Reasons to love Dublin #1

Why is it that more funny things seem to happen when one is on holiday than when one is going about your normal daily business? Is it that you are more relaxed and therefore notice the funny things? Is it because people abroad are funnier than English people? Is it because the English abroad do such ridiculous things that they would never do at home? I don't know but I keep a book of amusing things that have happened on my (limited) travels over the years and a quick browse through it rarely fails to cheer me up. Anyway, thinking about my forthcoming significant birthday and how to celebrate it reminded me of something that happened on a trip to Dublin a couple of years ago.

The Vicar of Wibbly (who was not a vicar then, so shall, for the purposes of this anecdote be called "Wibbly") and I were in Dublin for a long weekend and were very kindly invited to go and visit Gizmo and his wife. He told us which bus to get and where to get off it so that he could meet us and take us back to his house. The instructions were fairly simple; get on the bus outside Trinity College, get off at the Swan Centre.

So Wibbly and I dutifully got on the bus and bought our tickets. I then had the following conversation with the bus driver.

Amy: We've been told we need to get off the bus at the Swan Centre. How will we know when we are there?
Bus Driver: (thinking) ummm
Amy: Is it quite a big shopping centre?
Bus Driver: It's about ten minutes down the road
Amy: Will it be obvious when we are there?
Bus Driver: We'll be there in about 10 minutes
Amy: (getting frustrated now and speaking with a hint of desperation in her voice) So am I supposed to just get off the bus in ten minutes time and hope for the best?!
Bus Driver: Yep, ten minutes is about right.

Honestly! The man had so much faith in his timetable that he couldn't conceive we could possibly be slightly delayed or ahead of schedule and therefore we might get off in the wrong place! Fortunately a local woman overheard the conversation and agreed to tell us when we were nearly there (after only about 7 and a half minutes actually so it was a jolly good job we didn't just get off after 10 as we'd have had a long walk ahead of us!)