The Road Not Taken

I was paying for some groceries in the local shop on Saturday when a man at the checkout next to me,  a non-fluent English speaker I quickly gathered, said to the cashier:

                'Bykart, bykart!' 

                He said it over and over, 'Bykart, bykaart!', but she just couldn't figure out what it was he was saying or what it was he wanted.

                I, however,  having seen The Two Ronnies' famous Four Candles sketch at least ten times, had no such problem!

                'Bykart?' I said to him and shook imaginary handlebars in front on him.

                'Bykart,' he replied nodding excitedly as though he'd just found a long lost relative.

                'No sell bykart here," I said.

                He feigned dejection by shaking his head for a few seconds until I said:

                "No bykart here ... but come with me.'

                Whereupon he smiled and bowed.

                I eyed the bewildered staff sympathetically before revealing the Third Secret of Fatima to them.

                "Bike card, he said," I said. "That would be a Dublin Bike card he'd be wanting."

               Then I tapped my new friend on the shoulder and we left the shop together, brothers-in-arms, as they stuttered and stammered and tried to insist that no such thing existed.

               There are two  Dublin Bike stations outside that shop on Grand Canal Quay, the nearer is a few yards away to the right near Pearse Street, the other further off to the left on Hanover Quay. So we went to the near one and discovered that you can indeed use a prepaid card (a bykart!) to hire a Dublin Bike but that it must be applied for well in advance. (I have one) You can also use your bank card too, (might that be a bankart!?), to hire one in an instant. However, only designated stations have the facility to allow card payments and, of course,  the one we were at was not a designated station.

                So all my on-the-hoof research and good intentions came to nothing. Despite them, the man left doleful and bikeless and our fleeting friendship, which began with so much promise, faded away to nothing.

               I walked on home alone. I passed the second station on the way, the one not chosen, right by my house, and saw immediately, written in lights, that it was a designated station, that you could use a card to hire a bike from right here. Right now! 
               Oh so near and yet ...

               A surge of energy had me scanning the area,  trying to relocate my lost friend among the green benches and the red poles and the burgeoning crowds that were gathering at the new theatre. But by then he had vanished into thin air. Gone forever, and with him my best intentions, crushed to pulp like grapes underfoot!  

                At least next time I'll have the knowledge to be a better citizen and tourism ambassador.

Dublin Bikes are great!