Accomplished

At last, the long-drawn-out process to set up a third-party mandate for me with my friend Robin's bank came to a successful conclusion today.

Robin had  booked a wheelchair-friendly taxi to take us from his nursing home to the bank. It was ten minutes late, which upset Robin and meant I had to calm him down before he and his motorised wheelchair were securely locked in position. Earlier, it had occurred to me that we didn't actually need to go through this whole mandate process at all, since all Robin wanted to do was transfer the money in his savings account over to his current account. That was all quickly done (though, in fairness to the bank, could not have been if Robin wasn't there in person).

I used the MyTaxi app on my phone to order a wheelchair taxi for the trip back. Total time there and back was less than an hour, while the toing and froing with the bank and the nursing home has been going on for weeks. We had a drop of Limoncello in Robin's room to celebrate and I set off home.

Unfortunately, I found myself in the middle of the rush hour, with traffic stuttering along at snail's pace, so I grabbed the first opportunity to slip away from the main route, park the car, and go for a little stroll to pass some time. My stroll took me past the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square, which was still open. I sat for a while in the sun, thankful to be away from the rush-hour stress. The blip is of the mosaic bottom of the cruciform pool which is a prominent feature of the Garden.

I still had time to waste and took myself off to the Gresham Hotel for a leisurely gin & tonic. Unfortunately, I hadn't wasted enough time. Traffic looked clear enough along Dorset Street as I walked past the corner on the way back to the car, but it soon clogged up and I got stuck in another snail's-pace crawl. It was after seven o'clock by the time I got home, having met Robin at 2:30.