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 new vaccine export control regulations today, but I haven’t seen news of them yet. The rate of new COVID-19 cases in Ireland continues to taper off, and it’s no longer in the “dark red,” but it’s still in worse shape than many other EU countries.
It’s been an uneventful Saturday. I’ve stayed in all day, not having any compelling reason to go out. Plus I’m still waiting for the package from the U.S. to arrive According to FedEx’s tracking, it’s still “in transit” but returned back to Memphis, TN (?!). Thankfully it does not contain anything urgent, but it would be helpful to know when it is supposed to arrive so that I don’t have to keep waiting around the apartment. My average steps for the week have been way down, so for next week I’m going to set a goal to reach 5,000 steps on average. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for snow, and there’s some rain later in the week, but I have a good raincoat and waterproof shoes so that shouldn’t be an excuse. One thing I wish I had more of was warmer socks… I’ve found that my feet have been getting cold lately. The only socks I ever wore in SF were made of cotton, which is all I have with me now, and I’m not a big fan of heavy wool socks, but perhaps I need to find some synthetic fabric / insulated socks.
I’ve been passing the time today reading articles, playing puzzle games on my phone, and chatting with friends via text. As usual, my friend M was DJing 80s hits for a couple of hours on an Internet radio station called Pirate FM, and it was fun to request a few songs. Last night I started watching “Breaking Bad” for the first time and am hooked, so that’s the plan for the rest of my evening. Dinner is a pre-made beef pie in red wine sauce — simple comfort food for a winter evening.
Until next time….
