As Different as Night and...... Night

 

On March 27^th Ireland turned their clock forward one hour. This concept of daylight savings is completely new and foreign to me, not to mention very unsettling.  All I really know of it is that it has thrown life into complete and utter chaos. Just when you think you are starting to figure things out, Eiranne throws something else at you as if to say “you CANT HANDLE ME, you will NEVER HANDLE ME….” (Cue the Tom Cruise voice as in The Firm).  

As I was sitting in my lounge at 8h30 in the evening staring out into a bright sunlight I could foresee trouble for the next couple of weeks. My future looked bleak.  Sure it’s every SAFFA moms dream.  We are forever asking for more hours in a day to get things done.  But sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for as more daylight hours leads to less night time hours…. When you are the mother of 3 rambunctious children this can only spell trouble.  My toddler,  who was in a wonderful routine of going up to bed at 8pm and sleeping soundly until morning automatically turned into a nocturnal nightmare.  She is very bright child by nature and has grown to associate darkness with sleeping time.  When I inform her at 8pm that its bed time, I get the following from her: “No wanna go toooo bedddd. It’s nooooot black outside. Want my Peppa pig scooter, Wanna plaaaay”…. As a result this pink little bastard in the form of a cuddly porcine creature has literally ruined my life for the past couple of weeks. These are the perils of having intelligent children.  As for my other two kids, I barely see them.  They are out from the moment they get home from school until 9pm when I actually physically need to drag them inside to go to bed. 

My internal clock is totally messed up. It has been for nearly a month now and I’m starting to lose faith that it is going to come right again without some drastic intervention on my behalf.  Usually sleepiness gradually comes on and by 10pm I’m asleep as my melatonin levels rise in accordance with the setting sun. Now my melatonin levels are not rising sufficiently due to excess sunlight and by 10pm I am still wide awake left wondering if I need to drink myself into a coma for some sweet relief. My hormones are well and truly bolloxed!  Of course when I finally get to sleep I need to be up at 4h50 in the morning to start my day. I am wired completely for the rest of the day surviving on shots of caffeine and glimmers of hope of normalcy while the vicious cycle repeats itself continuously.

I have come up with a solution for the rug rat in order to get her to sleep on time. It will not win me any mother of the year awards, but quite frankly my desperation has outweighed my need for by the book parenting in this case. I close the blinds and put her on the couch with a blanket.  Usually the mobile phones and tabs are out of bounds but when your sanity is on the line, you may need to waiver these rules a little. I let her browse you tube video’s on the tablet. For about 20 minutes she is totally engrossed in the videos (Peppa Pig) and a few minutes later she is asleep and dead to the world.  No judgement please.  It is the only thing that is working at the moment. I have yet to find a solution for myself. Think I will need to develop a superhuman constitution and learn to power on through very little sleep.

So with Eyes wide open and mind racing, I started to compare this extended daylight to back home in Johannesburg where it gets dark at a reasonable hour.  It occurs to me that we have on many occasions over the last posts described how similar Ireland and South Africa are in many ways.  However, we have failed to mention how very different the two places are.  Regardless of the similarities, Ireland and South Africa are as different as night…..and well in this instance night.

South Africa is very quiet at night in the suburbs.  People are locked in their houses. The only disturbance of silence is the occasional car alarm or dog barking or house alarm going off. Every sound puts your nerves on edge.  Ireland has a buzz until way past night fall. There are people walking dogs, excited teens roaming the streets, couples taking strolls, kids riding bikes and scooters up and down and always a game of football carrying on somewhere.  It’s loud. But it’s a good loud. It’s a sign of life.  It’s a sign of the pure freedom that that individuals enjoy that was lacking back home.  It does not matter how cold it is out, people look past the weather and enjoy their lives to the full. They take this freedom for granted.  I however,  cannot remember being so free for over 20 years now.

