Spring Into Summer
15 Observations From March, April, and May
I finished end of semester exams a few days ago, meaning another chapter of life has ended. These are some scattered thoughts and moments from March, April, and May. You can just skip past any that don’t interest you.
It’s worth mentioning that Spring is definitely my favourite season. The days get brighter, the weather gets nicer, and you’re not even at the peak of summer yet so you know there’s even better days to come. Weather in Ireland has been crazy good these last few months too. If global warming sucks and we’re all doomed, we may as well get some benefit from it I suppose.
1: I don’t smoke, and have never felt any real attraction to. However, when I leave an exam hall and see someone smoking outside, I always think damn, that particular cigarette must feel fucking amazing.
2: I went to Tottenham’s away match in Frankfurt. Flight home wasn’t until the evening, but after doing some token tourism (outside of abusing the local club’s fans and players), I decided to head to the airport early and get some uni work done.
Upon arrival, I checked the airport website just to see if a gate had been announced. My flight was nowhere to be seen. I was confused at first, before quickly remembering I was flying with Ryanair, sensing some bullshit was impending. Got my phone out, checked my boarding pass, and sure enough, the ‘Frankfurt’ airport my flight was departing from was *checks notes* 2 hours away.
My heart dropped, I sprinted to make the bus that goes to said airport, and just about made the flight. Ryanair have to be stopped, my reaction to seeing where the actual airport was located is below.
3: My university has felt the need to put these signs up around the gym floor.
4: Studied a great subject this semester called ‘Markov Chains’. Bear with me while I nerd out, but in mathematics, a Markov Chain is basically a process where the future only depends on the present, not the past. I think it can be sometimes quite freeing to think of life as a Markov Chain, in the sense that once something’s done, ruminating on it is pointless. All that really matters is where you are now, and how you move forward from that there.
5: Got to a few gigs, each of which I enjoyed. Clairo was dreamy, Nieve Ella was lively, Gracie Abrams was sweet, Matilda Mann was charming. If you couldn’t tell, I quite enjoy a girl with a guitar.
Gracie’s my boy, I’ve seen her play small shows up to arenas now, and love how personal and intimate her shows have remained. There’s this lovely gesture she always does of waving to individual fans throughout, which is so small but you can just imagine how much that could make a young girl’s day.
I love when venues still have these marquees outside. In a world of digital tickets, digital payments, digital everything, there’s something nice about seeing a bit of old-school physical presence holding on.
6: I quite enjoyed this tweet.
7: Lost an incredible amount of aura one night while waiting for the bus with a girl and her friend after a night out. The friend forced me to play the Wordle (in 2025 mind you), and I embarrassingly didn’t even get the word. Needless to say I didn’t have company for much longer that evening. If you don’t laugh you’ll cry.
8: Following on from my weather mention earlier, UCD’s campus is particularly stunning when sunny. There’s one spot beside the lake with a wall I always sat on to eat my breakfast. It has become my favourite part of campus.
One day I was down about something, and went there to journal. A couple of my mates walked by, spotted me, and invited me to join them for lunch. Not a morsel of my body wanted to speak to anyone, but I strongly believe that when you’re upset, spending time with friends is one of the most effective ways to cheer you up a bit1. That was definitely the case here — we had lunch, shared a few light-hearted laughs, and the heavy feelings eased a bit. It helped far more than any rumination through journaling would’ve done. Made me grateful for the back of my head being recognisable.
9: My football team ended the season with promotion, which I’m delighted about. I’ve really enjoyed football these last few months. Firstly because I’ve been playing midfield in matches (which is a lot more enjoyable than centre back2). But also, everyone on the team is sound, has solid technical ability, and we’ve specific training coaches so training has been incredibly fun and structured too.
We hit strong form towards the end of the season, which was very much needed as the promotion battle ended up being very tight. The 3 away wins in a row were huge.
10: This one’s only really relevant if you live or have ever been on a night out in Galway. Here’s my unsolicited take on some late-night spots.
