What a bloody awful evening it has been. It started after work at 17:00 in Dun Laoighaire in the pouring rain. I managed to get to the train-station in time for the 17:06 train to Donabate – my usual train. But not today. Today the train was canceled because “flooding on the track between Glenagery and Dun Laoighaire”… OK its an inconvience but I can deal with it. Had a 15 minute wait before a northbound train left for the city centre where I would change trains at Pearce station for one which would drop me off in my home town of Donabate.

What happend was one simple mistake that made the 1 hour 15 minute trip home into a 5 hour one. What was the mistake? the mistake was leaving my laptop on the original train which was going onto Longford and getting off at Pearce. It took me 5 minutes waiting on the platform to realize that I “was a bit light” and at that point the full impact hit me – I had left my laptop on the train!!! a laptop apart from the cost contains a couple of days work I have yet to check in and my boss today emphasised to everyone that we are around 5 days behind schedule. I felt almost physically sick. I managed to contact the station master but the train had already left connolly station and the next “manned” station was Maynooth a number of stops and 50 minutes later. I waited drinking coffee in the small cafe on the platform – thank God and Apple for the iPhone which let me talk to the wife and to twitter my consternation to one and all. It was 18:45 when the station master manager found me and said “its your lucky day” the station master in Maynooth has recovered your computer. Phew was my immediate reaction. The Station Master (a nice chap) said the fastest way for me to get the laptop was to go to Maynooth and pick it up, and the next train left at 19:00.

Hence was the long trip to and from Maynooth – which is a very pretty line that follows the old grand canal and then back onto the Northern line home to Donabate and the arms of an understanding wife.

I arrived home at 22:00.

I would like to thank all the staff at Irish Rail – and particularly those  at Pearce and Maynooth. They were all friendly and helpful in the recovery of my laptop – which I had pretty much given up on the second I had realized I had left it behind – with comments such as “ahh – your the man looking for your laptop”.

Thanks guys and gals.

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