How ithers see us!

Chocolate Mannequin Pis - what bit would you bite first?

Like it or not we do so many things in our day to day lives through our eyes.

We pick our partners on their looks. The first thing that attracts us to the opposite sex is the look of said possible suitor. All other traits such as personality, sense of humour etc come later. If we like what we are looking at then the chances are we will pursue, chase and ultimately get together. And when you look at the animal kingdom that is why so much effort is made in courtship that so often involves colour, dance, display etc as it is the eyes that do most of the initial work.

Trying too hard?

We choose holidays based on the pictures in brochures or based on pictures we have researched on the internet. I have no doubt that many readers now use the internet to actually look at, in real-time, holiday destinations. We also look at pictures posted by other holiday makers on discussion pages and holiday review sites.

Our food tastes so much better if we like the look of what we are about to eat. That is why so many top chefs spend so much time picking the right ingredients that not only tastes good but will look good on your plate. You only have to look at the plethora of TV chef programmes and look at the time spent on arranging the produce on the plate prior to serving. In fact we have now gone one stage further and we are seeing dishes being served on slate beds, wooden boards and all manner of items that are not our traditional china plate. Going to such great lengths on the presentation are ways to enhance our experiences and to make sure that we come back time and time again.

Should our City be treated any differently? I would argue No!

It has worried me and many others for quite some time now that the entrances to our wonderful City have been a very poor reflection on what our City has to offer. But like it or not the entrances to the City are in many ways our shop window to the City. And like a retail outlet that shop window must be dressed properly and appropriately to give people the right first impression of what type of City they are entering, what the City might have to offer and will the City come up to their expectations!

As it stands I do not believe that we have it right.

If you are driving from Dublin, and assuming that you do not get mixed up with the poor signage and redirected across the toll bridge, then you are presented with a quite foreboding drive down to the train station. The vista is not welcoming and in fact rather industrial. That concrete wall creates a claustrophobic impression and it is somewhere you feel that you must drive passed quickly. This wall is ripe for inclusion as part of the Waterford Walls project and should be a key focus for 2016. Likewise coming in from the Wexford side is also rather industrial and depressing.

But your spirits could be lifted when you see the bridge. But alas this is not festooned with flags, it is not adorned with wonderful floral displays, it is not lit correctly and so on. You do not have to look too far to see just how impressive a well dressed bridge looks - New Ross for example.

Then coming down through the Dunmore Road is like navigating a Himalayan mountain pass. All sorts of different patchwork surfaces, full of big lumps and large bumps and it is never ending.

No matter what spin you put on it we have NOT dressed our shop window correctly and I often wonder just how others see us.

“O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!” Robert Burns.