NorthDownMuse

Copeland Islands II

So I played hookie from two services at church today, including the Transgendered Day of Remembrance. I feel pretty badly about not joining the choir for the Remembrance service. I skipped out for the LAME-est of reasons. I had proposed two songs for the service, both very appropriate and very

Copeland Islands

Tomorrow, I will hop on a boat with my hiking and photography group to take a walk around the largest of the Copeland Islands, off of Donaghadee. Given that I’m constantly playing catchup, I’ll begin posting photos today of tomorrow’s trip. Here’s the view from our

For a good cause...

Children In Need is a big annual national appeal, when a lot of creative fundraisers are held to provide funding for programs that serve children with special challenges (poverty, handicap, etc.). My favourite radio station had an auction today with a lot of enticing goodies. Tickets to Cold Play, for

Storehouse

This week I’ve been working on case studies of utilities that are transitioning to a low-carbon business model. More interesting than it sounds. Did you know that Denmark is the world leader in building offshore wind parks? I wrote earlier that the average European uses 6000 watts of power

Time management

Since I took my job in July, my time mainly has been split between four activities: working cleaning house watching TV looking at Facebook That’s a very bad mix for me. Missing: Regular exercise Reading books Cooking proper food Socialising In the past two weeks, I’ve gone to

Rich idiom

One of the things I loved about living in Derry in my youth was all of the colourful phrases. I still get a tickle out of a colourful turn of phrase. I’d like to capture some today, however I’ll barely scratch the surface. To save time, I won’

Queen’s tours

The girls took two tours of Queen’s, a subject tour (chemistry for Maisie, archaeology for Ella) and then a campus tour. My job was to get them to the right places at the right times and collect them in time to get them to the airport for their 4

Coasting

Maisie lives in Sheffield, which isn’t near the sea, and she’s a big fan of coastal areas. The girls spent the morning at St. George’s Market and Victoria Square--an urban shopping centre--while I was at church, then I took them to Donaghadee for lunch, with a great

Frenzy

I spent the morning cleaning. After a week of sanding, there’s a layer of dark grit everywhere (you can see that the white stairs are brown). My niece and her friend arrive tonight, so I also needed to get the guest room spit spot. I spent the afternoon walking

How we will trump Trump

I sent a newsletter today with the above subject line to nearly 500 environmentalists, investors, academics, authors, etc. who follow our work. I also elevated four articles to our website--a productive day. One was a message from our chair, Carolyn Hayman. She’s a really good writer and she’s

No pain, no gain

I’ve been to the pool twice this week and I’m absolutely loving the feeling of getting back in shape. I feel like swimming allows all the muscles, tendons, fascia, bones etc. to get knitted together properly, leaving a body not as vulnerable to injury as when the connective

Joe & Peter

My friend Joe, who will be visiting at Christmas with his partner Carlos, swung through town today with his dad, Peter. I consider Joe the brother I never had so now I have met my fantasy dad as well. He’s absolutely adorable. He gave me hugs and said “God

Trump triumphs

I always write my posts days or weeks after the posted date. So I know how things went “today.” I was a Bernie supporter who voted for Hillary given the alternative. Towards the end of the race, I got caught up in the Hillary hype on Facebook. When she lost,

More mature than I realised

I joined my local leisure centre on Friday (weight room, pool, badminton, fitness classes). Today I had an appointment to be shown the gym equipment by a young man, making sure I knew how to work the exercise bike, weight machines, etc. I filled out a form at the beginning

Meet Up

I went to a Meet Up last night--“Mature Cheddar”--a disco where they play 80s and 90s music. I feel a little silly dancing in a nightclub at my age, however I enjoy dancing and being out on a Saturday night with other mature people who like to dance--makes

Hitting the Wall

I got up at 4:30 this morning to take David to the airport. He’s spending the next month working on an organic farm in Italy. He’ll stay at a lovely villa, eat excellent food, work four hours a day, and spend the rest of the time painting

United Airlines

There is one daily flight between Belfast and Newark airport. It is offered by United Airlines. United has told the Northern Ireland government that it is losing money on the flight. To keep it from pulling out, NI offered a 9 million pound, three-year package. One year into the package,

Turning over a new leaf

Since I’ve lived here, I’d say my diet has deteriorated because I’m too lazy to cook and it’s expensive to eat out. So I take shortcuts and, as a vegetarian, that will catch up to you. I also haven’t had an exercise regimen for a

Diagnosis

For the past three months, I have been sick about as much time as I’ve been well. Congestion, headaches, coughing. I thought maybe I have bronchitis or some chronic illness requiring that I do something other than suck on lozenges. I rarely got sick in the states, so I

Her Majesty

Tonight I watched a TV programme called Pride of Britain Awards. It was very inspiring--young people raising money for research, a man who pulled a woman from a burning car, a man who lives on an island in the Orkneys and runs the firetruck, the air traffic control, the taxi,

Legenderry Halloween

I headed to Derry midmorning and spent the afternoon walking around the city with my friend Julie. The atmosphere was festive and the city looked great. Julie took this photo of me on the city walls: Because I have a leather jacket, cowboy boats, and black pants, I decided I’

I, Daniel Blake

I got home from London Saturday morning, planning to pack a new bag and go to Derry for the weekend. USA Today declared Derry the best place in the world to celebrate Halloween. Instead, I got in bed Saturday morning and stayed there much of the day. Congestion, coughing, etc.

Salvage

The breakfast meeting was a success. The woman who ran the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility for more than a decade in the U.S. was there--she’s well connected with shareholder activists in the states, so that’s good. There were some energy analysts who work at asset managers--we

Energy, No Energy

Preventable Surprises is hosting a breakfast meeting tomorrow so most of my day centred around preparations for it. Tonight, my hostess, Carolyn, had a woman over for dinner whom she connected with through a mutual acquaintance. Our guest, Catherine Mitchell, is a professor at Exeter University and apparently is a

Cats and dogs

Today it took only four hours door to door from my house to Raj’s flat in London. It’s taken seven hours in the past. This time I flew out of Belfast City airport, not far from my house, and into London City airport, also closer to Raj’s.