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. I hadn’t been out of the apartment for the past couple of days, and I decided to go back to the Fresh grocery shop that my walking buddy CJ and I had visited earlier in the week to pick up some ready made prepared meals. I pick out 4 (since they’re 2 for €10): Nasi Goreng (chicken, veggies, and egg over basmati rice with chili sauce), Singapore Noodles (roast chicken, veggies and egg with stir fried noodles in a curry sauce), Chicken Korma with rice, and Beef Lasagna. I’m still planning on a making some homemade dinners this next week, but the premade meals are meant to be easy and relatively healthy options in lieu of ordering food for delivery (which would be 2x expensive). Lately for easy dinner options, I’ve been reverting to “bachelor food” like frozen pizza, burgers, frozen fries (cooked in the air fryer), so at least the premade dinners will be a step up from that. I do feel somewhat guilty about all the packaging waste, though.
Some other photos from earlier on my walk… first, the unfortunately named Outhouse LGBT Centre on Capel Street where I have applied for a finance manager job (no word back yet):
A peek at the Jameson Distillery down a narrow street:
A closer view of the distillery — it’s a massive complex, with what appear to be apartments (?) built on top of the original building:
The distillery’s old chimney was preserved during the renovation of Smithfield Square in the 1990s and has been converted to an observation deck with a glass elevator (of course it’s closed during the pandemic):
Some urban street art on the side of a derelict building on the north side of Smithfield Square:
A panoramic view of the red-brick Victorian era wholesale market where fruits, vegetables and flowers were sold; it was closed after 127 years in 2019 for renovation/redevelopment into a mixed real estate market space:
Before getting out of the apartment for an overdue walk, I spent most of the afternoon continuing to do some more personal finance and career/job search stuff on the laptop. I had been expecting a package shipped from my forwarding service that contains a few items/supplies I had ordered online in the U.S.; it was actually supposed to arrive yesterday, but apparently it’s been delayed until at least tomorrow. Around mid-day, some addition items I had ordered from IKEA were delivered — a cheap bathroom trash bin, some small storage bins for the shelves in the 2nd bedroom, and a paper towel (aka kitchen roll) holder. At this point, I don’t think I need (or can justify) many more household items. Everything I have acquired for the apartment I use frequently if not daily, but I’m tightening up my budget.
I’ve been waking up earlier in the day without an alarm, although I’m still slow to get out of bed unless I have an external commitment. I followed my usual routine of breakfast while watching U.S. news on YouTube from the night before, checking email, reading articles, etc. It’s so easy to get lost in the Internet only to look up and realise that a couple hours have passed by!
One odd occurrence yesterday evening… the intercom buzzer for the building front door went off at around 11:00pm. It was such a quick buzz, at first I wasn’t sure that it was the intercom. I picked up the receiver and said hello, and a female voice on the other end said that they were a neighbor in the apartment next to mine and had gotten locked out. There is a young woman in her 20s who lives in the apartment next to mine (on the other side from my elderly neighbor Irene), so I thought it was plausible. I said OK, I’ll be down in a second, but when I opened the door the person seemed very out of it… either drunk or high, or perhaps both. I’ve only run into my younger neighbor a few times, and it was hard to see the woman’s face clearly because the hood of her jacket was covering her head due to the rain outside, and she seemed taller and skinnier. Also she was talking into a very basic looking mobile phone, didn’t make eye contact with me, and barely said thank you before heading into the building. As soon as it was clear she didn’t belong here, I said that if she didn’t live here then she would have to leave or else I’d call the building manager. This was enough for her to turn around and head back out the door, not saying anything or engaging me at all. I then texted the building manager Brian just so he was in the loop, and he explained that there are some homeless people who try to gain access to buildings to get out of the rain/cold. Unfortunately, Dublin does have a significant homeless population, many of whom are young, and as I’ve mentioned before there are always panhandlers on the street… I’m probably approached at least once every time I’m walking about. Of course, it’s nowhere near the level of San Francisco’s homeless population, although that is largely confined to the downtown Tenderloin neighborhood far removed from where I lived, so I did not have as many routine encounters as I do now in Dublin.
Until next time….
