Days in the British Isles: 77
(the days in Scotland have their own blog)
Whiskeys, few of which I’d had before (details below): 63
Gins (details below): 11
People who came to visit me: 5
Trips to Murphy’s ice cream: 7
Flavors of Murphy’s tried: 8
Trips to Galway: 1
Times a woman had spread out her whole life on my reserved train seat and seemed genuinely surprised when I asked her to move: 1
Times when Denise had an Irish man fall hard for her in a pub: 1
Times it got awkward when he pushed me through the hostel door and then physically tried to stop her from also coming inside and then sent her rambling phone messages for weeks: 1
Favorite restaurants (details below): 14
Favorite dessert, besides Murphy’s: Lemon Pie from Padoca’s
Servings of Fish and Chips: 12
Servings of Lamb: 10
Servings of Duck: 9
Trips to Krewe: 9
Trips to Toscana: 9
Trips to Nando’s: 13!
Problems getting a taxi during the world cup: so many!
Italian Thanksgiving dinners with my coworkers and students: 1
Pickpocketings: 1
Lasagna pizzas: 1
Times I didn’t like lasagna pizza, which I should have anticipated, since it was exactly as advertised: 1
Trips to the Blarney Stone cancelled due to back problems: 1
Times I did stand-up comedy: 3
Times I got a whole beer spilled on me right before I went on stage: 1
Pubs visited: 23
Favorite pubs: 4 (Bankers & Lincoln’s Inn & Palace Bar & Dingle Whiskey Bar)
Wine Tastings at a Rioja even: 26
Riojas loved: 3
Guys who tried to steal my bag when I first got to Dublin: 1
Boats coming off trailers on I-80, on the way from my house to SFO: 1
Students with Covid: 1
Times my direct loans disappeared from the DOE site: 1
Times my credit score went up: 2
Calls and emails to try to figure out if my direct loans had been forgiven via the TEPSLF program: 8
Times DOE told me to talk to Mohela and vice versa: 8
Clarity about my loan situation: 0
Hangers for my clothes, in the same narrow cupboard as the broom: 5
Drawers for my clothes: 0
Times a guy chased me down to let me into a museum, when I found it locked: 1
Hats purchased: 3
Hats I owned / wore before that: 1
Times I had homemade food: 4
Fancy sweaters purchased: 2
Waistcoats purchased: 1
Museums and Galleries (details below): 26
Times foreigners stopped me on the street to ask for directions: 6
Canes forgotten by the door of my CA apartment: 1
Replacement canes purchased: 1
Cane umbrellas purchased: 1
Times cane needed: 0
Wonderful students: 11
Fantastic co-workers: 4
Times my co-workers admitted they were worried that I was going to be “an asshole” and that they were relieved I turned out to be “a ray of sunshine.”
Times in a grocery store with Viking ruins on display: 1
Days without shaving my legs: 74
Live Plays attended: 13
Movies in the theatre, not counting short films: 14
Books read: 23
Mummies seen: 8
Engagements: 1
Rings exchanged: 2
Times I walked by Glen Hansard’s house: 1
Short Films (as part of a festival): 36.
Favorites: Sheeps of Fury; La Madeleine
Episodes of Law & Order I watched in my little room while grading and prepping, since two television stations were dedicated to that show in the afternoons: not sure
Episodes of Law & Order with Ann Dowd in them: 2
Trips to Glendalough & Bray: 1
Trips to Belfast: 2
Times I was horrified by the past and present state of Belfast: 2
Times Irish Republic people told me I wouldn’t be able to understand Northern Irish people: 9
Times I wasn’t able to understand Northern Irish people: 0
Liberties Distillery Private Tour: 1
Live Stand-Up Shows attended: 8, including Hannah Gadsby and Jim Gaffigan
Hints given about the Guinness Quiz while on a trip to Belfast: 2
Guinness Quizzes won: 1
Whiskeys:
Meh: Jameson; Nikka Day; Paddy; Kilbeggan; Teachers (peaty); Bushmills; West Cork Bourbon Cask; Teeling Pot Still, Single Grain, Single Malt; Powers Single Pot Still; Sailor’s Home Single Pot Still; Fercullen Falls Small Batch; Hanson; Slane Triple Casked; Silkie; Mad March Hare Irish Poitin.
MMM: Redbreast 12, 15, 21; Jameson Black Barrel; Green Spot; Writer’s Tears Copper Pot; Fercullen 8; Method and Madness; Teeling Small Batch; West Cork Calvados Cask Finished (a little fruity); West Cork Glengarriff Series (lightly peated); Red Spot; Liberties 3 year, 5 year, 13 year; Writers Tears Single Pot Still; Bowmore Single Malt Scotch; Fercullen James Fox exclusive; DWD; Clonakilty; Connemara Peated Single Malt; West Cork Black Cask; Writer’s Tears Cask Strength 2022; Auchentoshan American Oak; Dingle Single Pot Still; Dingle Samhain; Dingle Fourth Pot Still Release; two more at Dingle Bar I can’t remember.
Woohoo: Redbreast Lustau, 27, and Single Pot Still; Midleton Very Rare; Glendalough Double Barrel; Roe & Co; Blue Spot; Gold Spot; Clonakilty Single Grain; Tullamore Dew Carribean Rum Cask Finish, Black 43, 13 Single Malt; Limavaldy Single Malt; Fercullen 14; Drumshambo Pot Still; Midleton Barry Crockett; Glendalough Single Malt 7
Gins: Skye Gin; The Secret Island; W.N. Rhubarb; Dingle; Gunpowder; Bertha’s Revenge; Glendalough; HaPenny Rhubarb (too sweet!); Dublin City; M&S Rhubarb Gin; Audemus Pink Pepper Gin
Fav Restaurants: Nandos; Beshoff’s; Coffee Bean on Mary Street; M&L; Pi Pizza; Ard Bia in Galway; Krewe; Toscana; Bullet and Duck; Cedar Tree Lebanese; Queen of Tarts; Red Moon Thai; Saba Thai; Kopitiam Malaysian
Museums and Galleries: Trinity (Book of Kells; Long Room) (X 2); Newgrange; Jeannie Johnson; Christ Church (X 2); National Museum of Archaeology (X 3); National Gallery; Hugh Lane Gallery (X 2); St. Patrick’s Cathedral; Marsh’s Library; St. Michan’s; St. Audoen’s; Oscar Wilde House; National Library; Dublinia; Leprechaun Museum Night Tour; Joyce Tower; Sweny’s Pharmacy; Chester Beatty; EPIC Immigration Museum; Guiness Storehouse; The Giant’s Causeway; Dunlace Castle; Murals in Belfast / Peace Wall (X 2); Barracks Museum (Art and Design); Walking Tour (2); Glasnevin Cemetery
