A cold beer and tofu steak in Yamamori – its become a twice weekly occurrence for me lately!
Its just so tasty – the crispy tofu in batter is delicious, and I quite like the japanese beers – they put extra ingredients in like coriander, orange peel and nutmeg for added flavour, a nice kick indeed!
A cowboy running down the street in the sun is my final memory of my stay in Galway. He looked like he was coming from a western movie set and was racing to get some prop forgotten. The sun was shining again on this beautiful Sunday morning, typical that I was on my luggaged up way to the train station and to pop into the Cellar one last time to meet Justyna, where she would have a bag brought already to help me carry all my worldly possessions. I teased her saying that she might be able to regain that tan she had from before from the actual sun and not some dodged up sun bed in the polish quarter! When we compared our skin my fake tan was actually darker than her natural colour even thought mine was a week old at that stage and seemed to refuse coming off at all.
Arriving in the train station and realizing that Justyna had sacrificed her lunch half hour to being me down really made me feel guilty at first but then knowing that I would do the same, made me though about how close we are when we’re together even though we’re far apart. Saying au revoir and all the bulk that comes with the good bye I thanked her for the great time and insisted that she’d come over to Dublin within a month!!, here’s a hoping that she’ll get the time off work.
So I had my ticket prebooked as I had from the inward journey and I found my carriage. A31 so I went up to the tip top of the train where I presumed I’d find my seat. The numbers augmented as I steered my baggage up the aisle. Hoping that my name would be electronically imprinted beside the seats I was looking at I soon noticed that I was in the wrong carriage. It was two minutes till departure so I was in no mood to go back, what did it matter really what seat I was in as long as I wasn’t taking somebody else’s.
There were three men opposite me and I quickly noticed the stares I was getting by these obvious country folk. Shortly having packed my belongings onto the train rack, I took out my savour for the trip-my laptop. I turned it on to strangely discover a weird beeping noise it was making, I think the battery had been so warn down that it was forced to make this noise and to my surprise one of the Galway men made a comment that it had a virus. I think not, so I completely disregarded this stupid and attention seeking comment immediately.
Call my noisy but all these men were interested in was taking briefly to each other but making constant phone calls to arrange bets! The chatter of prices marriaged with the racing post in front of them made them the ultimate annoying people of the century, always talking about horses. The arrogant one with the glasses and unbelievably boggerish accent seemed to be the ring leader of this awful gang. Had they nothing better to do than annoy and bore everyone else in this carriage with their ‘advice’ for horses, ‘’No Paddy I wouldn’t back number 3’’, then quickly calling someone else reporting the same information. As if they had a bloody clue what they were talking about. Ugh, and I glanced over to see that they all had their poxy phones out and all ready for action with their racing posts.
The ticket inspector came around and just as I was taking out my ticket I copped that I was in fact in the Premier carriage. SHIT!!! I was hoping that he wouldn’t say anything for the sheer embarrassment of it all. I could just feel those men starting at anything I did, especially the fat one who would never have a chance anyway if he wasn’t a complete twat already like. Bunch of freaks. Anyway, the ticket inspector was lovely and didn’t seem to care when I presented my ticket. Relief!! There seemed to be no difference anyway with this carriage and any other carriage I’ve ever come across. Why would they care I suppose? Train arrival time 13.45 so Jethro will be there to collect me and so he was. Back home. Happy, but will miss the fabulous weather in Galway and of course Justyna. Over and out.
Today was fun. I got to bed at 7.14am. I managed to squeeze in 4 hours until I had to meet up with 3 of the girls. I woke up and could instantly feel how dizzy I’d be for the day but as I got ready and had a shower everything gradually felt a lot better. I was all set to leave when I remembered that I had to wake up the girl with whom I was staying. She had an 8 hour shift in a restaurant/bar ahead of her and she knew it only too well. It took her 10 minutes to get ready and have her coffee, which she drinks religiously every morning. Off we set, me in my gorgeous outfit which I was sort of forced to wear because all of my other clothes were expecting rain. The sun was shining and it was a nice walk to where I had to go. Justyna realized that she would be two minutes late for work so she quickly decided to ring up and let them know, even though she has more authority at the restaurant than most other people working there.
Right so we were on the main street and I saw my meeting point destination when I glanced around for no reason, and to see my 3 friends. We all hugged and made out way to Eyre Square. I could not believe how hot the day was and this made me all happy because I hadn’t seen my friends in ages so I didn’t want any rain or wind to ruin my hair and clothes. They were all shocked with the colour of my hair as it had previously been very dark when I knew them last year. We had a nice catch up and a much anticipated bitching about a girl with whom we weren’t too enamoured.
Arriving at Eyre Square, we decided to get some ice cream, I didn’t get one as my head was killing me from the previous night, and I don’t think my body nor my stomach would appreciate the strange mix of Malibu, Mojito and then ice cream the next morning. No thank you!! There was some charity thing going on in the Square to do with fundraising for an association which deals with teenagers struggling with depression and wanting to take the shorter road to wherever we go! Well the ‘’musicians’’ that were ‘’performing’’ on the main stage were terrible. But hey, the spirit and thought was good.
I felt my legs getting a bit hot, as I was just wearing a skirt and when I looked down to have a peek they were starting to go a bit red. So the 4 of us sitting there enjoying our surrounding of lovely people happily enjoying the sun and music. Miriam brought up the topic that she had previously described our little get together as being one like those Sex and the City get togethers. Ann Marie told me that I was Carrie, so of course I immediately thought about the spot on my chin but being so paranoid soon thought that she meant it for completely other reasons. We did lunch and had some bizarre conversations along the way. I bid my farewell to them and headed towards the Cellar. There I would be greeted by a very hung over Justyna still working.
