Oooohhh, that Mr.Clarkson.


You know you are the epitome of laziness when you wake up in the morning with all your clothes still on after having spent the previous night just watching tv. I had great intentions to get up after the third episode of Top Gear to change, but that wise cracking Jeremy Clarkson had me spellbound.... so spellbound in fact that he lulled me into a deep, fully clothed sleep.

Allo Allo!


Went to see Wallace and Gromit with Ian tonight. Very funny. The most amusing part for me was seeing Wallace reading "Ay-Op!", complete with the red and white lettering, bearing all too familiar a resemblance to good ol', "Hello". Why I snorted with laughter. Unfortunately, the whole joke shot Concorde style, (pre exploding in the sky incident), over the Canadian's head.

Oh deer........

A new store has opened near my school. This little store sells flowers and antiques. Odd combination, but this is Korea after all. However, it is the name of the store that has provided the most entertainment.

"Flowers and Entics".



Sigh.

Durr.

This month a Census is being conducted. This evening Census lady turned up at the door. I have no idea what I told her. It was one of those wonderful experiences where one is faced with a Korean only speaker and a Korean only form. It resulted in me phoning Maebh employing her as my translator. The first part of the form may be filled out correctly, but the second part is a complete mystery to me. At the end of the ordeal Census lady and I peered at the form, glanced at each other and agreed that there was no way this thing was appropriately filled out. So I send her off with a post it note with my name and number and a little note telling the nice Census people that, in all likelihood, the information on the form is gobildigook and that someone in management really ought to ring me so I am not classified as an illegal unemployed immigrant.

Today I was returning from lunch when I bumped into one of the teachers from my school. She was carrying a book and soft toy she had just bought for her little daughter who is 3 years old. She noticed me looking at it and so explained the book and toy. And oh my god, it proved how different Western culture is to Korean culture. The soft toy is a little mole with toy poo on its head and the accompanying book tells the story of the little mole rambling around his local farm trying to discover who it was that pooed on his head. Now instead of the mole asking the other farm animals if it was them that pooed oh him and accept their negative responses, he demands that they all produce a "sample". So through illustrations, we see the pig, the cow, the horse and their other animal friends pooing for the mole and he compares that on his head to that on the ground.

This is deemed suitable entertainment for a 3-year-old................

At the school where I work, the preschoolers are taught English, Korean and Chinese. A prospective student visited the school this week and while he toddler waddled his way around the entrance hall, wide-eyed with mischief, his Mom chatted with the Head Teacher about the teaching curriculum. She was very inquisitive about the teaching methods, in particular for English, as Koreans believe English is the most important foreign language to force feed down their 4 year olds throats. However, upon perusing the syllabus she was a little upset to notice that Chinese was part of the curriculm. She demanded to know why it was a featured subject, whereupon the Head Teacher informed her that the school believed Chinese ( not sure what regional group is taught) to be just as important for children to learn as English. She pooh poohed the idea saying, "Nonsense, Chinese is only a trend at the moment". That's right. And I am quite sure the 1.3 billion Chinese speakers in the world whole heartedly agree with you.

Boring Boring Daegu

Whenever I go to Seoul for a weekend I am always depressed at the thoughts of returning to Daegu. Not that Daegu is a bad spot but Seoul has so much more to tantalise the senses.Over the weekend, Ian, Maebh, Sara and I ventured to Seoul with Don and had a right rollicking good time. We stayed in our usual haunt, Sinchon, foamed at the mouth in Bandi and Lunis ( the seizure inducing treasure trove bookstore), delighted in the amazing shopping stores and had a wide array of restaurants and bars to choose from. We also met up with an old friend, Simon and his fiancee, Naire ( Congratulations and celebrations..la la la la).

So on Saturday took the KTX to Seoul and decided to immediately find a place to stay as Don was rather mule like with his great big rucksack. So, like a sherpa, I guided everyone (the usual sherpa Maebh was off duty until later that night), to Sinchon to stay at our regular motel. Imagine the gut wrenching pain when we turned that fateful corner to discover that our little gem in the city had turned into a scaffolding nightmare. All I was capable of doing was huffing and puffing at the mess. However, we managed to find another place and it really was a bit of a downgrade. But beggars cant be choosers and I do think Sara and Maebh became rather attached to the hair of a hooker that was running all down one side of the bed in their room. From the angle of the hair I took it to mean that her and her lucky little customer were trying a rather unusual position.

