Irish autumn = rain

Now it is raining again in Ireland. Many people that I talk to are convinced that it rains more here in Galway than anywhere else in this country. I will take their word for it. It does make sampling slightly harder though. It generally begins OK but at some point before finishing it will begin to rain and I will end up completely saturated. And then as soon as I am back in the car it will stop and the sun will come out. In fact, this sort of thing is a regular occurrence. It is clear and sunny outside. It remains that way for some time. And then when I decide it will surely be alright to go out of the house, it will begin to bucket down as soon as I am out the door. And then when I get to wherever I am going it will stop. Right now the sun is shining outside of my window but it doesn't fool me. Nevertheless I still enjoy going to the beach and crazy weather makes for good photos. As does the crazy-high spring tide that we had. Walking down the beach was OK, but what would you know but the tide kept on rising, nearly cut us off.

Not only that but typing is proving difficult because there is something under some of my keys. Probably crumbs knowing me. But I must eat at my computer otherwise I will never get to eat because I must work all the time. And even then all my food generally tastes of salt because I spend a large portion of every day up to my elbows in salt-water. That includes today, a Saturday. Because I must feed and clean the barnacles every day. I can't wait for my holiday; in three weeks I will be on my way to sun in Dubai! Only right now it is above 40 degrees there, hopefully it will drop just a few in the next three weeks or I will melt. So at least I have the idea of a holiday to get me through days of looking after lousy barnacles.

Now, I have a funny story for you all. And this story has coming half-way across the world to me and now I am sending it back all the way down under for you guys to laugh at. And you are allowed to laugh, I am not being mean here. I heard this story straight from the source and she begun by saying 'do you want to hear a funny story'. So we are laughing with in the instance, not at.

So anyway,  my sister began talking to me on facebook just the other day and clearly she must have been bored to tell me this when she knows that I will tell everybody. I even told her that I would tell everybody and she said 'you better bloody not' but I am anyway of course. So she was going home, probably from work or town or the gym or something. And you know how there is the Waverly Park rugby field up St Andrew Street? So she takes the short cut home over the rugby field but as we all should know this rugby field tends to get really wet and boggy. And she got stuck in the mud!  She was only stuck there for about quarter of an hour though. But it was completely dark out. Luckily the field is right next to here house, so when the carers showed up she could give them a yell and get them to help her. Only they couldn't get her out! So they called the fire-department, and a fire engine shows up with lights flashing and sirens blaring, and four big firemen lift her chair out of the mud!

And that's all from me for today. I must feed barnacles and look at barnacle larvae, and go down to the aquarium (risking getting saturated with rain) to see the barnacles that I left there for them to take care of, and find out what they are feeding them with. Perhaps no more beaches for awhile, but that's alright. In the meantime I must get myself some waterproof pants and gumboots, to go with the great waterproof jacket I found on the beach at the beginning of the sampling season. Then sampling in the rain won't be so bad.