We've much to be thankful for

I KNOW we spend every other day whingeing about the Irish weather - we either have too much rain, not enough sunshine and far too many dull, cloudy days.

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But after travelling around the world for the past month, the truth is we don't know how lucky we are.

We have a climate we can live in, grow our own food, and rarely have freak incidents that destroy our homes and cost thousands of lives.

I spent the past few days on the island of Phuket, in Thailand, a beautiful part of the world. But the humidity is so intense I couldn't walk a mile without sweating like a pig and struggling to breath.

It was the same a few weeks ago in Dubai. The 45C heat was so bad, I couldn't walk out the door without gasping for air. I went to the beach on the Arabian Sea and but only lasted about 40 minutes.

The air conditioning in the hotel was a life saviour, I hate to think how we would have survived if it wasn't there.

But locals are so used to it they walk around in light clothes and hats and do their work outside without a care.

One hotel worker told us that when the it hits 27C - a great day in an Irish summer - they put their sweaters and coats on. How these people both in the Middle East and in Asia cope with this type of heat is amazing.

The Thai village we stayed in was the scene of utter devastation after the tsunami of December 2004.