Curious George

I think I've got it. George is married. I'm not saying, of course, that NOBODY can resist my charms. But surely, otherwise, he would at least say whether or not he had received my note? So that's my assumption.

But it's too freakin' bad, coz I really like to study in the National Library. Makes me feel like a real scholar, or one of those kids in the library at Hogwarts. All those dark shelves and fancy books. OK, so the Marsh Library is better but I don't think that regular students can just go there and study.

All of which reminds me -- did you know that the great library in Trinity was used as a template for the library in one of the Star Wars films? Well it was! How cool is that?

I'm in the countdown to the start of classes starting. While it has been great having these months to get started on the reading and get to know Dublin a bit I am actually really looking forward to getting to meet some more students and the people who will be teaching me. It's been a bit of a ghost town in TCD over the summer and I am good to go. I'm also watching the weather forecast anxiously as the Festival of World Cultures is on this weekend and while I'll go whatever the weather, I'm hoping for sun! This pale Newfoundland skin hasn't seen much of that for a while. Then, on September 5th, the Fringe Festival starts. I've forgiven Dublin Tourism for not coming up with free tix to the Electric Picnic and have my hopes set on a ticket or two for the Fringe Fest. Either way, I should make a few shows, as most of 'em are around 10 Euros which is affordable enough.

All for now folks. I'm feeling better about the whole George business. So we'll see.

No you're never gonna get it never never gonna

I went to the National Library. I saw "George". He smiled politely and said "You must be working hard."

"I am," I said.

I guess I'll never know whether he found my note or not; I'm too chicken to bring it up. Damn, damn and redamn.

I'm gonna cheer myself up by going to look at the mummies in St Michan's. I've been told it is good luck to shake (or kiss, is it kiss?) their hands. Their horrid, mummified hands. God only knows why. But in a creepy sort of way, I am looking forward to it. I've persuaded Bepe to come with me although he's already decided not to be freaked out, and told me that he has seen something similar in Sicily.

Stuff like this really brings home to me just how old Dublin is, and how much history there is here. Some of the mummies were interred before the Vikings arrived in Newfoundland! That's pretty damn old.

I'm going to take lots of pictures to show the folks back home. You never know, some of those mummies might even be our ancestors!

The watched pot

It's now several days since my stunt at the National Library, and George hasn't called. This is bad and makes me realise that my idea of leaving a note maybe wasn't the smartest. There are a number of possibilities;

1) He found the note but didn't realise who it was from;
2) He found the note and realises who it was from, but thinks that I am an idiot;
3) He still thinks that I was on a date with that lesbian chick that time he saw me coming out of The Dragon and is therefore confused and unsure as to whether or not to call;
4) He didn't find the note.

Why oh why did I not just ASK him out the normal way? Now I'll never know and I am reluctant to approach him in case option 2) the idiot, is the right one.

DAMN DAMN DAMN.

Plus I LOVE studying in the National Library. It is so cool to be in that beautiful building with the gorgeous smell of old books.

Anyway, following a resounding silence from Dublin Tourism on the issue of free tickets to the Electric Picnic I am resigned to not going. But I am totally psyched about the (mostly free!) festival on in Dun Laoighire this weekend. I am going to combine it with a bracing swim at the forty foot, as one of my loyal fans proposed. Apparently, that is where James Joyce used to swim, so I guess that that is where he came up with the immortal lines: The sea, the snot green sea, the scrotum shrivelling sea... Or something like that anyway. I am nervously looking forward to it