Sunday, February 12, 2006

A Culchie's Day Oot

Yesterday Hannah and I travelled to Belfast in one of those swanky new trains. Of course the last time I travelled by rail it was on a parish excursion to Portrush on a steam train so it was quite an experience for me*. Hannah was affronted when I got stuck in the automatic sliding doors but at least I was able to get out of the train at Central Station unlike her the other night when she sailed on to Ballymoney and had to get Bert to come and rescue her out of Joey's (sob) Bar. I wasn't the only thing getting stuck as the ticket collector's machine was stuck as well and we all had to pay when we got off the train. I sent Hannah to the bathroom so we only had to pay one fare which paid NIR back nicely for taking an unwilling Hannah on a journey to Ballymoney.

Our reason for travelling to the capital city of Norn Iron was to meet lots of sophisticated blogging people and Beowulf**. I was worried that I wouldn't recognise anyone even though I'd seen most of their photos. But how wrong could I be? The first person I spotted was Marc. No converse trainers but who could mistake that glowing complexion, those flowing locks and that very dressy moleskin coat. Then along came the very youthful looking Ed who was also instantly recognisable despite not wearing blue (it was beige if you must know). I forget what sort of trousers he was wearing but that is probably a good thing for a woman of my years and station shouldn't be looking at a man's trouser region. I don't actually remember anybody's trousers except Hannah's which kept falling down but only when she was walking about..*** Stephen was wearing a red weatherproof jacket and a tee-shirt which Marc rather unkindly sneered at but nobody minded except Stephen who is a sensitive boy with dark Byronic looks and a dimple. Marc sneered a lot but he does it in such a jolly way and he is so shiny and clean that no one minds a bit.

I cannot tell you what Carrie looked like as it is a secret. But she is a very nice woman and not a bit scary like I thought she'd be****

To sum up - a very enjoyable and interesting afternoon. And thanks to Carrie for the tea and to Marc for the lift home.

*This is a lie
**That's you sorted for the chin photo
*** That's actually true.
****Little old lady indeed!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Instantly recognisable? Never a good thing. Note to self: change appearance in keeping with life of criminal mastermind.

Nelly said...

Aaah - but that was instantly recognisable from a stalker point of view.

Nelly said...

You were. It was an open invitation. But next time I'll invite you especially.

Nelly said...

Where you pleased when you looked up Byronic then?

Nelly said...

Now I'm puzzled. But Ganching will know.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, Mary, but was your point that it's nice and easy for stalker types to recognise me? And that is a good thing for why?

And AFAIK, the sensitive soul thing didn't start from a comment. Perhaps we just noticed from the put upon look that you wore for much of the Starbucks experience.

Nelly said...

Och the stalker thing was only a bit of a cod I was having.

But one thing's for sure - nobody would recognise you from the photograph Beowulf posted to Flickr!

Anonymous said...

Would that be the photo that seems to have vanished into the ether? The one that really should have an 'ook' comment somewhere nearby?

Nelly said...

Where have they all gone? My link still works - the one to the pic where I look like Jack Osbourne (before he was thin).

Ah - vanity 'tis a terrible thing.