I’ve been remiss in blog posts over the last couple of weeks, in large part due to having limited use of my right arm in addition to not having had much news to share. The weather has been becoming more and more summer-like, with highs in the mid 60s F / upper teens C. There have been a fair share of rainy days but also many beautiful blue-sky /partially cloudy bright days. And now with the...
The long Easter Weekend started off well. My neighbour Irene and I left Easter cards and treats for each other, and she dressed up the perennial skeleton that stands guard outside her “garden” gate in some seasonal attire. The weather continued to be warm during the day, but it’s still dipping into the 30s-40s / single digits C at night. My neighbour’s skeleton in Easter...
Tomorrow I’m returning to the U.S. for the first time since moving to Ireland in October 2020. I’ll be flying nonstop from Dublin to San Francisco on Aer Lingus, an 11 hour flight. This will be a short post, as I’ve been busy packing, planning, and wrapping up work before heading out tomorrow. I did my COVID-19 test earlier today (it was negative thank goodness). There are signs...
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...
Yesterday evening I learned that Adam, a very close friend of mine, had passed away unexpectedly. Adam during our trip to Sonoma in July 2000 I had last texted with Adam about a week ago, and we had been in touch fairly often since my move to Ireland. We had chatted about the usual stuff — TV series we were watching, our job/work situations food, relationships, weather. There wasn’t...
It appears that the built-in email functionality with Blogger / Blogspot / Feedburner has stopped working, so I finished up the migration today to my new website domain: . Anyone who has been receiving new posts via email have been imported into my new email service (MailChimp), and new email updates will be coming from hugh@theirelanddispatch.com. Hopefully they won’t get flagged as spam...
COVID update Public discourse over the government’s decision to delay the reopening of indoor restaurant/bar service has been heating up. Ireland is the only country left in the EU where indoor dining is categorically not allowed (the only exception is that hotel guests may dine indoors at on-site restaurants). Unlike some other EU countries, Ireland has not developed “corona...
Today marks nine months since I arrived to Ireland on October 1st last year. There have been some encouraging developments over the last three months, including: • Being invited to several job interviews and receiving a few offers (no further update from University College Dublin today); • Sitting for the first Certified Management Accounting (CMA) exam in May and accelerating my studies for the...
My second 2nd dose of the Pfizer vaccine is scheduled for this morning at the Aviva Stadium. Surprisingly, there isn’t a direct bus there, so I decide to take a taxi just to make sure I’m on time. The driver is chatty… he mentions he has a large family (seven children!), and talks about the UEFA Euro 2020 football championship games and how much he can’t wait to see a...
This morning I get up in anticipation of my weekly SuperValu grocery delivery, which I’ve moved from Fridays to Saturdays. While I’m waiting I have a quick breakfast and start cleaning around the apartment. The groceries show up in the earlier half of the 2-hour delivery window. It’s one of the regular delivery people, a man probably around my age or slightly younger who has...