Drama in Dundalk...

Some amusing updates from Clare over the weekend...
There was a severe flood warning issued to coastal Ireland/UK over the weekend due to the combo of very high tides and a low pressure system sitting off the coast in the Atlantic. But luckily the low pressure system has stayed away until tonight. The river out the front has got very high but hasn't burst its banks. Loads of fish swimming around. I am not sure if they are just mullets or salmon!
But the two big dramas have occurred each at 5am. Sat at 5am, bloody fire alarms. Checked the flat, checked the hall for smoke and then went downstairs with Brian from no 32 (again). The alarm screen said fire in stairwell on floor 6. So we went up to check. But as we were reading the screen 3 young Polish kiddies sped down the stairs to the car park. I said "movement at the station" and thought they were evacuating. A lot more people woke up and checked things this time compared to last time. Met some more neighbours (Irish who blame the Eastern Euro types for all this disruption - I think she is right). Brian and I went to the 6th floor and found 4 shoes left on the stairs and cigarette buts. The smell of cigarette smoke was so bad I started to get asthma. And we could hear music from that level when we went outside. So we concluded that the Polish kiddies were having a party and smoking in the stairwell and that set it all off. But once the alarm is on, only the firemen can turn it off and they don't seem to have turned up. The main alarm stopped after a while but there is a low level alarm on the first floor that was still going yesterday arvo. Must drive the 1st floor mad. I got up at 11am and then the bloody alarms started again at 11.35am or so. Even I am hardly checking for smoke now. And if you turn the smoke alarms off in your flat then the alarm downstairs is triggered again. That's what everyone did last time. So if we have a real fire everyone will die in there beds with pillows over their ears.
It's getting cold now. Fog completely covering the Cooley Mountains and the river at the top of its banks and the temp is dropping and I have the ugh boots on for the first time at 3.30 in the arvo. I guess the Atlantic storm will come tonight...