the great snowy outdoors

so i’ve taken ill since returning from ireland – i blame it on the weather there, as it was really cold outdoors but positively boiling indoors in the shops and malls. a week or so of sharp temperature contrasts and my body admitted defeat.

anyhow, ireland was good while it lasted, despite 4 days of no water and 1 day without heat in belfast due to the thaw that burst water pipes after the big freeze over christmas. thank goodness for the boy’s friends and relatives who lived nearby – that still only meant a shower every other day; perhaps greater kudos goes to anti-bacterial wipes and gel!

i was lucky to arrive only 2 hours late on christmas eve in dublin airport – there were people who had been delayed for 12 to 48 hours on my flight from amsterdam to dublin, and Schiphol Airport were yet others who had missed their flights due to the weather conditions and were still waiting to get on a plane. the way it works is that priority goes to passengers who have been allocated a seat on their boarding pass; if you missed your flight and hence have no seat number indicated, then you’ve just got to wait till the next available seat comes along. it’s really unfortunate for those who had been stranded as they have no choice but to wait for everyone else to board before they know if they have a chance to get on the plane.

the first 3 days over christmas and boxing day – which apparently is an English term; it’s called Saint Stephen’s day down south in the Republic – were beautiful as there was snow. Enroute from Dublin airport to County Tyrone:

look at the trees all laden with snow:

the view from the boy’s parents’ home:

you can see the frost on the branch – it was so cold that the snow wasn’t soft anymore. instead, it they were more like crystals of snow – hard and crunchy beneath your feet.

on the 26th, snow had melted a little and we were able to build a snowman! (took our faces out of this one though :P)

by later that day, the snow had more or less disappeared and we returned to having just slush and ice on the pavements and roads. neither pretty nor nice to walk on! :P