Happy Halloween / Samhain blessings! Samhain (“SAH-win”) is the ancient Gaelic festival marking the ending of summer and beginning of winter. It that starts at sunset on Oct 31 and ends at sunset the following day, Nov 1. Daylight savings time ended for Europe this past weekend, so it definitely feels like a shift in seasons with sunset before 5:00pm now. However, the weather has been...
Autumn weather is in full swing with more rainy days and cooler temperatures. I have resisted turning on the heat so far but finally succumbed this weekend, as it has been chilly with nighttime lows in the low 40s / upper single digits C. Christmas decorations have been going up above the streets of Dublin, although they are not being lit up yet. Rainbow over the Liffey Last weekend was filled...
It’s been two years since I arrived to Dublin — on 1st October 2020, I took up residence at Sprangers Yard in the apartment where I still live and wrote the first post for this blog. My once daily posts have become much more infrequent as life has become more routine. Life has settled into a new normal. The COVID-19 pandemic is seemingly over; just the other day I finally relegated my collection...
It’s been another relatively uneventful couple of weeks in Dublin. There has been a noticeable shift in the weather, with the lows dipping into low 50s F / upper single digits C, and some rain although still plenty of bright, beautiful days as well. Work has picked up somewhat, which is a welcome change after a slow period from mid-August to mid-September. The news has been preoccupied with...
On Saturday, my SuperValu delivery arrived as usual. Later in the day, my friend CJ and I had made plans to go to a floatation therapy spa as a birthday treat to ourselves (his birthday was ladt month and mine is this next week). However, CJ woke up with a cough, and out of an abundance of caution, we decided to cancel the booking (thankfully without being charged). I offered to pick up some...
It’s hard to believe that I haven’t written a blog post in almost a week. On Saturday, I had a first date with someone new, another “J.” We met at Bewley’s on Grafton Street, ordered some take-away coffee, then walked around St. Stephens Green. The conversation was easy going, and both of us seemed interested in extending our time together, so we headed to a bar...
Another long, stressful work week is behind me. Nothing much interesting has happened over the past few days. I wake up, sign into work, take a break for lunch, work all afternoon and sometimes into the early evening, then I try to motivate myself to get out for a walk, after which spend the rest of the evening relaxing at home. On Wednesday, the monotony of the week was interrupted by an outing...