Sutton Cross, Sutton, Dublin 13

Every so often something happens that provokes a near-LSD like mental self-examination of what you're doing with yourself overall in life... or maybe just that day. I'd been out snapping pix of a couple of gafs in the two-digit postcode northern surbubs, tut-tutting about the general dereliction. The improving weather will hopefully mean improving regularity of posting here by the way (dont bet your house on it though). So there I was anyway minding my own business (if you call photographing other people's property minding one's own business), when next thing a part of one of my teeth fell out onto my tongue. Straight out of the blue. No warning whatsoever. I found myself looking in the wing mirror of a parked car to see the damage. And then it hit me - maybe this was some sort of evil karma coming back on me, that for the exposure of the derelict gafs around the city - ye gods were to spite me and turn my body to a crumbling, disintegrating mess. Just like the houses I'd been snooping around in. For a couple of days after this weekend this niggling paranoia persisted. Any ache or slight pain was ran through a roller coaster of potential catastrophic outcomes, from kidney failure to cancer to any type of STI I'd ever heard of. I was getting turned into a derelict house myself.

Bizarrely enough as well in the last two weeks, Superquinn continually appeared in some shape or form in my life. I rewatched Des Bishop's RTE series on DVD of him working in shit low paid jobs in Ireland - one of which was in Superquinn in Dundalk. An abandoned scorch-marked trolley from Superquinn keeps popping up in the laneway behind my house and in different places around the estate - even though there isnt a Superquinn for miles where I live. My current dark-skinned latina lover has the misfortune to work at the "Protein Counter" (i.e. meat+fish) in said supermarket. And to top it all off, on the day of the broken tooth, we came across this gem right at the junction of Sutton Cross - right next to the back entrance to, of course, Superquinn. What do you suppose it all means? Is Feargal Quinn employing some sort of cosmic energy to align these events as to make me change my usual Lidl, Tesco, and Dunnes habits? Are the pallets stacked in the back garden of this house belonging to the supermarket - or just happen to be there by random chance? And does anyone know a good cheap dentist?

Ballymun Road (St. Pappins Road junction), Glasnevin, Dublin 9

I guess its symptomatic of the blandness of todays students that a big derelict house can sit next to a university (DCU) with no sign of students either trying to squat it for housing - or even just break into it for a free place to have some sort of a wild booze and coke fuelled party with proper sexual experiences progressing beyond heavy digital petting during freshers week. I guess they dont need to crack out a crowbar seeing as how they all seem to be flush with cash. There isnt even any graffitti on the house! I just dont believe the stories that USI come out with these days when they say university students have it hard. All of them seem to be swanning around town in astronomically priced gear from the likes of Urban Outfitters that make me cry into my can of Dutch Gold when my pay cheque arrives. When I was a student (oh great, here we go, I hear you say) all anyone did was speed - the poor man's coke. Now everyone seems to do the rich man's coke - coke. This house is right next to the bus stop on the Ballymun Road entrance to DCU, the long avenue that hugs the north side of Hampstead Park. The house may be called Albert College House, but I cant be sure. No number on it. The estate to the rear of this house (a gate at the rear of the house opens into the housing estate) is called Albert College. Looks nice and spacious, as much as I can ascertain with the windows and doors completely boarded up and blocking my view that is... with an ample garden still in good condition not needing much hacking, slashing, and burning. Only one or two beer cans dumped in the hedges - and no used condoms! Hmm. Maybe students are actually studying these days.

8 and 9 Luttrellstown Glade, Diswellstown, Carpenterstown, Dublin 15

Mirror images of each other in the distant, distant suburbs. Took a bit of time to find these two (thanks to B for the info). Buried in the depths of suburban commuter-ville, this is the type of place that features in the news because: the kids dont have a place in the local school, the buses and/or trains are crammed to the gills for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening with local reps crying out for more (yet empty the rest of the time), or featuring in some wanky lifestyle piece by McWilliams about decklanders, dinkys, or whatever compartmentalisations he's dreamt up this week. These two spacious three (probably) beds are in a nicer part of the city, tagging itself with the Castleknock moniker even though its nowhere near it. Probably worth about three quarters, so why empty? Cant understand it. There was a little field next to them with a couple of cars up on bricks, maybe this may have scared off any timid owners - regrettably the memory card on the camera was full so I didnt get a pic of these, and there's no way I'm going all the way out there again. So still a bit of a mystery, especially since both of them at the end of the road are empty. Looks like from the lock on the back door of one of them that somebody was trying to make their way in with a crowbar, but didnt get very far. There's nothing in either house anyway. The area is very boring. Its probably influenced this boring post.