2008 - The First Post

For the past week and then some, I have found myself strangely attached to my room without much motivation to leave it. I tried to model my confinement on Journey Around my Room, however I think my mental efforts resulted only in de Maistre turning in his grave. (I wonder what that would be like...Journey Around my Coffin. A page or two at best.) Aside from two or three notable forays out and about, hunkering down with the laptop and multiple cups of tea has been a welcome cerebral flatline following the chaos of frenzied essay writing.

A goodly amount of Jeeves and Wooster dvds were involved...dvds that ended up being woefully late. There's one pre-new year's resolution broken, no late movies back to the video store. I ate a lot but still wonder if I shouldn't invest in a belt as my pants have become decidedly more forgiving in the waist. Ireland is truly a magical place. I thought lots about my lack of money and how I have run out, again. Wodehouse, weight and wealth, the constant themes of my life.

My swanning about in semi-exile from the rest of the world is now, thankfully, at an end. My dear friend and fellow unwanted-opinion giver has arrived from the homeland to ring in the new year (done) and explore this verdant land in which I have landed.

We spent the much anticipated Eve milling about in the street in front of Dublin's Christ Church being aurally assaulted every few minutes by the pealing of bells. Dublin appears to have an annual love affair with the carillon of Christ Church. But here's what's confusing, the bells chime away, randomly, for an hour or so before midnight, making the pay-off at the final minute a bit anti-climactic. I was forced to exclaim every few minutes, "Hey, it's New Year's!....oh, wait, wrong bells."

The appropriate tintinnabulations were indicated by the rambunctious revelers' spraying of champagne into the crowd, a tradition I was unaware of and making me long for the use of an umbrella. And then the Hare Krishnas appeared out of nowhere, singing and parading, and then the drunken girls, tottering about in their heels, squealed even more loudly, and then the friend and I made our getaway.