Desperately Grand

I had two thoughts going through my mind today. The first was "Limerick's grand, isn't it?" and the second was "Jesus Ireland's a desperate country!" All sorts of funny memories have been coming back being back in cold, damp Limerick. Like how the girl who's survived numerous Minnesota winters is the one wearing the bulky wintercoat and shivering while the Irish are walking around in wind pants and t-shirts. And how it was so cold some nights back when I lived in Kilmurry Village that I'd sleep with my laptop on right next to my head so it would blow warm air my way and stop my nose from freezing off in the night. In fact, even with the laptop heating up my lap right now and a fire roaring in the hearth I'm still chilled. Seriously, desperate country. Limerick has changed a bit since I lived here. There's a lot of new buildings around, including two new low price supermarkets near the campus. That would have saved a lot of trouble back in the day, instead of driving to the bad side of town through the worst traffic jams to save 10 cent on a loaf of bread that would mold in 3 days anyway. There's a new building on the way to the city centre as well. I remember it being just a hulk of concrete that rose up into the air and none of us knew what in God's name it could be. Turns out it was supposed to be a hotel, but why they'd build a 10 story hotel there is an utter mystery. There's enough hotels near the campus as it is. The building has been finished since summer, but it's just sitting there empty. The hotel deal fell through and there've been no prospective buyers with the economy this bad. Across the road there were 7 cranes working on a large set of buildings, looking to be an expansion of the strip mall. My friend Brian said it was the first day he's seen workers there in weeks. They rarely work on it any more, and its probably destined to sit abandoned like the hotel. So long, Celtic Tiger. But my friend Shane said there's one solid benefit to the economic recession though. It was hard, while the economy was at its strongest, for artists and musicians to get respect for their craft. They were looked down upon for not finding a career and earning good money. Why be a starving artist when you can be a rich softwear engineer? But Shane has hope that, with the economic downturn will come a sort of renaissance of Irish artists and musicians, along with a community of support for what they do.

Limerick is grand though, when the sun is shining and there's a rainbow over the hills in the distance, and the grass is glittering green. Or when the streets are wet and shining in the night and people are out on the town. It's good to be back.