Gorgeous on Sunday, not so gorgeous earlier today.

‘A complete 180’, as the man who was tasked with making my americano at Ashtown Castle cafe put it.

And he was bang on.

I started to tell him of a holiday I had once been on where the morning sky always seemed to be blue and I wondered what people did for small talk. And in turn he told me of a Mexican friend of his who, when he first arrived to live in Ireland four years ago, found it odd that Irish people talked about the weather so much. It seems that these days this particular amigo now fully understands our obsession with matters meteorological.

Speaking of things that change and fluctuate quite a lot, my chess rating has taken something of a nosedive. Having scaled the heights to reach the summit of 1501, I have been lately unceremoniously dumped back down to base camp at 1467.

Dearie me.

Tonight sees The Boys From Anfield back in action, in their second leg tie of the Champions League round of 16. With a 2-0 lead they stand an excellent chance of progressing to the quarter finals but then again, very strange things have been happening lately in the land of Liverpool Football Club.

Over in Podcastland the new offering from Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama is entertaining, insightful and well worth a listen.

And so that’s all the goss from The Smoke for now.

A bientot mes amis.