#localguidesconnect2019 #contestentry #thisaintspam
A few weeks ago, I got a text from my local MS chapter about a meetup in a pub out in Firhouse, east of Tallaght. It wasn’t far to drive so I went along to share my accumulated years of knowledge, and to socialise with the people. I used maps to get there of course. I’d come to know and meet a few new people at these coffee mornings before and I hoped be able to help the newly diagnosed. I’m training in kinesiology these days and find it a useful way to offer comfort to people in pain.
Plenty of places around Dublin have reviews I’ve written about them. I try to write interesting funny reviews for people I might never meet. There’s a lot of depression and pain in the world, so if I can put a shaft of light through that for people even if only for a moment, then I’ll be making a difference. Hope grows where light goes. Google guide reviews allows me to spread light all over the world to all sorts of people. Some have more, most have less.
Well now the day I went into the speaker connolly was a cold sort of a day. It was the sort of day to make you wonder why you simply hadn’t remained in bed. But sure I went anyway. And so I got in and settled down, saw a few familiar faces and a few new ones. Got sitting next to a Latvian care nurse. Asked her about her homeland. Turns out it’s colder here, so I proposed that while we here in Ireland occasionally say it’s Baltic, back home she could say ‘it’s feckin’ Irish cold in here’. Good fun. Plenty of tea. Many thanks to Roseanna.
Then I got sitting next to Máire, and bedivilabit, I never did find out why she only had one leg. Got around fine in the auld electric wheelchair. Did what I could for her with a bit of hand reflexology I happen to have learned. She told us a story about going to the chiropodists and paying full price even though she only has the one foot to get done. It’s like she’d be saving a bit of money on socks because they work on either foot but shoes? No luck there I’m afraid. Unless you happen to be a dodgy dancer yourself like and know a shop online or something that can sell you shoes for yourself and your two left feet. Mind you it was two right feet called for in this case. It was generally agreed by the group that charging full price to look at just the one foot was a bit mean, in fairness.
The rest of the meetup went on amicably. I then went on into the gents to bid farewell to all the cups of tea I’d just had. You know they call it a coffee morning, but I never touch the stuff. Ah well. I remembered my friend Mark had a blog called Bogs of Dublin, so I took a few snaps while I was in there to see if he wanted to use them for a post at some stage. They’re very good. Sort of acceptance of existence and emergent circumstantial consciousness sort of stuff. Very pithy.
The gents in the Speaker Connolly aren’t really wheelchair accessible. Does anyone know how to rotate pictures?
Then on the way out I spotted a crow by the radiator. So I took a few pictures of that along with a video. And the few punters smoking by the door of the pub decided to shoo the crow out of the porch away from the radiator, back out into the cold. Sure I’d have left him alone. Crows are clever you know. They can live 40 years and remember quite a lot. When you live in this country long enough you learn to understand these things. Like the way they fly or how they’ll tell you which way the wind is blowing.
Here’s a video of a crow in a pub beside a radiator.
It was a good day to be alive. One of many in the past. One of many more to come.
Google guides sent me an email to say they were having a gig out in LA. That’d be grand I reckon. Here’s what they’ve asked:
“Your post should help us learn about what you care about sharing on Google Maps and why.”
Well now I’d say it’s because of days like this and completely random stuff that can happen in places you’ve never been to or heard of before, even if they’re local. It doesn’t matter where you go, because wherever you’ve been you brought home a story. Hopefully it’s one worth telling.
So I suppose to answer the question I’d have to say I like sharing on google maps because it helps people. Some parts of Dublin can be pricey. I can help folks all avoid those. Go and see St. Valentine and the hungry tree. Won’t cost anything. Also I like leaving a bit of myself behind on the internet, like some fascinating bit of graffiti you’d find on the pyramids. Change the world, move the lines on the map and let others know you were important. Because if people come to read my reviews as a literary paper chase, I’ll live forever ?
