The beginning of February brought some wet and windy weather, and also marks St. Brigid’s Day / Gaelic festival of Imbolc. A summary from Wikipedia: “Imbolc / St. Brigid’s Day is a Gaelic traditional festival. It marks the beginning of spring, and for Christians it is the feast day of St. Brigid, Ireland’s matron saint. The holiday begins on the evening of 1st February and ends...
Weekend recap, New Year’s projects
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...
Pinkeye, prescriptions, and a peeving parcel
Work continues to be extremely busy and very stressful. The deadlines for financial reports due at the end of the month are looming over me, while I am bogged down on transactional work that I can’t delegate to anyone because staff positions on my team remain vacant. Scholarships must be approved in order for students to be paid, and budget reviews must be completed in order for new...
Budget Day in Ireland, founding member and leader of The Chieftans dies
I’ve been good about getting out for walks after work so far this week. Following a relatively warm weekend, cooler air has returned, with highs in upper 50s F / low 10s C, but it’s been mostly dry. There have been more beautiful sunsets in the sky above Dublin. Grand Canal in the Portobello neighbourhood St. Patrick’s Cathedral Park Budget Day in Ireland The topic that has dominated...
Visit to the dermatologist and an internet outage (thanks, Facebook)
The fall weather is here to stay. It’s been chilly enough for me to turn on the electric radiators in the apartment for the first time since spring, and I’ve had to reset their clocks and daytime / nighttime programmes again. Meanwhile, my Eddie Bauer flannel shirts and warmer outerwear are back in my wardrobe rotation. On Monday afternoon, I had an appointment with a dermatologist — the same one...
First GP appointment in Ireland, CMA certificate
Today I had my first doctor appointment with a GP (general practitioner) since my arrival to Ireland. The practise is located at St. James Gate, about a 10 minute bus ride away from Sprangers Yard, and used to serve the employees of the Guinness brewery exclusively before opening up to the general public. It’s now part of a network of practises under an umbrella called “Centric Health,” which...
Long week
It’s been a long week. Work is becoming increasingly frustrating. There is a lot to do, but I haven’t received enough training about how to do it, and in some cases, not even an explanation about all the responsibilities that fall to our office. For example, emails about “OHF approval requests” suddenly began appearing in my inbox, but I had no idea what an OHF actually is despite my best efforts...
Trip to dermatologist, Spain trip shopping, dinner date
Over the last couple of days I have been recovering from the road trip to County Kerry. One of the only negatives from the trip was that I developed some fairly nasty welts on my legs and arms from bug bites. Sand fleas from walks on the beaches are my primary suspects, although it could have also been some flying ants near one of the places we stopped for food. Being a ginger / redhead...