Dr Doolittle to the Rescue!

My current temp job is as a receptionist. It's not bad, nice people, free hot beverages, and I get to ride the train every morning which I love doing. That's one of the few things I miss from Japan. It was such a nice way to get to work, not having to check a bus schedule. The trains/subways ran so efficiently. The people on the trains were incredibly rude at times, but man did those trains chug along!

I get off the train at Heuston Station every morning before 8am and walk to the office. Heuston Station is just on the south side of the Liffey River and my office is just on the north side. The station itself is quite beautiful, very old looking. I love the idea of travelling across Ireland by train. My Mom did it across Canada by VIA Rail and I thought she was insane but travelling by train across Ireland sitting on a train, watching the green fields and sheep go by seems so romantic.

There's usually a fair bit of traffic around Heuston Station as it facilitates a lot of trains travelling in and out of the city. When my Luas train crossed the Heuston Bridge this morning, I noticed that there was quite a bit of commotion at the edge of the wall of the Liffey River. There were a couple of fire trucks with lights flashing, gardai cars and bystanders leaning over the wall looking at something in the water. The Liffey River can be quite pretty in places but at this point in Dublin, it's quite disgusting. It smells minging and when the tide goes out, you can see nothing but mud, old tires, garbage, etc. The tide was in and I coudn't see what people were looking at until until a coworker pointed out that two dogs were stranded in the river, against the wall, standing on something to keep out of the water. It was a pretty cold, wet, all-round miserable morning so I didn't stay long but the dogs weren't tiny little poodles, they were large, kinda mastif-looking dogs. I then realised that the river must be seriously polluted and disgusting if two dogs can't swim their way down the river to land. I felt pretty bad for them but heard a little while later that it looked like they'd been rescued. Poor puppies. Strange timing though as I'd heard yesterday a story about a couple that were sitting on the wall, kissing and then fell into the river. Gross.