It’s amazing. Two different worlds in One day. Within three hours we were transported from the grey, cloudy shores of Dublin to the sunshine world of Portugal filled with the swishing sound of palm trees, the splashing of waves and laughter of happy, shiny people enjoying their hard earned holidays.

Instead of fussing over stressful exams and arranging car pools, we are working out the best sun factors and floating on lilos in swimming pools!

Despite my great advice on rolling the clothes and packing compactly – we actually took enough gear to set up a stall on the beach selling shorts, tee-shirts and sweatshirts! I blame the offspring for smuggling buckets of stuff into my case when I turned my back!

I’m reading Arundhati Roy’s book: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. It’s a fantastic kaleidoscopic view of life in India from the perspective of a Hijri – an intersex/hermaphrodite individual called Anjum who lives as an outcast with others of similar sexual ambiguity in a converted shack and how they survive in a war-torn India devoid of support or compassion. Their greatest asset is the fact that it is deemed to be bad luck to hurt or kill a Hijri – so that is their main defense and armour.

It’s a meandering tale that takes the reader through the corridors of corruption, the brutality of terrorism, and the great spirit of the downtrodden. Roy is a beautiful writer whose passion for life flows through her unique descriptions of nature and understanding of human psychology.

It’s also a hard book to concentrate on – as there are a number of different narrators and timelines. So next time I’m gonna pick up an ultra light read. Like “Noddy Goes to Nobber”.

This all leads me another source of Utmost Happiness – this Indian sarong from Marks and Spencers – A great way to keep cool and cover any wibbly wobbly bits when having an evening cocktail on the terrace. Cheers!