It’s been a relatively warm and humid week. Today’s high crept into the low 70s F / low 20s C, with more good weather ahead. Yesterday the humidity shot up in the 80% range after some rain, which made the air feel much heavier than normal. I’ve been keeping the windows open and using my bedroom fan in the living room to keep the apartment a comfortable, cool temperature. I have definitely acclimated to the milder Irish weather.
Meanwhile, I’ve continued the brisk pace of studies for my second accounting exam. I haven’t ventured far from the city centre this week. The streets are definitely more lively with the outdoor seating in front of restaurants and pubs. Also, more and more rainbow flags and banners are appearing in Dublin for Pride month:
Today’s partial solar eclipse went largely unnoticed here. Allegedly, the sun was obscured 40%-45% in Ireland, although the difference in brightness was subtle, especially with the partially cloud skies already casting shadows off and on. Nevertheless, I put together a DIY viewer using a few repurposed cardboard tubes (packaging for finer whiskeys), some aluminum foil covering one end with a small pinhole in the middle for projecting the image of the sun on to the other end of the tube, and a small viewing window cut out on one side. It worked! The image was sharper than what I was able to capture using my phone’s camera below, but still you can see the moon taking a bite out of the sun. It’s nothing like the total eclipse of 2017, which I observed in Oregon, but still it was a fun activity to get me outside.
My friend CJ met up for me on the river boardwalk where I was viewing the eclipse, and afterwards we went for coffee at a nearby cafe in Dublin’s “little Italy” (a small lane on the other side of the Millenium Bridge from Temple Bar). It was quite pleasant to sit at a table and chat for a change after the long months of restrictive lockdown. There’s still no date for when indoor dining will reopen, although offices may be welcoming back employees as early as August. I’m still waiting to hear when my second Pfizer vaccine dose will be scheduled.
When returning home to Spranger’s Yard, I checked my mailbox and was surprised to see that my Public Service Card arrived today — much faster than the expected turnaround of 7-10 working days (especially with this past Monday being a holiday). The card itself has no immediate use for me, but it still brings me satisfaction having successfully navigated the Irish bureaucracy to obtain it and be registered officially in the public service system.
Until next time….
