After mass this morning we zoomed back to the house for lunch and then went off to our interactive theatre or, bus tour, as the less imaginative might characterise it.
Mr. Waffle and I have been to a couple of Anú productions before and this was definitely the least scary one ever. Things started off tensely enough though. Despite our speedy early lunch we left the house a bit late and floundered around trying to find parking.
I took the children and left Mr. Waffle to park the car. The website describes the route of the tour thus:
Starting from Dublin Bus Head Office, 59 Upper O’Connell Street, this 90 minute adventure will travel through the city stopping at major sites including City Hall, Dublin Castle, St. Stephen’s Green, Four Courts, North King Street and the GPO.
Was there any sign of the bus when I got to 59 Upper O’Connell Street? There was not. Was Dublin Bus head office open? It was not. Fortunately, some idly milling people told me that a woman had just gathered up bus tour people and taken them to Cathal Brugha street which is not far away but not exactly round the corner either – good luck with finding it tourists. We managed to get on the bus. But O’Connell Street was essentially closed (the Luas tram works continue – possibly the centre of Dublin will just be dug up forever) so no GPO stop. No North King Street stop or Four Courts stop either. We survived without.
It didn’t really do it for me but the children enjoyed it – it was very interactive and herself and Michael love interactive. I’m not sure that Daniel is so keen but he seems to like theatre a lot anyhow so he was pleased too.
But with the late start and everything else, the tour took longer than we expected and pitched us up in a different location from where we had started. Daniel and I immediately peeled off to see “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. We quite enjoyed it and Daniel showed an impressive ability to guess all the plot twists. I did not and mocked his predictions until they turned out to be true.
Meanwhile, Mr. Waffle and the others went to Eason’s to spend some vouchers and get a cup of tea. Mr. Waffle’s parents were coming over for dinner but due to a misunderstanding turned up at 5.40 and ended up spending 20 minutes waiting patiently in the car outside our door until Mr. Waffle turned up and let them in and fed them. Slightly tense times in the Waffle household but Daniel and I missed it as we were safely cocooned in the cinema with a family size pack of Malteasers.
By the time Daniel and I got home, the grandparents had, unfortunately, fled the coop. Happily, some Yorkshire puddings were saved for us.
As I type, I am conscious that not a solitary word of my 1,500 word essay has been typed and my enthusiasm levels for beginning are very low indeed. I note that this post is about 500 words and I feel some puritanical motto might apply. I think I will start tomorrow. No really, definitely tomorrow.
