With a friend like ‘The Body’, life is a lot more fun!

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

It was a moment of pure madness. I’d almost managed to pull myself back, just before I made a complete arse of myself, but sadly it was too late. Ever on the ball, The Snapper had sussed out exactly what I’d been about to do.

We were sitting in the back of a taxi, driven by my excellent friend The Body. He was dropping us outside Aniar on Dominick Street, where I was taking my beloved for our non-Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Dinner. Being a natural romantic, I can’t stand Valentine’s Day, because nothing kills romance as fast as falsity and force.

So each year it’s my pleasure take her out for dinner on a night that’s not Valentine’s, and this year she said she’d like to return to Galway’s Michelin star success story. Fortunately, the small change coin jar in my bedroom was full to the brim, so I emptied it, counted it and called to book a table. There was some kind of pleasing poetry to the process: Michelin star on a coin jar.

Just before stepping out of The Body’s taxi, I’d made an impulsive forward movement and then hurriedly pulled back.

From the tips of my toes to the top of my curly hair, I’d shocked myself.

“Oh my god! What was that about?” I exclaimed.

Ever helpful just when I don’t want her to be, The Snapper announced: “You were going to kiss him!”

“Ohmygoodgord! Yes, yes I was! What I was thinking? Must’ve been miles away, but I don’t even know where that was! Ah sure, I’ll kiss him anyway! Come here, ya big lump of manhood!”

Leaning forward I tangled and mangled myself around my mate as he laughed and shook me off.

Nothing more was said, the matter consigned to the crammed cellar wherein are stored Charlie’s Immaterial Moments of Madness.

To be honest, I don’t think I really and truly wanted to kiss him. Some severed synapses were dwelling in another place and time, but where, when and with whom I have no idea.

The thing is, though, that if any man in Ireland deserves a kiss from me, it’s probably The Body.

Throughout my life I’ve been exceptionally fortunate to be surrounded by the best of friends, and thankfully when I moved to Ireland back in 1992, that luck continued. A couple of weeks after arriving in Galway City, I was approached by Blitz one night in the Jug o’Punch, a pub beside Monroe’s, long ago destroyed by fire. We hit it off straight away, talking laughing drinking and smoking, then dancing at Setanta’s, as you did back then.

At that time Blitz was sharing a flat with The Body, while Whispering Blue, who had just returned from Berlin, was sleeping on their sofa.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.