The shower is fixed! End of my friend’s visit, now back to work

It doesn’t look like my post from Saturday, Playing Tourist, Broken Shower, was emailed out to the blog’s subscribers, so click on the link if you missed it.

Yesterday (Monday), my friend Julius and I didn’t have any set plans for the last full day of his visit. We hadn’t managed to fix my electric power shower the previous day, so our first priority was to give it another go before we gave up entirely. There were many possible “faults” (the word used for malfunctions in Ireland and the UK) that could have caused the reduced water pressure. Through the process of elimination by testing various theories, we determined it wasn’t the solenoid, which seemed to be working fine. The pump and mixer valves also seemed to be in good working order. It turned out that the reduced water pressure was due to clogged-up inlet filters. This probably should have been the first thing we checked, especially given that Dublin has very hard water. However, this possibility had not been emphasized in the various online videos we had consulted about the electric shower model in my apartment. As soon as we cleaned out the filters and reinstalled them, the water pressure returned to normal… in fact, it was even better than it had been before. Again, if it hadn’t been for my friend Julius, I most likely wouldn’t have been able to diagnose the problem myself and would have had to rely on a repair person to fix it. Goodness knows how much that would have cost and how long that would have taken!

Once the shower was fixed and we were able to wash up, we headed out to explore more of Dublin. The good weather had continued to hold into Monday. It was a bank holiday in Ireland, so some shops and other places were closed, but for the most part Dublin was as bustling as ever. We had lunch at the Stag’s Head, a historic pub not far from Spranger’s Yard, then walked over to The Spire on O’Connell Street. From there we headed out to Five Lamps through the inner city neighbourhood called the Strand, which gave Julius a view into the less touristy parts of Dublin. As the sunset began to fade, we circled back towards the city centre and along the pedestrian shopping district of Mary and Henry Streets, then back over the Liffey to Temple Bar. Even with a late start to the day, we managed to clock in more than 10,000 steps. For our final evening together, we relaxed in my apartment and ordered some wood-fired pizza from Forno 500, a restaurant on Dame Street not far away.

Early this morning (Tuesday), Julius departed from Spranger’s Yard via taxi to the Dublin Airport to catch his flight back to the U.S. His COVID-19 test had come back negative, and he texted before take-off so everything must have gone smoothly with security, check-in, etc. Although it was a quick visit over only four full days, it felt like we got in a lot of quality time together. It is very rare and precious to have a friend with whom you can pick up right where you had left off before.

With the long weekend officially over, it was time to get back to the grind of work. My email inbox was unsurprisingly overflowing with new messages, all demanding to be given urgent attention. There comes a point when there is so much that needs to get done, the only choice is to surrender to the impossibility of it all and just take one thing at a time, regardless of what it is. The day flew by quickly, and by the time I logged off from work it was already dark outside. Nevertheless, I set out for a walk, inspired by the need to pick up a few things from the nearby Dunnes grocery shop. More holiday lights are going up around Grafton Street, and shops are unveiling their Christmas window displays. I just realised that Christmas is now less than two months away (!). At this point, I don’t have any plans other than staying put in Dublin.

Until next time….