When will it be summer?

I think that Ireland must delight in disappointing me. I wake up in the morning to the sun shining in my window, so I open the curtain to make the most of it and decide that it is worth the risk to wear something slightly summery. But it is cold outside and now there are clouds, goodbye blue sky. I get to work and the office is dark, no more sunshine, I have to turn on the lights instead. Now it fools me again by shining in my window, but I look out and the sky is still competely overcast, plus I see the tree tops moving so it is surely cold and windy. I think the way to enjoy Ireland would be to have a nice apartment that was not surrounded by other buildings to block the little sun there is, with a glass house on the roof in which we could sit and lounge. If a plant deserves the heat and warmth of a glass house why don't I? It was good yesterday afternoon and in the evening so perhaps it will clear up but probably not. It is more likely that the good weather has spent itself on struggling to  be felt during the week and for the weekend it will just give up the ghost and go hide somewhere. The forecast says it will be clear so surely it will rain. I will be very glad for a couple of days holiday over Easter next week - perhaps it will be warm in Paris?

So in the middle of this week I went to Dublin for the final of a competition I entered. I learnt that there were 85 entries in total so my essay being chosen as one of the top 5 is an achievement in itself. Yet it doesn't really matter because like the rest of the country this event ended up being a bit of a mickey-mouse show. First of all there was supposed to be an audience of high school students. Not only one class pulled out but their entire audience pulled out, leaving an audience of organisers and supporters - maybe 30 or 40 people. Very disappointing. Then when the judging came around I discovered that while the competition was marketed as being about communication skills, it was judged on current commercial viability. So the guy that won was a very good speaker and I knew he would get it. The guy that came in second - no stage presence at all and he read the whole time from his powerpoint presentation. But, his lab has a new drug in its second clinical trial. Then, despite being run by the newspaper, the article in the paper the next day was only a small paragraph! You think they would at least talk themselves up somewhat. However you can all rest assured that I did put on a kick-ass presentation and that if there had been an audience to vote they would have loved me. At least it is something to put on my CV. Now I must settle down to work and prepare my manuscript for my first publication because I am supposed to have it done before going to Germany in a month. For which I must find accommodation which is not easy seeing as I don't speak German. As for the manuscript - I am quite sure that a supervisor should have more of a role in this but who cares, I would rather write it myself anyway, and she should not complain that it is going slowly seeing as I have never produced such a thing before.

To end on a positive note, last night on my way home from work I found 10 bucks on the street. Yay for me! So for now it is time to get to work, it is a Friday and I have a lot to do. I will try my best to work the weekend (it is hard though when you are lazy and have a good book waiting at home) because on Sunday my Mum will arrive and then I must show her a good time. We will go horse-riding, and to the Aran Islands. And then to Paris! We will see a cabaret. Then London where we will see the Phantom of the Opera! Plus it will be Easter and I want an easter egg, and hot cross buns!