Rupert Goodwins' Diary 30.11.2001

Tuesday 27/11/2001

Due to circumstances rather beyond my control, I have to leave an island in rather a hurry today. The details need not concern us, but I cut short a holiday down in West Cork and fled back to London. The trouble with being on an island off the tip of Ireland is that you don't just leap in your motor and speed away into the night: no, you have to catch a ferry to a tiny port town, then a bus to a slightly larger town, then another bus to a town big enough for an airport, and then make sure you've got your changed ticket all tickety-boo. As it were.

Try arranging all that at four in the morning with a slightly groggy head, on an island which until very recently didn't even have electricity that stayed on all day. Impossible? Not with the Web. Even in the wildest parts of a foreign country, it proves possible to engineer a rapid exit under difficult conditions -- as long as you've got access to the Bus Eireann website and a good enough reason.

Looks like that Paul Simon song, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, needs updating. But what name rhymes with Google?