English people have the reputation of being very reserved, or even uptight,
especially with the Mediterranean countries of Europe and, in return, we often
say that these people are just too flamboyant and temperamental for our liking
and unpunctual too - which is really just one of our ways of saying
‘unreliable’.
If I am honest, in many ways I might be considered to be one of these
stereotypical Englishmen, because you will rarely see me singing, dancing,
acting the fool or being theatrical in any way, even after large quantities of Dutch Courage. I don’t like small talk either. Having read that, some people might
think – “what a wallflower” - but that would be far from the truth.
One night, walking through the door into one of the large communal areas
that were the venues for our weekly parties, I saw Miwa just sitting there on a
table. Our eyes met and I fell in love with her in that single moment.
With people coming and going all of the time, I soon got to know all of
the residents of Dun an Óir and they got to know me. Everyone just
wandered around to find the friends that they had just met
at Trinity College and it wasn’t long before it was considered as being the “party
place”. Every Thursday evening, everyone came and put €10 into the kitty and we all went up to TESCO to buy the ingredients for the night - in Italian, Japanese or Spanish style.
The fully laden TESCO trolley would then be
rolled down the hill by a wide variety of volunteers, who were followed by the
rest of the party goers. Once we got home, the festivities commenced and we shared very many pleasant hours together - talking, laughing, joking, dancing and everyone speaking English late into the night...
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