Thursday, October 22, 2009

Teasing buses!

What is with people and buses? There'll be 12 of you at a bus stop and the right bus approaches for 5 of them, one puts their arm out and the bus starts to indicate......but, just in case the bus is just teasing them and will not really pull in, the other 4 people put their arm out too. Do they thing that the bus driver will stop to let one on, then move to the next person and pick them up and so on? What's the point of more than one person flagging the bus down, esp once the bus is indicating to show it's pulling in? Is there any need? Really, is there?
My morning bus is full of school kids, and I mean full. About 50 of the beggars pile off at one stop half way through the journey. All the people standing up on the bus move to fill the seats downstairs and a few upstairs. But what gets me me is that the people waiting at the bus stop for all the kids to pile off, get on the bus but seeing the downstairs bit is full....just stand up! They've just seen LOADS of kids get off the bus from upstairs so they know there are seats, so why not take them?! Why stand up, crowding the bus when there is no need because there are seats upstairs?! Come on people!!

Walking to work t'other day and was getting seriously fecked off with the rain. It would spit, then stop then spit some more, then stop. I was fed up of putting my brolly up and down every 2 minutes like something out of Mary Poppins so I just gave it up as a bad job and put the umbrella away. My hair's curly anyway so it's no real bother if it gets wet. But no sooner had I put the umbrella away, it started to rain, hard. I was optimistic and thought "Ah sure, it'll stop in a minute..." but it carried on.....and I got wetter......finally sucummbed and got my brolly out.....and it fucking stopped!!!! Excuse my language there but I was less than impressed! I need to invest in a proper waterproof coat so I just have a hood to negotiate. Bloody Irish weather.

I'm a great lover of music and couldn't live without my iPod. Music can change my mood instantly and always continues to propel me back to a specific place or time with such clarity that I sometimes find myself getting quite emotional. I've had an interesting week for various reasons and something has happened that's affected me quite profoundly. I swear my iPod is psychic because it keeps giving me songs that take are linked to the event that's happened. It's almost provided some closure though, and I've listened to the songs as they've shuffled through, having a bit of a smile to myself about things that have passed but at the same time moving on. I'm a very emotional person, always have been and I tend to live my life through music. I was made a lovely mixed CD recently (very retro I know!) of songs I'd never heard. These songs have become part of my musical loves now and will always make me smile with nice memories of the person who gave them to me.

Right, well I'm off to pack for my week away at home in the UK. Off to Most Haunted Live on Saturday, proper looking forward to that. I'm genuinely intrigued to find out whether it's all set up or not. Watch this space!

Keep Smiling!

x

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Greenfly, Rainbows and Buses!

Well, hi there. Not really sure where to start with this, I only decided this afternoon to start a blog so this is a bit off the cuff! I've been told a few times that I should write a book about the events in my life, and I don't quite have the inclination for that but I think I can manage to keep this up! What do I want to get out of this? Well, I suppose I want to share my various experiences as an English Girl living in Dublin, alongside my pet hates, grievances and random rants! Whether anyone will read or follow this is another matter, but I can but try!

Life in Dublin can be very interesting, I've been here almost 3 years now and I'm still surprised by some of the stuff I experience. Now in fairness, not all of the stuff I encounter is Irish specific, but this being the first city I've lived in it seems heightened somehow!

It always amazes me how much Dublin grinds to a halt when it rains. For a city that seems to experience a fair bit of rain, you'd expect that the inhabitants would be used to a bit of wet every now and then. Apparently not! I woke up this morning to driving rain and crawling traffic on the road into work. What a joyful journey.....at least I wasn't soaked by a passing car like I was last week! Merrily walking along singing away to my iPod when whoosh, a wave of water hits me full on. It was a true comedy moment, I swore very loudly whilst kind of half crouched down, dripping with water as the car sped on its merry way! Then I laughed, straightened up and carried on my way to work, giggling to myself for most of the journey actually whilst obviously soaked to the bone, getting a few funny looks from passers by! Figured there was nothing I could do but laugh, I knew the guys in work would laugh when I told them so I may as well beat them to it! Well, I did have one wet bum cheek and one dry one, quite obviously so! I think I dried off about lunchtime....!

And what's with all the greenfly around at the moment?! I seem to end up covered in them on my way home on an evening now, shouldn't they all have died out now? Or maybe they're just hanging around to piss me off. Tonight I failed to notice that the bus shelter had a fair few of the buggers on it and leant on it as normal, trying to look nonchalant whilst waiting for the bus....well, every car that seems to go by has a good nosy at the people at the bus stop, I feel very exposed! Then there's the people on the actual buses that stop at the bus stop, all having a good gawk at the people still waiting for their bus. I suppose I should just stare them out but I don't, although I may do going forward.....I'll try it and let you know how I get on! Anyway, I digress, back to the greenfly. I notice a little fellow casually walking across my chest, so I flick him off, then I spot another on my arm, so I flick him off too. Only then do I take stock of the bus shelter I'm leant on and realise there's lots of greenfly on it, now happily transferring themselves to me! I now start a frenzied attack on said greenfly on my person, flicking away like a woman possessed and stomping my feet to get the hitchhikers off my trousers. This procures some rather funny looks from the people round me and I swear to god one women actually took a step away from me! I spent the rest of my journey home paranoid that I was still infested and couldn't shake off that tickly feeling, in fact it's back now as I write this, arrggh!

On the upside, I get off the bus to an absolutely gorgeous rainbow, a full one too, clear as anything against the blue sky, it makes me smile as I wait to cross the road to home. Watching the ever present game of "will I risk crossing now whilst the lights are red or will I wait till the green man in case the lights changes as I'm halfway across..." of everyone around me. I play this game myself and today decide I'll wait for the green man. The girls on the opposite side of the road don't and start to cross whilst immersed in an apparently thrilling conversation before being blasted loudly by the bus' horn as they dawdle across the road as the lights turn green, then seem surprised as to the drivers reaction! Lets not get me started on ranting about this, that's for another time!

Wow, writing this has been strangely therapeutic! I could get used to this! Until next time my friends.....take it easy!