Chapter 2 – The Student Bar
It was now approaching eight o’clock as I patiently waited with Patrick in the kitchen area of my apartment. Lucy had left a few minutes earlier to visit one of her friends on campus. I informed Patrick that it was all right for him to stay in the apartment waiting for me while I went to the pub. It was only a two minute walk away anyway and I could easily return to toilet anyway if needed or he could come get me in the unlikely event he wanted to.
I knew Patrick wasn’t the sociable or drinking type so even though I had invited him, I knew he would stay in the apartment. Just as well that I had a television or he would get very bored.
It was now approaching ten past eight and I was growing anxious that Eric might have been delayed. I was growing anxious as I had heard from my classmates that this would be a busy night in a bar that was normally packed anyway because it was the first week of the academic year and many students were flush due to receiving grant money. However, I need not have worried.
The buzzer to the apartment went off and Patrick quickly went to check who it was. Eric walked into the room giving me a good hello and sat down on one of the chairs followed by Patrick. Eric who was casually dressed in jeans and a denim top which was quite unusual for him asked me how I was getting on in my apartment and on my course. I responded that the apartment was going great and smiling at Patrick told him I had nice Personal Assistants. After another few minutes of chatting I mentioned that it would be a good idea to go before the pub became really packed and myself and Eric then left.
The Student Bar was adjacent to the Arts Building so the journey was very short and all myself and Eric had time to chat about was how far his apartment was from campus. Turned out it was a good twenty minute walk away from one of the campus gates which meant that it was quite a distance away. I thought about how difficult things would be for me if our positions were reversed and it made me even happier about having an apartment so close to everything.
Once the bar came into view I was shocked to see that there was a long queue to get in outside. I tried to console myself that at least this meant there must be a good atmosphere inside. Eric joked that he never thought he would have to queue to get into a pub in Ireland which I grinned to in agreement. It was fortunate that it was a dry night with a dim clear sky.
The Student Bar itself was a very plain rectangular concrete building. There were windows but it was difficult to look in because the blinds were drawn. Unusually for a building in UCD it consisted of only a ground floor and had a ramped entrance. It was very wheelchair friendly which greatly pleased as I was hoping to spend plenty of time there. Three sides of the bar were adjacent to areas of grass and it was obvious from the litter that students liked to drink outside on a warm day.
The queue moved on at a brisk pace. The noise of music and of people trying to shout over it emanating through the walls of the bar tormented me as I waited to get in. Eric checked his mobile phone and then mentioned that the others were inside waiting for us. I thought to myself that at least mobile phone were of some use even though I could not warm to them at all. They were now really starting to take off and almost everybody I knew had at least talked about getting one. The idea of people being able to instantly contact me wasn’t appealing and I didn’t want to be carrying a big awkward phone around with me.
Finally our part of the queue reached the entrance where there a short burly bouncer checking student IDs. I asked Eric what was the importance of the ID and he quickly responded that the Student Bar as a private bar and you needed to be a student to get into it. Even though I didn’t have mine on me I wasn’t worried because nobody ever asked me for ID because I was in a wheelchair, or so I thought.
Then Eric stepped forward showing the bouncer his ID to which he nodded and then went to open the door for me. I drove right behind him past the bouncer and was about to go in when much to my shock I felt a hand go on my shoulder and heard the bouncer requesting my ID. It was now difficult to turn around to face him as he was right behind me and I was wedged half way in the door. My heart skipped a beat and I wondered what to do. I then shouted at him over the music coming from inside the bar that it was in my shirt pocket and would he be able to get it out. As I expected he responded with “What?” and “Where?”
Fortunately the queue behind me was still long and someone pushing started because of the halt in progress. The bouncer sensing the situation was getting awkward told me to head in and that he would get it off me some other time. With much relief I continued into the bar making a mental note to bring my card in future and that maybe people in Dublin were that bit more unpredictable.
