Spring melts our troubles away
SPRING hasn’t officially sprung, but when we know, we know, and let’s face it folks, we felt it in our bones last Friday. For a few weeks there had been mutterings about the ‘grand stretch’, which is the technical term for the beginning of the end of winter. But last Friday was unequivocal. It wasn’t just spring, it was practically summer. The 16 degrees recorded in Dublin would be an above-average summer’s day around here.
To get it in mid-February was one of those little bonuses that we decided not to think about too much. The weather being twice the average temperature for the time of year is one of those guilty pleasures of climate change. We know it’s wrong but it feels so right. Of course the whole country could be snowed in in a month’s time, but we’ve decided to go with the fine weather for now. It’s here, and like everything else in Ireland, from high property prices to Michael D Higgins, we’ve decided it’s here to stay.
And with the sap up there was spring madness to go with it. Gerald Kean got the nice men to move the furniture out of his office. But no filing cabinets or swivel chairs here. Instead it looked like Antiques Roadshow going on tour. We’re not sure if it was Regency or Queen Anne, but the office furniture did make you wonder what went on in there. Does Gerald sit inside in his Louis XIV outfit from his infamous birthday party, fanning himself while he holds court with clients?
Brexit seemed to degenerate into an even more lunatic place as well. The biggest Brexit story of the week was literally some thing some guy heard another guy say in a pub, and it caused ructions. It was odd enough that a journalist overheard Theresa May’s top negotiator say that it would come down to a choice between her deal or a very long delay and possibly no Brexit. What was even odder was that the journalist was from ITV. Most people don’t even know ITV has journalists anymore. And what was he doing in Brussels? Was he maybe looking for some talent to inject life into The X Factor? Or seeking out bikini-clad beauties for Love Island? Indeed maybe ITV decided that they could solve Brexit with a new format? I’m a Country Having a Nervous Breakdown, Get Me Out of Here.
And, of course, it being spring, things will start to grow out of the soil again. And we’re going to start growing the most expensive hospital in the world out of what is currently the most expensive hole in the ground ever. Of course it’s not technically the most expensive hospital in the world, but we like to boast it is. And who knows, by the time we’re finished, maybe it will be.
But somehow, now that it’s spring, and there’s light in the sky and the chill is gone out of our bones, none of it seems quite as bleak.