Mick Rooney | Journalist & Broadcaster

Always light after the dark. Three weeks ago I gave up believing it was July into August. We just whispered condolences every day at 6 am and hoped for the best. Accepting it was going to be another March or November day parading as a summer day in sheep's clothing. But there looks to be a chink on the horizon. Dry weather and temps back to normal 22-24 degrees for this time of year in the Netherlands. I dare not ask how long this will last - a renewed dry spell. Sweaters at the ready, the house heating has still not been cracked on since early May. Those moments when I look at her and she looks at me, and we wipe the very idea of reaching for that switch. The poor solar garden lights don't know what is going on. There's been rumour of a garden revolution and the whole household been overthrown by a bunch of LED solar bulbs if things don't pick up soon. Last week the garden lights went on strike for two whole days in protest about there being no sustained sunshine for ...

The cats are holed up in the house, safe from the cracking and banging of fireworks outside. Zaandam has sounded like a far off war zone since 10am this morning. I'm looking forward to the fireworks display outside after midnight when we welcome in the new year.   The one benefit of being an Irishman in the Netherlands is that you get to celebrate the New Year on the double, once at midnight, and again at 1am with my far off friends and family in Ireland. It's a chance to restart 2014 if you mess it up first time around!   At times, 2013 has felt a little like it overstayed its welcome, and more than once this year I asked "is it over yet!" There was just a few too many bumps and challenges along the road for my liking! If I could sum up 2013, it would be an obstacle course of challenges and surprises, some more pleasant than others, and yet with every low, there was never a high too far down the road to lift the spirit and invigorate you for the next bump....

I haven't flown over every city in the world - just a few in several countries - USA, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Greece, Israel and Turkey. At night, they all look the same, no matter how hard you look out from the window of a plane. By day, you can pick out the contours of the Irish coast and the English coast, east and west, and I was sure I reconised the landmarks, wadi's and mountains when I passed over Israel on my way to Turkey. Holland is easy - I know the landmarks now, but I was amazed how many other countries had windmills you could see on a clear day from 30-38k feet up in the sky. I reckon Portugal has as many windmills as Holland, though I never did an accurate headcount! I left Dublin last week flying out to Amsterdam (Schiphol) and admired how beautiful my city of birth looked with its orange lights against the blackness. The weather for the trip was poo...