After settling in, otherwise known as tearing the contents of my bag onto the floor looking for my sweater due to the Arctic conditions in Seoul, we headed for Bandi and Lunis. People who have read this blog before will know of my love for this bookstore. I am sure this is lost on people in Ireland who have Waterstones etc at their fingertips, but for us that are deprived of a wide selection of English language books, Bandi and Lunis is the Holy Grail. Not a sound was uttered between us as we curled our way through the rows looking for reading material,apart from the occassional grunt of pleasure or fart of joy. After successful purchases we had a few drinks and some food and then waited for Simon to come from Jamsil and Maebh from Daegu. Following their arrival, the night degenerated into an alcohol fuelled frenzy at a bar that had a little dog who had the unfortunate luck to be mauled to death by me and barmen that kept giving us free drinks. I am not quite sure what their rational behind all their free drinks was, but they were a little disgruntled that we stayed so late ( yes, apparently leaving an establishment at 7am is considered inappropriate).

So the next day was not a pretty sight. Don, Ian and I tried to make it to the super mall in Southern Seoul, a mere 23 subway stops, but a general feeling of unwellness resulted in us turning back after 5 stops.

And so back to Daegu we went. Returning here after the brights lights in Seoul ( in fact I really am convinced that the neon in Seoul is brighter than the neon in Daegu), always seems like such a let down. There is so much variety in the capital, koreans don't stare and point at us like lepers, nor is their the conservative attitude of the Daeguites. Daegu is recognised as one of the most conservative cities in Korea and so being exposed to devil may care attitude is so refreshing. But then again, nowhere else is it more amusing it see the looks of horror on the faces of the older generation when Ian and I kiss on the street than in Daegu.

ha ha.

So I was at a house party on Saturday night. A young man whose nationality will remain anonymous was chatting with Maebh and I. The conversation took this unfortunate turn

Him- "So where are you from?"

Me- "Ireland".

Him- "Really??"

Me- "Yeah, yeah".

Him- "Do you know Jimmy?"


I think enough has been said on the matter

Dear Lord. For those of you living in Ireland count your lucky stars that there is a distinct lack of cockroaches there. The nightmare with these bugs is neverending. I got my new apartment this week and have to stay that I was rather pleased with it. It looked clean, had nice warm wall paper, ( as opposed to the blue freezer like number in my former hovel)and overall appealed to my senses. However, the school went against my wishes and moved everything from my old place to my new place. My original intention had been to disinfect everything before I moved anything to my new place so roaches would not travel with me, but apparently prevention is an alien concept to these people as the movers hauled every last item to the new apartment. Today was the first day I had free to sort out everything in my new place and was very pleased to have the help of Ian and our new teacher Maryanne. However in the cleaning process I discovered that there are ants in the apartment, the sink is attached to the drain pipe with duck tape and there were roaches in the tv unit brought from my old apartment. Ants are easily gotten rid of here, the school can sort the sink ( although I am completely lost for words as to how remedial owners of property are here...you'd figure maintaining apartments instead of letting them degenerate into inhabitable slums would be top of their owner agenda), but I am furious that roaches may have been brought to my new place. I think Ian may have a permanent guest in me. My sink is a complete joke though. Who in the hell thought duck tape would hold a sink in and prevent water from running into the closet and all over my new floor. Although, at this point I would to thank the creators of Dettol as their wonderful product succesfully disinfected all my plates and cutlery and gave them a dishwasher sheen.
Also because I am in a one room unit there isn't a laundry area. So, my washing machine has been decked out in true Knocknaheeny style..... it is currently sitting on bricks in my apartment.Yes. You read correctly. Bricks. The school caretaker had to place it near the bathroom door and so placed it on bricks and thoughtfully wrapped said bricks in tin foil. I don't understand the rationality behind that particular move. However, the story gets better. On Thursday I stood in front of the machine and could not for the life of me work out where the water supply for the washing machine would come from. The school caretaker appeared, I asked him how the machine would function and the poor guy looked at me as if I had ten heads. In his limited English he explained with the aid of demonstrations that I would have to drag tubing from the machine to the bathroom where the tubes would connect with taps in the bathroom and the draintube would have to be rested over the shower drain to filter out dirty water.


