The End (before the beginning) of Summer

"I had a dirty McDonalds," I said.  It was the end of my break and the cinema going public hadn't shown up for our attractions.

"What did you have?" asked Enya.

"A Spicy Veggie sandwich.  Large fries.  A Twix McFlurry and a Tropicana."

"What do you mean 'a dirty McDonalds'?  You're a vegetarian.  You can't even do 'a dirty McDonalds' without still being healthy."

Enya's probably right.  I spend a lot of time worrying about my diet.  Whether or not I'm taking in enough fibre or Vitamin C.  Maybe not looking at the salt content on packages of food that I don't expect to be much of.  Or generally treating each day as a Saturday and therefore it's fine to have that large Salted Popcorn, Large Pepsi Max and that bag of White Chocolate Buttons*.

Right now there are noodles cooking.  Noodles that I will sprinkle Soy Sauce into.  

Memories of being a student and dealing with whatever tidbits you had left in your cupboard.  

I miss those days.

I've been busy.  And because of this my grocery shopping has not occurred.  

And it is with this excuse I also make claim of why my blogging hasn't managed to be seen for too long.

So it is now, on the longest day, that I make my return.

As a child I would be taught that after the 21st June, each day would have less hours of daylight.  That already we were heading into winter.  Which is a trifle unfair.  Imagine getting your summer holidays from school but being told that it's no longer summer.  As a child who over thought, this was depressing.

Similar, a few years ago was the late Linda Smith's view of summer being ruined for children with a similar idea.  It can be seen on this episode of Room 101 (if you have a spare half an hour, do watch).  

You could argue that living in Northern Ireland with a wet weather system, it doesn't particularly matter about longer days and the placing of seasons.  But surely we all have memories of days where time isn't applicable, sunny days are grasped, cartoons are viewed in heaps, salads become the main meal and movies at the cinema are full of heroes.

And if we're honest, every year, no matter where we are in our lives, we probably imagine this summer to be the same.

*Which I usually mix in with the popcorn once I get bored of it.  We buy bulks of it, yet manage to drop more than we eat.