The very last entry for this trip.
Abah decided to rent a car so early in the morning we went out to a nearby car rental. Actually it wasn't nearby since the place is near the airport which is a 20 minutes bus trip from O'Connell Street.
The place was huge. I think there are more than 400 cars here.
He chose this, a Ford Focus.
I honestly can't remember the rental price. I think it was 30 Euros per day. Or was it 40 Euros? It was something close to that.
It's a manual car.
The interior is quite nice. Full on leather. Abah almost crashed the car early on due to him forgetting to switch the gear to reverse. He stated that he regretted quite a bit choosing a manual car. " The difference is only 10 Euros, should have went with auto," he mumbles.
Nonetheless he just drove. We listened to the radio on the way back.
Abah decided to rent a car so early in the morning we went out to a nearby car rental. Actually it wasn't nearby since the place is near the airport which is a 20 minutes bus trip from O'Connell Street.
The place was huge. I think there are more than 400 cars here.
He chose this, a Ford Focus.
I honestly can't remember the rental price. I think it was 30 Euros per day. Or was it 40 Euros? It was something close to that.
It's a manual car.
The interior is quite nice. Full on leather. Abah almost crashed the car early on due to him forgetting to switch the gear to reverse. He stated that he regretted quite a bit choosing a manual car. " The difference is only 10 Euros, should have went with auto," he mumbles.
Nonetheless he just drove. We listened to the radio on the way back.
That's my dream car right there, a Volkswagen Golf GTI.
On another note one can't help but notice just how low the clouds are today. Look at them.
Let's talk about Siri for a moment.
I have been very critical so far on the short failings of Apple's map application. I got lost many times due to the map being outdated.
Online there are countless accounts on people having problem with the app - driving to a dead end, driving into an unauthorized place, you name it.
And today we experienced that first hand.
It was when we were at the heart of O'Connell Street. The map directed us to a route where the road is now a"no entry" area. Thankfully it was still early enough in the morning that not alot of people were there.
In a slightly positive note I liked the turn by turn and voice navigation feature. However the foundation is just not there, good ideas are not enough if the execution is so-so.
We then faced another problem - parking.
Parking is very expensive here, the rate is around 1.50 - 3.00 Euros per hour which quickly negates the cheap cost of renting a car.
But thankfully abah found a parking spot which charges per day. It's not exactly cheap but sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.
We went home for breakfast.
After breakfast we went out as a family to a trip, which well, you can say that it's a trip down memory lane.
You see, we used to live here in Dublin. That was in 1999 until 2001. It has been such a long time.
This road...gosh the memories. There used to be a VHS and DVD rental shop here. We would frequently rent out cartoons to watch after school. On the top of my head Pokemon, Digimon, The Lion King, Power Rangers.
I was 9 years old back then, you'll see my old school in a moment. My 3 younger sisters studied there as well.
There used to be a barber shop here.
We stopped by the park where we would play games when we were younger.
It's really funny seeing these pigeons all lined up like this. They did not move an inch even when I'm close to them. You'll see a very cute sweet sequence that I managed to capture below.
There's a child who was so excited to see the pigeons that he just stormed by the walkway.
So sweet is it not?
But sadly he was too short too even touch them.
It was a moment that I am glad to be able to capture on camera.
Wonder where we are going next? We are going to my old school.
Knocking on the front door has never been this hard. It has been 14 years.
We were greeted by a very friendly assistant. We explained who we are, why we are visiting the place, and who we want to see. She arranged a meeting for us immediately. That went by very well.
The lunch break bell are ringing and students are rushing, in an organised manner of course, outside for lunch.
We glanced at the wall where many photos are framed on the wall. Among these, there's a picture of my sister, now 21 years old along with her classmates back then.
Hello there little one.
It takes me back, I used to be just like these little guys.
The school compund. We used to play wrestling during lunch break. Miss(or was it Madam) O'Brien would scold us for doing that. We're young and naive back then, so we just continued on every single day. Brendan was the undisputed champion back then.
The parents room. Mom used to teach cooking class here every now and then. She would teach the parents Malaysian Cuisine. Mr Barrett loved mom's fried spaghetti. "I can't eat hot food", but he ate them anyway.
It was also here where she would attend English communication classes. She still have those books at home.
Oh the memories.
I met my old class teacher Mr Kerr. I asked him to take me to my old classroom.
My classroom.
I used to sit by the far left in class. In from of me was Liam and Kunle and Liredon. Robert Sharkey and I would always compete to see who can finish writing Today's News the fastest. Today's News was a staple teaching method of Mr Barrett, another one of my class teacher. He would write the daily news the blackboard and it was just a matter of us copying what was written on the board.
Normally he would write about the English Premier League. He changed school halfway when I was in standard 4 and Mr Kerr took over.
He's currently the principle of this school. His face doesn't change, but his beard and hair got a lot longer and they are all grey now. He looks like a wizard to be honest.
He loved reading novels to class. And he will always do a smart circle session, asking us all sorts of questions, be it general knowledge, maths, science...those who get the answer right will get a candy.
A time machine doesn't exist but I sure feel like I was warped back in time for a moment.
You see I'm not one that likes to post a photo of myself but I'm making an exception just this once. Here's me with Mr Kerr.
Before we went home, my eyes glanced at this glass tray full of Egyptian souvenirs and items. It was a quick glance at first but that quickly turned into a stare.
I gave him some of my Egyptian money, a 10 EGP note, a 20 EGP note, and a 50 EGP note. It's the least that I can do to give back to old school.
You know in some ways, my journey has come full circle.
dublin 00 - prologue.
dublin 01 - trinity college, the library & st stephen green.
dublin 02 - howth.
dublin 03 - a rainy friday.
dublin 04 - the prick with the stick - a james joyce tribute
dublin 05 - malahide castle
dublin 06 - epilogue - a journey full circle.
