First… more progress on settling-in My TransferWise PIN-and-chip debit card arrived in the mail over the weekend, so I’m psyched about that, although I haven’t used it for an in-person live transaction yet. I also received some new linens I ordered on Amazon.co.uk, including a fitted sheet deep enough to accommodate the mattress memory foam topper I had previously ordered and...

A Brief History of Temple Bar Probably few people reading this blog know much about the Temple Bar area in Dublin. In fact, I don’t know that much about it myself! So that inspired me to read up about its history and write a synopsis, plagiarizing heavily from Wikipedia articles and other sources I’ve linked. Dublin’s “Temple Bar” is named after the Temple Bar of London, on its western...

COVID-19 in Ireland The daily count of new COVID-19 cases in Ireland has topped 1,000, the first time since April (not counting N. Ireland which had 900+ of its own). Meanwhile, on Saturday there was an anti-lockdown protest here in Dublin that sounded very tense… thankfully only a few minor incidents of violence occurred. Unless these trends level off and/or reverse soon, the...