My friend S. invited me to join him on a quick weekend trip to Glasgow. I’ve never been to Scotland before, so I jumped at the opportunity. The impetus of the trip was to see Melanie C. (more widely known as Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls) perform her first post-COVID lockdown concert at a nightclub venue called The Garage. Even though I’m not a huge fan, I haven’t been to any concerts...
This is apparently my 300th blog post, which averages out to about four posts a week since I moved to Ireland in October 2020, thanks to the almost daily posts during my first six months here. Nowadays, I’m writing about 2-3 posts per week. Life has become more mundane ever since I started working six months ago, so there has been less to write about, but I still find the blog to be an...
My friend S., whom I had not seen since Christmas, came for a visit to Dublin for the weekend. I met him at the Spire after his train arrived in the afternoon, then we had lunch at a Japanese place, Musashi, on Capel Street — bento boxes with katsu curry, sushi and gyoza. On a whim, we decided to go see a one-man theatrical performance in the evening by Gabriel Byrne, a well known Irish movie...
It’s Friday! What a busy week… not to mention month. Where did January go?! Dublin has been having chilly, but we’ve been having mostly sunny bright winter days. I don’t understand why people complain about the weather in Ireland at this time of the year, saying that it’s gloomy and depressing. Yes, it still gets dark relatively early but the days are getting longer...
The first “lockdown free” weekend was surprisingly quiet in Dublin, although I did not go out to any pubs on Saturday so my only first-hand experience was the street noise outside my apartment building in Temple Bar. A quick run-down of notable events from the past few days… Lunch at BrewDog On Saturday, after my usual SuperValu grocery delivery, I met up with my friend CJ for a...
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...
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...
I’ve been intentionally offline for the past few days, other than for brief scans of the news headlines and weather forecast. Some Christmas catch-ups…. On the 23rd of December, I invited my friend CJ over for a pre-Christmas dinner — prime rib roast, scalloped potatoes, creamed spinach, and cornbread muffins. The inspiration came from the Christmas Eve dinners out I had with my friend Adam at...
It’s been another long and stressful work week. I’ve been cooped up in the apartment more than usual, in part because of Storm Barra that hit Ireland with rain and gale force winds Tuesday-Thursday. Schools were closed, and non-critical medical appointments were canceled. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, although thousands of homes were without power in Co. Cork for awhile. Storm Barra...
After a very long work week, my friend CJ invited me out in Friday evening for a Dublin Pride walking tour around Temple Bar. It was good to get out the apartment. The streets were busy as usual, and our tour group of 20 or so people had to navigate through the crowds on sidewalks and streets. It was interesting to hear more about the history of evolution of the Irish LGBT rights movement in the...