I woke up the other morning feeling a tiny bit different, without really knowing what had changed.  I still had the beer belly, feet still smelly and my hair looked like (and still does) George Best’s hair-do from the seventies.

It had snowed again and the temperature dropped below zero degrees (Celsius). As I moved the duvet off my corpus enormous, a chilly wind swept over my chest and made the hairs stand and I developed an acute case of goosebumps.

As I walked across the floor, still in my daze of tiredness, I glanced into the kids room, only to find my daughter already awake and reading books for my son.  For once they hadn’t attacked me while still asleep.  Something was different.

They both smiled at me and said “good morning dad”.  Something was up.

Getting them ready for breakfast and school was less hassle than normally, and my daughter had this urge to set the table and get everything ready.

The missus was still somewhat asleep upstairs. Suddenly I heard the dragging of feet on the wooden floor above, similar to the dragging of feet in zombie movies. She was finally awake.

I dropped the mini hobbit off at her school, and while standing in line, she hugged me hard and said “I love you dad!”.  I got almost emotional, but quickly covered my eyes, pretending I got a cold breeze in my face, and legged it back to the car.  I’m so damn sensitive after becoming a dad.  If I would have cried, the tears would have frozen on my cheeks for everybody to see.

For the first time in 3 years, I had to take the bus.  My wife wouldn’t let me drive the hog (my 125cc Vespa scooter), just because of a bit of frost and ice.

Anyway, as I boarded the commuter shuttle, the woman in front of me didn’t have any change.  The bus driver, patient as they come, refused to take nothing but exact money, so the poor lady was forced to either get some change or get off the bus.

I have no idea what came over me, but I found spare coins in my valet and paid for her fare.  The driver was amazed and demanded to know if I knew the lady. I denied all knowledge of the female passenger.  The lady was overly surprised and delighted, that somebody came to her rescue, and was thanking me the entire journey … 40 minutes.

As the bus stopped at the final destination, an old man was sitting on the sidewalk.  He was freezing his arse off, and was begging for money.  I normally don’t give these guys money, mainly because I fear they will spend the money on silly stuff like alcohol, but this morning was different.

I passed him and dropped a euro in his cup.  He looked up and his smile filled the immediate area with warmth.  Other people passing by dropped money in his cup too, and he waived at me shouting thanks.

As I mentioned earlier, there was frost in the air, which suddenly turned to hail.  If there’s something that Dublin (and Ireland in general) is not capable of handling, then it’s sudden frost, snow and hail.  Within 30 minutes, the city centre was in a stand still.  Busses, trucks, cars, pedestrians, etc. were sliding across the streets and sidewalks.  It was pure Carmageddon out there.

I quickly walked the floor on the office, and advised people to get out and home, before the country would shut down completely.  Many of them ran towards busses and trains, hoping to get out alive.

Just as I made my decision to leave too, the busses and trains decided to call it a day and refused to drive anywhere.  Couldn’t blame them either, the roads were like ice-ranks.  Despite that, I managed to get a taxi, hoping that it would get me home.
– that’s another blog altogether.

But, my good deeds didn’t stop there.  No, I waited for my sister-in-laws to come to my office, so we could share the taxi home.  It wouldn’t be fair to leave them stuck in town, when we were going the same direction.  Almost 4 hours later, the taxi finally pulled into my estate – this journey would normally only take 30 minutes.

It was great being back home with the hobbits.  It felt great to have done so many good deeds in just one day.  But, don’t expect it every day – I’m only human you know.

Random Acts of Kindness … you should try, it makes you feel great.