Interesting times

Almost despite myself, I'm actually getting quite fond of the little urchins I've been taking care of on Saturdays. I'd never go into child care professionally, and the jury's still out on whether I'd ever actually want a rugrat of my own but, like moss, these two grow on you. And that's not all. This weekend the annual national puppet festival was on. Now, I'd almost certainly never have gone to anything (maybe one of the adult shows, but maybe not) in this, because I'm not so much the demographic they're going for. But wow! Puppet shows are fun! It's amazing how easy it is for us to suspend our disbelief. I mean, we go to the cinema and watch things in 3D and yet, although we know there's a man behind the curtain with his hand inside the puppet, we find ourselves caring about the characters. I went to a "paid" show with the kids, but there were also a lot of free shows. Sweetest scene of the weekend -- two very menacing looking teenage boys with scary hair and scowls breaking into enraptured smiles as they watched an Italian puppetteer. At the end they sloped off telling each other, "That was f****g brilliant!" "Yeah, f*****g deadly, man!"

Maybe they weren't the demographic the puppet show was going for either, but, aw, they loved it.

If you're coming next year, check it out.

On a completely different note, once I'd given the kids back to their Mom, I met my New Friend and went to the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar. Despite the great location, this place is quite discreet about what it does, but it shouldn't be. Once, for college, I had to read Susan Sontag on photography. Seeing the current exhibition, which is about the Irish Civil War . Seeing images of actual people makes it all so different than just reading about it.

Today, I'm telling my folks that I'm not coming back to Newfoundland or even Canada when I'm done with this course. I just don't feel ready to go. It's as though there's something that's keeping me here and I'm going to have to stay until I find out what it is.