Thursday, December 20, 2007

Dublin indignation

Niall Tobin once remarked that indignation was the particular defining attribute of the true Dublin man. The more I think about it, the more I think he may be right.

This evening, as I thought that the latest free skip bags I had put out on the roadside some days ago were now indeed as ablaze in reality as I had imagined they would become, I was relieved to see the flickering, bright orange light was coming not from flames but from the whirling, cab-top hazard light of the skip truck come to take them away. The man worked his remotely controlled crane hoist expertly and patiently, even when the shuttering for our soon-to-be-built front porch, added atop my neatly levelled household waste by the Window Man only last night, caught in the side of the truck and had to be poked and pulled. He noticed me standing on the doorstep looking on.

"Howerya?" he asked, flicking switches and making the vehicle safe to drive away with my old cooker and washing machine and the best portion of a 30-year-old kitchen in the back.

I waved, then ambled out. He took some complimentary skip bags in their plastic packets out of a compartment and handed them to me without referring to them.

"Were you able to see the flashing lights from the house?" he asked me.

"Yes," I said, not adding that I expected the deisel hum of the engine to be attached to a fire engine rather than a high-sided lorry when I looked out.

"Then let me tell you a good one," he said, in reassuring Dublinese. "I was up in the Pines just now and there was a car in the driveway and another on the road, you know?"

I nodded. I myself had put an entire growing tree in the way of the recovery of a skip bag only a couple of weeks ago and had the broken branches in the back of his truck to prove it.

"Well," he went on. "There was the bag and a car right in the way. Couldn't get near it. I could see your woman in the house. Lights on. You know what I mean. I couldn't do a thing with the car in the way so I went up and rang the doorbell to ask her to move the car. And I could see her, looking out the window, all 'What's goin' on here?' and looking at the truck. And d'you know wha'?"

"Wha'?"

"She wouldn't answer the door!"

I nodded in sympathy and clutched my complimentary skip bags tighter.

"So, I said: 'This one will be calling the office', and I went off. And sure enough, at the end of the road the phone rang and it was the office asking why I hadn't collected yer woman's bag. So I said: 'Do you have her on the phone, now?'. And they said: 'Yes.' So I said: "Then tell her on the phone to move her feckin' car!'"

We sucked our teeth at the intracability of womankind and of customers in general.

"Well," he said. "Have a good one!"

"You too. And thanks!"

I now have five unused skip bags stacked under the stairs, but I haven't yet run out of things to put in them.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I DON'T belive this !!!! I had merrily typed in a huge comment and a story of my own when I suddenly expired !! I hadto sign in again and lost all my story Poooooo. Not the blogs fault, my Yahoo fault. Ahh well, I will blah blah another day. Joan

Anonymous said...

Never ending eh Willie. I have been trying to get myself together for over a week now. First I may add came the Grandchild a week early and suprised us all. What a dote he is *S*.
I tried and failed to get my "pretend" Christmas tree down from where it stays all year round, three times I had thought of putting it up.I bought it last year after years of buying a real one. I was delighted to be asked to give advise and generally help out with the new little one. Problems feeding at first and he had his Mum and Dad scared and not sleeping. HE was fine, I kept telling them that. Over here the midwives come for ten day's after you have a baby, even if you had it in the hospital. It is good on one hand but conflicking advise and a midwife my daughter loathed in the first place made things difficult to say the least.
In the end I put the boot in ( imagine that *S* ) I told the daughter she was to make up her own mind and ask ME if this or that needed to be asked. After all, I did not kill her in the process of bringing her up. She on reflexion decided Mum ( or Nanny ) was right. So much more at ease and baby still as content as could be. I really wonder how the generations before us managed to have baby's and most lived !!! Far too much fuss these days if you ask me. The daughter asked me how the heck I had three kids. This is a bit off track, I only meant to say, at last the tree is up but I am so very tired. Lots going on today and the traffic was a mare to drive in today. I zoomed around in my little van down side streets to avoid the main gridlocked roads. Tee Hee, imagine Nanny Joan........... music blaring and bopping my head. I love it. My front room looks fine now. I started tea time and finished just before 9pm. One thing led to another and it seems a spring clean was needed. So glad I can have a bit of a lie in tomorrow. Way behind this year. No pressies bought but we are "giving" to the baby this year instead. Life is sweet.

PS. As you can see I found my lost gabble. XXX

Willie_W said...

Dem's the breaks, alright, Joan. I think Yer Man is cute enough to arrange to arrive early so he can leave a decent gap between his future Birthday presents and his Christmas presents. *LOL* And cute he certainly is, judging by the recent photo you sent us all. I have some nice baby clothes here from Dad and also some from me & Herself which will wend their way over to you after the holiday. I don't want to brave a very grumpy postmaster a day or two before Christmas carrying two parcels. I think they'll still fit the babby when he gets them anyhow.

Anonymous said...

Aww, lovely Willie *S*. All settling in now. They have to wake Jack up every three hours to feed him, he looks like he has put on the weight he lost and more !. Frandad and myself were up there today ( I happen to pop in every day *S* )Frandad is so proud and keeps staring at him, bless. Gav is truly a good uncle to Jack, he was telling me about all the toy's he has been looking at, I can imagine they will be bought by Uncle Gav eventually. I said I could see Mark, Gave and Jack sitting in front of the tv watching The Simpsons one of these day's, they will have the child as mad as themselves. We went Christmas shopping ( Fiona and I ). Food stuff yesterday, we could not help going down the kids section.........Ohhhhh to this and that. Fiona has Jack rigged out for Christmas. I could go on but may bore ya *S*.
At last I finished wrapping the few gifts I bought for whoever gets them each year. Not as many as previous years but we all agreed to that.
May you and Brid and all the family have a wonderful Christmas. Catch you soon with more pics Byeeee. Joan