NorthDownMuse

Running on empty

If I write two weeks of blog posts today, I’ll be caught up. That won’t happen, but I’ll try. Each will be written as if it were in real time. I’ve had a sore throat for two days. I decided to do the Park Run 5K

Process Princess

I spent an hour on the phone today with the woman I replaced at Preventable Surprises. P.S. really wanted to hire a process person to help them with their website, their online dialogues, and their fundraising. An organisation of two highly functioning and fast-moving leaders needs someone to keep

Clear and Elegant

I spent Tuesday through Thursday editing documents for my new boss, Raj Thamotheram. He’s a visionary, extremely intelligent, and a maverick--however his thinking gets ahead of his writing. Some of his pieces read like a mind dump. So I reorganise and finesse them, send them back, he fiddles with

10 things I don’t miss about America

1. Litter. 2. Bumperstickers. 3. Billboards. 4. TV presenters. 5. TV commercials. 6. SUVs. 7. Heavily air-conditioned buildings. 8. Aggressive drivers. 9. American sports. 10. Strip malls. 11. Plastic bags. I know I went one over, but that gives me an excuse to include a recent article from The Guardian:

Memories

I exchanged letters with an old friend this week and I enjoyed reminiscing with her about people we worked with at a newspaper in the early 1990s. One of them, Dan Margolies, explained to me when the word “however” takes a comma and when it doesn’t. I don’t

Even more Tolleymore

This bridge was built in 1787. Apparently this is one of the most painted scenes in Ireland (maybe Northern Ireland). You can see why. The view downriver: The view into the river: 8/1

More Tolleymore

Last year when my friend Kyle visited, we hiked at Tolleymore Forest. David hadn’t been, so we went today, hiking about eight miles. I liked two sections--the parts in the forest and at the edge of the forest where you see the Mournes. I wasn’t as keen on

On Being

Last week’s posts were pretty negative (credit card problems, eye makeup rant, bonfire rant). I am not a full-time curmudgeon. And I do get out of the house to do interesting things occasionally. Like Thursday night I went to the Mac Theatre to see Krista Tippett, of the PBS

Honest work

I worked Monday through Wednesday for Preventable Surprises and spent most of Thursday and Friday reporting and writing an article for ESG Magazine in London, while also editing a few pieces for Preventable Surprises. In other words, I worked a full week. The last time I did that--nearly eight hours

Feel the Burn, Part Two

While I’m revisiting former posts, I thought I’d include some photos I found of this year’s Eleventh Night bonfires. In a July 12 post, I was ranting about the stupidity of having thousands of these fires in a time when each country is meant to be sharply

Surrender

I know I should shut up already about my failed attempts to set up an automated payment of my credit card. I rallied to try again today (fourth try). The Citadel site lets me select an amount to pay and a date to pay. It doesn’t allow me to

The eyes have it

Assuming it’s OK to be grumpy on a Monday--safe assumption? I’m going to whine about eye makeup. I’ve noticed that eye makeup has become very complicated since the blue powder of my youth. I’m not sure how this is done but my guess is it’s

On yer bike

I’m skipping Friday & Saturday as I don’t recall doing anything worth reporting. Today (Sunday) however, David and I cycled along Strangford Lough to a restaurant called Daft Eddy’s. I try to express gratitude for all the joys in my life and I am grateful that I

Photographic evidence

One more photo from Derry. I noticed on Facebook last weekend that Moira’s photos were brighter than mine. She was using her phone while I was using a digital camera. I had her take a photo of me with my phone and, sure enough, it’s brighter than the

An exciting development

A week and a half ago, I had two interviews. They couldn’t have been more different. Standard Life, an asset manager in Edinburgh, wanted to know about my experience writing about different asset classes for different audiences. Preventable Surprises, a London-based campaign working on aligning corporations with the climate

Radical transformation

One of the things that makes Derry such a beautiful city is the waterfront, which had been a commercial port back when I lived there in the 70s. Today it has two marinas; this is the view from Queen’s Quay: It also has a series of apartment buildings and

Foyle flotilla part two

I’m continuing with yesterday’s photos... The people on this boat paid 5,000 pounds for the pleasure of raising and lowering sails and being in close quarters with a dozen people all the way to Holland, the next stop on the clipper race. I meanwhile made a contribution

Foyle flotilla

Today’s adventure: Julie’s son Ronnie took me, his aunt Moira, his grandmother, and his grandmother’s sister up Lough Foyle from Derry to the mouth of the Foyle, where it opens into the North Channel leading to the Atlantic ocean. Here are the clipper ships in an S

A Legenderry Day

I went back to Derry today for another round of maritime revelry, taking the bus this time instead of the train. Here are the 12 clipper ships I mentioned last week. I talked to a crew member from one boat and he said crew pay 5,000 pounds per leg

Cabin Fever

David has been away all week at a painting class in the Wicklow Mountains so I don’t have a car. Most of the week has been rainy, so I haven’t been anywhere. Yesterday was nice but I managed to squander the day talking to customer service representatives and

"For your convenience"

Warning: Rant to follow. The point of the rant is why oh why oh why is it so difficult to do the simplest things? How is it that technology has become the bugbear of our lives? This post lays out a pesky customer service issue and the moral dilemmas therein.

Julianna

For the last two years I lived in the U.S., I helped a young woman from the Ivory Coast learn English. I actually don’t think I helped her much with her English, but I did help her buy a computer and learn how to use it. And I

Feel the burn

So last night was Eleventh Night, when massive, fuck-you-climate-change bonfires are lit all over Northern Ireland. This is supposedly to celebrate King Billy’s victory over King Charles in 1690 (i.e. the beginning of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, when Irish people lost most of their rights). It’s

Smile pretty

I had two Skype interviews today. One with two people in Edinburgh that lasted 45 minutes and another with two people in London that lasted 90 minutes. Imagine trying to stay on your toes that long, having quick, thoughtful, revealing but not too revealing answers to each of the dozens

Derry Day

I learned that the train to Derry is 7 pounds roundtrip on Sundays--normally more like 22. So I went to Derry for the day today. The clipper yachts are in town, so there’s a maritime festival on. These ocean racing yachts are very sleek modern affairs with a crew