Here Comes The Sun
People smile and squint skyward, ‘Can you believe the weather, isn’t it glorious?’ Overnight it seemed we were lifted from the depths of despair, phrases and words like ‘Household Tax’ ‘Corruption’ and more often than not ‘Bertie’ (said in a disparaging tone, whilst shaking one’s head) being temporarily forgotten and being replaced with ‘it’s a day for the beach’. Who would have thought it, in March no less!
Seeing the sun this strongly present so early in the year sends Irish people into a tizzy of giddiness. Out come the shorts and sandals while we scoff at foreign tourists still dressed in the uniform of most visitors to these shores even in our most sweltering of heats, of jeans, scarves and windbreakers. They faintly smile bewilderedly at us, thinking all the while ‘sure god love them, they think this is heat?’ and we smile and nod back silently as if to say ‘god they must be sweating in that get up- it’s ROASTING’.
We pile into the car, buckets, spades, and swimming togs in tow, arriving at the seashore where a gale akin to Hurricane Irene blows the contents of a sand dune into our eyes. We lap it up though because this is what the ‘Irish Beach Experience’ is all about. As are sandwiches also filled with sand and stereos blaring bad music at the highest decibel possible, two blankets over.
Unleashed dogs splash in the surf as children no bigger than the dogs themselves give chase in the vain attempt to reattach said dogs to their leads. Despite the fact that the water at the Irish Seaside barely reaches above freezing even in the height of summer there’s always one game eejit who decides he’s going for a ‘dip’. Inevitably said eejit will be out of work for the next week or so with hypothermia. As will the kid who happened to get sand into his/her eye while chasing the dog.
It’s an oft repeated scenario across the coastal counties of Ireland and we repeat it time and time again. Why? Because this could be the last bit of sun we get all year –now get out and enjoy it!
Very witty and funny