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.