DAY OUT TO WATERFORD (2ND NOVEMBER 2011) by Becky Tom’s PA

DAY OUT TO WATERFORD (2^ND NOVEMBER 2011) by Becky Tom’s PA

I woke up to a beautiful morning nice enough for the second of November just after the time change. Took a quick shower and got dressed for the day with a bit of make-up to brighten up the day.

Drove to the train station and the two ticket machines were out of order – Who is to be blamed that I parked the car for the day without a ticket?

I joined my boss Tom Chambers on the train who had gotten our tickets from Westport for the day. He didn’t suspect the nice weather coming so he had a thick jumper on and in few hours he was roasting. On the train he had a good cup of cappuccino and we did an article on his Strasbourg Freedom Drive trip for the Mayo Newspaper.

Tom met Joe Holmes an old friend of his who has the chairman of Irish Wheelchair Association for several years. He used to live on the pound Road in Castlebar but now moved close to the house Tom was born. Tom also met Ann an Assistant Nurse from the Rehab Hospital and they had a great crack. He got into restaurant for a breakfast but felt it was too early but a pint of Guinness did the trick. We had a long walk to Platform 8 to get a train down to Waterford; we wrote up a letter to Enda Kenny to see if he could improve the long distance issue as he pointed this out when he was in opposition. The train moved towards Waterford city, a city he was never in before and it is a pity the rain started to fall.

Tom had a talk with a disabled lad who was just after competing for Ireland in Oslon, Norway. He is with the Paralytic Games of Ireland and he is looking forward to competing in the Olympics in London (2012). We got off the train at Waterford and while we were up on the bridge of black water, Tom’s glasses fell off; we didn’t jump in to pick it because we couldn’t figure out how to jump out. Tom had a pint of Guinness in a little bar and moved to the Tracey’s Hotel for another pint. It was lovely in there because we sat close to the fireplace for warmth.

After thirty-five minutes we made our way back to the train station to get train back to Heuston. On the train Tom got a very good bargain – Cup of soup for €5.95 or Cup of Soup and sandwich for €5.99; so he went for the Cup of Soup and Sandwich. As the train went through the Carlow town and the dark was descending on us, wondering if we would did get to Dublin again because we didn’t want to miss the train this time.

We got to Heuston station in good time although it was getting dark. My Service User and I got to the Galway Hooker Café and bar; we had sandwiches and he got a few pints of Guinness to shake off the bad weather. We couldn’t get access to the train after the ramp was put out because the priority seats were preoccupied with prams, suitcases and shopping trolley. We got in anyhow after couple of minutes getting the prams and suitcases off.

We got on anyway and had a good trip back to Westport, it was a lovely day and the experience was worth it. I dropped off at the Castlebar Station and left Tom to pedal home as quickly as he could.