My Dublin Life

Another week over! I have worked sooo hard this week and I am feeling good about things! There are times when I feel as though the thesis is taking over my life but right now I am on top of it and good to go for the weekend. I'm going to go home now, pick up some ingredients on the way home and make some more soup.

Yes, I have become quite the soup chef. And while I would rather eat a less monotonous diet, as a way to keep money on the side for going out, it's working out very well.

But not tomorrow. Tomorrow, I've been invited to eat at the restaurant where Bepe works. And I really can't wait, because it's not the sort of place I could normally afford to go. His boss, bless him, is letting him have a few friends over for an early bird meal instead of a Christmas bonus this year. Well, I'm telling you, if it's as good as Bepe says, I'll get my mom and dad to take me there when they are over...a few weeks from now.

After the meal I'm meeting the Beautiful PhD Student for another of our unsatisfying is-it-or-is-it-not-a-date outings. Sigh. I think I'll tell him that I'd rather not see him anymore, even though that means telling him that I really, really don't want to be just friends.

He's suggested going to a wine bar. Now, to me, that sounds like a very grown-up, romantic sort of thing to do. But then he's already made it superclear that he's not looking for a relationship so... yes, I'll have to tell him I don't want to see him any more. Sigh. But tell you something, I am going to look Fabulous when I do it!!!!

The weather forecast for the weekend is not bad, considering the time of year. Cue my sad, solitary walk on Sunday at Sandymount or Howth or somewhere suitably moody after having said goodbye to my hopes 'n dreams.

My Uncle Joey is coming over in the New Year.

Now, I love my Uncle Joey and no family party would be the same without him, but what I am going to do with him? He's going to stay in a hotel (which I have arrange + he wants it to be great + cheap so maybe not so easy) but I'm betting he's going to want to be shown the town. He's only coming for 5 days but, uf...

What to do with a drunken sailor? And if you think I'm casting aspersions, it's not like that. Uncle Joey was the only one of his family to go into the fishing/sailing world and he's the archetypal bigger-than-life man's man who likes to work hard, play hard and knock back his beers.

I can't believe he's coming. So like him, though, to just book his tickets and tell me afterwards, ha. He split up with his wife of 20+ years a while back so maybe that's why.

So if there's any ladies out there interested in a 50ish gent from Newfoundland with tattoos on his forearms, a heart of gold and a serious party habit, let me know.

Well. With these dark evenings and stormy skies, it's not difficult to remember that Christmas is coming. More and more of the stores in town have Christmas things in the window, and most of the streets seem to have their festive lighting on. Even if people are still cross about what happened in the France/Ireland match last week, there's a good atmosphere. I walked on Grafton Street today, and there were plenty of buskers doing their thing in the rain and raincoat-covered tourists looking at them.

Mom and Dad will be here in...what? Three weeks. I'm hoping it's going to be cold-but-pleasant but what the hey, even if it's rainy and windy, we haven't seen each other since April and it will be fun. Mom being mom, she'll be bringing me as many home cooked goodies as she can, Ireland's import laws and suitcase space permitting. I'm hoping for cod tongues. I wonder why the Irish don't eat 'em, when they're so finger-licking good. There are some places selling good (considering it's not from Newfoundland) fish around Smithfield and in Howth, but still, no cod tongues. Perhaps I can introduce them to the locals? Anyone want to call up to the apartment for a tasty dish of cod tongues?

Yesterday was a blustery day. I didn't mind. I like the wind. I hooked up with Pollyanna, a girl I hung out with quite a bit when I first arrived but haven't been seeing much lately. She's living in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathmines, where I don't go that often (tho' I should as it seems to be where most of the students hang out). Pollyanna has a new boyfriend (don't they all-all but me) who is a law student at Griffith College To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I warm to him but as I've only met him once I'm maybe not being fair. Anyways, he lives near the college so we called in for tea in the afternoon.




There's this really neat area between the Grand Canal and, I guess, St Patrick's Cathedral (I am not sure where this area ends and begins. It's called Portobello and it's a maze of cute old houses. This guy lives in a flat in one of them. It's pretty down-at-heel but you can still see how fabulous it must have been once. I didn't know it, but Dublin had a Jewish neighbourhood once, and there is still a little Dublin Jewish museum tucked away down a side street.





Though now I think of it, isn't there an Irish Jewish character in James Joyce's Ulysses? I think there might be.

We walked along the canal and saw about 100,000 swans and although you might find this hard to believe, as it started to get dark, a FOX!!!!!!!!




After getting blown about for an hour or two we figured we deserved a hot whiskey and went to the...well...interestingly named Bleeding Horse. After a couple of drinks the name and the whole idea started to freak me out a bit and anyway it was time to go home!

Today I worked superhard and am hoping that this will be the form for the rest of the week...but now: home for soup!