Day 22. Brunching, shopping, scribbling.

Started the day off with a long, coffee-fuelled chat with Giovanni about Irish Folk Gothic and my theories about the strange silences that cling to colonial buildings in Ireland, to which Giovanni added very interesting comparisons with linguistic colonisation and its after-effects.

Then we had a delicious brunch cooked by Deirdre featuring a salmon omlette, fresh avocados, sausages and bacon, after which we played Napkin Geography (where you scrunch up napkins in the shape of countries.) I was loudly reviled for my inaccurate presentation of Cyprus, but luckily Salvatore guessed it anyway.

After a prolonged set of goodbyes, I walked part of the way into town and bought a roll of red electrical tape, which meant I could use the bus journey to O'Connell Street to fix up the shredding straps of my Ed Hardy bag (which I bought for 4 euros and subsequently discovered costs about $200)

Had coffee and shopped with Tara and parents, then had a peaceful train journey back watching the lurid, gorgeous and macabre Penny Dreadful.

The costumes! The sets! The shilling-shocker twists and turns!

And then home, and a fruitful writing session - 'Playing In Their Own Time' now stands at 2,544 words.