Julius Geezer

I finished college over a week ago now. The last couple of months were busy to say the least. I don't know what I'd have done without the maintenance grant I get from the local council. It really sorted me out over the past couple of months when I was unable to work (as in the 'bread and butter' kind of work)due to my workload in college. Before Thursday of last week I hadn't had a drink for two months, or even seen most of my friends, apart from those who live in the same house as me. It was all quite full-on and amazing to be finished.

Since I finished on Thursday of last week I've been busy making up for my lack of socialising over the previous couple of months. I handed in my last paper on the Thursday at around 3pm and then followed a marathon session in the pub that brought us from the suburbs, into the city, and back again to our house. We fit an implausibly large number of people into our living room. It all wound up at around 9.30 Friday morning when I finally headed up to bed leaving one of my lecturers passed out on couch; the last man standing, well, last man sleeping.

I then caught up on some much needed rest for a few days before going on a date on the Wednesday with a German girl I met in college. It was great how I met her. She happened to be sitting beside me in one of the computer labs and asked me to correct the English in an email she was writing to another university. So I did that happily and we went our separate ways. But then the very next day I ran into her and we got talking. Well, she was sitting on the grass minding her own business and I went over to chat to her! This isn't something I'd usually do but I just thought she was really cute and I had nothing to lose. I asked her for number and we ended up meeting for coffee almost every day. The thing was, we couldn't meet outside college because I was too busy getting all my essays in before the final deadline. So for about five weeks we met up almost daily and there was definitely something there.

So it was cool to meet up outside college and we went to the theatre a few days after I finished up. It was a Wednesday and we ended up on Henry Street at about midnight (with everything closed and not a sinner on the street apart from ourselves). We had a long-overdue snogging session that lasted for a long, long time. It was actually really nice and romantic. And then she stayed over which was also nice and romantic!

Then on the Friday I was playing at this charity gig in the city, organised by one of my friends. I hadn't played/sang in front of a crowd in a really long time so it was a bit nerve-wracking for me. At the same time, I really wanted to do it. It ended up being really worth the bit of stress and nervousness that came with it and I really enjoyed the night, particularly as I was on quite early and could then relax and catch up with lots of friends who were there. I ended up sleeping with an old ex which made me feel kind of bad because of what happened with the German girl. Anyway, I didn't technically do anything wrong as myself and German girl aren't officially a couple and she's going back to Germany in a month anyway.

But just to throw more weirdness into the mix I went to Africa Day on Sunday (two days ago) and ended up sitting on the grass right near a very special ex called A (who was the subject of a previous post). I hadn't seen or talked to her in about nine months. She came over to sit and talk with me and it ended up going on for hours. It was really great to see her and she looked absolutely amazing. I think everyone looks better on a sunny day. Also, it was nice that she wanted to spend so much time with me. I didn't really contact her after we broke up out of fear that she'd have coffee with me out of politeness even if she didn't want to, and I would fucking hate that.

So the day wore on, a beautiful day in the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin, and all of A's friends left. But she stayed and hung out with me and my friends. Then when everyone was leaving to go to a restaurant myself and A headed to the pub where we drank and chatted for the night. I thought this kind of encounter with her would make me really sad, I mean I can hardly look at a photo of the girl on Facebook without having a nervous breakdown! But the great thing is, it made me feel really good. Here was a girl that I respect and admire so much, that I have so many fond memories of, who's friendship I'd really missed. Here she was, here we both were, laughing and arguing, and debating, and taking the piss out of each other just like before. She mentioned a lot of things we did before and she had a lot of really clear memories. It was nice that those things meant something to her.

So I saw her to a taxi as we both had work the next morning. There were multiple hugs and kisses on cheeks and arrangements to meet up again to exchange some books, movies, albums etc., and for me to give her back all her stuff that I still have. The whole thing kind of blew my mind but it didn't upset me which I was delighted about. I walked half the way home turning it all over in my mind.

I'm considering lots of things at the moment. Going to London for work, an internship in Palestine, teaching English in Thailand, further study etc..... I've got to work it all out over the summer. Should be fun.

Posted by JG at 11:16 PM | 9 comments  

I was just reading Gerry Adams' latest blog post about a friend and former Long Kesh cellmate who died recently. It's an interesting post which includes a funny and well-told story about a Christmas day escape attempt.

What I thought was funny and depressing was a comment somebody called E. Feighan made on the post:

"Every few years I get out some video reminders of the past just to renew my hatred for the brits"

It really shows how people will nurture their hatreds like newborns. That said, I cannot help but find it fucking hilarious...

