Town

Went into town yesterday for an hour or two - we had a few bits and pieces to pick up from Asia Market (it looks nothing like the photo - I think this is their "trade-only" warehouse in some industrial estate), so we decided to have a little potter around, to soak up the pre-Christmas atmosphere. There wasn't as much of a buzz as I had expected - while the streets were busy, the shops were not. Pleasant if you were buying something, but a bit disappointing if you were just looking like me!

Sad to say, but the atmosphere was much more festive in Dundrum Town Centre, where there was a big choir on the top floor singing carols for charity, that put you in Christmas mood as you walked in. The shops were fairly quiet (it was after 5 so I would expect that - though the centre was open until 9 pm last night). I asked a shop assistant in Marks & Spencers if they'd been busy, and she said it had been a steady stream, and this was the first time it was quiet in the whole day. The Belgian Truffles were still half price (so we bought another 2 boxes) and the big Belgian tin of biscuits was well reduced too (1kg cheaper than the 400g tin), so we stocked up on those too. You can never have enough of Belgian goodies!

Traffic was chaotic around the car park exits. We were walking so we didn't care (except it was very cold).

But what happened to the ice rink? It was closed, which we found very strange at 5pm. There were plenty of teenagers in the shopping centre, who, I'm sure, would have been happy to spend an hour or two ice-skating. There is no mention of it on the website - strange?

Hey, just found this on Boards.ie: "Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone knows why the Dundrum ice rink is not opening now? It was all set to go, so much work was done and it looked great and then they posted this on their Facebook? 
Dundrum On Ice* * * * * * * * Friday 11th December. We regret that due to circumstances beyond our control Dundrum on Ice has been cancelled for this season. People who have booked tickets through our on-line system will be refunded directly to the credit or laser card used to make the booking. Refunds will be processed within the next 7 days." I wonder did they have problems getting insurance or something like that?