I did an ad the other day. While I’ve told all of Ireland about every product known to man via a microphone since 1994, this was only the second one I’ve done in front of camera.
It was great because it was shot in Ireland and I love getting the chance to work at home. Now before you get all green-eyed about us being cosseted and jetted off to Dublin for the night, the shoot was set to be in Ballymun, and so we were put up in the local Travelodge. If you have to collect your own “room-service” pizza from downstairs, then swish is a word that can only be applied to the sound of the full length, blackout-curtains. They were pretty cool, actually. There was a bath, too, and I had one. Take that.
So – all in all – it was very comfy. Not exactly central Dublin, but comfy. I went to the gym at Ballymun Leisure Centre and LA can eat its heart out: I have never seen so many recumbent bikes, nor the point of recumbent bikes in the first place, but that’s another story. I used the real bikes, the treadmill, the elliptical trainer and the lovely water-filled rowing machine that also went swish. It seems to be the sound of Ballymun these days.
Having parted ways with cheese last year, I wouldn’t have been up for hotel pizza even if they had deigned to bring it to my room. But for me, the whole joy of staying in a hotel on a work night is eating in the room – let’s face it, I’d seen all the sights in the afternoon walk to the gym, and I’d be in Dublin the following week, so no point tempting myself with sociability and drinks: I would lodge it up, big style. So I bought a mushroom Pot Noodle at SuperValu and ate it watching horrible, horrible TV3 things. That made everything in the world seem better: I may have been about to spend the next day doing take after take amongst myriad electrical goods, but I was not there. I believe the sound of my relief went swish.
