It's all right for the rest of us but practically the entire Cabinet as well as leading social partners - business people, trade unionists, community leaders and others - spent much of yesterday morning waiting for the most powerful man in the world.
The US President was an hour late, 12.55 p.m. instead of 11.55 a.m., at the Royal College of Surgeons. Since the Cabinet had been under instructions to be there by 11 a.m. and the other less exalted guests were told not later that 10.30, some wondered how the country was being run at all at all.
Ministers present included Charlie McCreevy, Brian Cowen, Mary O'Rourke, Michael Woods, Michael Smith, Joe Walsh and Micheal Martin. Also there early were the Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne and the new Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen Dave Stapleton.
At 12.30 the President's cavalcade with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, and numerous officials and bodyguards swept around St Stephen's Green from Government Buildings into a flower-bedecked College of Surgeons car park. The President and Taoiseach then met up with Hillary and Celia, who had been viewing the Book of Kells.
During the long wait, two hours for the Cabinet and more for others, stories spread that press questions on Ms Lewinsky earlier in the morning had both caused the delay and put a damper on the President's spirits. Indeed spirits were sinking all round as the morning wore on.
The 550 guests plus the media were corralled into the square, modern, windowless examination hall. There were no chairs. Wine and canapes were on offer but there didn't appear to be many takers for the drink. US agents patrolled the corridors and medics in gowns and chains stared down from the walls.
When word spread that the US President was in the building there was a surge towards the podium and great jockeying for position. The President and Mrs Clinton and the Taoiseach and Ms Larkin entered to sustained applause. The two men's speeches were full of praise for each other.
The Taoiseach also spoke of the 74,000 people employed here by US firms and said that the Celtic Tiger had been called part-American tiger with a green face. The President said he saw some Americans who had swelled the ranks since he arrived . . . "anytime we can pad your crowd, Taoiseach, we want to do that". There was a genuine feeling of gratitude and enthusiasm for what each side had done to make the peace.
By 1.13 p.m. the speeches were over and then, as they say in America, Bill walked the rope for 10 minutes. Dozens pressed forward to shake his hand. It had been worth the wait, they said.
In College Hall nearly 200 others, including some 70 Americans, waited for him to join them for lunch. Mrs Clinton and Ms Larkin sat at a table with Seamus Heaney; Gerry Adams was with Richard Burrows. Peter Cassels, the Chief Justice, Liam Hamilton, and Jean Kennedy Smith and her son William were also there.
The President worked the room and signed autographs both before lunch and between courses. He warmly greeted the former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds and John Bruton Ruairi Quinn, and Proinsias De Rossa. When he heard that the Tanaiste's sister, Geraldine Harney, had worked for the Democrats in Washington in the 1980s, he made a point of chatting to her. He was off before lunch ended to Gateway but the First Lady stayed to chat for nearly 40 minutes with the half not joining the cavalcade.