I slept most of the way. Getting through customs wasn't without challenge. I was accused of having too many bags. Only one permitted.... I had forgotten my suit bag with my spare shirts but simply lumped two bags together as one (by strapping them together). I think the guy realised that It was a stupid Luton rule and let me through.
It got me thinking about rules. Once through that gateway check there were plenty of other peeps checking me out - bag scanning (5), police standing to check people passing by (4), boarding (3), escort onto Tarmac (3) and on board the plane (3). That's 18 more people. Official people. People who could have sent me packing. I was a little conscious of being Simon-two-bags-Small, so I lumbered them along together pretending they were one. But no-one gave a shit. They didn't even see two bags because they were looking for something else: liquids, terrorists, people sneaking into priority boarding lines, people getting on the wrong plane. Funny how once inside one loop people assume that you are fully legit. I wonder if terrorists exploit this phenomenon.
Then on board I witnessed the Ryan Air training Programme in action. I swear that the guy who was opening and shutting the door had never done it before (come on I hear you say, don't exaggerate). I'm not exaggerating! Because I heard his trainer saying "here's how you open and close the main door." And then each time they showed him something, he would do what they said and then they would do it also just to check. Like when you see a couple kissing in public and you are a teenager and you say or think "could you guys get a room!"; I was watching this instruction sat by the door and thinking "could you guys get a room please? A training room, a training plane... Just not this plane we are about to take off in!".
Neurotic, moi?
Safely to Dublin and to the funds conference.
No bloody iPad roaming coverage in Dublin either! At least not for me...
The conference was at the new Landsdowne road stadium now known as Aviva Stadium.
I saw the huge crane lifting up two letters at a time and all the letters stacked up in a pile waiting to be loaded. Took about 7 blokes all day to get those letters up. Did they budget for that?
A couple of highlights of the day were when a Belgian woman who was just recently into rugby (living in Dublin) said that the All Blacks were from Australia. I don't usually get offended about anything Australian, but that hurt. And another guy from Dublin was talking to me about something and I mentioned Sean Fitzpatrick. he said "which one" and I said "is there another one". He pissed himself laughing and got me to repeat my comment again and again to Dubliners. The other Sean fitzpatrick embezzled a whole ton of money from an Irish bank recently!
Location:Cafe in Dublin
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