HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION. BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION.
BY SANDRA
HARRIS. ©
This is the time of year when school kids are traditionally
required to pen the essay on what they did over their summer holidays. I myself
had the best summer I’ve had in ages, not for any major, spectacular reasons but
for a load of little bitty reasons, which are every bit as worthwhile.
And I normally loathe summer too, for a myriad of reasons,
which makes my enjoyment of this one all the more miraculous, and baffling. Here are some of
the reasons why I normally hate summer; if I have to suffer through them, then
you guys have to suffer through reading ‘em...
1. I have goth leanings, and prefer to
wear black and hibernate for the whole of the winter and much of spring. Summer
is usually a horrible shock to the system.
2. Summer makes my hair do a ‘Monica-from
FRIENDS in the One Where the Gang go to Barbados.’
3. It also makes my eyeliner melt and my
deathly-white Irish skin burn on whichever parts of it get accidentally exposed
to the sun. I couldn’t develop a tan if I lived on Mars, I’m so pale.
4. I have a horror of communal/community
swimming pools- I mean, you wouldn’t take a bath with eighty other people all
sharing your bath-water, would you- so that method of cooling down is permanently denied
me.
5. The local parks are beautiful in
winter, but there are too many people all crammed sardine-like into the same
space and I loathe crowds with a passion.
6. Heat rash. ‘Nuff said.
7. The Rose of Tralee Festival, aka The
Lovely Girls (FATHER TED), is a travesty of television entertainment that
demeans the viewers as much as it does the gerrills.
8. I can never find sandals that are
comfortable as well as eye-catching, and I refuse to go full-hippy, lol.
9. I get tired and cranky with the heat
and find it hard to write anything.
10. The 6 o’clock News on our national
broadcaster reduces its time from an hour to a piddly thirty minutes. I like a
good long News, like most Irish people. This Sunday-type broadcasting on a weeknight is a disgrace.
I’m going to stop there as this recap is making me angry. I
forget why I started writing this piece. Oh yes, Reasons Why I Hate Summer. No,
wait, this one was meant to be about how I actually, miracle of miracles,
enjoyed this one, even though we had two massive heatwaves, one in July and one
in August, and the heat is not my friend.
Firstly, I met up with two old friends from London who
visited Dublin for a few days, and it was just so wonderful to catch up on all the
news. Our visit together only lasted ninety minutes, as they were due to move on
with some friends of their own, but it took years off me, and that pint of
Bulmers, with the condensation rolling down the ice-cold glass, was the best of
the year…!
I had another big catch-up this summer too, this time with my
sister, which was lovely, and I also re-visited a place I hadn’t been to in years,
but had kind of totally demonised in my mind and, guess what, it didn’t eat me!
It broke the taboo of the place, if you know what I mean, and I definitely
see more visits there in my future, visits where I come and go unmolested, as it
were. I’d been threatening to do this for years, literally years,
so it’s a huge relief to kick it finally off the old Bucket List.
I surprised myself by writing the bulk of my memoir on
writing and life this summer, although, when the sun blazed down at its
hardest, I made a point of downing tools and sitting out on the balcony (sadly,
we have no garden) with a book and a bowl of strawberries, cold from the
fridge.
Everyone else was doing the same thing, I told myself. Maybe
the reason I hadn’t enjoyed previous summers was because I hadn’t allowed myself
to enjoy them. I felt guilty at first for not writing every minute of every day, but I soon made peace
with the idea.
When the weather cooled down a few notches, I’d get a few
words down on paper and tell myself it was enough. Self-care, or laziness? I
say self-care, something I hadn’t really bothered too much with in the past.
Now the concept is everywhere, and it’s finally starting to sink in. If we don’t
do it for ourselves, who else will?
Finally, I watched a load of Netflix and read a ton of good
books, and, best of all, I found the perfect pair of sandals for me and bought
two pairs, just in case! I haven’t worn shoes or socks since the end of June,
and I’m starting to feel a bit hippy-ish, even though I swore I wouldn’t
go full-hippy, but don’t worry. Come October I’ll be wrapped in my winter woollies,
hogging the couch and watching scary movies for Halloween. Things don’t change that
much…!
God knows what kind of winter we’re all facing into. Rumour
has it that COVID-19 is poised for a comeback, that’s if it ever went away in
the first place. The winter ‘flu, of course, will be back as a matter of
course. The world is currently an infinitely worrying place.
The horrible war between Russia and Ukraine still rumbles on.
We here in Ireland have Ukrainian refugees living in tents at the moment
because we’ve run out of places to put them. That must be awful for them. There’s
a dreadful famine in Yemen and the Israelis and Palestinians are still at each
other’s throats, let’s not forget that.
Parts of Spain- it’s getting closer to home all the time-
were on fire during the summer, and our near neighbours, London, fried in
record-high temperatures of forty degrees. Forty degrees! No-one ever thought
they’d live to see the day.
Meanwhile, energy prices and the cost-of-living are soaring, meaning that a lot of
ordinary folks will have to choose between keeping warm and keeping fed this
winter. It seems like it’s not feasible to do both comfortably. And finally,
and perhaps most frightening of all, one third of Pakistan is under water after
the most horrific floods.
Before the summer, my family and I were watching a Netflix
series called JAPAN SINKS. Now, the far-fetched Netflix thing has
happened in real life, but to Pakistan. I can’t understand why this portentous evidence
of climate change seems to be receiving only perfunctory coverage, over here at
least. Do people not see what’s happening, and is it, as one of my kids asked
me during the week, is it too late to do anything about it…?
Sorry for ruining my ‘What I did on my Summer Holidays’ piece
with doom and gloom about the state of the world. There’s just so much doom and gloom about. Just hold onto the good times, live in the moment and make sure your
loved ones know how you feel about them. What else can we do…?
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
Her new book, THIRTEEN STOPS EARLIER, is
out now from Poolbeg Books:
Her debut romantic fiction novel, 'THIRTEEN
STOPS,' is out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Stops-Sandra-Harris-ebook/dp/B089DJMH64
The sequel, ‘THIRTEEN STOPS LATER,’ is
out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thirteen-Stops-Later-Book-ebook/dp/B091J75WNB/
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