“Why does is always rain on me?”

"Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?"

All the rain and tears for the Tenth Doctor.

...More likely it’s because I live in Ireland.

We had some glorious days of summer in May, June and July  this year, but the rain always returns. Rain is important and I appreciate it, but it means spending a lot more time inside. I thought I’d share with you some of my recent rainy day activities I’ve gotten up to and enjoyed.

Image from dublinpubs.com, since I forgot to take a picture. D'oh.

I went to the Little Museum of Dublin on Merrion Square on a very soggy Saturday. The tour was about 45 minutes long and it was very entertaining- Abie the tour guide tried to squeeze in all of Irish history with a healthy dose of slagging of the countries that the tourists there were from, as well as a mighty slagging of the Irish themselves. There’s also a lot of interesting pieces that were donated to the museum from Irish history that are worth looking at- there’s a wonderful piece about Dublin’s favourite mayor who I had never heard of until now, and a U2 Shrine on the top floor.

Although I enjoy graphic novels and manga, it had been a while since I had read a comic book series as such, so I purchased “Paper Girls” vol.1 to read on a Sunday afternoon. To my delight I was able to decode the “alien” language in the volume using my cryptography skillz (basically using the frequency of letters, and picking out patterns that could be easy to translate like “the” and “no”). The story certainly perked my interest and kept me busy for an hour, so I’ll invest in another volume.

Another recommendation I have for comic books with a show tie in, is “Bee and Puppycat”. Natasha Allegri created this wonderfully weird and hilarious series about a girl who loses her job, only to become an intergalactic temp with this strange creature called Puppycat. The comic books are a nice add-on to the series, with guest artists doing their interpretation of Bee’s bubbly yet lazy personality and Puppycat’s short tempered but adorable attitude. The series started off on Youtube, I'd recommend watching the pilot episode to see what you think of Bee's wacky world.

Duolingo's Japanese styled mascot.

Duolingo have released a new course for English speaker to learn Japanese and I’ve been very distracted by it! I had previously tried out French, Irish and Dutch for English speakers and enjoyed the mechanics, though some of them are easier/more practical than others. So far I’ve found the Japanese course a little challenging since it starts you off learning a new alphabet of Hirigana but I think I’m getting the hang of this alphabet. I’m hoping there will more practical phrases and maybe even some pronunciation exercises in the later lessons.

Going outside just after it rains is also a pleasure, because there’s usually a lot of fresh scents and happy looking trees and plants. I still have to keep an eye on the clouds above though, and an umbrella in my hands as I never know when I’m going to get rained upon again. I also bought a new yellow rain jacket, because I was wearing winter coat all year round (too too sweaty) and I needed a cheerful change of coats.

You are tearing me apart Lisa! In a delightful way, with your beautiful music.

Speaking of getting rained upon, I went to the Monday session of Forbidden Fruit. I got to see The Staves, Lisa Hannigan and Bon Iver, which was marvelous, but I also got entirely soaked. The day gave me good memories but a bad cold.

What are your rainy day activities? Do you enjoy watching the rain from indoors from a snuggly warm spot, or do you like to dance in the rain, Gene Kelly style? Please comment below if you have some nice rainy day rituals.

Until the next rainy day, so long farewell,

Aoife