Be That Girl

I had a kind of wonderful morning recently, like in a Patrick Kavanagh poem where he saw beauty in the banal (except I am not an aged and revered poet who equally loved and hated the countryside and city. At least not yet). I was in Dublin city centre getting some stuff done, but I found myself wandering down Drury Street, and I started properly looking around. Not only were some really lovely and unique businesses that I had simply glanced past before, but this was the first time in an age that I gone rambling. Not in a speaking sense, I do that far too often. Every time I had gone into the city, there had been a purpose, a task to complete, and the journey was rushed. This time, although I had some intention to check out the Asian Market food event on said street, I had no set plans or time constraints.

Look at those cloudy lampshades!

Because it was the first weekend of Chinese New Year, Asian Market had beautiful Chinese lanterns hanging in their shop

As I waddled along, actually taking the time to admire the cute and classy shopfronts, and browse through some of the more intriguing shops like Om Diva and Irish Design Shop, I started to notice this little commentary in my head. I'm not the kind of girl who shops in places like this. I was kind of shocked to realise how much I pushed myself away from these colourful quirky shops. I could never pull off a style this striking I sheepishly thought as my eyes sparkled at all the prints and crazy cool clothing. I don't spend an afternoon browsing for a new book to read. I started to throw back counter arguments to myself: why did I think I didn't have the gusto nor the time for these things that I found exciting? When had I become so unadventurous? That's it, the blog is over, I have failed my mission...

There was and is no reason for me to think like this except for a bad way of saving money, and a rut I have slid myself into, where I have lost confidence in myself. I have been looking at other people's lifestyles and and passing by thinking "but I'm not that girl". But why can't I be that person? I've been placing so many restraints on myself the last few years that I haven't allowed myself a chance to grow. I'm not saying that I want to shed all that I know like some strange chrysalis of a woman and embrace everything differently.I feel like I stay true to my personality most of the time, but that one step outside my worn-in comfort zone is a bit too much.

I also place a small disclaimer here: I am not promoting that try to emulate others is the right thing to do. Unfortunately I do spend way too much time comparing myself to others, and I'm slowly trying to train myself out of it. So I don't recommend scrolling through Instagram and crying, but I do find a lot of inspiration in other people and I think I'm ready to try some more things out myself.

Asian Market had free samples inside and outside the shop and I enjoyed all the scents and tastes of everything they were making.

So, am I the kind of girl who eats free samples of food for breakfast? Aw yeah.
Am I the kind of person that wants to try and make dumplings at home? Of course, because they were delicious.
Am I yer wan in cafe just sitting reading a book and drinking copious amount of tea? Obviously.

Am I going to attempt to make the chandelier (picture above) at home? The blueprints are there in my mind.
Am I going to be the girl taking pictures of my food? No. But that is because I was channelling Noonoo from Tellytubbies and vacuuming up pancakes like there was no batter tomorrow.

I'm going to try harder to live up to the name of this blog, The Adventure Collection, and become adventurous once, more. And I'm going to corny about it. I'm going to be that girl.

Until the next sort of adventure,
Aoife

PS: Places I spotted on Drury Street for exploring: Blazing Salads, Kaph, Chocolat Atelier, Om Diva, Irish Design Shop, Tales for Tadpoles, Asian Market. I also had second breakfast in Honest to Goodness and I agree that it was full of goodness.