A Different View
Chatterboxes on the train can throw you right off track
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
When the woman sitting behind you on the 7.30 from Galway to Heuston starts her mobile conversion with: “I hate talking on the train” and then carrying on like it was her life’s work, you know you’re in for a bumpy ride.
At least I was half awake – which was more than could be said for the unfortunate woman at the other end.
“I didn’t realise how early it was – I don’t wear a watch,” she said – neglecting to look at the massive clock on the front of her bloody phone.
There was a glimmer of hope when she encountered a poor signal, leading to renewed hopes she’d either hang up or move – but no, there’s a better solution than that.
You simply raised your voice several decibels to a level where, if she opened the train window, the dog-tired woman at the other end could probably have heard her for free.
Who knew, but apparently shouting down your mobile jumps you onto the next nearest mast, this overcoming signal problems that force lesser mortals to hang up.
The conversion wasn’t even about a lift from Heuston Station – and even if it was, a text would surely do – but it was a one-sided run-through of arrangements for the New Year, which was then fully four weeks away.
That said, clearly 8am on a Friday morning was the perfect time to discuss it in the sort of detail that would do justice to a professional party planner.
And now they’re opening up the air to these mobile warriors – first class fliers can use their own mobiles or the ones provided for the price of a small continent while floating over clouds and sea.
And in fairness, who could resist the temptation to make a call at forty thousand feet.
“Guess where I’m ringing you from?”
“Ah, go on – you’ll never guess; you won’t believe it.”
And so it would continue, disturbing the calm of the business class customers who may think twice in future about all of this luxury even if they can claim it back against tax.
Those of us who were around when the mobile – and I use the word loosely because it was actually more like a brick – first came onto the market will remember the yuppie roaring into it at the bar, just to show the world he had one.
Chances are there wasn’t even anyone at the other end, but that scarcely mattered because our friend always had plenty to say. And arguably he was talking to his only friend….himself.
One of the nice things about flying is that you get a break from mobile phones; it almost compensates for the knees driven into your back and the reclined customer in front of you who wouldn’t be any closer to you if they sat on your lap.
It’s fair enough to have access to the outside world on a train – I’ve made the odd quick call myself – but is it really necessary to discuss New Year’s Eve at before eight o’clock of a morning when the dammed day is still a month away?
Trains sometimes have quiet carriages, where phones – and perhaps children – might be unwelcome visitors. But a little bit of common courtesy might also go a long way.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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