I think they have it better in Ballymun

It's a Bugs Life

Cockroaches.They come in many shapes and forms and apparently I have the brownband variety dancing merry jigs in my apartment. They are hideous disgusting creatures that breed like rabbits and have made my apartment life hell. The spawns of satan began their life in my apartment before I moved in and it has proven a difficult task to rid my place of them. The previous tenant had complained about them, but the school failed to pay any great heed to him and so it wasn't until the school handy man turned up to chuck some boric acid around the place, did he realise that acid was not going to bring an end to Roach Fest 2005. So instead of forking out for an exterminator the school is moving me to another apartment. However my new slum like abode will not be ready for two weeks as they have to wait for the current tenant to leave. So I have taken up residence with Ian at his place. And I think he is adjusting quite well to the influx of moisturisers, underwear and non stop reruns of Will and Grace.

Yawn........

Nothing, and I mean nothing, of any significance has happened over the last week. The high point has been buying some shower gel called "Cocoa" and discovering that it actually does smell of chocolate.


Depressing really.

Although on Saturday I did go to a board game cafe with Ian and some friends where my ass was whopped by Ian at Connect 4. Mind you I got excited to the point of hyperventilation when I found out the cafe had Connect 4. I also had myself convinced that I could thrash Ian, but failed to realise that consistently beating your brother at Connect 4 when you were 6 and he was 4 does NOT ensure global Connect 4 domination. On the same night I got to meet up with an old friend from Daegu who is now in Seoul having spent some inbetween time in Prague and Bangkok. And what stories he had about Bangkok. Don't think I want to go there now. I could tell you what they are, but lord that would involve having to type more. So enough of that.

Chusok is approaching ( Korean Thanksgiving... although they conduct memorials to their ancestors than actual thanking the giving...i have myself confused. Just accept that it is Thanksgiving). I have a number of days off and so Ian, Maebh , Nev and a few more (along with me) are going to a lake area near Seoul, just to hang out and recharge our batteries. There are mountains there, but I am determined to appreciate them from a sitting position as opposed to actually murdering myself by going up one.



Disneyland Hong Kong has opened, Sign me up for a weekend there. However, take a look at their website and you will be delighted to see that you can have your wedding there. I think this place has outdone Vegas for cheesiest wedding destination. Mickey Mouse as best man, Minnie as maid of honour and Donald Duck as the priest......

Typhoon season is upon us again. This time with Typhoon Butterfly. Do not ask. Who names a typhoon that? Maybe it's a play on words like calling a big 6ft 8 thug, Tiny? Or floats like a butterfly stings like a bee? But then they should have called it Bee. Typhoon Bee? Not very typhoonesque. In fact butterfly and bee are ridiculous names. If they are going down the animal way, perhaps, "Pit Bull Terrier", "Rattlesnake" or even "Wasp". Typhoon Wasp. That'll scare the masses. Anyway you will delighted to hear that if the power does go at some point tonight, I am armed with a single candle and half a bottle of water.

I don't stand a chance.

classic incident at the local police station. A bunch of drunk guys were embroiled in a staggering/battering contest outisde the front doors of said station. They were punching, kicking, biting, shouting and pulling at each other, all while the defenders of the peace peered out through the glass doors not daring to venture out to break it up and restore some quiet to the area. Eventually a member of one of the the feuding teams, stepped up to the front line, eyed up the opposition, selected the weakest member of the pack, rolled back his arm and floored the bastard! Everyone stopped in mid swing/drunken punch, stared in awe at the source of the flooring and immediately granted the puncher God like status. A pack of cigarettes was located, the two teams sat on the police station steps, smoked and laughed all while drunk guy lay in an unconscious heap on the ground. The police decided not to get involved seeing as the matter had clearly taken care of itself and so returned to their busy evening of soap watching.

This April, Ian came to Ireland and while he was there he took a number of pictures. Only recently did I learn how to upload images to my blog, so here are a few pictures. The first is of Bunratty Castle followed by Adare Manor, Universty College Cork, and Kilkenny Castle. Yes, there are many castles in Ireland and Ian was dragged along to only a select few ( lady luck was on his side), and was told to enjoy himself and take lots of pictures. I

