I furiously jotted some nuggets down right after his talk:

“The more you plan the freer you can be, because you’re not as nervous.”

“Hirst’s skull freed us – the pendulum swung back to crafts, to hand-made things, to the artist.”

“No, I don’t think digital photography has diluted the medium – everyone has a pen and paper, right?”

“Do everything – paying the bills gives you freedom.”

Here’s a shot of him, being snapped  with one of the many fans that crowded around after the talk:

And here is the infamous Pieta, featuring Courtney Love:

His American Jesus exhibition is currently on show at the Sebastian Guinnnes Gallery (a really cool space, btw) and I’d really recommend checking it out.

Later that night, Eoghan and I met up with Gav, Michelle and a few other old Observer heads and started a night of chat and banter that ended with lots of drunken Wii gaming sometime around 6.30am. Hence, Saturday was sloooo-w. I spent a lot of time with these guys:

And The X Factor of course

Sunday was a day of spring (autumn?) cleaning and reading. I’m currently working my way through Joe McNally‘s excellent Hot Shoe Diaries. Despite the fact that I’m  a Canon-using natural-light photographer and he is exclusively Nikkon-using and writing about flash photography, it is one of the best photography books I have ever read. A really professional, honest, and funny guide to using strobes – if you’re looking to get some more creative results out of your flash, this is the place to go.

Other than that realisation, it was a great weekend. Kourtney has recently started boarding school, so we whisked her out for a weekend of unadulterated girly fun. Saturday: a stroll trough the park and town. Couple of pics below.

This is Kourtney;

I hadn’t photographed her in ages so I took the opportunity to grab a few quick portraits.

This is my sister, Kelly (Ethan’s mum). She got the gorgeous genes

Love this shot of her doing her make-up on the 46a:

And this, of course, is Ethan, nephew and Godson extraordinaire:

Here he is again, peeping up from between the Dublin Bus handle bars.

After stopping off at the Epicurean for some grub (I can’t recommend Taco Taco highly enough – best Mexican food in the city, I promise) we spent the evening watching X-Factor, oooh-ing and aaah-ing over Cheryl Cole’s gorgeousness, admiring Holly Willoughby’s pretty dresses, murdering songs on Singstar and watching classic girly movies, such as Dirty Dancing. Sunday: Park and cup cakes. I’ll post the cupcake shots – along with an easy peasy recipe – in the coming days.

How was your weekend?

Anyway, back on track now. Hope you had a nice weekend, here’s what I got up to.

Legged it home after work on Friday (via Pintxo – wasn’t loving the chef’s work that night, everything tasted a bit meh, sadly) (oh and via Urban Outfitters where I picked up a pretty and totally impractical pink wallet. Bold.) to hop into the car and head up North to visit my mum at the circus.

Thanks to Sat Nav trying to lead us down a road that was closed, we didn’t get there until well 11- just in time for a chinwag and some wine.

Saturday, Eoghan and I went for a wander around the pretty town of Bangor and came across a very cute sweet shop selling all sorts of old school treats.

I bought a couple of packets of that really bubbly gum – cue 20 minutes of blowing chewing gum bubbles on the street and getting LOTS of funny looks.

Then, back to the show to check out the new juggler

Aaron’s impressive hand-balancing act:

And my (not so) little cousin Stephen:

After a mammoth supermarket sweep in Newry on Sunday, we headed back for lots of tea, papers, and my favourite dinner.

And some more tea.

How was your weekend?

PS

A few mini movie reviews:

500 Days of Summer: Adorable flick, killer soundtrack, highly recommended.
GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra: Eoghan described it in three words: “Boom, Boom, Pow.” That kind of covers it, methinks.

On Friday, Eoghan had picked up a couple of yummy, juicy steaks so some marinade was called for:

Mix the finely chopped garlic, chilli and rosemary with a little olive oil and some soy sauce. Rub some salt and pepper into the steak (after giving it it a few goes with the tenderiser – very therapeutic!), pop it in a sandwhich bag with the mix then put it in the fridge and wait with a glass of wine until you’re ready for it. Yum!

Saturday I met up with two old college friends. Helen Alice (left) lives in Singapore now, so we only get to see her a few times a year. Obviously there’s Facebook and gChat, but it just isn’t the same. Etaoin and I had stories to tell that simply can’t be told through instant messaging. We met up at around 2.30pm for lunch.

We were still out at 12.30am, drinking cocktails in Spy. Yup, a lot of gossip. Isn’t it great though, not seeing someone for ages and being able to instantly fall back into old, comfortable ways?

Sunday, was spent hanging out with this little guy:

And this adorable six month old cutie:

Aren’t her eyes amazing? More pics of her on the way!

I then took my sis, Kelly, to CSI The Experience at The Ambassador, which was good, cheesy, forensic fun. And we cracked the case, whoop!

How was your weekend?