Grey day, quick walk, Bewley’s recruiter callback, stir-fry

It’s another grey, chilly, hazy/foggy day in Dublin — good weather for focusing on the next lessons in my CMA study programme. However, I didn’t get out at all yesterday, so I’m determined to go for at least a short walk this afternoon. By default I head towards Stephen Green, walking down Grafton Street. On the way I stop into Bewley’s Oriental Cafe for a chai latte. Last year the company had announced that they would close this iconic location dating back to 1927, although apparently they changed their minds. It’s one of my favourite places from past visits to Ireland, so I’m glad it has managed to stay open.

A St. Patrick’s Day decoration featuring shamrocks and snakes (a nod to the legend of St. Patrick driving them out of Ireland):

A cozy fire in the entryway:

St. Stephens Green:

As I’m heading back to the apartment, I receive a callback from a recruiter about one of the Grants Compliance Manager job applications that I had submitted on Monday. The recruiter’s posting, like most others, was vague and only referred to the client as a “research centre.” In turns out that it is the Science Foundation Ireland, which was created in the early 2000s as “the statutory body in the Republic of Ireland with responsibility for funding oriented basic and applied research in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) with a strategic focus.” The recruiter mentions that the Foundation had been busy rolling out funding for COVID research this past year, and back at home I find an article published today, Ireland’s main science funder plans for budget boost — apparently their budget is growing from €200 million in 2020 to €376 million by 2025. Of course I said I would be interested in the job, so now the recruiter will forward my CV to his client to see if they’re interested in considering me. At least I finally got a nibble on one of the many applications I have submitted!

For dinner tonight, I make a stir fry with pork, bok choy, red pepper, cashews and udon noodles. The pork came pre-marinaded in peri peri sauce that uses African chilis, which I expected would add more spiciness than it actually did, but the flavour was good!

As with most stir-frys, the hardest part is getting all the ingredients prepped and ready-to-go:

The bok choy stems are sliced up separately from the leaves and added at same time as the red peppers:

Cook noodles first, drain, toss in oil:

Heat pan until smoking hot, add garlic (and ginger, if you have any, I used some powdered as a substitute), then throw in pork soon afterwards and let it cook undisturbed for 1 minutes before stir-frying: