Gibson Hotel

I was up and working around 3:00 am, anxious to get design proposals to a client I've been rather neglecting over the past weeks. I emailed attachments to him at 7:30 and headed off for St Luke's shortly afterwards.

We had a long delay this morning. Once again I allowed too much time for the trip across town and got there twenty minutes earlier than I needed to. Sometimes this can be advantageous, since you can get in ahead of the scheduled time if things work out right. Not this morning, though. I was no sooner sitting down in the waiting area than one of the girls came over to tell me there'd be a delay. A young girl was due for treatment, her arrival had been delayed, but she would be given absolute priority and nobody else would be brought in until this patient's treatment was complete.

It turned out to be a little four-year-old, who came in clutching her favourite cuddly toy and with several nurses in attendance. Lots of high-tech equipment was brought into the treatment room (life-support stuff like you'd see in Intensive Care), and she finally went in. It took a long time before she came back out, cradled helplessly in the arms of one of the nurses. She was placed into a mobile hospital bed and wheeled away. My delay of over an hour was as nothing when I saw this little helpless bundle, and the old saying immediately jumped to mind about other people having troubles much worse than my own.

I'd planned on doing some shopping in the fab Superquinn in Rathgar, but went straight home instead. A bit of a nap after lunch, and then I woke to a bit of nice-looking weather and decided to do one of my DART-based jaunts. This time it was a DART/Luas combo to Point Village, with a vague idea of checking out the new cinema. In the end, though, all I did was have a general wander and then go in to the Gibson Hotel, a good spot for a bit of blipping. My wallet was depleted of folding money, so I didn't stay for a drink as I vaguely thought of doing. Then it was Luas and Dart back home, and suddenly it was time to head out again and go over to Ashbourne for a pleasant evening with my dear friends Derek and Rita.

Back home by 11:30, then bed.