival, running around trying to see as many bands as possible and enjoying the friendly atmosphere, cheap drinks and ethnic food!

The band I was most excited to see was Greenday. I was such a fan of theirs as a teenager, with several of their albums on TAPE. They played an amazing set with lots of old hits and great energy.

Gigs of the week

The move to Ireland has meant getting back to a country of musicians and live music. 

I've only been back in Dublin five days and have already been to two amazing gigs.

The first was a american fiddle player called Frank Fairfield. It was really interesting to hear him play as he tunes his violin to A-E-A-E instead of the usual G-D-A-E and plays it on his arm instead of under his chin. He seems to have come straight out the the Wild West, especially as he was sporting a heavy mustache, wavy hair, and very high pants! 

The second gig was This is How We Fly, a *mostly* irish contemporary folk band, with clarinet, fiddle & hardanger fiddle, percussive dance and drums. This concert was part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, which I'm hoping to go to more of during the next couple weeks.

Photograph by Hugh O'Conor

It was amazing to watch the dancer, Nic Gareiss. He explained after the gig that his dancing style was a mix of Ottawan and Quebec set dancing, South Appalachian clogging, and Irish sean nos dancing.

Check out the videos on their website!

Château de Versaille

Lovely picnic in the Royal Gardens

Bastille night at Les Invalides

After two years, I am leaving Paris and moving back to Ireland. Paris can be a difficult city sometimes, but is beautiful and I'm definitely feeling the heartstrings pull a bit. The next couple weeks will be spent finishing up work, packing, and visiting all the sites and restaurants I'll miss the most!

As part of my "I love Paris" last few days, here are the photos from Bastille Day this year... 

Setting up to watch the fireworks

Unfortunately we had a few trees blocking our view!

Grand Palais and the Pont Alexandre III looking pretty epic!

Dijon, France

My dad recently moved to the mustard capital of France for his new job.

I went to visit but unfortunately forgot to take any photos during our road trip around the famous Burgandy region vineyards.

Here are a few snaps of Dijon itself, which is a beautiful city with lots of interesting architecture (medieval, renaissance, gothic...), and very friendly locals (especially after a long time in Paris!)

I'm really looking forward to going back and visiting the cathedrals, the opera house, and spending some more time in those vineyards... 

Place Wilson

 Cello cherub

Gargoyles

Medieval staircase

I think I need to start an "Ugly Medieval Statues" tumblr

Cours Général de Gaulle

The big man-made lake

Oh and for the musicians, I also saw the organ that Jean-Philippe Rameau played in Notre Dame de Dijon Church (with no photographic evidence).

This week...

I read...

I went to see...

I wore... 

Asos Espadrilles

Yes factor 50! Because I am the palest person in all of France 

and it is very sunny and hot here at the moment!