A turn for the worse

Having had not rain for over a month, the past couple of days have been a little damp to say the least. We did need the rain but it is so infrequent at this time of the year that when it happens it is quite depressing. A few days ago, we were thinking that we might be in for a repeat of 2003 when, almost overnight, the late-May temperatures shot up from the pleasant mid 20's C to a very warm mid thirties, gradually increasing to over 40 Celsius, daily, as the summer progressed. It finally broke in mid-September but not before a large number of older folk around the country had perished prematurely. It was our first summer here and thank goodness we had the pool to wallow in during the heat of the day and at night to cool down before sleeping.

Well, that idea proved to be completely wrong as, just as suddenly, it has turned wet and DROPPED ten degrees to a very chilly 14 today. The good thing is that it won't last. Once we get the wind back to west-north-west it will fine again.

So who's to blame then?

Indeed, who IS to blame? Nowadays, we have no-one to hang these things on. I remember as a kid, my Dad and his generation blamed every such aberration on the Russians. It didn't matter what went wrong with the weather; be it a heat wave, torrential rain and consequent flooding, unusually high spring tides - they got the blame for all of it. Any extreme of weather and the 'Russkies'copped for the sharp end of his tongue. "It was all that bloody dog's fault", he would say referring to poor old Laika, the unassuming canine mutt who had the misfortune to be the first dog to orbit the Earth in Sputnik 2. When Yuri Gagarin replaced the dogs, well! It's simply unprintable what he said then. But he was happy that we could all pin the blame on someone.

Nowadays, it is not so easy. We all hear of global warming, holes in the ozone layer and and stuff like that but it isn't nearly as satisfying as having some 'unfriendly' alien power chucking stuff into space and messing up the balance of nature.

So, thank goodness for Micheal O'Leary. He, or at least his company Ryanair, can and does regularly these days, take the full credit for any sort of infectious nasty that might do the rounds of these parts. We now have the 'Ryanair cold' Packing in all those common people into one aircraft and flying 'em down here for next to nothing - well, it just isn't natural, is it?  Be it a cold, flu, chest infection or any similar or related ailment, then Moikael's yer man! Thank you Michael for restoring a little bit of rationality to our lives.

I look forward to the sun shining tomorrow as it inevitably will.