Starting with a rant: I don’t get how the Front Door is so popular. It’s always too busy, there’s not anywhere you can stand without being in someone’s way, and you have to do a hike upstairs just to get to the bathroom. There’s nowhere you can dance, and there’s a better chance of finding Bigfoot than a free table to sit at. The genuinely only good thing about the place is the fact that Pizza Napoli is right across the street3.
The Skeff is mid (despite a streets won’t forget era in December 2023). The Quays is the best of a bad bunch up that side of town, the live music is usually fun to dance to with friends, and it can be funny observing the tourists there4.
Westend pubs are superior, I feel like the crowd that frequents them are generally sounder too. My favourite place will always be Taylors, adore the beer garden there. When they’ve a DJ in on the weekends, it’s chef’s kiss. Plus the cocktail bar out back? Don’t get me salivating and fantasising about things.
Róisín Dubh is underrated, went to a silent disco there for the first time in years last month. If there’s no silent disco lovers left in the world, then I’m dead. Massimo’s is decent, outside area out the back is solid for chatting. I’m not cool enough to have ever been in the Blue Note late, so can’t make a proper judgement, but it seems like great. I’ve also never been in Monroes, but they apparently do a Latino night on Wednesdays. If I ever do go to that, it’ll probably get bumped to number one. For obvious reasons…
11: Speaking of great pubs in the Westend, and also my liking of physical items, I love how Bierhaus keeps this handwritten menu up behind the bar.
12: I’m really bad at writing the number ‘3’, with a tutor for one of my subjects this semester mentioning it to me. Gave me a flashback of a teacher from school roasting me by writing the exact same thing. I personally see no issue and refuse to ever change.
13: Gym changing room doors seem to universally piss me off. They’re always a hazard for bashing into someone coming the other way, or getting caught in a painfully awkward stand-off over who holds the door for who. Considering start a petition for all of them to be made into automatic doors, or at least to just have a door stopper in place.
14: I’m usually quite good at blocking whatever happens during an exam out of my head once I leave. However, on my walk home from one recently, the solution to a question I’d completely blanked on suddenly appeared in my mind, as if the smoke had suddenly cleared5. The worst part was that this solution was incredibly simple. I’d even considered trying it during the exam but thought “nah there’s no way it’s that easy”. Wouldn’t be like me to overthink things… Anyways, the picture below is exactly what any cars driving past saw at this moment of realisation.
15: Update on my search for a go-to ‘coffee’ order: iced matcha lattes are the one. The only downside is that I can literally feel my masculinity being chipped away each time I order one.
There’s honestly 15 more I could’ve churned out, but I like to keep these relatively condensed. Lots of you have been very nice both in-person and with texts recently, saying you’ve enjoyed certain writing pieces of mine. I’m not great at accepting praise, so just know I am very grateful for the kind words.
Lastly, the title of this post comes from Lizzy McAlpine’s song ‘Spring Into Summer’. There’s a video on YouTube of the first live performance of it, when her and her band had only finished writing the song a few hours earlier. It’s somehow performed flawlessly, and I sit in awe each time at the quality and grandness of it. Like if you watch the instrumental break from 4 minutes on, you can see how engrossed and locked in to the music each band member is. It always gives me goosebumps, since whether they made no money or all the money in the world from creating and performing that song, I know they’d still love it just the same. I think it’s good for all of us to have some hobbies where that’s the case.
Playing sports is another brilliant thing for taking your mind off things. Cold water exposure too. Here, you’re either so immersed in the sport’s motions or with how cold the water is, that your brain physically can’t think about anything else.
In midfield, you get to go forward, run around more, and just overall be more involved. It’s also not so punishing, whereas any mistake you make is basically a goal for the other team at centre back.
One of my best friends does work at the Front Door, so please do keep giving it business. It never seems to have issues with a lack of customers anyways so I think he’ll be ok.
It’s fun to play a game of spot the American in the Quays. Bonus points if they’re wearing a cap.
I suppose the takeaway from this epiphany is that walking is a powerful tool for clarity and problem-solving. Darwin, Nietzsche, and many other great thinkers all figured that out long before me…
R
22:50 Monday 19th May