Today the temperature in Dublin reached into the low 80s F / high 20s C. It was truly hot. Few homes in Ireland have air conditioning, although most large shops and offices have some sort of climate system. Thankfully my apartment doesn’t get too hot. I have been keeping all the windows open and moving a fan from room-to-room to keep cool air blowing in my direction.
This morning when I went downstairs to collect my SuperValu grocery delivery, there was an unexpected and most unwelcome surprise waiting at the front door of the building. Someone had chosen to relieve themselves there, in a second degree sense. Most likely it was a homeless person or just an ungracious drunk party (potty?) goer from the night before. The SuperValu delivery guy, one of the regulars in rotation, carefully passed the large plastic grocery bags over the defiled threshold to me. I was glad I had placed a smaller order than usual, so that I could retreat back upstairs as fast as possible. It was already after 11:00am, which was puzzling in that I would have imagined someone would have reported the mess by now, but apparently not — when I texted the building manager it was the first he had heard about it. He saw to the matter promptly, and by the time I headed out a little later on, the scene had been completely cleaned up, scrubbed and disinfected. I chalk it up to one of the many charms of living in Temple Bar.
Other than trying to keep cool, I have been preparing for tomorrow’s road trip — laundry, some last minute shopping, and packing. It’s good that I finished most of my errands yesterday, so that I could limit my time outside and spend most of the day in front of the fan at home. The urban heat island effect is even more reason to escape Dublin for a few days.
Remembering Aunt Pat
Today would have been my Aunt Pat’s 78th birthday. AP (as she was known to her nephews and nieces) passed away in May 2020 due to a combination of various health issues unrelated to COVID-19, although due to the pandemic it was not possible to travel to see her before she died or to hold an in-person memorial service. In her remembrance, a small group of family members had a Zoom call this afternoon to catch-up with each other. AP never made much of a fuss about her birthday, but I’m sure she would be happy to know that even now she managed to bring us together as she had done so many times over the years. And if it wasn’t for AP, none of us in the family would have had the opportunity to meet any of our distant relations here in Ireland, as she was the one who had keep in touch with our distant Irish cousins over the decades. In 2007, we made a big family trip to Ireland during the December-January holidays, which was the first time I visited the country even though I had already obtained citizenship in 2002. That was AP’s last big international trip, and I feel fortunate that we were all able to experience it together.
Stay tuned as The Ireland Dispatch goes on the road this week!
Until next time….
