Back from Summer

Returned today from 12 days in Vilamoura on Portugal's Algarve. It was great to experience real summer weather after that season failed to show up in the British/Irish archipelago. Of course the current showery climate continues in these higher climes.

I've had interesting chats with Ireland-born friends recently about the national identities of their England-born children. I think Nick Laird's piece in the Guardian is quite illuminating in this regard, although he is writing in a slightly different context