People underestimate Johannesburg and South Africa in general.  They imagine wild life roaming streets and people living in mud huts and wearing loin cloths while still hunting our dinner with a cross bow. There is also a strong belief that we don’t have access to basic services like water, sewerage, phone and internet.  And even those who don’t have such an outdated view are also usually very surprised upon visiting South Africa at how modern and upscale the buildings and town plans are.  Our cities are populated by high rises and beautifully designed modern marvels.  With such high tech buildings you would expect the high tech services that a modern hub has to offer.  Although it is attempting to head that way, there are still services that are lacking and several stumbling blocks in the way.  The infrastructure cannot support the amount of people streaming into the cities to work, nor have they been maintained correctly.  As a result there have been power cuts, water shortages and a public transport service that is about as reliable as an Irish weatherman. So the potential is there for growth and for South Africans to enjoy first world amenities along with modern architecture and state of the art technology.  However, there is an inability to effectively use the resources at ones disposal to move SA forward in such a direction. I am dreaming of the day my mother land achieves such a feat.  Ireland on the other hand is completely opposite. However,   there appears to be one modern hub only. That is Dublin.  Although modern and state of art in its own right, there are no high rise buildings and there is still a stark preservation of what is old. If you fancy your modern architecture and demand the best in modern design, Ireland is not the place for you.  You will be bitterly disappointed. Outside Dublin to the North, South, East and West, you are transported into a completely different world.  There is country side for miles.  The lushest, greenest country side you have ever seen. These country sides are interspersed with villages and small to medium and large sized towns and your occasional city. There are apparently only 5 cities in Ireland.  These villages, towns and cities are pristine, yet old.  They are preserved in such a manner that they look old and feel old.  There are old churches, old bridges, old town walls, flowing rivers, historical statues and cobbled paths line streets.  It is like the Irish shy away from modern architecture as they feel it goes against their countries authenticity.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is definitely a first world country.  They have one of the fastest internet speeds in Europe. It literally takes 10 seconds to download an episode of Game of Thrones. The transport system is efficient and reliable. There are many mobile providers to choose from.  Television channel variety is out of this world.  The choice of stores for clothing and food shopping is wide and varied. Because of the multicultural dynamics you can find any kind of food you want from Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, and I even found a Nigerian shop!  Many international financial corporations and insurance houses have branches established here and more are moving in on a daily basis. The social welfare system, child benefit system and health care systems are top class (many Irish would disagree), and they are also ranked 5^th in the world in terms of education. Ireland is a first world country, but it is first world set in quirky and unusual surroundings and would be more than what modern day South Africans would be used to. It is like you have been transported from the now into medieval times and instead of a horse,  carriage and a fog horn you have an iPhone and beamer. It’s totally bizarre and something you will really need to get used to if ever you decide to make the move. They remain true to their roots. All the modern amenities mixed together with the traditional. Its classic Europe and I love it.  I understand it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

 

As for the weather.  Well….. What can I say? In some respects it lives up to its reputation. But in other respects it does not. People fail to realise that Ireland is an island and that the weather on an island is totally unpredictable.  Look at Mauritius.  Beautiful and sunny one minute.  Stormy and windy the next.  Well that’s the exact same as our beautiful emerald isle.  It is the only place on earth apparently where you can get sunburn and frostbite on the same day. With such variance in the weather patterns, the Irish are still not at all prepared for the extreme weather conditions. If it gets above 22 degrees, they fall into a hot mess.  All the shops sell out of ice cream and people are dropping off from heat exhaustion.  On the other hand when it is snowing, Ireland shuts down completely.  They have absolutely nothing in place to deal with snow and it is like the end of the world has come.  But one thing I will say is, there is a giant misconception with regards to rainfall.  It is assumed that it never stops raining.  This is inherently untrue.  Because it is an island, obviously a large amount of rainfall is expected.  However, we do enjoy beautiful sunny days too and we can go for days without seeing any rain.  In fact, I can pinpoint several places (that people choose to immigrate to because apparently the weather is great) that experience more rain than what we do here. But the weather is unpredictable and no degree in meteorology will help you in this case.  It’s the blind leading the blind I’m afraid.

You don’t come to Ireland for the modern architecture and design and to enjoy high rise city scapes in a fast paced technological hub.  You don’t come to Ireland for the weather.  You come here because you are the kind of person who wants to enjoy a quieter existence in beautiful surroundings. You come to Ireland if you appreciate the stark difference between modern and ancient cultures and the mutual respect shown for both first world and old world contributions.  You come to Ireland if you want to live amongst a government and in a social welfare system that actually looks after their fellow countrymen and immigrants alike (those of the legal variety of course). You come here for an education system that is world class. You come here to be part of an economy that been one of the fastest recovering economies in the recession and because the Irish are a hardy bunch of individuals, they crash hard but they get up stronger and more determined.   You come to Ireland for the importance they place on their children and the balance between work and family life.  25 working days ‘vacation is a lot of leave! You come here because the rest of Europe is at your doorstep.  Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Malta with their beautiful Mediterranean beaches are close by and cheap to visit.  We have skiing in Austria and Switzerland, the beer fest in Germany, tulips and bicycles in the Netherlands. We have the northern lights in Norway and Iceland and the cultural marvels of the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia just to touch the surface.  You name it; we have it at our disposal. You will actually have the opportunity to travel and experience the world. The unattainable cost of travel is hopefully a thing of the past. In essence, you come here for what you intended leaving South Africa for... A better life.

 Above: Limerick

 Above: Cork City

 Above: Drogheda

Above: Dundalk

 Above: Galway

 Above: Kilkenny

Love and Light

C