Rainy Sunday

Today is the Euro 2020 football (i.e., soccer) final match between England and Italy, basically the equivalent of the SuperBowl in Europe. The 2020 season was postponed due to COVID-19, and it’s not entirely clear to me when the Euro 2021 final match will take place… from now on will they always be off a year?! Who knows. The last time England won was in 1966, and at the time of this writing, the game is tied 1 to 1 with 20 minutes to go. There’s been some debate in Ireland as to which team to support… some Irish football fans are rooting for England due to its close affiliation with Ireland, whereas others seem vehemently against them due to political sentiments and also perhaps in part to Brexit.

July 11th also marks “Eleventh Night,” which refers to the night before the Twelfth of July, an Ulster Protestant celebration in Northern Ireland. According to Wikipedia: “On this night, large towering bonfires are lit in many Protestant loyalist neighbourhoods of Northern Ireland and are often accompanied by street parties and loyalist marching bands. The bonfires are mostly made up of wooden pallets and tyres. Bonfires were originally lit to celebrate the Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant king William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690), which began the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The event has been condemned for displays of sectarian or ethnic hatred, anti-social behaviour, and for the damage and pollution caused. The Irish tricolour, Irish nationalist/republican symbols, Catholic symbols, and effigies, are burnt on many bonfires. Some bonfire events are controlled by loyalist paramilitaries and authorities may be wary of intervening due to the threat of violence. There have been attempts to make the event more family-friendly and environmentally-friendly. It is also known as “bonfire night”, in common with other events in which bonfires are lit.” This year a new record for the tallest bonfire ever built for July 11 was set, standing at 147 feet / 286 pallets high, at the Craigyhill estate. For photos you can check out The Irish Times. No doubt there is even more enthusiasm for this tradition given the flare-ups in Northern Ireland between loyalist/unionist communities (those who support NI remaining as part of the UK) and the republican/nationalist communities (those who support reunification of the NI counties with the rest of Ireland). However, the wet weather may have dampened the festivities somewhat.

With only a few days left before my second CMA exam, my life over the past few days has been all about study, study, study. I’ve completed several practise tests covering multiple choice questions from all sections in the part 2 exam, as well as some sample short-answer/essay questions. My study programme also recommends completing a full 4-hour exam simulation, which I’m planning on tackling tomorrow.

I did get out for a few errands this afternoon. Less people are out because of the rain, but there are still some seated under canopies in front of restaurants and pubs.

The International Bar, a Victorian Era pub dating back to the mid 1800s.
Mary’s Bar and Hardware on Wicklow Street is still flying rainbow flags

I haven’t been enjoying Dublin’s outdoor nightlife all that much, but on Friday my friend J came into the city centre to hang out. We went to a very good and relatively inexpensive pizza place called Sano, just a short walk away from Sprangers Yard. Their traditional thin, woodfired, bubbly crust pizzas run about €9-12 each. The one I ordered was topped with Italian fennel sausage, nduja (a spicy pork paste from Italy), friarielli (Italian broccoli) and fresh mozzarella. We also shared an order of “garlic pizza bread,” which was the same thin, woodfired pizza crust topped with garlic and rosemary. For dessert we got “99 Flake” soft-serve ice cream cones, named for a special Cadbury Flake chocolate bar. A first for me!

No shortage of wood fired pizza in Dublin
My first “99 Flake” ice cream cone

One other update: after waiting all last week for UPS to deliver the parcel containing my prescription meds refilled in the U.S., I finally received it late Friday afternoon after placing multiple follow-up calls to UPS customer service. Based on this experience, I don’t think I’ll be using UPS again… they may be reliable in the U.S., but for whatever reason they just don’t have their act together here.

Until next time….

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By Hugh