The weather here is suffering from a nasty dose of schizophrenia. One minute hot,the next cold. Last week I was waking up shivering, but today smacked all that nonsense out of me and provided a pleasantly warm day. Seeing as it was warm I decided on a trip into town to peruse new clothes in stores. what a mistake. Koreans in large numbers annoy the hell out of me. When walking around the main shopping areas of Daegu, the foothpaths are thronged with thousands of people, all ambling along on their two speed gear sticks- go slow and sudden unexpected stop. Now beacuse there are thousands of them and because the streets are a tad on the small side, everyone is compressed sardines in a tin style. You are constantly being pushed, elbowed, smacked by bags, having toes and heels trodden on and worst of all..... when a team of girls that have been blocking the entire street, see a frilly pink hideous fabric number, disguising itself as a "blouse" ( didn't think there were still such things in the world, but rest assured they are the backbone of the Korean women's fashion industry), in a store window and suddenly slam on the brakes causing everyone behind them to bump into them. That sucks. Oddly enough no one here seems to mind. Even if, like me, you purposely push others out of the way just to get through crowds with both shoes on, they appear oblivious to your actions and continue with what they are doing. Wierd. Also evident here are the blatant lack of manners. No one and I mean no one here holds a door open. I was leaving a rather snobby department store today with my arms full, what with shopping bags, bag, phone and stupid Christian fliers in my hands. Two men walked out the main door before me, letting the door swing in my face and while I grappled with said door and my belongings, another guy pushed passed me to get out before me. However, this is not just with me, i have seen Koreans do this to their fellow Koreans and no one seems to care...again. Also on the bus this afternoon, all the seats were occcupied by men in their 50's to 60's. A bunch of old ladies got on the bus at one point, one with a walking stick and another with a dodgy hip and were they offered a seat by these men? No. The saying is that "Manners maketh man", well here it appears to be " Man who is rudest will maketh it". Strange how these things still annoy me even though I have been here so long, but I guess there are other social annoyances that I have become immune to- such as toilet paper on a restaurant table instead of napkins, the inability of the people here to eat with their mouth closed and other such social treats (!) I am excited about Don ( friend from Ireland) coming here as I cannot wait to see what he will have to say about the place.

This week I managed to get a new alien card, which means that the evil bank witch, daughter of Satan HAS to give me my new ATM card on Monday. Mind you though I am realising that lots of my store cards are gone, so now I really will never know the point of the Body Shop card. In store, each time I purchase something, the Body Shop employees swipe my store card and inform me of my point status. So a few weeks ago I asked if I could use my points for discount purposes and the mare working the counter neighed at me in laughter. So I'll de damned if I know what the purpose of the card is. I hope it's not something fun that I am missing out on due to language barriers. Snort.

I am minus a new bag, various clothes, all my make up, my discman, keys to my apt,my cell phone, all bank and credit cards, Ralph Lauren perfume and the lord knows what else.
Yes, I was robbed. Well not quite robbed, more broken into. On Saturday morning, someone got into Ian's apartment and made off with all my stuff that was in a bag. We presume that the thieves came in to steal his stuff, but got spooked and grabbed the first thing they saw, which happened to be my bag. I am gutted and devastated and I am finding out that loosing your identity is one of the worst things to happen. I have to go through a lengthy process reporting my alien card as missing to the police before i am issued a new one. Without my alien card, I cannot get a new bank card, so today I lost it(temper wise), with the bank staff. I refilled all the forms, the staff matched my information to my previous information, showed them my passport etc and still they refused to issue me a new card. Yet, without a second thought they happily handed over money from my account. Does anyone see the logic here? Cos I really don't.
Also, had to get the locks on my apartment changed door as they got my keys and my identification. Generally, an enormous headache that would easily be remedied were I able to speak the language and not deal with idiots. In KOrea, I am unable to get a new bank card from the bank next door to my school, but I was able to ring my Irish bank and within a matter of minutes a new series of card had been issued. There's red tape and then there is the most illogical thinking ever to grace the planet. Between guys leering in my bathroom window, getting robbed, dealing with the most inefficent people I have encountered in some time, I am just so tired. Just to validate my point regarding inefficiency, when I entered the police station with a rep from my school, the whole police force was seated on their backsides, reading the paper and regarded us as such an inconvenience. When presented with the matter it took them a quarter of an hour to inform us that no, they couldn't help us. More or less they said that their little stamp would not do on my form,as the head honchos in Police HQ,which I presume is somwhere in the "Metropolis", had the bigger better stamp, and that would look so much prettier on my form.

I am rather aggravated at the moment so feel obliged to end before I end up insulting an entire country.