I gulped down as much water as possible as I felt so dehydrated. As I was leaving someone wrapped his arms around me. I turned to see that it was Mark, someone I’ve known for years. This random rendezvous was brilliant. He said to join him for a drink with his friends. I soon copped that they were as crazy as he is!! They were all actors, well struggling actors on the dole from Galway. They had the most diverse personalities I have come across in a long time and they were very funny guys also. One of them is in the new Meteor advert so I’ll be looking out for him.
Anyway that was my day and I returned to a very messy, beer bottled up sitting room which I soon cleaned up. I had a great day and I just could not believe how hot it was for my entire trip. I’m just dreading the train journey home tomorrow. I’ve actually got more coming home with me than I did coming up so that packing should be fun, and of course I’ll have to convince Mark to help me lug all my shit up to the train station!!!
My trip down to Galway didn’t start off the best. J dropped me to the train station where he copped that I had the wrong train time,…I was there a WHOLE half an hour too early, which is a lot when you’re not used to being up so early. That is 9 o clock!! So my actually train departure time was 11.30. Better to be too early I suppose than too late.
I had my prebooked seat all arranged and in I went. Firstly when Jethro was helping me with my bags, I gained permission for him to come aboard to settle me in, which was nice, but when doing so, this old ogre of a woman decides to try to plough through us. Having none of this rudeness I gave her a deserved dirty look with the J calling her a freak. I think she uttered something like ‘’come on, come on let me get to me seat’’. I did not like her and the people opposite my seat didn’t seem too impressed with J’s choice of vocabulary. But this old Grinch wasn’t getting away with it.
The journey went slow at first until I remember why I had packed in my laptop,…college work. 
I started off by having just listened to music so wasn’t aware of what the chatter was around me until I proceeded to do my work. It was like a meeting on the train beside me. This young man with a rather large nose and an old-ish woman were discussing what seemed very important. Whenever the ticket inspector came around to check the tickets the young man just sharply aimed them in his direction as if not to bother us, we can’t afford to take a minute of non-talking. I decided to pooch my ears into their conversation. I quickly noticed that the man had an RTE pen, which may have meant that they worked for this company,…but then I looked down and realized that I was writing with a DCU pen, and not attending this college, put it to, well maybe they don’t work for them, he might just have the pen from an RTE post grad evening,….hmmmm, or maybe not!!
They were immersed in conversation, breaks were taken when the young man slivered away to get coffee for them both and he also had their two tickets. I had noticed that they seats were also prebooked but they were sitting opposite each other, so obviously they had them set up like a meeting area for themselves, and it seemed like he was taking care of her for everything. When I got on the train first I did notice that their names were not the same however so after having seen all the documentation, they were clearly what I call GEEKS. They never once joked about anything, something which was odd to me. They kept huffing at the glimpse of someone walking by to use the WC or the slight sound of the students near our seats laughing and joking about their previous night out.
I sound like such a desperate person to have thought about all of this in relation to them, but really, there was nothing else to do, well apart from like 10 Irish essays which have to be finished and analysed by Saturday, fun stuff. I managed to do one, which is good going for such a procrastinator as myself. Anyway I finally got to Galway and strapped all my excessive baggage onto my body somehow and met my housemate from last year, with whom I was staying. She offered to elevate my pain by carrying a bag the ten minute walk to my new home till Sunday. 
We discussed how nice the weather was, I freshened up and off we went for a walk around the town and she got me a key cut for my convenience. I was very impressed by her new house, lovely house with 3 bedrooms. Beautifully decorated and views of the sea. Why am I living in Dublin?
We decided after our walk to take it easy and head for the supermarket, chauffeured by her boyfriend’s brother who probably should have been driving with the night and morning he had just had! We bought lots of food, and I bought a nice bottle of Faustino 1. We drank that last night while watching the last season of Sex and the City, something which I got glued to over the past few weeks. Not having the intention of get tipsy I glided up to bed and remember that I had a litre of Malibu for tomorrow night for when we head out! It’s gonna be a good night.
Aaaaaaaggghhhhh!!
I reported the break in to the hotel which I am currently occupying. They suggested that there’s a ‘Sat Nav’ scumbag thief prevalent in this area and that he’ll ignore any other items of value in order to just get the Sat Nav. This shocked me, and as they went on to explain that he had broken in to several other cars and vans in the same way, he bypassed a laptop and builder’s tools of the value of 10K! The scumbag in question is supposed to be as bold as brass I am told, evidently enough from the way he had been depicted to me. The hotel security staff also mentioned that he had been into prison 3 times and that he’d nearly want to get caught.
I decided to call the guards. The phone call involved me just stating that my car had been broken into and that I know there’s probably nothing you can do about it. I think this pissed them off, or the Garda in question, who forcefully said then that he would send someone down to take a look at it in his strong bogger’s accent. Within about 20 minutes I got a phone call saying that the Guards were downstairs. Their quickness surprised me. Obviously this was a daily occurrence in this area so perhaps their eagerness meant that they actually wanted to catch this person this time.
They asked me a few questions and the male Garda wrote me up a statement which I then read, agreed with and signed. They took other details after we had discussed TE, which I wonder about and was explained was Technical Examination. I stupidly agreed to let my poor little raped and emotionally unfit car out to Donabate for this finger prints examination. Sounds exciting. I think not. They said it would be ready for my by 4.30pm MAX but when I rang up the secretary was shocked in my asking whether it was ready yet. My car is still in Donabate, and now as I type it is five minutes to six in the evening. I don’t know when I’ll have the opportunity to collect it tomorrow as I’m in college all day tomorrow. And then there’s the hassle of fixing the window.
Well anyway, the lesson of the day is to never park or shadow my car behind a van ever again. STRESS!!
