The blood transfusion bags had disappeared. The moment we needed them most, someone had taken them away. To who knows where. Those bags were impossible to get. Sweet, heavy blood. No wonder they had sold out in Lidl the moment they arrived. There’s no doubt in my mind that we would have won the best costume competition at this evening’s Bram Stoker lecture in Trinity College – especially given the competition on the night – had we turned up covered in blood and sucking more supply of the sweet red stuff from Lidl’s specially prepared transfusion bags. Sadly, some young one with a face painted white and another one with a ‘funny’ dog hat got copies of David J. Skal’s, tonight’s guest lecturer, new book Something in the blood – the untold story of Bram Stoker: the man who wrote Dracula – a rather long title, making really sure to be sure that even the biggest ignoramus gets the point of the book:)

But – we had a blast anyways. The organiser of the lecture came over to welcome Pádraig back to TCD. He told me that he had been in this theatre for his history lectures and that he had really learned a lot here (not sure whether I believed the whole story, to be honest). Be that as it may – we decided that we’ll be back here soon. Going out in the evening, smelling the petrol in the streets, listening to interesting talks, seeing cool people, being scared by witches, pirates, and vampires – isn’t that what life is all about?