Strangers on a train

We took the Cobh train to Fota today.  There were some strangers on it.  Some stranger than others.  One very nice man, predictably enough - looked a little bit homeless, if you can be a little bit homeless - in fairness I looked a little bit homeless myself with bad hat hair and black coat with a sprinkling of dried in Weetabix thanks to monkey bootses breakfast, but anyway - yerman, the scruffy looking fella, very simply, straightforwardly and helpfully helped me when it came time to alight - gave a hand to Danger and took the front wheel of MB's pram without so much as a teeniest bit of eye contact, off he went... like superman... or spiderman... not looking for thanks, he just did it.  So thanks Mr helpful, if you're reading this.
Then we were walking in to the station, you know the one with the corrugated shed roof on it, and a woman took notice that we were speaking Irish and said in English how nice that was to hear.  So I said thanks, and then she said "Are they good?"  meaning the kids.
I said "yes, they're very good" as if kids are ever good or bad anyway and she said again "Are they??" a bit surprised, and then she smiled after I had reassured her once again that my children were indeed on the nice side of Santa's naughty/ nice list.  She smiled and said "It's all about your attitude isn't it?"
I almost agreed.  Just cos, she was being friendly - it was a throwaway comment, she expected me to agree, but I couldn't.  I said "it's luck, and we all have our ups and downs"  She didn't really like that - her world is divided into good and bad parents with good and bad children, and good and bad people and she hated the blurring of the lines.... Well lady with the pinched eyes, and the bad eyesight (forgot to mention she initially thought my rucksack was a baby, since monkey boots had decided to swap places with the rucksack)  you might prefer to think that, so go ahead, but I won't be agreeing with you, at least to the extent of our tenuous relationship while walking in along the platform to the train station goes.
So that's the news.
In other news I feel like someone who's been at the outdoor swimming pool all day on a hot day, and I've been out of the water now so long that my swimsuit is entirely dry and warm and it's long enough since I've eaten that I won't sink or anything so it's time to go swimming again in another 3 weeks, so while I'm not looking forward to the cold and wetness of the water, I'll enjoy the splashing and the floating etc, which is my cryptic way of saying Mat leave is nearly over - aaaaaaaarhghghghgh anyway - nice talking to you blog land, hope you are all keeping well and talk again soon.
x