NorthDownMuse

David & Stuart

So here are my friends David and Stuart. At church yesterday, I eavesdropped on a conversation they were having with Carol, who’s in my book club at church. She was organising a trip to Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, an area I want to explore. I asked if I

Kilbroney 2

I’ve been organising photos and I found this one I took the last time I hiked at Kilbroney: Today is Mother’s Day in the US. My mom is at my sister’s in Virginia for my niece’s and nephew’s graduations. My sister and I don’t

Kilbroney

Today I went for a hike with the Dynamos, a Meet Up hiking group, at Kilbroney Forest. I took my camera but forgot to put a card in the camera, so I didn’t get anything. Here’s an internet photo of an erratic you see about a third the

Bite the hand

After 15 years at Vanguard, I have a lot of swag. A nice briefcase that I’ve been carrying for years. A black Vanguard International jacket that I wear a lot. A lovely glass bowl. Lots of T-shirts. A healthy 401(k). You’d think I’d be a grateful

Hooleys

Recent news items: More than a third of the Belfast bikes--bikes locked in racks that can be rented around the city--have been vandalised. A large number have been tossed in the River Lagan. That’s 220 bikes that have been wrecked by vandals. Police responded to more than 300 gorse

The Park

Our street, Cherryvalley Park, is referred to as the park because it is lined on either side by mature lime trees, so the length of it is a tall canopy of green. But in addition, every front garden has a lovely tree. We have a Chilean fire tree. When you

Dry spell

Northern Ireland has had a run of sunny, hot, dry days. I’ve been filling my water can and watering two small flower beds out front and potted plants in back. In Chester Springs, I would have filled many 5-gallon paint buckets, coolers, and any other container I could find,

Service

One of the drawbacks of living in Northern Ireland is generally a poor level of service. Particularly in restaurants. The gorgeous tableau of food in London and prompt service offers a contrast to NI, where you have to seek someone out if you want to be served, or to pay,

V&A

In between some editing in the morning and web maintenance in the evening, I took the C2 bus from Kentish Town into the city and enjoyed being a tourist. I first walked through Hyde Park (hence yesterday’s photos), then had lunch in the most amazing restaurant--L’eto. Your basic

PwC

I spent the first half of the day on the 10th floor of a PwC tower in South London with a great view of the Tower Bridge (sadly no photos). I was at a conference where utility executives, securities analysts, sustainability officers, and so on discussed how utilities will make

Kentish Town

I got to London a bit late but not disastrously so. Met with a woman who is helping Preventable Surprises with logistics, since Raj, Carolyn and I are all hopeless (issues with double MailChimp accounts, setting up automated banking, setting up Dropbox accounts, changing e-mail platforms). Carolyn, Raj and I

1, 2, 3

As in May 1, 2, 3. Came back from Derry on Monday and decompressed. Tuesday and Wednesday were gorgeous days, which create this pressure to do something. I really feel like I should be out hiking or cycling to take advantage of such a gorgeous day, but I also have

Jazzed

I listened to a few bands during the day but the highlight was the dance at Bishops Gate Hotel. It was a bit formal, with people sitting at round tables. Not a great environment for people to ask each other to dance and not many people did dance. I had

Pontius Pilate and the Naildrivers

I spent the day in Derry with an old school friend, Amanda, her brother and his wife, and a friend of hers from England. The highlight was hearing the above band, which is a ska band that does covers of Madness, the Specials, the Beat, and so on. Really really

Sweating it

I slept less than two hours last night, got up at 6:30 am, literally in a sweat. I took a shower, continued working on my analysis of clean energy in India, then took another shower. I couldn’t stop sweating. I turned in the assignment with five minutes to

Double Nickel

I’m 55 today! Heavens, that sounds old. I don’t feel old. My face & bod are ageing, but I enjoy swimming and running w/o too much trouble. I’m very lucky, I know. When my running isn’t going well, I remind myself I could so easily

Blur

This week has been a series of deadlines for Preventable Surprises, for quarterly performance reports, and for the NICRAS annal report. Monday night I was too tired to go to choir. I went swing dancing Tuesday night and Wednesday David and I had dinner at a restaurant where I had

Fav Foto

Maysie hasn’t been feeling well, so I stayed close to home today and, among other things, went through photos on one of my digital camera cards. This is my favourite so far: My mom thinks she’s hysterical, and sometimes I agree. She does this thing where she starts

Swinging

Today I hiked with the Dynamos, a MeetUp walking group, for nearly two hours at Crawfordsburn Park. I talked to one person the whole time--usually I try to meet several people. But she’s really interesting--a Dubliner who spent her working life in England and has recently retired to Hollywood.

Good news X 2

This afternoon (1:44 pm to be precise) I got an e-mail inviting me for an interview for a job I had applied for in London. The interview is at 2 p.m. next Friday. One week away. I will receive a writing assignment at 5pm on Thursday (my birthday)

The limits of patience

While today was nominally a work day, I took two hours out of the middle to run errands. First up, a trip to an industrial site in Dunmurry, where I collected maybe 20 bags of food for a refugee agency. Second, I called in at a pet store to get

Botanic

Before I met my friend to see a film the other day, I had a really good meal at an Indian restaurant then walked to Queen’s Film Theatre. It was a beautiful, sunny evening and, when I came to a fork, I couldn’t decide if I should take

Visa, part two

I got a letter on the 10th from the Home Office demanding seven documents by the 20th. Given Easter hols, I had five business days. The letter stated my visa could be denied if they weren’t satisfied with the information I provided. Today I overnighted a package to the

The Handmaiden

Have you ever gone to a film expecting to see one thing and then seeing something entirely different? I thought I was going to see The Handmaid’s Tale, a film adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopic look at a patriarchal power grab--so timely! Instead, I saw a Korean film

Backlog

April: 12. Today’s big accomplishment was elevating a new website for Preventable Surprises. It reflects Raj’s work more than mine. I did what I could to clean it up around the margins but deferred to Raj on the overall design. It’s his baby, not mine, after all.