Dear Reader –
The gears are grinding slowly to a halt as we get into the second week of our holidays. Nevertheless I tried my best to crank the cogs to find some bits and pieces in which you might be interested this week…
**All hyperlinks in bold.
The Big Thing
Holidays in our 20s used to leave us in need of another. That’s almost the point of them at that age.
Whereas now if you don’t come back in better shape than when you left it feels like you have wasted your money. Holidays are for switching off, and I must say we have managed that well this time. Bar a couple of times work has crept into my mind…
There’s an AquaFit class at the nearby pool some mornings. There are two instructors who stand on the edge of the pool and demonstrate what to do. One has great rhythm but spends his time looking at the other instructor and cracking jokes with him. The other has terrible rhythm but spends his time focusing on the audience and makes sure they are having a good time. And as a result he’s the one everyone looks at. Now obviously you can’t have terrible rhythm and get away with it as any sort of a serious musician. But you certainly can’t ignore the audience either.
Which unfortunately is what a local band we saw did one of the evenings. They had written some nice songs and had some imaginative covers in their set but they weren’t hitting home with the crowd. We eventually figured out why. Their jokes were aimed at each other and any chat with the crowd was limited to a quick thankyou after each song.
As Cathy Jordan told us on In The Lamplight once - if you’re having a party, you have to make sure the audience know they are invited.
Where else but Sligo?
I won’t lie - the reports of heavy rain and matches getting called off in Sligo did make us feel a little more smug as we enjoyed the light ocean breeze taking the edge off the Mediterranean heat over the last few days.
Because no matter how good a time you’re having on holidays, if the weather is amazing at home it can take away from it. “The one week of good weather we get all year and it had to be the week we went away!”
Comparisons are often key to our happiness. The €50 we paid for a family dinner last night delights us when we compare it to Irish prices, but when we find out our friends got the same dinner down the road for €40 we’re left feeling less happy.
Why else would people choose the imaginary job that pays €30k the first year, then €40k then €50k ahead of the one that pays €60k, then €50k then €40k? The second job pays €150k overall compared to €120k, but the year-on-year comparison of wages is unfavourable, hence people go for the job with the increasing wages.
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert has been one of my holiday reads - and it was fantastic. As Gilbert says himself, ‘My book isn’t meant to make people happy. It is meant to make them smart about happiness by telling them what science has discovered. I’m not in the business of telling people what’s right. I’m in the business of helping them see what’s true and then letting them decide for themselves what to do about it”.
Thanks to Brian and the gang in Liber for getting this book in just before we left. I would highly recommend it.
And no offence to you dear readers, but for my last few days I’m going to do my best to forget all about Sligo and enjoy where I am free of any comparison!
What’s New?
I’m sorry, but there is absolutely nothing new to report this week!
Finally…
There’s always a holiday song…and this Bruno Mars number has featured strongly this time. Great bass line!
Till next time - Kieran.
