Making the most of the good weather

So apparently the heatwave is gone. But was it ever here ? I keep reading about how warm and sunny it was over the last couple of weeks, but come on, it was around 22 degrees most of the days. Surely we can't call that a heatwave, even for Irish standards! 

I have to admit, one day last week was a lot warmer than the others and I thought I was going to collapse with the heat. It was at least 27 or 28 degrees, and without air conditioning in the office or in the car, you can imagine how uncomfortable I felt (and by that I mean sweating like a pig of course).

 But hey, we're not going to complain, are we?  We took advantage of the nice weather to do a lot of outdoor activities. 

One of the days I went to the beach with the kids. This made me realise how Irish people go a bit mad when the sun comes out. When I say mad, I mean careless, especially with sun protection. There were definitely a lot of burnt people around...

On Saturday, we went to the Family fun day at Ciaran's school. There were bouncy castles for the kids and that's where we ended up spending most of the time. Try to get a child down a bouncy castle. Impossible task. 

I have to say, I felt a bit like a fish out of water. I don't drop or collect Ciaran at school, so I don't really know anybody. And when I don't know people, I'm not the most talkative person of all. I noticed a few French parents but didn't engage in a conversation. Maybe I'm weird, but I don't feel the need  to meet other French people. I was never interested in joining the "Alliance Francaise" or meet-up with French. I came to Ireland to speak English, discover a new culture  and try to integrate in a new country.  Anyway, maybe those parents felt exactly the same as me because they didn't talk to us either. 

On Sunday, there was the National Sand Sculpture competition on the local beach. We could have entered as it's opened to anyone. Except I'm useless at building sandcastles. I never overcame the trauma I experienced as a child, when I was forced to participate in a sandcastle competition during summer camp. That's when I realised I had zero creativity when it comes to building things (or basically all visual arts that require the use of my hands). 

So I was happy enough admiring the beautiful works of art on display. Some of them were just amazing and my favourite ended up being the winner. The kids tried to built a few sandcastles; well, Ciaran was building and Ethan was destroying. Fabrice attempted to build something as well but I don't think he's ready for next year competition yet!

Winner of the competition with "There's no point crying over spilled Ice-cream"

Fabrice's masterpiece

Hope you all made the most of the good weather, as now the rain is starting again! So to finish off, here's a picture I found on Facebook that represents Irish summer perfectly:

Enjoy summer everyone !!

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Sun's out !

Yesterday was very lovely day. It was sunny the whole way through, and everybody seemed to be in the good mood (even if nobody could buy alcohol).

After work, I stopped by the supermarket, and all I could see were people in shorts, skirts and tee-shirts, wearing sunglasses and eating ice-cream.

I know it was a nice day and all, but seriously, it wasn't more than 15 degrees! I suppose we all need to make the most of the sun because let's face it, we don't see it very often, but I am always amazed at how fast Irish people can take their clothes off every time the sun makes an appearance (and get bad sunburn after)!

I have the chance to live in a seaside village, but it also means that as soon as it starts to get warm (by the Irish standards of course), everybody rushes to the beach. There can be traffic jams like this:

Can you believe cars can *actually* park on the beach ? This is something I will never get used to. And it's not free either. Well, it is, but only off-season. During Summer it will cost you 2 Euros!

Sometimes you have the occasional scatterbrain who forgets the tide... and flood his car.

I definitely love walking or sunbathing on that beach, but when it comes to the sea, I'm very  hard to please.  Do you know I have yet to go for a swim in the Irish sea ? 

I'm sure you're going to think I'm crazy, but for me the Irish Sea is, well, a sea. It's in between Ireland and UK. It's nearly too small, there are a lot of cargo ships, and boats and it might be a bit dirty (in my mind anyway). I also have this strange fear of swimming in the Mediterranean for example. It's  too "closed off". There are no tides, no renewal of water.  The same  goes with lakes. I need oceans! The west coast of Ireland, Brittany, Mauritius... They are all surrounded by oceans and I love swimming in them. Maybe I feel more free ?

That may be a good subject for a psychiatrist because proof reading the above paragraph made me realise I really have an issue here...!

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