Old Times and Bust of Eardrum.

I imagine that I may have lost a little more hearing but haven't really noticed the difference (no worries, Ma!). With the nasty congestion and mucus that wouldn't seem to go away, I was at a risk for something to happen to my ears during the transatlantic flight back to New York. Shortly after the plane took off, my ears began to hurt and all the sudden there was an intense pain in my right ear. My eyes watered and I tried to stifle a moan (no attention please!). After few moments, the pain began to subside but the pain was bit dull. In a short while I felt my ear moisten and stuck my finger in my ear. (vampiric accent) Bvod! I'd never experienced this before so I flagged down a flight attendant and wrote a note explaining what happened and what should I do? The flight attendant seemed uncertain and told me she'd be back. An older flight attendant came back in the younger's place and assured me that it is normal and I needn't worry. Upon landing in New York (it had bled on and off) I paged mom informing her that I'd landed safely and that my ear had bled, that I'm fine and was given assurance that it is normal. She told me that I should inform my sister ( I didn't - did not to want to concern her with a spotty bleeding of the ear). Later my sister emailed me saying that mom had reported it to her. Sis says I have a burst eardrum it'd take few weeks to heal and NOT to submerge my head under water (shower OK). After the eardrum burst, I did feel an odd sensation of air in my ear. Coooooool. My sister got pissed at me cos I tried to use an Q-tip (gingerly) to swipe out the blood. She said that I have no eardrum and I shouldnt be inserting anything even a hearing aid mold until it heals or regrows. or whatever. I may appear intelligent but I can be pretty stupid in self administering care do and don'ts. ha.

On a happier note, upon my last night in Dublin I got to see some of the old gang from Limerick. Out of 6 of us, Carrie-Ann could not make it and Eamonn lived on the other side of the island. Niamh had arranged for us to have dinner with Caroline, and drinks with Fergal and his girlfriend. It was so good seeing Car, caught up with her and our usual rapport: she showed me a picture of her current crush in her phone camera. I noted his bare shoulders and asked "does he have his clothes on?" and that got a great laugh out of her. After dinner, we went to a bar in the Temple Bar area (very cool place in Dublin sorta like west village meets soho) and waited for Fergal to show. He and his girlfriend had gone to see "King Lear" at (loosely quoting Car) "some former rock concert stage that closed down and changed its image as a respectable theatre which is lame". Ferg didn't march with us at graduation so I hadn't seen him since the end of the school year. We compared our experiences with King Lear - I'd seen the one with a pre WW2/fascist setting with Monique Holt as Cordelia. The one Ferg saw had a Soviet revolution setting. Shakespeare. Timeless.

Caught up a little on gossip on other classmates. Eamonn is happy (finally! he was our resident James Dean) and living well. Gerry (the oddball) has been missing for over a year now so wherever he is, I hope he's okay.

It was like the old times - us sitting in the bar, talking and exchanging written conversations. The only difference was that none of us were smoking. No ashes on the writing pad. During the night, one of us would go outside and smoke, and come back in again. I swear I only smoked one cigarette! I cant stand the taste anymore.. Smoking is now banned in Ireland so it took me quite getting used to seeing bars/pubs bereft of smoke and floor clean. No squashed cigs (or fags) littering the floor. Ferg still smokes Drum tobacco - rolled up fags. At Limerick we once had a lecturer with Drum stains on his white beard (his tobacco pouch would sit prominently on his desk as he lectured during class). After each lecture break, I could smell his cloud a mile away as he returned to class. His class was very popular as he taught the South related issues with resources and development, patronizing, about the evils of multinational corporations like Starbucks.(South is a PC term for third world as the richer countries are called the North or West). Be still our beating Irish-marxist hearts.. End of my vacation. Return to mudane issues. ta.