So following my trip to Seoul, Ian and I decided on a whirlwind tour of Busan ( coastal city in Southern Korea, second largest city in the country), and what a delightful cultural insight it proved to be. First insight was the presence of a condom vending machine in our hotel room. Yes, IN our hotel room. All you had to do was insert 1,000 won and out popped a pre-boxed condom. Being the inquisitve person that I am I of course had to insert my two coins and unravel that little number with the speed of ….well.. a person with a great need for speed. Now, the box was a little on the small side and the contents of the box weren’t too far behind. To say that it was a “tight” looking number was an understatement. Ian stared at it in horror, recoiling from its cling film consistency and earthworm sized girth. Still though an innovative way to earn more money. I was surprised by the owner having such items in her hotel rooms, seeing as she was a little old lady that had all the hallmarks of being the two time winner of “Iron Mammy”, such was the level of care being shown to her residents.

Seeing as our room wasn’t really of a 5 star standard, never mind 1 star, we decided to amble around the beach known as Haeundae. Imagine a beach half the size of Tramore beach. Yes? Then pack 800,000 people at least into that confined area and that is life at a Korean beach at peak holiday season. And oddly enough, despite the place being more mobbed than Penney’s on Christmas Eve, it was a strangely enjoyable experience. Ian and I joined in with the “gang” and bought a beach mat, that looked oddly like that tin foil stuff that you put over a person when they are in shock. Neh, kill two birds with one stone and all that. We found a spot on the sand and set up camp with a few beers and indulged in some people gazing. And there was where we learned cultural insight number two. People. In Korea. When at the beach. Go swimming. With all their clothes on. So there I was sitting on my little mat, when I noticed that someone had fallen into the sea and had gotten himself and his clothes and shoes all wet. But, as I started to scan the sea/ sand line, I noticed that at least a few others had suffered this mishap. How careless, I thought, until Ian pointed that the whole 800,000 were doing the same thing. How bizarre! Remember as kids, when your Mum or Dad would kill you for getting into the sea with clothes on, seeing as you could possibly drown to the excess weight. Evidently not a problem in Korea. People here are made of flotable materials. Duh.

I also discovered here that Ian is anal about sand. Well, he is Canadian. I am worn out telling him that a “beach” on the edge of Lake Ontario does not qualify for “beach on the Atlantic” status. At Haeundae, I wasn’t too pushed about the state of our mat, but if I got shouted at once, I got shouted at a hundred times by Ian for getting sand on the mat. It was brilliantly obvious that Ian was oblivious to the fact that we were sitting on SAND. Mind you though, it was rather funny to watch Ian loose his temper every time the Koreans trampled over our mat/shock defense system dragging the better part of the beach over aforementioned mat. Titter.

Also the national obsession with looking perfect and a camera has spread to the beach. A trio of girls sat next to us at about 9pm and spent a good hour or so taking pictures of themselves with the three cell phones, two digital cameras and one Polaroid number they had in their possession. Each picture was determined to be unsuitable as after examining each picture they would all immediately start rectifying the part of their person that was a little camera shy. Hair was brushed, make was reapplied and those all important pouty lips and sulky expressions were perfected. Hilarious.

At about 1am, Haeundae beach was completely thronged. There was barely any moving room. People ranging from those in nappies to those back in nappies were out and about shakin’their thang on the beach. Music was playing from a huge stage at one end of the beach with a spectacular fireworks display in the night sky. It put the Cork Culture Thingy to shame ( even though Cork did set a ship on fire….). I oohed and aawwed with the best of them, staring at the show with child like wonder. And then to bed I went.

The next day we hit the Busan Aquarium. The aquarium was really impressive as it houses so many varities of tropical fish. My personal favourites, apart from the really cute penguins, were the angel fish. These little critters are about the size of a baby’s finger nail. They are transparent with a little coloured blob in their chest cavity and to top it all off, they really do have angel wings! And they swim like angels floating to heaven. My Catholic upbringing fell in love with those little guys. The mock turtles and sharks had me fascinated as well as the eerie looking crabs. We were allowed to hold starfish…. Genuinely like holding a little coloured rock. However, it was not just the fish that amused me. It was interesting to see a stunning 6ft lady with little or no English on the arm of a most unfortunate looking gentleman at the aquarium. A case of Russian prostitute and guy who has no shame. Believe me, Russian Prostitutes stand out a mile here. Although I have been repeatedly questioned regarding my “Russian” nationality……………………

