The sound of silence

I'm on my way home from my New Year celebrations in Cork with my family.  Thanks very much to them, I had a great time, eating too much, drinking Cava and dancing to Jooles Holland and his Big Band.  Now I'm on the train heading for Dublin.  And there's Wi-Fi!  Imagine, I'm connected to the world while I'm travelling along through the green fields of County Cork.

It's a lovely way to travel. Calming, relaxing...

Well it would be if it wasn't for my eight very lively 'seventy something' fellow passengers. I know they are near to, or in, their seventies because they have all been discussing how long they have been married.  One couple were discussing their wedding night, and how they spent it apart! The lady spent it in one room with her old aunts, and the man slept in another room with the men of the house! And they spent the next night on the train to Dublin, and were up all night apparently!! That remark caused an outburst of remarks from the rest of the group which kept the whole train amused. The 'youngest' of the gang have only been married for 48 years!  Jeez!! They have some catching up to do...

They are not going to Dublin, they are going to Galway, so I'll miss them when they get off at Limerick junction to change trains, as they are really quite entertaining!  Especially as one of them has been given an iPhone for Christmas by one of their children who is in Australia, because he thought it would be handy for 'Facetime' with his ageing parents!  It has been passed around the whole group and it's merits discussed in depth.  I wish I could have recorded that conversation. The 'owner' is still figuring out how to make a phone call. I'm dying to jump up and tell her that she could actually 'FaceTime' her son while on the train...or download an app that would show her how fast the train is going...but I just stay in my seat and look out at the lone cow chewing the cud who cares less about the Wi-Fi than my travelling buddies...

And speaking of iPhones, I have been without mine since last Sunday.  I have also been without my car (hence the train journey).  Long story (with an expensive ending) but lets just say, my car had an incident with a wall and it had to be repaired, and I left my phone in it when I left it in to the garage to be repaired!! Silly me.. I wasn't driving the car when it decided to alter it's shape using the wall as a mould.  We won't mention any names, but let's just say that Kevin will be short of cash for the next few weeks!!!

Anyway, I haven't missed either my car or my phone, but maybe that's because I have been away and not in my usual routine.  It will be interesting for the next couple of days without either when I am at home.  Of course as you may have guessed, I am not completely cut off from the big bad world, cos I still have my iPad to play with, but that is way less intrusive than a phone. 

Although I've enjoyed being phone less, I am now thinking how I am going to call somebody to pick me up from the station when the train arrives.  Gosh, will I actually have to go and look for a pay phone, and find change for it, and then actually have to remember a number and dial it!! Yikes!! Maybe I can get a lesson from the seventy year olds before they get off the train...

They are gone now, and the train is strangely quiet.  All I can hear now is the hum of the engine and the low hum of the other quieter passengers talking to each other or talking on their phones.  

So it's back to looking out at the green fields, the lonesome cows and the blue/grey skies.  

Time for coffee and a book!

Oh by the way, I have a new job! But I'll tell you about that another day...