Dolphin Address 09
August 1th 2007
Every nation has its own adaptations to the weather. Eskimo’s rub their noses, as French kissing would make them freeze to each other. With the help of the guttural ‘g’ the Dutch scrape their throat while talking to fend off the ever-in-waiting cold. And the Irish have a rare talent for coping with lousy weather.
On days that on the Dutch beaches only a few generously muffled nature lovers would be trudging along the water line, Irish families in numbers are picnicking upon the beach and taking turns in running into the icy waves as if these were a welcome refreshment. Also in villages and cities you frequently see short sleeve shirted men running through the drizzard. Which does make sense. You get soaking wet in a sec, so the less there is to get wet the faster it dries. This is probably also behind the energetic way the Irish women walk, with high swinging arms, so you can sooner get to somewhere dry.
In addition, there is considerably less swearing about the weather than in Holland. It does not help and instead you get peeved yourself. Some expressions preserve the mean between a caress and mild irony, like the sigh: ‘it’s supposed to brighten up later’ and the fickle weather that labelled as ‘four seasons in a day’.
And because so often it is lousy weather, the children get an extra week summer holiday if at long last the weather does brighten up.
Quite a dynamic scene developed yesterday on the meadow. I was sitting in the bus, head to the wind, doing nice little cosy things while outside a raving storm forced the waves up to over a meter and in blinding foam crushed them on the rocks. A, from all points of view, square man in merely a shirt with short sleeves and ditto trousers, accompanied by four children, two of which held their tiny scoop nets in awful attempt, crossed over the meadow bound for the sea. Dimension wise it occurred to me as attacking an elephant with a penknife. I took a picture as you would not have believed me.
Jan Ploeg, meadow Fanore, august 1st 2007
print version