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June 03, 2005

The Column That Started It All . . .

The Column That Started It All . . .

Thursday 27th February

10.55am

I’m standing solemnly on the platform at Newbridge Station. It’s snowing. My fellow commuters are huddled under the shelter further up the platform. Taking shelter from the snow. Honestly! Not me though. What harm can snow do? Soak you, evidently. Nuts. I take out my somewhat battle-worn umbrella. My youthful visage is now ‘protected’ from the snow but the rest of me might as well have jumped into a swimming pool for all the help my umbrella is doing. That’s the thing about umbrellas – they only ever really cover your head. And because your head is covered you don’t notice that the rest of you is being saturated. But it’s not much different for the various commuters huddled beneath the platform shelter today as that’s leaking too. Sigh.

11.10am

The Arrow was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago. Fifteen minutes standing at Newbridge Station is always the longest fifteen minutes of your life because it inevitably turns out to be twenty minutes. The Arrow finally does arrive in all its glory, albeit without any explanation of why it was late. And if you want to piss off a commuter, giving no explanation to where the blasted train was, is a sure fire way to do it. (Iarnród Éireann take heed lest we start a revolution) Inside my discomfort is made worst due to the fact that it’s one of those Arrow’s where all seats are facing each other and don’t have ANY tables. God I hate those Arrows. In the other ones you can sit in private, as it were, with simply rows upon rows of seats and the odd table. On those Arrow’s I can quite happily read my Star Wars comic books without having to slip them into the centre of the Irish Independent. Oh the joys of being an outcast. Anyway, we eventually arrive in Heuston. Everyone hops off the train and the mad dash begins for the bus. It’s odd really because if, like me, you usually race down to the 91bus and are the first to board, you still have to wait for all the other people who’ve decided to saunter down the unimaginably long platform one. Although being first guarantees you the front seat on the top of the bus and as all children know, that’s the best seat to have.

Posted by LiamG at June 3, 2005 01:31 AM