Happy Birthday DART!

I’m loving the creativity and care being put into the 25 years of the DART celebrations.

Pity Irish Rail can’t make this effort all the time. That would impress me much more than bunting and balloons.

Bag Lady

Going to an after work thing tonight, which involves an overnight so, I…

a) Have an outfit on me that is a bit too dressy for work and not dressy enough for the night’s activities as we are heading straight from the office to the pub and I’m not a fan of work toilet outfit changes and…

b) Had to haul two big bags full of crap up with me on the train (one with overnight stuff and tomorrow’s clothes, which will resemble Robert Redford’s face by the time I put them on tomorrow they will be that wrinkly and the other with usual handbag stuff plus the necessary make-up and personal grooming accoutrements for a night on the town)

I feel like a freakin’ bag lady! Then there is the added stress of where to put the feckin’ things when you are on the train. You want to put them on the baggage rack coz they are a nuisance but then you’re afraid you’ll walk off without them when you get to your stop.

Life is so unfair.

I want her job!

Having being prompted by the recession to do a certain amount of soul searching and career path reassessment I have begun to look around me to see whose job I think I might like to do.

Yesterday gave me a great insight into one such job and it is that of the lady who answered the phone to me yesterday in the train station.

I had heard a rumour that the train station at Skerries was closed due to the flooding and as this station happens to be on my line I duly called my home station and asked whether there would be any delays to the evening trains as a result.

The conversation went something like this:
Me – Hi, I was just wondering if there is going to be any delay to this evening’s trains?
Lady – Em, no, I don’t know.
Me – Ok, it’s just that I heard that Skerries station is closed due to the flooding.
Lady – Well, no, I don’t know. Not that I know of, no.
Me – Ok, thanks for your help.

Fantastic, the lady that works IN the train station does not know if any of the trains that will be coming into HER station and place of work will be delayed.

So, this means that this lady when in work does not seem to have to know anything about the train times, delays or anything else going on around her and she does not even have to get up off her bum at any stage in the day, even when a customer calls with an enquiry, to find out any information.

I want to do this woman’s job. It seems really easy.

Tights

I have been having a dilemma for the past few weeks that concerns our changeable weather.

I don’t know whether I can part with my tights yet.

I read a blog entry today on this very subject with the general consensus being to suck it up, shave and prep your pins and get those babies out there.

For me it’s not that simple as my commute has a GINORMOUS effect on what I wear and getting cold ivva morning or evening is not an option.

The early mornings are still very crisp despite the sun coming out and often the journey home, preceded by a quick sprint to the station and a cooling down period, can be very chilly indeed.

Non tights footwear is also a challenge as I am not a fan of flip floppy things, which can be very easily and embarrassingly lost down in the gap between the train and the platform.

I’m really at a loss as to what to do.

Eectric Picnic

Just got my Electric Picnic ticket and now I am wondering how I am possibly going to last until then without BURSTING with excitement!

You would think at this stage in my life I would have grown out of practically wetting myself over an outing like this but no, no, no sir, I have not.

I think the highlight of the weekend will be the below, which has to be one of my favouritist acts EH-VER! I used to listen to this live recording from start to finish on a Saturday night in on me todd when the mothership wouldn’t let me go out coz I’d been troublesome!! Ah the good old days!

Self Respect

My journeys on the train make me think a lot about life. Perhaps it is the lack of ever remembering to bring a book to read or music to listen to that make me tune in on what’s going on around me to such an extent but I often feel that life on the train is like a snapshot of life at large and some of the things we do as passengers can be directly correlated to the things we do in life.

Yesterday, a ‘lady’ stood beside me on the platform as we waited for the train to pull in. This lady, who had stood patiently and quietly with the commuting congregation until the train made its approach then turned animal as she scrambled to get in the door of the train and onto a seat. She pushed and jostled her way on to the train using her knees, elbows and handbag to battle people out of her way and then threw herself into a seat with a self satisfied sigh of relief.

As I took my seat, without pushing or assaulting any of my fellow passengers, I began to think about that lady and how she had conducted herself. Did she not feel a fool for letting herself down so badly in getting to her seat? Did the seat really matter to her that much that she was willing to do anything to get to it? Was she even slightly worried about what the people she would spend the next hour in company with thought of her?

Obviously not.

Despite this lady’s actions, I think it is fair to say that people like her are thankfully in the minority and maintaining self respect and the respect of others is important enough that taking the high road is the preferred option for most.

Note to self – next time, remember to bring a book.

Oh yes and in case I have confused you, the clip is just something funny to ease the seriousness of the above text.

Window Snot

What the feckin’ hell is this stuff?

In my many years of commuting this substance has proved to be somewhat of a facination (abeit a gross one) to me.

This substance, which I like to call ‘window snot’ was particularly prevalent in the older trains, which I frequented quite often during my college years (you know the ones where you had to stick your arm out the window to reach the little handle to open the door and so help you god if you didn’t have the nack for it coz you were stuck on that train if you couldn’t).

If anyone has an explanation for it then I would love to hear it.

I like to give it a wide bearth whatever it is.

Euuuugggh!

Runaway Train

I thought anyone born circa 1983 and who listened to Long Wave Radio Atlantic 252 might appreciate this little gem on a Friday:

Taking a Stand Against the ‘R’ Word

I haven’t updated this blog in quite some time due to recessionary difficulties. Now, it’s not like my blog budget has been cut or I have had to let my blog PA go (not that I have either of these of course) but I have been suffering from an extreme case of recession lethargy and I don’t want to bore you further by backing this up with a blog entry on the same.

I think it is safe to say we are all over this recession already. Now all we have to do is wait for the economy to catch up on us!

On a lighter note, there seems to be a lot more seats free on the train these days. Is it possible that unemployment is affecting the commuting community to such an extent that we can tally the number of those out of work by doing a headcount on the 5.13?

YouTube Links Not Working

Hmmmmm, not sure why my YouTube links aren’t working. My limited knowledge of all things technical seems to be more apparent than ever now. Oh well, no more talking picture boxes for this blog!