My Dublin Life

Everything is OK with Bepe I guess as he didn't say anything about my misplaced peck and I have hardly seen him all week.

Today, I got some fantastic news!! Dublin Tourism told me that my blog will be on their site soon. That's already pretty cool. I've even looked at Google AdWords :-) as she suggested when she told me that I had a job but wouldn't get paid.

But, Dublin Tourism Lady, all is forgiven! She rang me just about half an hour ago to tell me that she's got not one, not two but THREE day tickets for Saturday AND Sunday to the Oxegen festival! For me! How cool is that? I am so excited! I'm taking Saoirse and Bepe one day (I've decided not to care if she does ask him out) and my college girlfriends on the other day.

This is actually kind of like a dream come true. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I mean, I'm from Newfoundland and while St Johns is far from being the backwater people think, it's a small city and the audiences just aren't big enough to attract a lot of the headlining acts. I am so freaking excited I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight!!! Wow! Gosh! Golly-gee!

In other exciting news, I was in the National Library today, and had the following conversation with "George", the curiously alluring bespectacled librarian:

ME: "Uh, can I have these books" (hands George request).
GEORGE: "Just take a seat and I will bring them down to you."
ME: "Nice trousers." (WHAT??? I was THINKING it and accidently said it aloud.)
GEORGE: "Excuse me?"
ME: "Uh, I meant, I was look for cords just like that and wondering where you got them."
GEORGE: "I think it was Dunnes Stores, about three years ago."
ME: "Right, thanks."
GEORGE: "So if you just take your seat I'll bring those books down to you."
ME: [Shuffles away in ignominy]

So, ladies and gents, next time you hear from me I'll be all wan and exhausted from my weekend at Oxegen. Thanks again Dublin Tourism. :-) :-)

So Bepe invited me yesterday to Phoenix Park to fly planes and he gave me a present. You're not going to believe this but he got me my own little remote control plane to fly. There's something I never expected to have! It was kind of a shitty day-weatherwise, but we had fun anyway and guess what, having a good time is more fun than being cool.

Speaking of outdoors pursuits, i have discovered something that is radically marvellous. Astronomy.

Check it out.

Obviously I am not about to become a professional astronomer as I have an MA in Gothic Literature to consider,but these lovely people organise totally free events around Dublin and elsewhere and you can go and look through their telescopes for free and they'll tell you all about it. How cool is that? I have decided that this is my new hobby! They have a whole series of lectures in Tara, the seat of the ancient high kings and just about an hour away from Dublin so if I can find someone with a car, I'm ready! Maybe if I email the organisers they could give me some tips, or is that pushy?

So on the way home, I was overcome with emotion about the whole plane thing so I leaned over to kiss Bepe on the cheek, friendly-like, and he moved his head at the wrong moment and I ended up planting one on his MOUTH. I'm totally embarrassed. I tried to laugh it off but he was all like, "Grazie," and stuff so I'm going out with Saoirse tonight to avoid him. We're just going for a drink at Pravda and I don't have lot of money so either she's buying or I'll be nursing a pint all night. I'm loving Pravda though and as its just outside my house I can't believe I didn't discover it though. Fantastic sofas. Great.

Tonight Saoirse will let me know when the dinner is on with her famous Irish Rock Star Cousin!

So I told Mom that Saoirse had invited me to dinner with her first-cousin-once-removed, the famouse Irish rock star and she said, bless her heart, "I'll send over a comfort package for you to bring."




My mom believes that everyone's life is improved by her cooking. She's not necessarily wrong, but is it appropriate to go to dinner in the house of a hugely wealthy rock star with a jar of bottled moose, some partridge berry jam and a bottle of Screech? Would that make me cute, or just a bit of a weirdo? Then again, maybe going to millionaires' houses with carefully packaged home-cooked produce, complete with smiley faces on the label, is just a nice thing to do.


I asked Bepe and he said, enigmatically, "The cooking of a mother is a sacred thing. Of course, my mother is a really good cook." He also said, "I don't really like that sort of music anyway," which is kinda missing the point.


That didn't leave me any wiser, so I just left him to his remote-controlled airplane repairs and got back to agonising. The dinner is next week, so maybe mom's comfort package won't arrive on time, which would make thing a heck of a lot easier.

Meanwhile, I went to the comedy show at the International Club and boy did I laugh. When I went in, I was a bit taken aback because the venue is tiny and quite grotty. It looked like there was room for about twelve people in there, but they had packed in maybe sixty. I'm telling you, these guys are hilarious. Hilarious! I didn't even think I liked stand-up! But I am going to be back for sure. There were three acts, all hilarious, and a compere, also hilarious. I wasn't the only foreigner there--there was even a bunch of Germans who seemed to be following. Well, I'm a convert. I always comedy was stupid but it's now something on my regular beat!

Bepe invited me to the Phoenix Park on Sunday to watch him fly his planes. I'm torn. I want to go, but I don't want to be the sort of person who watches remote planes. It's a problem.

So Saoirse was over last night. I had been shopping in my usual haunts, Moore Street and around there, and had been going to cook up one of my famous stir-fries, but Bepe was there with some of his friends from the restaurant watching football and eating vast mounds of pasta, so we went out.

