the day’s plan

It’s still gloomy and rainy, which again dampens any hope I may have had to go to the seaside today. Most likely I will return to UCD and “my office” to work a bit more on tomorrow’s lecture. And if I’m still on campus at 5:00, then sure, I’ll go see Horstmann’s lecture. (Not sure what he’s talking about today.)

But now is also the time to change hotels. Until now I’ve been on my own tourist budget on the south side of the river, but today I’m switching to visiting speaker accomodations at the Hibernian Club. This should be fun. It’s an old Gentleman’s Club. Women were not allowed in the old days, and it was lots of guys sitting around smoking cigars, according to my first taxi driver on this trip. By now, a normal percentage of women is there, and it’s a strictly non-smoking establishment. (Come to think of it, every place in Ireland seems to be no-smoking. The Liverpool fanatics next to me the other night kept leaving the pub for smoke breaks even during the match.)

However, the Club does still maintain its snooty dress code policy from olden times: gentlemen must wear jacket and tie in the dining room at all times. Peadar warned me of that somewhat embarrassedly yesterday afternoon, but I had already read it on their website. As I grow older, I start to appreciate these sorts of arbitrary little social rules, just as I loathed them as a high school student.