Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

My little sister Theresa gave birth at 10am this morning to a 7lb 12oz baby girl – congratulations Theresa and her partner Colm..

Went food shopping in the local supermarket in Donabate and I took along my 16 month old daughter Maeve. When we arrived at the carpark I took Maeve out of her baby saftey seat grabbed the shopping bag (a heavy canvas looking plastic bag); At this point Maeve grabbed the bag wanting to carry it – dispite the fact the bag is almost as tall as she is. So there we were walking around the supermarket – me a step in front, Maeve trailing a couple of steps behing dragging tge shopping bag garning “isn’t she cute” comments from people as we went around.

When we got to the tills at the end, unprompted she handed my the bag and then put out her arms which her way of saying “pick me up”. I picked her up and placed her sitting on the area when the good collect after they have been scanned along with the plastic bag. You can imaging my surprise to see Maeve get up and drop (rather than put) the various food items in the bag; Good girl, and she is obviously a quick learner.
The funny thing was once I paid and put the bag and the baby on the ground Maeve would not allow me to pick up the bag (which was quite heavy); Instead, trying to drag it along  herself. I was amazed that she managed to drag the heavy bag some 6 feet before finally allowing me to carry it for her.

Good girl likes helping daddy.

My Daughter of 16 months is a Robbie Williams fan … nothing wrong with that. But to keep her amused I try to find music from various artists, periods and styles to keep her amused and this is where youtube is daned useful. I like swing/jazz stuff like Frank Senatra and the other Rat-Pack members and was playing this tribute piece from Robbie Williams  where Robbie was asking fans to “click your fingers” along with the tune and showed them how it was to be done…. only to be followed by my 16 month old daughter trying (to no avail) to mimic her idol

On wednesday, you know the black day when I lost and then recovered my laptop I heard about a ship in harbour that was a sailing book-shop of 6000+ books. Well being a bibliophile I took my daughter (her mom having gone to a hair-dressing appointment) to visit the ship in Dublin harbour. I could not remember the ships name but it was not hard to find and it is called “Logos Hope”. To my surprise its is a christian evangelical ship crewed by Chrisitians following God’s will and doing great work amongst the poor and suffering of the world; and its a pleasure having them here in Ireland. After recent revelations about the non-christian behaviour of the Catholic Church over the last 60 years in Irelands reform schools we need some “positive” christianity.

Yes there is a large selection of books (mostly christian related) on the ship – something like a visit to Veritas and Maeve and I spent a nice couple of hours in the bookship and cafe. Well worth a visit and donating too.

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.