I have just finished my week long vacation here. Due to unfortunate financial circumstances, I was forced to stay within the borders of Korea and was surprised by the right rollicking good time I had within them. On day one, I stayed in bed far too late, so achieved nothing, day two went to CostCo and almost wet myself over discovering blocks of real cheese, and day three went to the Korean Tesco to buy socks. Seeing as there was genuine danger of me overdosing on fun, Maebh came to my rescue and so we decided on a trip to Seoul. We took the KTX there,( think TGV). CIE needs to send its engineers on a field trip to Korea. The rail network here is incredible- it is fast, efficient and more than half the price of Irish rail. Maebh and I also noted that the KTX appears to be immune to the "leaves on the track" phenomenon. We were able to complete a Cork-Dublin (distance wise) trip in less than an hour and a half, ( incl. stops) for about E20. Got to Seoul and decided to amble around the city for a while. Ambling was easier said than done. It was far too hot for me. I was dripping sweat, grumpy and dying for some form of air conditioning. We visited Deoksugung palace in the city, which is a beautiful blend of Korean traditional and English Georgian architecture. Following that we watched a re enactment of the changing of the Korean guard. It was stiflingly hot at that point, but my inner pain was temporarily halted by the sight of one of the guard's on "drum" duty accidentally smack himself in the eye with his little drumstick number. I swear, if I knew the proper names of the "drum" and drumstick" I would place them here, but seeing as I never listen, that just is not going to happen. However, en route to a subway we found a huge bookstore with a dazzling selection of English books. It was not the books that did it for me, but the tear inducing choice of magazines. I left clutching three copies of Marie Claire. I though Maebh was going to have to hit me with a shot of Ridlin to calm my excitement. We ventured to Insadong afterwards, which is noted as being the art centre of Seoul. Perhaps because I am European and have come to learn that "art centre" signifies multiple galleries, street painters, crafts etc.. on display, was the reason for my disappointment in the area. Every single store stocked the exact same produce and seemed to exist for the sole reason of draining tourists of their money. Seeing as there was nothing there to hold our attention Maebh and I travelled to a super area in Seoul called, Sinchon. It is a student area of the city so is littered with lots of bars and restaurants. We found our hotel, settled in and then journeyed to Itaewon for some food. Itaewon is one of the most hideous places I have ever been to. It is the "Western" part of Seoul, so called because of all the Western bars and restaurants there. Also of note are all the American GI's and sleazy lecherous Pakistani's. Maebh and I were looking for an Italian restaurant, got lost and ended up on Hooker Hill ( don’t think I need to explain that one) and then down some dodgy side street with less then honest looking individuals. After we almost ran screaming from the area, we came across the Italian. It was a cute little place, but infected with loud-mouthed, rude Americans who were hell bent on making the waitress’ life hell. Americans wonder why we dislike them, and while in a foreign country I am open to all and sundry, but it is people like that who tarnish a country’s image. I could continue at length about the Korean hookers and the persistent GI, but that just brings back far too many nasty memories. We made a rapid escape to the Sinchon area where the only thing we had to avoid were tipsy, silly Korean students, determined to yell “Hello” to the two foreigners.

Went to a new bar in town tonight. Basement number with so trendy it hurts interior and accessories. Funniest part was when we sat down. The bar man offered us a menu and upon perusal we realised it was not a menu for the alcohol selection, but for the music. In menu format came all the cd's you could wish for, with a synopsis of each one and a photo ( should one mix ones album covers). Could this place be any cooler I thought? Indeed so dear reader, as the bathrooms were awaiting my keen eye. It is truly amazing what someone can create with a stencil and a few cans of spray paint.

Mind you this trendier than thou interior notion only works in some places. There is a little store in town that has been a favourite of mine for purchasing cheesy Korean things as well as cosmetics, household stuff etc... However in recent weeks, the nasty people of this store have decided to change the layout and content of the store so much so that ambling around the joint feels as though one is gazing at Swarovski crystals and not some inanimate object that was knocked off by a non union worker for the cost of sending a child to school in Mali for a week. When you now enter the place you are no longer bombarded by pound shop type goods, but to access the butterfly shaped "diamond" encrusted hair accessories, the only way of doing so is by stepping over a man made in-store stream complete with fake fish. You have no idea how much that confused me as I spent ages looking for the "bridge" until the nice store people informed me that i would have to step on the "boulders" in the stream or jump over it. Not very wheel chair friendly is what I thought. The place wouldn't last a day in law suit happy Ireland