A lesson lived and learned.

Today I learned a few things.

Firstly, if you ask nicely and vow to pay them back, parents will bail you out of hardship once in a while, and I am incredibly grateful to my mum for choosing to fund my livelihood over a new dishwasher (for a fortnight).

Secondly, on a tour of the city I found out about its links with the Titanic & how many local people were affected by the huge loss of live 98 years ago and are still influenced by it, even now. With reminders of the tragedy all around the city, we thought it would be a good idea to visit the monuments which dot are dotted around and joined a tour with a group of tourists.

I've been living in the city for more or less 3 years now, and I'm never surprised by the types of tourists my newly adopted home town attracts. Today was no exception. In our group there were the typical stereotypes: the Japanese couple who were taking pictures of everything, the American who asked a lot of questions, the kids who quite clearly had no interest in the topic and would rather not be there, and of course the woman who thought she knew more than the tour guide, to the extent of talking to a complete stranger about something she clearly didn't care about.

One of the highlights of my tour was watching the annoying teachers pet scurry to the front to get up close to the tour guide & fall over a stick no bigger than a frankfurter sausage. By fall, I mean Fall. Straight to the ground, leaping a foot forward. The fastest I'd seen her move during the whole tour.

Call me cruel, but she was the most annoying person I'd met all week, and it was difficult to hold in the laughter. Luckily she continued to dry-hump the leg of the tour guide at the front of the group which gave us the perfect opportunity to let out our bottled up laughter. It felt good.

Sometimes the most tragic circumstances can bring out the best (and worst)

in people.