Skip to main content

On Boose

In Leeds, they tend to abbreviated things. You are not 'on the bus' you are 'on boose'. You are not 'in your car' you are 'in kaaa'. You are not...well, you get the picture.

I take the boose to work every day and D is often referencing the fact that I get 'on booose'. I can no longer pronounce the work bus...even looking at that on screen, I hear 'boose' in my head.

Cleaning the apartment last night, I found a scrunched up piece of paper I had written a posting on months ago. Since my brain is filled with many things, I figured I would share this with you today:

'I scoffed at the thought of having to take the booose to Drogheda to get the train to Belfast. Normally, the train goes directly from Dublin to Belfast but it was Sunday and in Ireland people do work on God's day as there was track works going on.

I had arrived at Connolly Station, ready to get my seat on the train, zone out with a book and my lunch. After attending a book launch in Tipperary the following Saturday, I really just wanted to get back to my house and my Sunday Times and my roast chicken dinner.

The thought of getting on a booose, getting comfortable and only then to have to uproot and move to another form of transport in Drogheda, race amongst other passengers and scurrying like families of ants to get the best places to sit was not my idea of a good hangover-Sunday activity.

Then I looked out the window.

I realised being on boose meant seeing the countryside and this was not just any country, this was Ireland.

I was touring Ireland by boose, watching the villages go by as if I was on my own holiday, in my own car.

I was actually doing what so many times I had wanted to do - what people always say is so spectacular.

Touring the Irish countryside. And I was doing it all by chance. Wow.

One of life's little gifts.'

I will miss Ireland but I know I will have great memories from my time here that I can take away with me and will always be part of my every day life.

Just like the Leeds boose.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

They Started a Heat Wave

(sing) a tropical heat wave.... (White Christmas fans? anyone? c'mon..) Yes, there is a heat wave, with warm sun and highs of 30 but NOT HERE IN KOREA. Yes, it is warm and humid but there is no sun. Do you want to know where the sun has ended up? BELFAST!! Lucky bastards....I wanted a tan by August gosh darnit - I should have stayed with the Guinness. And, it wouldn't have been a day on this blog without some reference to the weather. The weekend was a nice long relaxing one but super panic hit on Monday night and I was ready to get out of the house. I was freaking out yet again about the garbage (what the hell is wrong with me?) and didn't have a great sleep. There is something to be said for cooping yourself up in your house to watch English speaking DVDs for a day. But I think this only stops you from experiencing the culture. I did venture out on Saturday by bus (whoa, crazy bus drivers) to Pusan where the open markets you can barter and get cheap shirts - thanks to my

Korean Drivers Manual

1 - First and foremost, you are the only car on the road. Please drive this way. 2 - Be sure to keep a tally of the number of pedestrians you hit. 10 points for old ladies, 20 for young children (they can run faster you see). You can also add 5 points for each near miss and pat yourself on the back for trying. 3 - Red lights can tend to get in the way of your driving. Simply proceed through them if you need to. Honk your horn to make sure the cars that actually have the right of way know you'll be sailing through the intersection. 4 - Signalling is recommended but your car does not have blind spots. Just go ahead an change lanes. 5 - It works best if you keep one foot on the gas and one foot on the brakes at all times. This will allow you to continually pump the breaks all the way down the street avoiding 'other cars' while still revving your engine and going at the speed of light during those intervals when you are not slamming on your brakes. (By 'other cars' I

Beer Goggles and Nostalgia

We've all had a 'beer goggles' moment, one where something just looked SO DAMN GOOD that you leapt in feet first or lips first, in awe of your chance encounter with some kind of greatness. I ended up clicking on an ad link in Facebook today about teaching in Korea and I was quite impressed by the video for its 'beer goggles' way of presenting Sparkling Korea. Sparkling Korea For most of you who don't know, Sparkling Korea is actually Korea Tourism's slogan for the place. It was quite a funny inside joke of all us teachers about how 'Sparkling' the place could be. The cities had their own slogans, usually with really ridiculous adjectives placed in front of the town's name. Unfortunately none come to mind however when I saw this video, I thought for sure the makers could work for Korea Tourism. A few things they are correct - you CAN save $1000 a month and YOU DO get a bonus when you leave. You can also stress for the duration of your contract abo