Spoiled

The weather. We never seem to stop talking about it. I often wonder did our ancestors spend as much time commenting on the amount of rain or the temperatures or the wind speed as we seem to do. Probably yes. It is amazing how vulnerable we are to changes in weather, really. No matter how sturdy your house, given the right (or in the house owner's case, wrong) circumstances, you'll find yourself homeless faster than you can say tornado. Or tsunami.

Instead of the usual moaning we've been blessing the weather here for the last couple of days. It's sunny. And warm. Going to work on Monday I was wearing my scarf and a jacket. Walking from my car to the kitchen door at work I realised I was wearing way too many clothes. It made me smile. Yesterday I had coffee outside! In the morning. First thing. And I wasn't wearing a jacket. Amazing, isn't it? We did the same today and plan to spend the rest of the day outside. We are being spoiled.


But despite the uplifting mood, some people can't seem to stop moaning. "Yes, it is lovely now but I bet this is our summer." "Wait until June and we're back with the rain, mark my words." Oh shut up! No, this isn't our summer, it's March. Summer starts in May. And it's going to be lovely and warm and sunny and a proper summer. Why? Because I said so.

View from our front window

Lovely, eh?

Spring

Okay, I can officially declare that it is spring. Here's why:

- I have daffodils in the house

- I went outside without my coat

- I have been stuck behind a rental car on five separate occasions

- Despite working late, I still see daylight

- The rain is no longer horizontal

I'm looking forward to longer evenings, maybe even bring out the sunlounger and the nice two-seater round the side of the house. I'm thinking barbecues, beach and suncream. I'm fully aware that I am getting way ahead of time here but a girl can dream, can't she?

They're Back

Can you smell that, people? It's getting warmer, days are getting longer and it's actually sunny outside. I have some daffodils starting to bloom out the front of our house. It's starting to feel like spring. But it's not the daffodils, the longer, sunnier days, my cats chasing flies or even the urge to do a bit of spring cleaning that has me convinced that it is, in fact springtime.

It's the return of the rental cars on the road. I was driving into work, rushing just a little bit as I had to go into town for an appointment with my doctor before making it into work. I found myself slowed down by a 8-seater minibus in front of me. I carried on with a little, niggling feeling at the back of my mind. There was a small voice inside my head telling me there was something wrong. Then I saw it; that little, round yellow sticker with a black "i" in the middle. Rental car! Rental car! Overtake now! Overtake now!


As I told you before, I don't have a great track record with rental cars. A certain model of Nissan is a particular pain in my bottom every summer. It seems now that the Micras are back, and this time they have brought reinforcements. There seem to be quite a few minibuses about with those stickers on their back windows. And, by the way, I really do think those stickers are there as a public service, to warn the vehicle behind them that the car in front is indeed liable to pull to an unexpected stop when encountered with something typically Irish anywhere in the distance.

But I can only deduce that the season is upon us. I will try and remain calm and zen, but nonetheless will reserve an extra 15minutes for every 10 miles or driving from now until the end of September. But the daffodils are nice, aren't they?

Sickly Sweet

Who changed the weather, please own up to it right now? I was getting all spring-y and cheery, listening to the birds singing and saying this like "Isn't it lovely and mild out?". I blink and we're hit with another bit of frost, some nice horizontal Irish rain and today icy winds teamed up with freezing cold rain and sleet. Springtime my arse.

I'm getting increasingly cranky as the wet days go on. I have been hit with a nasty bout of flu, which really isn't helping matters. I hate feeling miserable but I really am a very very bad patient. I hate feeling sick or in any way less than 100% functional, especially when I know I can do nothing to improve things. I have consumed quite the liberal amounts of paracetamol, echinacea and cough syrup but it all seems to make me more annoyed because none of it seems to be working. I did read from Dr Christian Jessen's Twitter feed that zinc has proven effective against the common cold, so off I went to buy zinc capsules. On my return I noticed that my vitamin C tablets already contained 100% of my daily zinc needs. Ho and hum.

I was feeling so cheerful until this bloody flu I wasn't even bothered about Valentine's Day and all the pink, fluffy sweetness that goes with it. Mr S and I don't "do" Valentine's. I'd love to say it's because every day is like Valentine's for us (even typing that made me be a little bit sick in my mouth) but the truth is we can't be bothered. I never saw the point anyway. In Finland Valentine's is more about your friends than your partner/lover/significant other, which I think is an idea far better than the lovers' Hallmark holiday Valentine's is in most English-speaking countries. (Anyone from somewhere else, please enlighten me on your customs.) We did share a mahoosive heart-shaped blackforest sponge on Valentine's day but that had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with us being greedy sugar monsters.