And so, after about five weeks – socks. I couldn’t believe it. They felt so strange on my feet. And unnecessary - ’til I took them off again...

Then I suddenly found I didn’t mind the feel of socks on my feet. The Omega Block had headed for other, luckier, climes after some glorious sunny weeks, and it was back to the chill reality of May in Ireland.

Ah, to be honest: I really must admit it. I hadn’t the first clue about the Omega Block weather pattern and its meteorological effects until it had gone.

In full mourning, I consulted Met Eireann to see whether this was really and truly the end of living on the Costa del Corcaigh.

Those fabulous weeks, when we sat around smirking at the plonkers who’d spent a fortune on spring breaks in Malaga while the rest of us got to swim in our own sea and tan ourselves in our own back gardens for next to nothing, were all due, I discovered, to a blocking area of high pressure over Ireland.

Blocking areas, I learned, are high pressure weather fronts that just sort of sit there in the way of everything else, forcing all the bad weather to squeeze around them and land on top of neighbouring countries.

This one was called an Omega Block because the jet stream had made a pattern that resembled the Greek letter omega.

But........

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