I think I have come to my conclusion, I would love to live in Canada, out on a ranch, with loads of horses plus other animals and for people to come and have the cowboy experience, loads of fresh waterfalls, mountains, crystal lakes, basically the great outdoors.
(you have to picture this next bit with Amhrán na bhFiann playing in the background)
I've seen grand vistas on holidays and seen lifestyles that I think I'd be happy with, but then I sometimes this country takes my breath away (in a good way).
We don't have a great climate, but then when we do get those nice days the immediate collective shift in everyone's morale is brilliant. that one ray of sunshine changes every thing. It wouldn't be the same if it was predictable or constant. Look at how it is when we get a run of good weather in the summer, after a week we complain it's too warm.
So you get that nice day and yes everyone has the same idea: BBQ! But that's also great (as you fight over the last of the burgers in the shop). Everyone in the neighbourhood is out in their back gardens cooking enough cow to keep an African nation going for a year. Beers are chilled, friends are 'round and you sit out the back full, merry, and talking rubbish. It's the fact that you only get to do it a couple of times a year that make it all the better.
Same with the views, boy do we have them. There are times when I'm driving in various counties when it's safer for me to pull in and just absorb the view than it is to keep driving constantly looking around. Even on my poxy morning commute to to work. The first thing I have to tackle on the cycle is a pretty steep hill. But on those nice mornings, when I get to the top I'm looking out over Malahide and out into the Irish Sea. It's a fleeting glance, but it's worth it.
Or there was the time at band cam...working in Sligo. I got there late at night, feeling sorry for myself. Checked in, went to the room and crashed out. Woke up in the morning, still feeling sorry for my self and opened the curtains on a clear fresh spring day overlooking Rosses Point and the whole bad humour disappeared in an instant.
But there's other stuff, like nipping to the local. Yeah, it's pricey enough, but I get more change out of €10 at my local than I would in Paris. Or it being ok to nip in for a pint while in town and the OH is shopping and not feel that people will presume you're an alcoholic or out on a stag do. And that when you do, you end up as either the tourist ambassador for Ireland for the tourists who are in there or end up making a friend for an hour setting the world to rights with a complete stranger.