Into Motherhood and Beyond...: May 2014

So around 2 months ago I moved house from the 'big smoke' of Belfast to my lovely seaside home town. I loved my wee flat in Belfast but I was ready to make the move to our (hopefully) forever home with a garden. There were however a few details I was anxious about in moving from Belfast, one of those was the thought of being a commuter. The luxury of living in he city is hopping on one of the regular Metro service buses and being in town within minutes. This made my commute, well, non existent and dead easy. The thought of moving 15 miles out of the city filled me with fear of endless traffic jams, always being late and stressed and astronomical parking costs.
When chatting about it with a few people they suggested i was mad to think about driving when I had the option of hopping on the train.
The problem is,as far as I remembered I hated getting the train.
As far as I remembered getting the train involved going to a smokey train station and avoiding being pooed on by the frantic trapped pigeon flying about the high ceilings.
Remember the old style trains with the yellow and red diamond motif on the front? I hated them. I hated them because I couldn't figure out how to open the door. Why in the name of god, so recent to this modern age, when you wanted to get of the train, you had to have the muscles of popeye to shimmy open the window of the train and lean out of the door to wrestle with the outdoor handle in order to get off at the stop most convenient to your house. Many's a time the train would take off again while I was trying the shimmy that window with all my mite and I would have to do the walk of shame back to my seat and wait until the next stop to get off. In fact it wasn't long until I got sick of this humiliation and resigned to just waiting until the train got to the end of the line, wait until someone else opened the door and did the longer walk home.
However in the juggle between train stress and traffic/parking stress I bought a 3 day flexi ticket and decided to give Translink a second chance.
Turns out I love the train.
Things have changed, getting the train is LOVELY and therefore my commute is LOVELY.
My morning starts stupidly early and after dropping Joel off the nursery I walk through the park to get to the train station. It is a lovely way to start the day. The birds are tweeting, daffodils in bloom and I swear last week there was a wee squirrel frolicking through the grass - frolicking! It was a wee bit like living in a Disney film.

I then go into the train station, where I have yet to see a manic pigeon, and breeze onto the train just flashing my Mlink app to the conductor to show my ticket. No more queueing for tickets - taking away the last minute 'will i get to the top of the queue and buy my ticket before my train leaves' panic.

So far I have never been on the train without a seat. The morning peak and evening peak trains are busy but I have never had to stand. The train has always been clean. Nothing left to do but sit back and enjoy the scenery. Now Northern Ireland is well known for its political strife and troubled history but it should also be know for its beauty. I am very lucky to have such a beautiful journey to work. From the rolling countryside of Crawfordsburn, the sparkle of Belfast Lough and the famous Samson and Goliath H&W landmarks I can sit on the train and enjoy the view and the journey. Many people choose the train ride as an extension to their morning routine or to their working day. I see people clicking away on lap tops and some people applying their make up. But I like to save my train journey for sitting and doing nothing. I leave my phone in my bag and simply look out the window. Its a great way to frame the working day, and a lovely transition for work life back into home life again and vice versa. And at the end of the journey all I have to do is push a button to open swishy doors to get of the train. That glorious button that saves me looking like an idiot struggling with a door that I can't master. Hurrah.