I've decided to eat my words.

Swords is fucking awesome. It's all new and shiny and clean, and there's no gritty scum on the milk steaming rods and our grande ice scooper still has a handle and our bins always get collected (suck on that, Malahide), and overall it's just a nice place. The only bad thing about it is the 40+ minute commute, but there's always something new on my iPod for me to listen to, and if there isn't, there's always something awesome so it's all good. The buses can be a bit infrequent and I've found myself crossing the road after a while and hopping on a bus to town instead of just waiting for the 102 and getting a dart to Raheny from either Malahide or Sutton. The town buses are mistakes which I shall hopefully not be making anymore. It seems like they go through everywhere from my childhood just for the buzz and to make me feel shit about not being able to go to play areas without parents looking at me and thinking I'm weird. On one bus I got, I passed by this place that used to be called Giraffes that I'd go to like once a month when I was mad young. It was fucking class with a really dodgy rope bridge and some really overpolished slides that could knock you out if you couldn't control your landings. They also did whopper slush puppies that never got to the stage of dry ice with no flavour, they just stayed wet and syrupy. AND, I also went by the Omniplex on some other bus for the first time in about 14 years, which also had a badass junglegym, but with a more secure rope bridge, a freefall that never seemed to be open, and knackers that would start wars with you and your friends using those coloured plastic balls. Their slush puppies were terrible and their party area paled in comparison to Giraffes, but it was always fun to lamp some nuggets at those knacker kids.

Anyway I'm not getting any other bus apart from the 102 because if I see either of those places again I'm going to get really bummed out about the fact that there's no places like that for young adults to rediscover the young child in us. Also, those town bound buses seem to take forever, so it's just not worth it.

So back to Swords. We opened last Thursday after like a week of it being pushed back "just one more day" because Hughes and Hughes weren't ready to open (we're upstairs in their downstairs megabookstore, but not on the 2nd floor, if that makes sense), but it was kind of lucky for us, seeing as we missed out on a whole pallet of stuff for our new store opening delivery. We still haven't got a mop bucket. At the moment we're using the mop wringer and putting it onto the side of a rectangular basin we like to call a bussing tray, even though it's not a tray, it's a basin. It looks ridiulous and only gets the job half done, but it's better than nothing, and the floors need to be mopped. We already have a few regulars and one of them is this mid twenties, non-conventionally good looking babe who works in one of the shops in the centre. Watch this space because if she doesn't find out that I'm only 19 and if I can convince her that I'm like 23 I'll be starting a blog about my new relationship. I'll get around to making separate entries about the few jerks that have been in already soon enough, too (Just in case you were only reading it for that part, it's not here. Sorry).

We have so much space in the back. In Malahide it's just a little corridor with no space, as all the stock is takingit all up, but in Swords we literally have as much space as a PE hall would, if it were catering for hippos, but that's still reallllllly impressive (I would have said generously spacious room, but that doesn't make it sound as appealing). So much so, that I even took photos on my phone so that I could show them to everyone in Malahide and get them jealous.

More about Swords when it's not 5 minutes to 3 in the morning and when I have work at noon tomorrow.