During my last visit to Ireland, I took a day off and went to the beach. Even though it was cold – for my standards, for natives it was probably a mild day. I was walking barefoot on the beach, took a couple of deep breaths and took a timeout. A time out from the usual thinking that revolves around the same problem but never solves the problem, a timeout from having to be or do anything in particular, a timeout from my usual me.

And then something magical happened. I could see the beach and the ocean a bit clearer and after feeling my cold feet in the sand and resting for a while on a rock before the dunes. And then inspiration hit. I saw funny things, a lot of trash, and I also started getting new ideas and things I wanted to do.

This is a very incomplete list of the things I found that day on the beach in Youghal that day. Believe it or not, there was also an onion, a real one.