In which I celebrate the sun and moan about allergies.

The sun! The sun! It’s just glorious.

My skin was made for this weather. I’m practically glowing out here, soaking up vitamin D like there’s no tomorrow. I love it! I’m so warm that the palms of my hands, usually a dull, pale white from the cold, are radiating heat, tinged with red. It’s wonderful.

At the moment, it’s a lovely twenty five degrees in Dublin…only two degrees less than Lusaka is at the moment, in midwinter conditions, and the temperature is set to rise to …wait for it….thirty degrees. Thirty. In Ireland.  I believe there’s a red weather warning for “extreme heat” in place and I do feel for those not used to this. I wish it were like this for the whole three “summer” months each and every day here.

People in the office are like :

While I’m out here like:

Except….

The hayfever.

Oh how I’ve suffered.

None of my usual remedies are working. None.  I woke up twice with red, sore, oozing eyes and had to drag myself to work feeling like absolute shit. It was awful.

I’ve woken up sneezing so hard that I’ve given myself headaches.

I’ve woken up in the middle of the night unable to breathe. gasping for breath because my nose is so blocked it impedes my breathing.

I’ve developed a wheeze when I laugh that turns into a fit of chesty coughs heavy with what I can only think of as pollen stuck all the way down my windpipe and into my chest. Yeah, dramatic much? I hear you say. But jfc that’s the only way I can picture it.

The council decided to cut all the grass along the whole ten minute walk I take to the bus stop. I don’t know which was worse now. The grass, pregnant with seed, or the grass, cut and dying and floating along on the light breeze. One morning, I thought I was actually going to die. I was wheezing and sneezing and weeping and nearly gave up and went back home.

I have seriously considered wraparound shades and surgical face masks.

My current solution is to take the drugs.

Just take the drugs in the late afternoon when it gets bad, and hope I don’t get too drowsy and miss my stop. The rest of the time, I sneeze and blow my nose a billion times and bear it.

But overall, it’s not a bad complaint to have, for the sunshine.

It could be worse.

It could be cold and raining.

unsplash-logoAndrew Gaines
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unsplash-logoAce Vu
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unsplash-logoDemetrius Washington