O M G

THIS morning as I was going into work along the Quays, I noticed this mad woman driving while eating a bowl of cereal. Seriously, a bowl of cereal.



Now I know the Quays don't move that fast in the mornings but seriously come on. I mean how does this work?

Does she pour them before she gets into the car and leaves it on the passenger seat until the traffic crawls enough to eat, or does she bring a bowl and fill it up as she goes. Either way thats is a major distraction and a danger to everyone else on the road.

What happens if she spills some on her lap, does she just ignore it and drive on? What happens if all of a sudden traffic begins to move, does she move the bowl then not caring whether or not she gets milk on her seats, does she drive on irregardless? Slow moving traffic is not an excuse.

I was tempted to take her number plate but decided against it. What a selfish driver.

Blogging on a train 2

ONCE again I was up at the crack of dawn, well it hadn't actually cracked yet at all to catch the 7.30am train to Kilkenny. The only thing I like about getting up this early is the chance of taking some pics.

As I write this the sun is trying desperately to break through the morning fog to little success but the colours and muted tones it is throwing over the landscape is gorgeous and I am listening (through earphones) to some great music such as:

Amy Winehouse - Rehab
The Statler Bros - Flowers on the wall
Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby Magee
Boomtown Rats - I don't like Mondays
Blue Oyster Cult - Dont fear the reaper
David Sylvian - Forbidden colours
Buffalo Springfield - For what its worth
Kraftwerk - Model
Otis Redding - Ain't no sunshine
Lily Allen - Smile
The Blues Busters - Soon you'll be gone
The Go-Betweens - Love goes on
Corrine Bailey - Put your records on
Asian Dub Foundation - 1000 Mirrors
Oasis - Half a world away
Sugababes (Daftpunk) - Hole in the head
Snow Patrol - Chasing cars

I'll post some pics later as the 3g connection doesn't appear to be very strong and while I have been able to upload some of this morning's pics which you can see on Flickr I haven't been able to grab the code to post any here or indeed go into organizr! Ah well you can't have everything.

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Hell is other people - grumpy old women part 3

Hell is other people… on trains

I think I should be worried but I am finding it very easy to write my grumpy old women posts. And here is another.

Trains would be great without the people – I was up again on Friday at 5.45am to get the 7am train to Cork again and the next time I will definitely have to get to bed early, it ends up such a long and tiring day and bed time at 1.30am does not work.

As it was bank holiday weekend and although Jazz Festival goers would probably not be catching the 7am train in order to get to the venues early I thought it made sense to book my ticket online. That system is a joke.

No one pays any attention to it as far as I can see unless the train is packed to the gills and the people in the yellow coats who assist people on the train guide you to correct carriage it is impossible (or feels like it ) to comprehend.

But I managed somehow on Friday morning to find my seat and sat back to enjoy the sun coming up, camera ready just in case there was something that caught my eye, and off I travelled.

When the buffet car opened I thought breakfast in order and left my coat and a bag with non-valuables on my seat (I had a four seat bit to myself).

After breakfast I returned to my seat, only it wasn’t my seat anymore there was someone sitting at my seat and someone else opposite him.

‘Can I get my seat?’ I said.
He said yeah and didn’t move. Defeated I sat down in the seat beside him though I was seething inside.

I like the window seat so if see something I can try to capture it. I previously missed an amazing shot going by the Curragh. There was a beautiful morning mist with all sorts of muted browns and greens and as I sat down from having taking pics out the windows between the carriages I saw four people on horseback disappearing into the mist. I didn’t catch it before the train whizzed by.

So on Friday morning I just wasn’t happy at all.

I put on my ipod, took out my notebook and started writing. Then the fella proceeded to try and read what I was writing.

Another thing that bugs me about travelling on the train is when people are walking by and nearly take your shoulder and continue on by without so much as a glance over their shoulder.
I know this happens, you are on a moving train, but come on when did sorry be dropped from everyday use.

Once in Cork I went to a colleague’s house where his massive, friendly and frisky Labrador wanted to play fisty-cuffs with me and somehow managed to open the top button of my blouse.

Normally I’d wear a vest top underneath because when I bend over I can reveal more of Tipperary than I’d like due to the top button being lower than I’d like.

When I went to bed last night the black vest I thought was sitting on the dresser actually turned out to be something else entirely at 5.45am. I thought frig it, put on a cardigan – a move I would later regret.

Particularly seeing as how my colleague’s dog completely exposed me and I spent a frantic two minutes (it was surely longer) trying not to draw attention to my exposure by discreetly buttoning up my blouse.

The dog, it was a he, was having none of it and keep punching me with his paws starting off a series of at least three exposures.

At one stage I nearly greeted my boss in a very novel way when I say nearly there is a very large chance that he was greeted in more ways than one, two actually and he was too polite to pay notice. I am hoping of course that is not the case.

