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June 05, 2005

One Fine Day

Tuesday 25th May – 8.20am

Summer is most definitely here. See exhibit A – the Sun. Gone are the blustery days of autumn. Forgotten are the chilly winter nights that always carried a subtle hint of snow. Delightful spring showers have recently departed. Summer is most definitely here. See exhibit B – Newbridge Train Station. The commuters I have just strolled past are adorned by lots of bright and colourful clothes. Not only that, but they’re smiling. It’s a scene not familiar to my weary eyes. The culprit? Summer. Without a shadow of a doubt. If I seem hostile then it’s because I am. This season has instantly rendered my long dark writers coat useless. It has stripped me of the one garment that most radiated my writer image. Hence, why I’m sitting on the Arrow in…in…bright and colourful clothes! Oh the humanity! Yet not all aboard the 8.20am are in their summer threads. Looking around my carriage there seems to be an epidemic of young businessmen in suits. They’re everywhere! I never really noticed it before but then again I don’t usually get the 8.20am. The only hint of their awareness of the season is shown in the shades their all wearing. Some are propped up above their foreheads in stylish unison while others are wearing them even though we’re on the train. I ponder momentarily of whether I need to get myself a pair before realising I’m pretentious enough as it is.

This brings us nicely to my arrival into Heuston Station. We pull in at Platform 1, which is odd because we haven’t pulled into Platform 1 in weeks. And now I see why. Large overhead shelters have been constructed all along the platform. Trust Iarnród Éireann to provide rain shelters just as summer hits us. Aboard the faithful number 90 bus I can see Dublin city bathed in a warm glow of sunrays. The Liffey is unusally low. So much so that I can make out a pram in the water. Staring into the water I recall with a smirk a story my Aunty Brid told me once of how, in trying to save the family’s dieing pet fish, she resorted to using Holy Water in the fish bowl. When I arrive at O’Connell Bridge I step out into a sea of human traffic in full flow. That’s the thing about pedestrians in Dublin. You’re only ever coming or going. East or West. Never North or South. I digress. Try this experiment for yourself. Try and walk across Grafton St. From one shop to another facing it on the other side. Try it. It’s Damn near impossible. You’ll upset the flow and quite likely several irate pedestrians.

Yet today I was not on Grafton St. I was on O’Connell St and boy does it look good. The footpaths and the roads have all been paved with the same snazzy design so it looks as if it’s all one. Which has its drawbacks when you don’t know whether you’re on the path or the road. The Spire is standing tall and…eh…spikey, basking in the glory of holding the title for “Most Expensive Piece of Useless Public Art”. Don’t even get me started on the ‘Race of the Black Pig’ on the Kildare Town By Pass.

I lazily stroll into Eason’s (where else?) to ponder over a large hot chocolate in the Muse Café and the arrival of my good scriptwriting comrade Leo Corrigan. And here he comes now, but unfortunately we’re running slightly late (like most trains) so we have to hurry over to the UGC Cinema on Parnell St. The film in question is “Shattered Glass” starring Hayden Christensen as real life journo – Stephen Glass. The film portrays Glasses fall to grace after he begun simply making up stories for the magazine he wrote for – The New Republic. We choose this film to get some inspiration…ahem.

Later on that evening, while surfing the Net as I so often do, I came across www.busrage.com On this website commuters get to moan about Dublin Bus as much as they like and as my luck would have it, an online moaning session (nothing seedy!) was taking place. The topic being “Text alerts for bus services are mere timetable duplication” Which is alarmingly true. To those unfamiliar to the service, you just text BUS followed by the bus route number eg. BUS10 to 53503 and send. You then receive a response containing times for the next 3 buses in each direction. Information you could have got from your timetable, only with this service you get the privilege of paying 30 Cent for the info. Amusingly enough, it wasn’t long before the online rants of the commuters lost all creditability when they all start talking with ze Russian accents. Viva la revolution!

Trains, Buses & Automobiles by Liam Geraghty appears every week in the Kildare Nationalist (page 6)

Posted by LiamG at June 5, 2005 09:21 PM