ArchiveJanuary 2021

The forecasted snow doesn’t materialise this morning, and instead, there’s a light rain throughout the day. Surprisingly, I haven’t used an umbrella the whole time I’ve been here. A good rain jacket with a hood suffices for most days, especially given how the rain comes and goes. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen my friend J. He comes over in the afternoon...

The EU did an about-face on its threat to invoke article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, which allows for special safeguard measures to be taken by either the UK or EU in exceptional circumstances. The EU had wanted to prevent a “backdoor” across the open Ireland / Northern Ireland for shipments of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to the UK.The European commission was supposed to publish...

I’ve been meaning to research the background on Ireland’s regions / provinces, not to be confused with the 32 counties (including the 6 in Northern Ireland). Most of the following content has come from various public domain sources such as Wikipedia and Irish websites, boiled down to the essentials. Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster...

I want to start off with some photos I took of Dublin at dusk, so this post will cover my day in reverse chronological order. View looking eastward from the Grattan Bridge: The Dublin Council’s modern building (allegedly built on an old Viking site): View of the Grattan Bridge from Orlando Quay Upper: I took the photos on the way back from a brief (<6,000) walk to the Smithfield neighborhood...

Today my focus has been on personal finances and career stuff, so I don’t have much to write about… I’ve stayed in the apartment with eyes glued to my laptop. When I say “personal finances” I mean taking a hard look at my monthly expenses, putting those together in a budget to determine my monthly “burn rate,” determining how much I need to earn to make...

The “Level 5” lockdown has been extended in Ireland until at least March 5th — i.e., everyone must stay at home except for essential errands and exercise which are limited to 5 km, only essential businesses such as grocery stores are allowed to remain open, no “click and collect” online orders for pickup, restaurants can only offer take away, no socialising with or entertaining guests from other...

Today I’m expecting an IKEA delivery with some items I ordered awhile back… I had actually wanted to add them to the earlier “click and collect” order with the dining room chairs, but IKEA had already shut down that as an option due to the government’s tightening of restrictions. At any rate, the shipment contains a shoe rack and some storage bins for the built-in...

This morning I wake up to the rare sight of snow falling in Dublin. Although it doesn’t stick to the ground, other parts of Ireland get blanketed and there’s a frost and ice warning for tonight. The cold weather is excuse enough for me to stay in all day. I have a leisurely breakfast, including a pain au chocolat I had picked up from Lidl’s yesterday. The apartment needs a touch...

The COVID-19 outlook here in Ireland continues to look grim… the headlines today suggest that restrictions (at least in some form) may last 6 months. Today I just came across Ireland’s official COVID-19 data hub; usually when looking up statistics I’ve just used Google or the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. After wrestling with various tools/apps, I created...

It’s colder today, but clear, with daytime temperatures only a few degrees above freezing. Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, has issued a “yellow weather warning” for hail, sleet and snow over the weekend. We’ll see if Dublin actually gets any snow, and if it does, I’m sure it won’t be enough to stick. The chilly weather is good motivation to...