Somehow to my relief, the buttons started behaving themselves at lunchtime, thank God. The only flashing I wanted to do was with my camera.

On the way home on the 7.30pm train I tried to catch 40 winks. I slooped down in the chair with my coat over me and managed to snooze, until a fella banged into my legs so he could sit down. Cheers for that again excuse me has been dropped without my knowledge.

He sat opposite me so I could no longer stretch out, I think he had an aversion to sitting at the window. I didn’t sit at the window cos it was dark and there was nothing to see.

Even if I was able to snooze again I couldn’t because he started to tunelessly hum, whistle, and make other noises as he did a su-doku puzzle.

Seeing as how I couldn’t sleep I thought I would get a glass of wine from the bar, only they had sold out and I didn’t fancy anything else.

It was all a conspiracy I tell you, all because I insist that Belfast is the second city not Cork, cos it is not. *Preparing for a deluge of annoyed Cork bloggers he he*

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Grumpy Old Women

I WAS up early this morning, 5.45am. I don't do early mornings well but I had to catch the 7am train to Cork for work. The early start was made even worse by the fact that I didn't get to bed until about 1.30am.

It wasn't my intention to stay up so late but I had many phonecalls from both Tetra and Anna who had both earlier told me to get to bed. Each time they rang they would say 'Are you STILL up?' and then we would chat for too long.

When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I was absolutely knackered. Luckily everything went smoothly, my taxi arrived five minutes before time and I was well on time for the train. Everything was going so well so far, except for the fact that under my tired exterior was a grumpy old woman waiting to moan out.









Heuston Station - 6.32am



The first taste of things to come came after I took a seat in the first carriage which was empty and realising I had 20 minutes before the train left I went outside to the platform for a ciggie. As I stood there having a smoke and snapping some snaps I realised this man had gone through the whole empty carriage and planted himself down in the seat opposite me. He opened up his laptop taking up most of the table and got himself comfy with earphones.

This is so wrong in many ways not least the unwritten social interaction rule where you sit as far away from the person boarding ahead of you public transport. You know this one, Desmond Morris talks about it, one person boards a bus at the back, the next at the front and so on until the bus fills up. (I've tried unsuccessfully to find a link to this but here's Desmond himself.)

I would have no problem with him sitting beside me if the train was getting full but this carriage was empty. So I harrumped, grabbed my bag and coat and got another seat. What I should have done is insist on taking the window seat beside him, making him get out of his seat and sat at his side looking directly at his computer screen that would have made him as uncomfortable as he made me.

Now in my new seat as soon as the train set off, I phoned the Young Wan to get up and get ready for school. It is annoying that I still need to get her up kicking and screaming from bed, but such is life. So while I felt like I could doze I couldn't until I was sure she had left for school and wasn't sitting sleeping on the sette.

By this time it was 8am and I finally rolled up my coat neatly, placed it between the window and my head and tried to sleep. The new Cork train is quick and kinda comfy if you are sitting up straight, but it was hard to grab forty winks. However I perservered and dozed off.


Coming into Thurles - the calm before the storm

Until we hit Thurles that is when the basket ball team from Presentation school got on, hooping, screaming, cackling loudly. I could have happily throttled them all, one by one, slowly.

I huffed and puffed and got all annoyed each time the decibel levels rose until I could take it no more and I got out the ipod and turned it up to drown out the girly glee.

Sleep was now impossible and I wasn't a happy bunny at all. By the time they got off at Mallow they were quiet listening to their own MP3 players and chatting quietly.

On the way home on the 5.30pm train (not the lovely fast train) I couldn't get a seat that wasn't pre-booked so I headed into the dining car and took a seat among the other travellers who were also chancing their arm. And we were not told to move along, fantastic.

I got chatting to an older couple talking about how lovely Cork is, the new train and all sorts of things. And unable to help myself I told them of my grumpy start to the day.

Off we headed and when we got to Mallow, guess what? All you hear was a gaggle of school girls boarding the train behind me. I turned swiftly around thinking 'no way', the man from the couple looked at me inquisitively and it was them coming home.

He asked me 'is that them' laughing I said 'YES' when they all piled into the dining car. But feeling less grumpy than earlier and guilty for feeling grumpy in the first place I caught the eye of one of the team who had been sitting opposite me on the morning train and probably bore the brunt of any dirty look and grumpy sigh that emanated from me and said 'hiya'.

And very nice she was too because she said hiya back. I asked them 'did you win', guessing that they must have been to some kind of tournament and they did. So well done Presentation School from Thurles and sorry for being an auld kill-joy and credit to you for being so polite and lovely in the face of such grumpiness.

I'm sitting now writing this with a glass of wine, a sore shoulder, and a weight of tiredness on me (so apologies in advance for any glaringly obvious typos, I can barely think) AND I am working again in the morning so that means no lie-in till Sunday :(

I think the Beastie Boys had a song about that.

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