Ghost town

Continuing the shopping saga for stuff for Carl's house, today it was time to look at light fittings. We met at Hicken Lighting in the city centre. I got there first and sat in the car waiting for Carl to arrive. I was uncomfortable where I was, which was a taxi rank, so I moved to a space around the corner and used my parking app when he arrived.

It's difficult to choose something in these lighting shops because there are so many fittings crammed closely together. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it from the last time I'd been there because at least they'd organised things so that wall lights, outdoor lights, ceiling lights and so on were separated and displayed in different spaces. Despite that, we spent two hours or so without making any firm decisions.

When I arrived I was struck by how quiet things were around what would normally be busy streets packed with traffic. The blip is near where I finally parked (it's St Augustine Street, which I only know thanks to consulting the Maps app when I got home). Pre-pandemic, it would be impossible to find a parking space along this street, but not now. Poor old Dublin really has the look of a ghost town about it.

Carl was on grass-cutting duty in my place afterwards, timed to perfection for tomorrow's bin collection. We only had time for a short chat afterwards over a can of beer before it was time for him to head off across town where his mum was due to have his evening meal ready.

(Big news on progress with his house today is that the windows arrived yesterday and fitting began today. That's a real milestone in any building contract. Normally we would have had a bit of a celebration to mark the event, but that's not the way of things in these Covid days.)