A Meeting of Umbrellas
I'm not really used to umbrellas, so when I travel I don't think "oh, it might rain, I should take an umbrella!". I blame this on spending almost my entire life living in climates where they basically don't work. In Zurich, on the other hand, they seem a great idea! All week it was raining, and never once did I see a broken umbrella discarded in the gutter, or stabbed aggressively into a rubbish bin - both regular sights in Wellington, and now in Dublin. It's true that umbrellas do sometimes work in Dublin, but only often enough to build up your hope, before dashing it in a storm when you are least interested in coping with the weather.
In New Zealand the buildings kind of assume you need sturdy protection from the weather, and if they ever stand a chance of attracting your business they better make their shopfront something you're likely to walk past when it's hosing down: they had best offer thorough protection from the normality of waterfalls. This is something I definitely miss in Europe, these buildings offer no thought for any passersby, caught short in a shower.