I should have stayed in bed this morning

I had a feeling this morning that my day would be much better all round if I just got back into bed, pulled the duvet over my head and pretended that the world had ended during the night and there was no need for me to leave my house for 24 hours.

Foolishly, I ignored my intuition. It’s not a mistake I’ll make again in a hurry.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t work that nearly drove me over the edge today. Sure, I was incredibly busy and flat out from the time I got in until I downed tools. (I knew I’d have to pay for my idle day!) But there’s some really interesting stuff going on at the moment and it is fun to watch while the catapult full of excreta is pulled back and aimed at the large rotary ventilator… Anyway, I digress.

My big problem today is with public transport, Dublin Bus in particular and the 39X, 39 and 10A routes specifically. This might be a little unfair but unless I focus my vitriol, I’ll just be generally angry with the world and that won’t make for an interesting or soul cleansing rant, which let’s face it, is mainly why I blog. If I release the tension on-line, I’m less likely to climb a water tower wearing a long anorak and carrying a shotgun… Still, I digress.

This morning, I left my house at 7am. Normally, I get to work at around 8.15. Not today. My usual bus (a 39X) arrived 15 minutes late, jammed full. It refused to stop and let anyone on. I got the next bus into town (a 39), which proceeded to drive at about 2 miles per hour. At 7.50, I would usually expect to be on O’Connell Street in the city centre. This morning, we were still sitting on the Main Street in Blanchardstown.

Finally, at 8.45, I got into town. I hopped off the stinky 39 and within 2 minutes, I was sitting on a 10A heading out to Belfield. To be honest, I really can’t complain about this leg of the journey because I got to where I was going on that bus at 9am. I’m going to moan anyway because the 10A is a stupid new route that doesn’t stop as close to work as its parent route (the 10) or my usual 39X and I had to walk for 15 minutes to get to my office. Grrrr! At least I was on time for my first meeting of the day.

Fast-forward through the working day. I left at 4.45pm and caught the early bus home. This is another 39X that runs from Belfield back to Blanchardstown. I was on the bus at 4.50 and usually would expect this bus to deposit me at home by 6pm. Christ, was I in for a disappointment!

First of all, the idiot bus driver took a wrong turn at St Stephen’s Green and ended up in a one-way system that brought us down Georges Street and Dame Street. The traffic was awful. At least four of the busiest bus stops on the route were bypassed. We got back on track at College Green and pootled along merrily as far as Phibsboro. At this stage, we were only running 10 minutes behind schedule.

We got onto the New Cabra Road and all hell broke loose. Forty minutes later, we were still trying to get onto the Navan Road but weren’t even at the top of the Cabra Road. The traffic didn’t actually move at all for a full 20 minutes. The next three-quarters of an hour were spent creeping along at the rate of approximately one bus-length every five minutes.

Why?
Because the N3 (i.e. the main road that the Navan Road turns into) had been closed from the Ashtown roundabout to the M50 roundabout.

Why?
Because the knackers, I mean the Travelling Community, were holding a protest march and had blocked the road, so for their “safety”, traffic was being prevented from going up a national route.

Why?
The filthy knackers were protesting because the county council had placed a barrier on a road that links the N2 and N3 (Dunsink Lane) in an effort to reduce the amount of dumping on the road. Dunsink Lane is the filthiest stretch of road in the entire country, as far as I know and is populated entirely by knackers in halting sites, who incidentally are the main cause of the aforementioned dumping problem. The whole road is like a movie set from some post-Apocalyptic tale set in Beirut. It’s an obstacle course of burning rubble, rubbish heaps, knacker dogs, knacker children and halting sites on all sides. Personally, I reckon the council would have been better served had they walled in both ends of the Lane and napalmed the whole lot.

Harsh? Socially insensitive? Gratuitously politically incorrect? Hell, yes! But it’s now 7.30pm and I’m still on the bus trying to get home. Which all brings me full circle bck to the original focus of this particular tirade.

Maybe I really should take that mental health day for myself tomorrow…