NorthDownMuse

Women’s Equality Party

Yesterday I went to the only Imagine festival event I’ll get to this year. It was about the Women’s Equality Party, which was co-founded by author and journalist Catherine Mayer and broadcaster and author Sandi Toksvig. Mayer, who was the speaker yesterday, has written a book titled The

“Thanking Christ for the BBC"

The Pogues sing a song about growing up in a parochial, oppressive Ireland in which the BBC was a window into a more promising, open-minded world. The title is from that song (rhymes with: “...a stupid, fucking place to be/down on Rain Street”). I am constantly grateful for the

Spoilt for choice

Belfast loves its festivals. There were three big festivals in January and February (that I know of, I don’t pick up on all of them). March and April bring us: The Belfast Film Festival, with 130 films and events. The Imagine Festival, with 62 events. The Respect Human Rights

So this happened

I have written in the past about the "ash for cash" scandal--where farmers and businesses could get 1.60 pounds for every pound they spent on biomass burners. The program, unsurprisingly, created a billion-pound overspend, half of which the UK swallowed and half of which comes out of

St. Pat's

There were all kinds of events on in Belfast today--a parade, an outdoor concert, lots of music in the pubs. I didn’t go to anything. I had the same feeling I have on New Year’s Eve--I should do something. The older I get, the more I give in

Orangefield Primary

Today was the first of my weekly volunteer gigs at a primary school, where I’ll be giving one-to-one support to two primary students who are each maybe 9 years old. They read to me and I help them with words they can’t pronounce or understand. This supposedly boosts

Midweek Mingle

I went to the weekly MeetUp tonight at a bar called The National, which is in an old bank and looks like this: I met a woman who spent her career working as some kind of tax auditor, but now works in the bakery at Sainsbury’s--a really nice grocery

Homebase

I had lunch yesterday with an old school friend who had come to Belfast to drop her nephew off at the airport. She has spent her adult life in England and is now in the process of moving back to Derry. She’s trying to right herself after going through

Gimmick

I remember a book (that became a film) about a woman who decided to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook and write a blog about it. At the time, there was a spate of similar books. A writer comes up with a gimmick and turns it

Toni Erdmann

After a hard day’s work on the house, David and I went to see not one but TWO films at Queen’s Film Theatre. The first, referenced above, was a German comedy about a man in his early 60s, I’m guessing, trying to connect with his daughter, a

Throwback

Today I made progress on one job: painting the hallway. It took so much out of me that I didn’t make progress on another job that’s been hanging fire: assembling favourite photos. I have a suitcase full of old photos to go through and I can never seem

Butternut squash

I rarely cook. My New Year’s resolution was once/week. I’m not sure that I’m quite making it. It depends on how you define cook. I guess if you count salads, soups, and roast veg I am. My idea of cooking is something that involves a recipe

Weebly

I’ve spent the last month designing a new website for Preventable Surprises. After a few false starts, I used a site called Weebly--the young woman who is helping me out said it’s a better platform than WordPress, which our existing site uses. I’ve had no direction from

Babs

Tonight the book club discussed a book I recommended, Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. I love this book because it has three strong female protagonists. One is a forest warden, one a farm wife, and one an orchardist and beekeeper. All three fight against farmers and hunters who use guns

Home

The Seamus Heaney museum is in Bellaghy, where he grew up. It celebrates the connection between his home turf and his poetry. When you enter the museum you get this little audio thingie that you can punch a number into and then hear Heaney read each poem. It’s a

Dearest Derry

Today was beautiful and sunny. I walked along the Foyle then went to mass at St. Eugene’s Cathedral, which I’d never been in before. Here’s an internet photo of the interior: It was a strange service. No hymns. There was a tenor soloist who sang two songs.

What’s the bars, hey?

That’s how you’d say “what’s up” in Derry. I walked along the Foyle this morning with Julie and her dogs. We saw Camp Jack under the Foyle bridge, a caravan that is hq for search teams looking for Jack Glenn, a handsome young man who walked into

St. Columb’s Cathedral

This morning I finished my second edit of the Japanese competitive law article then hit the road for Derry, a half hour later than I had expected. I picked up Mary Richmond, a friend of my mom's, then we went to visit Biddy Walker, who lives in a

Humble Pie, part two

My choir sings one song per service. We’ve practiced that song several times and I know the alto part fairly well, basically through memorisation. I can see that the notes on the page go up and down, but I can’t look at a note and know how it

Humble Pie, part one

One of my professors from Queen’s, Marek Martyniszyn, asked me to proofread a paper he plans to publish in the International & Comparative Law Quarterly. The pay isn’t great, but it’s kind of fun to reconnect with black letter law--now that I’ve put more than a

Symphonic delights

Today I met Ann O’Dwyer for lunch followed by the Ulster Orchestra’s lunchtime concert, which lasts less than an hour. Three pieces of between 10 and 20 minutes each. Just right for my constitution. Here’s a few cool things about the concerts: They are packed. They cost

Petrol

My biggest complaint about living here? When you get petrol, you can’t pay at the pump. You have to go into the store and wait in a queue to pay a cashier. I guess that’s their clever way to make you buy candy bars. Still and all, if

Get the job done

In November, I painted the downstairs hallway and one side of the upstairs hallway. I’d like to paint the other side of the upstairs hallway. This weekend I faced up to the implications of doing that. 1. clean the mouldings. 2. spackle and sand the mouldings and clean them

The Meaning of Work

I wrote recently of what a struggle it is for me to work by myself in a bedroom office every day (I’m supposed to work only three days but I can’t seem to get enough hours in on any one day, so I seem to work four or

10X9

Last night was the 10X9 storytelling event. The theme was Final Frontier and, as usual, it was fascinating to see all the directions people went in. Two told of the difficulty of getting pregnant. Incredibly intimate stories. One man, my favourite storyteller, started with: “70, 76. Those were our numbers.