My new life is so full of
happenings and events that I may as well continue where I stopped at my last
blog post; the Wednesday that Koen left Dublin for the Netherlands. Swapping
conventional weeks and weekends my days at the office last week counted two as
Friday morning my plane to Nice was scheduled to depart at the very reasonable
hour of 10 in the morning. After playing my second game of tag rugby ever the
preceding evening (loads of fun!) and packing my bags (this has become a weekly
routine by now) I boarded the Aer Lingus flight to the South of France where proper
summer weather and five alive souvenirs from India were awaiting me. After some
determined organising I had managed to get Vasiliki, Dana, Johan, Wojtek and
Marieke to agree on a date and a destination for a true Kalkagi 2008 reunion!
In order to get everyone on board, this weekend had been organised months in
advance (‘I agree, September is ridiculous Tony’) and now the time was finally
there. Aurelien from France and Javed from India also joined Saturday evening
which made the whole thing an even bigger success.
All in all the weekend
featured sipping wine in the pretty alleys of Cannes, indiscriminately roaming
the wide streets of Nice, eating ice creams a few times a day, good clubbing at
night, taking random pictures of quasi-random but actually carefully
orchestrated street life, hanging out at our lovely AirB&B stay (thanks
Linda!), but above all, enjoying the company of the people with whom I lived
together in India. Sharing an apartment in a city like New Delhi for half a
year goes further than just sharing the same roof. It means living with people
who, every day, just like you, experience the horrors and splendour that living in an Indian megacity entails. It creates
a bond that hasn’t wavered in seven years, and I think I can speak for all of
us to say that this true reunion of friends really made the weekend the success
it was.
Upon return in dark and dreary
Dublin, where incessant rainfall accompanied me all the way home from the
airport, I instantly caught a cold as my body had naturally assumed that summer
(in Nice it was 25 degrees vs 11 in Dublin) was there to stay. No, it wasn’t.
The weather in Dublin has been quite horrible so far in 2015, bar the Easter
weekend which I spent in snowy Poland. Joy.
However, things have changed for
the better, with the first proper days of spring today and yesterday! And I
must say I have been enjoying the sun to the fullest today, playing football in
Fairview park with a colourful bunch of lads from all over the world, in what
is –weather permitting- a recurring event every Saturday. The third night out
in four days yesterday evening however put a slight drag on my stamina and left
me out of breath more than once, but this didn’t make me enjoy the brilliant
blue sky, radiant sun, and good game of football any less. Goodbye drinks for
Guilherme on Tuesday with the house in Blackbird made for a lovely evening out,
although I must admit that you do notice three pints of IPA the next morning.
Wednesday I managed to go to sleep at a decent hour without actually touching
any alcohol, a buffer which I needed as Thursday night featured beer and vodka
shots at Nina’s place after our first drink in the Bernard Shaw. My company for
the evening consisted of Nina and her housemate Clare, plus Anika who was
visiting us from Bundoran. As you can imagine Friday wasn’t an altogether productive
day at the office and plans were to stay at home and chill out, until I got a
text message from Aidan inviting me to the Tap House. With himself and Tita,
Eoin, Diarmaid and Padraic it was another enjoyable night out in great
company. Luckily I could sleep in this morning, whereas tonight is all about chilling out ;)
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