The bar was wedged and I was confronted by a wall of standing people. For a minute I thought that just inside the door was as far as I was going to get. This was not good. Eric tried to say something to me but I couldn’t hear him over the cacophony of music and people’s voices. I tried to shout to him but to no avail and then motioned my head backwards for him to come closer.
He then shouted into my ear that he would go looking for the lads and that he would be back in a minute. He then left into the crowd of people. Minutes passed and there was no sign of him. Thinking that people might think me strange just staying inside the door, I made sure to look like I was reading a poster on the wall opposite.
Then Eric reappeared telling me that everywhere was packed and it was even taking some people fifteen minutes to get served at the bar. Then he raised his hand pointing to the left side of the bar and said that the rest of the lads were down there. My heart temporarily sunk knowing that I would have to try and get through the mass of people.
I roared back to Enda that we would try to make it to them. He was to go in front of me and ask people to move. Progress proved to be slow but we went forward nevertheless. On more than one occasion I thought that somebody was going to fall on me but my good fortune persisted. In truth it would have been extremely awkward to turn the wheelchair around so I had little option but to continue.
Five minutes later we reached the bottom left corner of the bar. The lads were there drinking away. Fortunately the music was a bit lower in this part of the bar and I could just about make out what they were saying. There was Mike, John, Sean and a guy I didn’t recognise.
Mike immediately asked me & Eric if we wanted anything from the bar as he was going up. I told him that I wanted a vodka & orange. Before I could tell him where I kept my money, he had darted off to the bar. Vodka was by now my favourite drink especially when it was mixed with orange. I found that I didn’t like the strong taste of whiskey and that I had to go to the toilet too often if I drank pints.
Eric who was now standing beside me asked if I was looking forward to the year ahead. I replied that I was and I hoped that most nights would be like this to which he laughed. Sean then came over and asked me how I was getting on. He told me that I was fortunate to be doing Commerce which had only seventeen hours of lectures each week. He was doing Engineering which took up to forty hours between lectures and tutorials.
Soon my drink had arrived and everybody seemed to be having a good time. As I looked around and I couldn’t actually see that far in the wheelchair when so many people were standing it had been along time since I had seen such drunkenness. Deep down I hoped the pub wasn’t always this packed and chaotic as it was too difficult to get around.
The drinks kept flowing and the banter was good. Eric told me how he enjoyed studying Science so far and how he was looking forward to carrying out experiments. It was a subject that I would have liked to do myself. I would have found it far more interesting than Commerce. However, it was in my nature to plan carefully and I knew that it would be impossible to carry out experiments with my twisted hands. Equally important I knew that with Commerce I could apply for jobs anywhere whereas with Science it was likely that the jobs would be in specific places. When one has a severe disability it is difficult to move from place to place and this gave Commerce the edge.
After about an hour I got talking to a girl called Linda who was standing up close to me unable to find somewhere to sit. She seemingly knew one of my friends from Mullingar and had seen me round the town. It was difficult to understand her garbled, intoxicated communications but I was impressed with her beauty.
She had short naturally blonde hair, glasses and the ideal height for me; her head was only a small distance above mine while I was sitting in the wheelchair. The thing that impressed me most was her smile.
After a few minutes of chatting I found out that she was living on campus too and intended to spend as much time as possible in the bar during her first year in college. Then off she went to look for more beer but not before we promised that we would chat again if we saw each other. I thought the chances of that happening were quite good considering there were only two bars on campus.
The night was now coming to a close. The lights switched fully on and the music stopped. It had been my plan to leave early but it had been far too packed to try and make a quick exit. It was now far easier to converse with people but that was mitigated by my inebriation. I told Eric that we would leave shortly. The crowd was slow to dissipate. As the crowd dispersed I could see couples who I’m pretty sure couldn’t have known each other more than a few hours snogging on some of the benches.
Then I felt a breeze coming from behind me and over the loud speaker the sentence “please leave” was repeated over and over. Sean told me that the fire escapes had been opened and there was one right behind me. I knew that the fire escape was wheelchair accessible so I nodded to Eric that it was time to leave and said goodbye to the lads.
