I had to go I wanted to check the times of buses to Dublin and as I mentioned in a previous post I hadn’t done much shopping when I was in town on Monday, which is a bit by the by really because I didn’t do much shopping in town yesterday either. I didn’t even get light bulbs the main reason along with bus timetables that I went.
It was ferocious the wind roared contempt for Mayo, the rain had such force it stung as it landed and by about 3.30 pm the sun had had enough and done a runner for anywhere else.
I walked in which just proves I’m stronger than I look or feel. Being me I naturally wore suede shoes, they’re drying under a radiator the gods know when or if they will ever be fit to wear again. The wretched hood on my coat wouldn’t stay up it seemed to me the wind took an altogether unhealthy and unnatural interest in my hood tossing it off my head every time I pulled it up and dared to think I had secured it. I was soaked and the wind blew, the lights were vomit yellow and the rain came at you from every direction.
The first shop I went into was fine I bought an envelope and some stamps which is when I realised I had forgotten the sellotape I had so carefully left in a prominent place on the coffee table, so I wouldn’t forget you understand.
The shop assistant was lovely as we had a brief chat I mentioned to her that I had three or four rolls of sellotape from previous visits she handed me the big roll the shop owners use and told me to write the address at the little desk on the corner. I was very grateful and shot off to the desk, really its a table but desk sounds more efficient, and quickly wrote the address and sealed the envelope and that was just as well because would you believe the shop owner appeared grabbed the sellotape and ran off saying I could have it if I needed it again.
How fortunate that I didn’t. I went to the counter and apologised to the assistant who I suspect is a daughter in law for taking so long, less than five minutes, and being a nuisance. She laughed and said not to worry if only all their customers were as much of a nuisance!
Ahh, the fabled generosity of the Irish!
I am very discreet but I am also thoroughly pissed off with the fabled generosity of the Irish. Needless to say however if I ever do discover or am told something that requires discretion you my dear and cherished reader will never know.
In the meantime I have to get to Dublin by 10 am I’m reluctantly giving in to the idea an overnight stay will be required.
Did I mention I took my walking stick not because I limp but because I feel better knowing that if I need to I have something I can lean on. I didn’t need and frankly I’m jolly lucky I still have a walking stick. First I forgot and left it in a shop. I was waiting for a taxi home when I remembered it ran back to the shop and saw it immediately. The shop assistant had put it in a prominent position so that even I couldn’t miss it and I was grateful, after that I held on to my cane all the while until I got out of the taxi at my door where I forgot all about it and left it in the cab. The very kind taxi driver brought it home to me later.
There is generosity in Ireland you find it in the strangers who stop what they’re doing to help you, who let you use their own sellotape rather than milking you for a whole roll. Its in the taxi driver lady who wouldn’t take any money for returning the walking stick which when you think about it is another whole fare, and its in the lady at the shop who placed the stick in a prominent position so that the forgetful, anxious, guilty owner would see it immediately and be reassured
Ireland is full of such unspoken and often I’m ashamed to say unnoticed generosity However pissed off I am with the fabled generosity of the Irish I do remember and appreciate the unconscious instinctive kindness of most of the people I’ve met.
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