Europe is experiencing an extreme heat wave this week. On Monday, a temperature of 33.1°C / 92 F was recorded in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, which makes it the hottest day in Ireland in more than more than 135 years. The highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.3 C at Kilkenny Castle on June 26th, 1887. Temperatures in London and Paris have topped 40 C / 104 F, so I am thankful for the...
Last Monday, I woke up feeling crappy with a headache and the start of a cough. I did a self-administered COVID antigen test that came back with a faint ”T” line, which was enough to indicate a positive result. At this point, I’m one of the few people I knew that hadn’t had COVID yet (at least to my knowledge), so I guess my number was finally up. There has been another wave of infections in the...
The weather is warming up slowly but surely, although the last couple of days it’s gotten down to freezing at night, with a typical scattering of showers but no heavy downpours. Daylight savings time went into effect last weekend, resulting in evenings that are noticeably much longer. Dame Street at 7:09pm It’s been a busy week — wrapping up my old job at UCD and preparing for my...
I arrived back to Dublin today after 10 days in the U.S. During my travels, I decided to take a break from the blog, which, after all, is more about my life in Ireland than travels to other places. The trip went very well. I got to see pretty much everyone I wanted to see, and I managed to reduce the amount of things I have in storage down to a fourth of what it was before. My time was evenly...
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is dominating the news in Ireland and Europe, surely to an even larger extent than it has in the U.S. given the closer proximity of events. There have been many comparisons of the situation to World War II, calling Putin the 21st century Hitler, etc. At least Ireland is an island so it’s not directly connected to the European continent. However, the Irish...
Inflation has been one of the biggest news headlines over the past week Ireland, which has seen an overall 5.0% increase in consumer prices from January 2021 to January 2022. Last week the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister for Finance announced in this press release a €505 million package in measures to mitigate the cost of living, including (among other things): energy...
BIG NEWS! Ireland is officially on the other side of the omicron wave. This evening at the start of the 6 o’clock news, Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin announced that almost all COVID restrictions will be lifted effective Saturday at 6:00am. The decision was made after the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) gave the green light on lifting restrictions in its report to...
The reality of the New Year is setting in. The remnants of Christmas decorations that still hang above Dublin’s streets have gone dark. Last week’s cold snap has abated, with the return of mild temperatures in the mid 50s F / mid 10s C. The weekend went by all too quickly. On Saturday, after my usual weekly SuperValu grocery delivery in the morning, I met up with my friend CJ for a...
The rest of my time-off since New Year’s has been quiet. I went on a long walk with some friends on January 1st, and have seen a few other people over the past week. After weeks of mild weather, Ireland is finally getting some truly cold winter weather with lows falling below freezing at night. It’s still mild compared to many other places, but much colder than it ever got in San...
Ireland has been experiencing a record number of new daily COVID-19 cases over the last few days. Yesterday’s tally came to a mind-blowing 20,554, although due to limited testing capacity, the true number could be closer to 30,000. I’ve been in close contact with two people who have come down with cold/flu symptoms this week — first, there was S. (with whom I spent Christmas) who...