My Dublin Life

Today, a very sad thing happened. Well, it was sad for me. I was in the National Library studying when this business-suited woman came in and KISSED George and I realised in one fell swoop that he was Not For Me. He's a married man! Well, he was always too old for me I guess. But now I don't just not have a boyfriend, I don't even have a crush on anyone!

Well, classes are about to start so perhaps I can form an unsuitable attachment to someone in TCD instead. Just today, I was on my way to the library there (yes, I have been studying hard) when I practically tripped over this god-like Japanese tourist on his way to see the Book of Kells. So you see, there are handsome men in every walk of life, not just in surprisingly sexy corduroy trousers in ancient libraries.

Anyway, in case you are wondering why I am so upbeat despite the whole George debacle, the reason is this: Today, I had a meeting with Dublin Tourism . As you know, I am not getting paid for this blog, but there are some perks. After buying me breakfast at the in-house cafe (not bad, and I do like to eat in converted churches) The lady handed me an envelope full of "perks" in the form of free tickets to things they want me to go to so that I can write about them here. I don't have to LIKE them but I do have to go. Or heck, I don't HAVE to go but I will somehow find time. There's much-sought after tickets to a hurley match in Croke Park (although I will have to sit next to the Chief Exec of Dublin Tourism whom I don't know so hopefully he won't want to engage me too much in conversation) (unless he is a youngish, dashing sort of the type I could become unsuitably obsessed with) (just kidding). There are tickets to various Fringe Festival events, which is totally cool as I was going to go anyway. There are also a number of things I don't know what to do with, like tickets to the zoo . So mission for tonight? I'm gonna pore through the tickets and see what I want to do, and what I don't. Exciting!

Wow! Dublin's Fringe Festival starts this weekend. I totally remember why I wanted to live in a big city now; it looks so awesome and amazing. Most of the shows are within my budget so long as I limit myself to one a day and don't spend to much on necessities like beer, and most are in the city centre. I can't wait! It's on for two full weeks and suddenly I don't care about the incessant rain and the gathering autumnal gloom. Wow! I so wish that someone was visiting me now so that I could take them out to all the shows. I have a friend back home who would go crazy for this stuff. I miss that crazy guy.

Speaking of crazy, don't tell anyone but I am considering getting a tattoo. I asked Bepe what he thought, and he said, "You're out of your mind but still..."

What I thought would be cute, considering that I'm doin a thesis on Gothic literature and I'm in the native city of Bram Stoker and all, would be a little vampire bat, just on my inner wrist. Not too coy, but not too obvious either. What do you think? I had this idea of sticking teeny rhinestones on for the eyes for when I'm going out.

Cute, huh? Well, I am actively looking into it!

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.

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!

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

So I was studying at the National Library again and just generally soaking in all the Culture when it occured to me that it was time I stopped dallying and just invited "George" the Beautiful Librarian out. There he was, in his unfathomably sexy corduroys, doing something mysterious with some manuscripts on a trolley.

I sat and thought about how best to do it. Directly? But you're not supposed to make a lot of noise in a library!

No, instead, I discreetly wrote a note and left it on the end of his trolley when he pottered off to get some coffee or to answer a call of nature or something. I put my mobile number and a few carefully chosen words so that he would know it was from me and then I sneaked away with my books under my arm.

The reading is going pretty well, BTW so I think I will be ahead of the class when the teaching actually starts in the Autumn.

Anyway, now I am anxiously awaiting a call! I do hope he says yes. Not just have I been swooning over him for months, but it would kind of get me out of the awkward corner I'm in with Bepe following the other evening's mishaps.

Today I was looking at the programme for the Electric Picnic. Do I want to go? Absolutely. Can I afford it? No way. I've been slapping money around for months and I'm running out. Lest we misunderstand each other, I'd like to stress that it's MY money that I worked for. A full freakin year in Tim Hortons living at home with my folks to save it all. I have a scholarship for the postgrad studies, but that won't kick in for another month or two. But 240 Euros is a lot of money. Dublin Tourism people, you did say you could throw me the odd free ticket. Does that stretch to Electric Picnic? Please, oh please, say that it does. I'll do whatever you want. I'll even stop being Rigorously Honest, if that's what you want. I so absolutely want to go, really I do.

OK, enough. I'll get back to staring at my phone and waiting for George to call.

About what happened a few days ago? I have decided to ignore it. The alternative is moving out and I don't want to do that.

So I am totally psyched about the Dun Laoighire Festival of World Cultures. I am counting down to it! I have been examining the website minutely and, so far as I can make out, most of it seems to be FREE. Free, in today's era of Doom and Despair? There's gotta be a catch. It just seems like such a fantastic idea to basically have the WORLD represented in one weekend. And I guess it's the last big bash before the kids all head back to school. It is also so totally cool that they have Irish traditional music in there too.

I don't think that they've ever had a Newfoundland band but if not, WHY not; it's about time. Anyway, I can't freakin wait. More good news: the Ozzies I hooked up with hiking in Wicklow emailed me and they are meeting me for cheap Persian food followed by a drink in Whelans tonight so that will be fun! I honestly never thought I would see those crazy guys again.

And in the final piece of news for today, after several weeks of not doing that much, study-wise, I took myself into the National Library today to look some stuff up and there was "George," the beautiful librarian, sporting a new tattoo!!! I didn't think he was the type. I've got to invite that guy out tho' I think he's got the wrong impression of me since he saw me leaving The Dragon with a cute lesbian chick... So I'd better just screw up my courage and do it.