I have arrived in Dublin, back where I started over two hours ago.

The company that runs the ferry between Ireland and Wales had to cancel the earlier run due to bad weather.

This anyone can understand.

The rest, no one could.

There are two ferry ports in Ireland that go to Wales, Dublin and an unspellable town further south*. I started my journey in Dublin, and as I’d purchased my ticket weeks ago, headed off to said unspellable town.

Instead of, say, contacting me via the three e-mail addresses or cell number I left with them, they waited until I’d reached the port to inform me of the weather difficulties. Then I was told I’d be delayed seven hours, and sent to stew in a coffee shop for one of them. I was then herded along with the aforementioned Welsh team into a waiting room far far away, told to wait, then herded back to exactly the same coffee shop in twenty minutes.

We were then bussed back to Dublin, which is where I woke up this morning.

We’ve just been let off the bus and into still another waiting room. The driver’s exact words were, “Please get off the bus here, and we’ll let you back on in a few minutes.”

The pragmatic among us made sure we had our toothbrushes.

For those among you who think I’m needlessly whining, know that, at this very second, there are two unbearably cute toddlers literally jumping up and down on the seat next to me, screaming at each other, apparently over ownership of what looks like a bottle of drinkable margarine. Their parents think they’re adorable. To my other side, an obese African couple is using their laptop to blare what sounds like Big Mama’s House**. They laugh a lot, and repeat every third line. The Welsh team of the Rapping Slide Whistle fame is still with us, the mothers visibly wilting. The fathers have disappeared, most likely to ingest Adult Mellowing Agents behind the dumpsters.

If anyone knows if Sears delivers canoes to passenger waiting rooms, let me know.

I have an order for them.

* Its pronounced “Done Leery”. But there’s two nonconsecutive Ls in it. And an H.

** A fabulous movie. If you’ve only ever seen one other film, and that was Big Mama’s House 2.