The top priority on my to-do list today is to submit a couple of job applications — the first is a temporary research administrator position at the University College Dublin (UCD), and the other one is an accounting manager position at a private investment/trust firm. Neither seem to require a full accountancy qualification. I haven’t heard back from the recruiter who contacted me about the grants compliance job, and I’m still waiting to hear back on the next steps with OCCRP. I keep reminding myself that eventually one of my applications will pan out, and then I won’t have to be job hunting every day.
Surprisingly, the weather is mostly dry today with only some passing light showers. I get out for a short walk, heading westward on Dame Street to Christchurch, then turning southward to St. Patrick’s, and looping back to Temple Bar. I stop by the Lidl’s grocery shop to browse its offerings, as well as a hardware store to pick up a 9 volt battery for another smoke alarm that’s started beeping in my apartment.
Christ Church Cathedral — originally built out of wood in the early 1000s and then rebuilt using stone in 1200s with subsequent renovations and additions over the centuries:
A creepy statue on a bench in the small garden in front of the cathedral:
More signs of spring:
In COVID news, Ireland is (finally!) opening up free walk-in test centres for anyone aged 16 and older, even if they don’t have any symptoms. Four of the test centres will be in Dublin, with a fifth one in County Offaly (located centrally inland). This is huge, and honestly something that I expected would be made available months ago… until now the only way to get tested in Ireland is through one’s GP (general practitioner doctor), and usually only if you have symptoms, or you have to pay lots of money to get a private test done (like I did before and after my trip to France over New Year’s).
Tensions continue to flare up between the EU and UK over vaccines. Although it says that it will not impose any export bans, the European Commission is reviewing a proposal tomorrow that would require all shipments of vaccines out of the EU to be assessed on the destination country’s rate of vaccinations and vaccine exports before being allowed to proceed. Officials have called AstraZeneca’s failure to deliver on its vaccine commitments to the EU as “totally unacceptable” and that the proposal is “not seeking to punish any countries.” The argument is that if AstraZeneca had made good on its vaccine deliveries to the EU, then its vaccination rates would be on par with the UK. In breaking news later today, it’s being reported that the EU and UK are working on a “win win.” Perhaps the UK will share some of its vaccine allotments?
For lunch today, I make a very satisfying triple decker club sandwich with turkey, ham and bacon — although the tomatoes I got in my last grocery delivery taste rather bland, I assume they must have been grown in a greenhouse somewhere:
Until next time….