There's this curious place just near where I live; almost part of the same building. It's grandly called the "Epicurean Food Hall". I'd never gone because it looks kinda grotty from outside but Saoirse suggested going there and it was a lot of fun. There's fish and chips, Mexican tacos, Chinese food etc., and you eat from a greasy formica table amid a throng of people. While that might not sound very sophisticated it was a lot of fun and I'll be back.

While we were there, two things of note happened:
1) Saoirse asked me if I would mind if she asked Bepe out on a date. I was like, "Uh... you don't have to ask me..." although actually I do kind of mind as she is MY new friend and he is MY roommate and I just think it would be sort of weird and awkward;
2) Saoirse also told me that she is the first cousin once removed of a FAMOUS IRISH ROCK STAR whose identity I cannot reveal here and that she has been invited to their house in South Dublin for a meal and do I want to come. I'm like, "Well.. d'oh!" So I am going to be meeting a FAMOUS IRISH ROCK STAR whose identity I cannot reveal here although you can be sure I'll be telling the folks back home all about it.

Saoirse took the wind out of my sails somewhat by pointing out a) there are a lot of rock stars in Ireland, b) they are knocking around town all the time, tripping people up and getting in the way and c) it is not the done thing to notice them here, you have to pretend to be unimpressed whenever you see one or they'll think you are desperately uncool.

But seriously? Famous? Irish? Rock? Star? I will be stealing the tissues they blow their nose on! Seriously.

Also, I have decided to go to the comedy club on Wicklow Street because it's cheap and apparently great. So that's happening tomorrow. I will let you know.

Now I'm just going to sit here and think about famous Irish rock stars and me.

Whelan's rocks. It's a pub on Wexford Street which is a sort of shabby-chic end of town, a funny mix of fancy grocery stores and discount stores and nice looking restaurants (which I can't afford) and greasy spoons. Saoirse turned me on to it. It LOOKS like an ordinary enough pub, kinda scruffy, battered wooden floorboards and all the rest of it, and it FEELS like an ordinary pub if you go there early in the evening.

What I've found out is that if it's on in Whelan's, it's generally very good, so if you perk up in the evening, find 2o euros down the back of the sofa and want to go out, Whelan's is generally your best bet.

I took Bepe there the other day. We were going to go to the Long Hall but it was too crowded and noisy for me to listen to his tales of woe, so we went to Whelans instead. Last night. To hear this guy called Declan O'Rourke. Declan is handsome in a slightly puffy way, and when he sings... well, it's not my usual favourite style of music but he was great. Bepe liked him too.

Of course, we got chips on the way home (bad girl! no supper tonite!) and then Bepe casually laid his arm across my shoulder until we reached the flat. Is that normal? He's Italian. Maybe they all do that, all the time. Or is it meaningful? That could be awkward.

To diffuse the situation and make up my mind I started babbling about George the Librarian at the National Library and my big crush on him. Today I'm lying low for various reasons: not that much money; slight hangover; anxious feeling about Bepe; guilty feeling about badmouthing brother-in-law who sent nice email thanking me for their lovely stay and saying he really felt welcome.

I'm sure the Bepe thing is nothing--plus I don't want to have to move out. I like living on Bachelor's Walk. I think I'm going to look up my girlfriends. I'll even go shopping if they want.

Bepe and Fabia have broken up!

While I am sorry for him, OBVIOUSLY, I am not sorry to see the back of that skinny little B***.

Anyway, hilariously, she is actually having an affair with the older, married brother of the guy she's au pairing for. Apparently, he had his wife were on a "trial separation" and she pounced. Like, this is a relationship that is so going to last.

Bepe found out because she was kindly asked to leave her employment by the family who were hoping that the brother and his wife were going to sort things out. So she is on the plane back to Italy. Yay!

Of course, poor Bepe, etc. Because he was so nice to me when I had a cold, I told him that I'd take him out to drown his sorrows tonight, drinks on me. I'm thinking the Long Hall. I love it there because it's so totally old and you can really imagine Bram Stoker or Oscar Wilde or someone coming in to replenish their snuff or something. You've just got to factor out the TV and the peanuts behind the bar. There's lots of gloomy dark wood and stuff so it's just the place to be miserably style.

Seriously though he is better off without her. She is so not worth it. And I'm sure he'll find someone else really soon.

So...the family is back in town and while it is great hanging out with them and all, I am also looking forward to when they leave as balancing reading, my gradually increasing family circle and a family of sister, brother-in-law, kids and their grandma is pushing me way beyond my capacity.
They had a great time in Wexford, think they may have seen the cottage from which the ancestors of the brother-in-law left over 200 years ago and generally had fun. They stayed at a little place in the country and are now ready for dose of the city before they head home.
Although my brother in law says that they are "boring" I decided that they needed to see a bit of culture, so yesterday I traipsed them around the National Museum on Kildare Street. The kids loved it, especially the bog bodies (gruesome little brutes). Then we went over to the other section of the museum on the northside, Collins Barracks. They have a lot of cool stuff there, in no particular order, including a range of stuffed animals from the nineteeth (or eighteenth?) century. I didn't want to get too close as they looked like they might be smelly, but they went down well too.
Although the kids just loved the bog bodies, I hafta say they've been kind of haunting me. They look so vulnerable and lost and somehow as though they might even wake up, despite being squished and in pieces. And you can totally imagine how they must have looked when they were alive -- just like anyone you might see on the street. It makes the past seem a lot closer -- and it also makes me want to be cremated after I die, to avoid having my grizzled corpse giggled at by a bunch of snotty little kids