It was dark but still quite warm outside. Eric and I talked about the nights events but we were shortly back at my apartment ringing the buzzer for Patrick to let us in. He quickly came out and opened the door. I said goodbye to Eric but Patrick only just about acknowledged him leaving saying “goodbye” in a low voice which I knew meant that he was annoyed about something.
I had the same schedule for going to bed every night. First I would park in the bedroom where I would be lifted into the hoist. Then I would be brought into the bathroom where I would toilet before going onto the bed. This is where my clothes were taken off and I would put on my pyjamas before finally getting to sleep!
As I waited to be lifted into the hoist I asked Patrick if there was anything wrong. He replied that he was tired and that he had been up early this morning. I could tell he was grumpy because I was back a bit late but I was too tired myself to give a long explanation and just let the process of going to bed continue.
As I lay in bed I thought about how exciting my life had now become and the endless possibilities. It also dawned on me that it would be a good idea to check out the bar during the morning between lectures when it would be fairly empty so that I would know the layout well for the next night I was there. As I was still quite intoxicated, I fell asleep quickly.
Alcohol had a strange effect on me. Instead of wanting to stay in bed the next day and rest, I would find myself waking up early and wanting to get up. This morning was no exception which was quite useful as I had a Statistics lecture first thing in the morning. Statistics is a subject you had to be fully awake for. I had attended the first statistics lecture earlier in the week but on leaving the only thing I had learned was that this was going to be my toughest subject. Therefore I needed to attend all the lectures in this subject.
As I was guided onto the wheelchair from the hoist Patrick reminded me that he would be leaving at six o’clock and Leanne was coming at ten. He wanted to know what I would be doing for the four hours that I would be alone but I avoided the question mainly because I had no idea yet.
I knew that this could prove to be an area of difficulty. I had not received enough Personal Assistant hours so there were gaps here and there where I would be without any assistance. The other two gaps were in the morning so they were more easily overcome as I would be at lectures anyway and there would be plenty of people around. Unfortunately this gap was in the late evening to early night which made things much more difficult. I had tried to organise this gap for the morning too which I originally didn’t think would be a problem but it didn’t suit Leanne so I had to change it. Personal Assistants were hard to come by because of the poor pay and it was a triumph in itself to get them at all.
It was a damp morning but that didn’t dampen my spirits. The first thing on the agenda for the day was my statistics lecture. It turned out to be nearly a totally wasted two hours. Apart from difficult nature of the subject itself, it was impossible to see the small squiggly writing that was being projected onto the screen from the very back of the theatre . I had an awful sinking feeling when it was over and I knew I needed to come up with a plan. Normal distribution curves may be about to become the bane of my life.
The lecture lasted one hour and fifty minutes so I had a ten minute break before my Economics lecture. Normally I would spend this time chatting to my classmates or even just driving aimlessly around the wide corridors. But this time I decided to make the short trip over to the Student Bar which was only two buildings over for an inspection of its layout.
It was easy to get out of the Arts Building as there were plenty of Students entering and leaving the building. However the front of the Student Bar was deserted in comparison. This wasn’t really that surprising considering it was still early in the morning.
I waited patiently by the door until eventually a student went to leave and opened it for me. The pub was fairly empty inside with most of the few punters on minerals with music playing over the jukebox. The inside was similar in appearance to a large shed with wooden chairs and tables. It had a high ceiling and a long counter where you could get served. I drove up and down the bar pretending to look for somebody so people would not find me weird but in actuality looking for the easiest routes to get up and down the bar where the chairs and tables were that bit further apart.
Then when I noticed that a girl was leaving I quickly followed behind her so that I could get through the doors and out again. I now came up with my plan for later. I would instruct Patrick that my dinner needed to ready by five o’clock which would allow me enough time to eat, toilet and head down to the bar with Patrick just before he went off duty.
There I would get him to order me a drink and with the help of enough glasses stacked one on top of another I would be able to drink out of it on my own when he was gone. Then maybe go out for a walk after a while and back to the apartment at ten when Leanne would be there.
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