Coincidences...

...make life so grand.

I was sitting on the bus to Kinsale, flipping through my notes as I prepared to interview the craftsmen of Kinsale Crystal. The man in the seat next to me holds out a picture. "This is Alex - of Kinsale Crystal," he says. It's a black and white photograph of an upclose shot of Alex Davies, a crystal master cutter, as he works on a large piece in the small workroom of their shop in Kinsale. We chatted about how he had photographed the entire process of their crystal cutting and how laid back all of Ireland was. He had actuallly moved to Ireland from Scotland and said he still wasn't used to it. We got to chatting about the transportation, which is amazing. He pointed out that it is because you can't afford to live in the cities. He lived 2.5 hours outside of Dublin and preferred commuting to actually living in the city. That says a lot.
By the time we made it to Kinsale I was starved and had a headache. Though the photographer was wonderful to talk to, he was a smoker and it gave me an awful headache. My friends Lizzy and Cate had joined me for the trip and so we went and grabbed some lunch at a fantastic little place that served the best friend haddock I have ever, ever hand. Hands down, no questions asked. It was phenomenal. I had to eat pretty quickly though and run to the Kinsale Shop for fear of not getting there in time to get a good interview.
When I got there I started chatting with Tomas, who was the one who had emailed me letting me know when I could come in and chat with them. Alex, the master cutter was on his way out and I immediately turned on my recorder and started chatting with them about being the oldest in the family. Tomas was in the process of giving his younger brother a shove to pick up his end since he had been falling short on that day. The last thing that I wanted was the feel of a rehearsed and boring interview. I just wanted to chat and get as much information from him in a comfortable and informal way. They were great to chat with and Tomas was very pleasant and welcoming through the whole thing. In fact pretty much the entire interview was actually done in the work shop where he let me watch him cut the crystal, and showed me the first thing that he learned when he was cutting, and even let me look over his shoulder as he made each cut. It was such a cool experience. The girls came in after about 40 minutes, and I knew that meant that I was running out of time. I looked down at my list of questions and realized that we had covered every topic I wanted to in one form or another. I smiled when I realized it and thanked him for his time. He had no idea I had been recording the whole time - ah I love reporters license. It was such a hard thing to explain, it sounds so simple, but it was a really awesome experience and I am so glad I had the opportunity.
I have to go work on my article now, since that was the point of the interview in the first place. I love you all! God Bless.