Posted by JG at 1:01 PM | 0 comments  

I am now on Blogger, Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. This is undoubtedly a cause for concern. I think I need to spend less time indoors!

p.s. I have some stories to share but am way too busy for the next two weeks. Some interesting things have been happening lately. Well, interesting to me at least. Full-on blogging shall resume shortly, once I finish my last two weeks of college and get my fix of fresh air and daylight.

Posted by JG at 6:13 PM | 6 comments  

I like this photo mainly because of all the hot air it's creating in rightworld. There are red faces (like well-smacked arses) all over the place... :)

Edit:

And here's a little add-on that also brought a smile. Bobby Sands makes it onto The Wire!

Posted by JG at 7:57 PM | 1 comments  

As mentioned previously I almost always have a 3-day beard because I'm lazy about shaving. Only now and then do I grow a proper beard, but even then its upkeep is actually quite a bit of hassle; you have to trim it and shave around the edges, so it's almost as much work as the daily shave. One slightly weird habit I have is that I grow a beard whenever I have a bad breakup. Maybe it's some kind of weird defense mechanism, I don't know, but I've done it a few times without much thinking about it. After a now not-so-recent breakup I grew a beard, got my hair cut about three times in one month, and completely rearranged the furniture in my bedroom. I think I was trying to distract myself. Afterwards I was reading this thing online which was basically a guide to getting over a breakup and one of the recommendations was to rearrange your bedroom. Bizarre! I did it without even knowing it was a 'thing'.

Anyway. I don't want to grow any more beards because beards just don't really suit me. Some people can really pull off a beard, and some people really can't. Ché did it pretty well, as did Marx, while Coldplay's Chris Martin looks like a chump. Historically beards have been associated with revolt and non-conformity of one kind or another which is probably why Ché and Karl wore it better than poor Chris. Even today The National Beard Registry encourages "men in all walks of life, from every continent, to resist conformity, corporate culture, and androgyny by embracing the beautiful, unique and utterly personal habit of growing a full beard." Power to the (bearded) people.

If "beautiful", "unique", and "utterly personal" sound a bit over the top, well, you don't know the half of it. In Berlin they have beard parties. There exists a World Beard and Moustache Championships, a National Beard Week ("to promote beardy goodness and general facial hair awareness..."), and last but not least the Beard Liberation Front, "dedicated to the removal of a societal prejudice against the facially folically enhanced, or bearded."


Ismail Haniyeh; 2008 Beard and Moustache Champion hands over the crown to the 2009 winner, Gerry Adams.

In recent years I've noticed that a lot of younger lefties look more like punks, having kind of spiked hair but no beards. This is in contrast to the old lefties who wore woolly jumpers and had big bushy (often ginger) beards. There are still plenty of the latter around though. The beard is still a useful tool for the revolutionary, making him look wise and concealing what he really looks like! But only if he can pull it off.

I have a feeling that my own rug repels the opposite sex, which is as good a reason as any to stick with the blade methinks.

Posted by JG at 11:19 PM | 12 comments  

The subject of travel has been in my head a lot the past few days as I've been planning a short trip. There's been some good travel chat going on here today which has put me even more in the mood to take off.

My trip has taken a bit of setback as the price of the flights shot up just as we were getting ready to book. Typical! Anyway, with a bit of luck they'll come down again or we'll work out alternative dates.

I'm planning to fly into Damascus and spend about four days there. Then over to Beirut for three or four days, then to Aleppo (northeast Syria), and then take the overnight train to Istanbul. All in we're looking at around two weeks. It'll be June so it will be extremely hot but nothing I can't handle!

Anyway, if anybody has any advice/recommendations/miscellaneous contributions on any of these places, don't be shy.

Posted by JG at 7:55 PM | 2 comments  

Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all. It's a beautiful sunny day here in Dubiln. I was in town this morning before the parade started soaking up the sunshine and the atmosphere. There was this guy with the biggest dog I've ever seen, some kind of Irish Wolfhound or something. This hound was more like a horse. And it had this shamrock neck-scarf on which looked very cool. His owner was this eccentric dude wearing a dickie bow. Both man and dog looked interesting so I went over for a chat. There were lot of people around asking about the dog. It really was enormous. Now I'm really annoyed I didn't take a photo.

I took a few other photos this morning though. Unfortunately I didn't get any of the parade as it hadn't started yet.

So, I give you Dublin on St. Patrick's morning! click to enlarge...

Posted by JG at 1:46 PM | 10 comments