Karma in Chester
Posted on December 1, 2006
Filed Under Outside Ireland, chancers, pub, relationships, restaurant, wet Wednesday rule, women |
Damn the Irish weather, damn easyjet and damn pilots with multi-syllabic first names. I’ve been in Chester for the past few days. I flew in and out of Belfast International because my original plan was to overnight in Belfast and visit some friends before I flew out. I had to cancel my plans at the last minute so it was a long drive from Belfast to Dublin this evening.
The weather was pretty bad from Liverpool to Belfast airport and there was a lot of turbulence. The pilot couldn’t land the first time and had to fly around for a second attempt. He was determined to land the second time and, by god, he certainly did. In my amateur opinion, most pilots will get the plane about 10 metres off the ground and just throttle back. The plane will descend reasonably smoothly and everybody lives happily ever after. This pilot positioned the plane in roughly the right place and just dropped it on the tarmac. I think I hurt my back as well even though I knew it was coming. The fecking plane bounced violently and he had to break sharply because he must have glided too far down the runway. At least nobody clapped in appreciation.
It took a bit longer than usual to off the plane as well. It was raining so heavily that the air hostesses wouldn’t look out the door to help the airside guys get the stairs lined up against the side of the aircraft. Eventually, one of them lost (or was volunteered) and she did the needful.
I much prefer pilots to have simple monosyllabic names like Tim, Bill, Ann, or Fran etc. Subconsciously, you know you’re safe with someone like that. Timothy, Mario, Louise, or Francesa just doesn’t cut it.
Easyjet - I hate you!!
My two days in Chester was good fun. There was about 10 of us in a 60/40 male/female split. We’re all ambitious, type-A sort of people and we are not afraid to voice our opinions. We only meet once or twice a year so put the 10 of us in a room, turn off the air-conditioning, and discuss ‘money’ (our money) as the topic and the verbal sparks flew all day. It was good fun. Sparks of a different sort flew after dark, hehe.
It was a long day for most of us as we’d travelled from all parts of the UK and Ireland. We started to relax and unwind when we got to the restaurant. It was a tex-mex place called Dos Americanos or something. The food was spicy, the conversation spicier, and the booze explosive. We didn’t realise it for a little while but the person doing the ordering was getting double tequilla’s for each round. And that tells it’s own story. Poison! Then we went on a pub crawl. (Aside: can you get barred from a pub if you’re only visiting for the day??)
One woman, soon-to-be-married, had a little kiss with a man, who is just married. The next day (i.e., this morning), we arranged it so they sat together in the front of the mini-bus on the way back to the airport!! One woman had to be carried home. Another woman who used to be a holiday rep (bleach-blonde and all the rest) had us pretending to washing machines, and kettles, and dishwashers (with sounds and actions). The punchline was ‘but I’ve got a couple of mugs behind me‘. One of the men started groping (in our group) and got punched for his trouble. He got such (friendly-ish) abuse this morning that I nearly felt sorry for him. And since there was a Scot in our company, we ended up in an 80’s karoke bar.
Apart from octupus ollie, the men were well behaved!!
I spent the evening in conversation with a very nice woman. It’s not often you meet someone who likes the same music (808 State anyone?), who likes travelling, who prefers Germany to Italy (just like me). I am very happy. I wish I could be more expressive than that because ‘I am very happy’ doesn’t do the evening justice. I think British women are much more sociable than Irish women. They’re not lunatics for a start, I’ve deleted the rest of this paragraph.
I know I bang on about karma but
– what was the ’special’ on the radio on the drive back to Dublin this evening? A two-hour special of ’80’s/Manchester music. Lots of the Happy Mondays, The Inspirals, James, and the list goes on. Bliss.
– And even better, when I got home, Tom Waits’ Orphans CD was waiting in my postbox for me!!
– And I’ve a couple of days off work as well.
That’s karma for ya, what goes around comes around. If I’m good to someone, that goodness comes back to me in spades.
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