The weather has turned springlike! Highs for the day reach mid 50s F / low 10s C. My walking buddy CJ and I meet up around 1:00pm for a return outing to the Ranelagh neighborhood toward the south. We walk down Grafton Street, then through St. Stephens Green. Lots of people and children are out. Flowers are blooming. The business district in Ranelagh is busy with people out and about enjoying the nice day. We stop into the same small Italian deli / sandwich shop from our previous visit, take lunch to go, and find a bench nearby where we can sit and eat. After lunch we wander over the Belgrave Square where we sit and chat for awhile. The playground is packed, and a handful of kids no older than six are climbing into a tree not far from us. A few notable characters pass us multiple times as they take laps around the square.
Another electrical box turned street art in Ranelagh (I don’t recognize the portrait, does anyone know who is being depicted here?):
Examples of the upper-middle class Georgian (tan brick) and Victorian (red brick) duplexes surrounding Belgrave Square:
Another electrical box spotted on the way back to city centre:
We clock in 9,500+ steps on our loop, which is a solid start for the week. I arrive back to the apartment around 4:00pm. The days are noticeably longer, and it isn’t until 5:15pm or so that I notice the daylight beginning to fade.
Before heading out on the walk, I was working on an application for one of the job postings on my to-do list, so after settling back in I pick up where I left off. It’s a Finance Manager position in the public sector, posted through a recruiter, for a short-term contract to cover a maternity leave. Once I submit my application for this job, I notice there are other Finance Manager positions on my list with very similar job responsibilities, and in some cases, also for maternity leaves… it makes me wonder if they might be postings for the same job? Well, it can’t hurt to apply, especially since I can even use the same CV/resume, so I end up submitting a total of 5 applications. I’ve applied to around two dozen local job postings since arriving to Dublin and only had one nibble from a recruiter (the one for the High Education Authority temp opportunity that didn’t go anywhere). This doesn’t count the interviews I’ve had for the OCCRP job. Again, I’m hoping the CMA qualification I’m pursuing will open up more doors for me.
Today Ireland has announced that 37 COVID “mass” vaccination centres will be opened across the country, and vaccines are (finally) rolling out to the general public. It’s estimated that the centres will have the capacity to vaccinate 250,000 people per week, which is a paltry number compared to U.S. numbers, but that would be roughly 5% of the ~5 million total population in Ireland. There’s a lot of catching up to do.
Until next time….
