Someone once said …”I love Summer in Ireland, it’s my favourite day of the year.”
One warm summers day in Ireland and we run for the sun-cream, whip out the wind-breakers and head for the beach, only to come home a few hours later, our bodies beaten down by the rays. Our pale Irish skin just not meant to be left out in the sun! A day like this lifts the mood of the nation, putting a spring in our step, a glint in our eye and a Wibbly Wobbly Wonder in our hand. It’s a magical day that will be recalled for the rest of the year.
Dressed like the Michelin Man going for a trek in the Arctic, when we left home for Toronto in January, the last thing we expected or prepared for was the heat. The second May rolled around we started to feel quite stuffy in our cosy little apartment, unable to comprehend how it had become so warm overnight. By June we were begging for an air conditioning unit and the second-hand fan we acquired was the centre of the room and our attention. Every sweeping movement, a chance of a brief respite from the deadly heat.
‘You don’t have air conditioning?” the Canadians mock, “..and how many of you live in the house?” In fairness they did warn us but, coming from a country with 25 degrees is a heat wave we didn’t heed to their suggestions. Well it looks like the joke was on us. Even now that we have an air conditioning unit, which only has one speed we like to call hurricane mode, the heat and humidity are something to behold. Long gone are the duvets and the warm pj’s, replaced instead by cotton sheets and t-shirts.
The boys seems to be thriving on the heat, neither of them recognisable any more, with their golden locks and mocha coloured skin. The girls slightly less enamoured by the change in temperature guessing by the stack of sun creams in our room. So it’s a toss up between soaring heat in Toronto or rainy summers days in Ireland, neither entirely satisfying to me but one thing is for sure, no matter where in the world we go, the Irish will always have something to say about the weather!
