NorthDownMuse

Two years-ish

Somewhere around two years ago, I worked my last day at Vanguard. Fifteen years of meetings and projects and goals and writing and more meetings and more drafts and rounds and rounds of edits--it all seems very far away now. In the intervening two years, I’ve: Moved to an

Hail Cesar!

We saw this film today and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It takes place on a movie lot in the 1950s and you see parts of five films being made, one the epic Roman film of the title; another involving synchronised swimming; third with a fantastic dance number a la Gene

Triathlon

Not really, but today had three distinct parts--each very tiring. First came a 5K run at Stormont as part of the weekly ParkRun program. I came 69th out of 142 people in my first ParkRun a few weeks ago and today I came 40th out of 124 people in my

Time management

I find that one of the hardest things about being unemployed is managing my time. Every day, my choices are: Search for a job. Work on the office (paint, find furniture, wallpaper). Read one of two book club books. Find a recipe, get groceries, make a meal. Read up on

Numinous

Today I took the bus downtown to have lunch with two friends and hear the Ulster Orchestra’s lunchtime concert. Here’s the view from the bus stop: I think I said something the other day about enjoying the frequent sight of green hills rising around Belfast, the bowl-bottom city.

Super Tuesday

I fell in love once. He had it all. Smart, charismatic, good looking, idealistic, a do-er. When he talked about the future, I believed every word he said. Anything was possible. I would have followed him to the ends of the earth. In fact, I did go to Iowa for

Leap day

On the way home from church yesterday, I stopped at the hardware store and bought two cans of paint, one for a wall and the other for trim. A week or so ago, I bought wallpaper for the other three walls. I’ve begun the process of cleaning and prepping

An entertaining weekend

Last night I went to a bar called the Empire to hear a band called the Black Market Icons. Unfortunately there were boxing matches on before and after their performance, which lasted only a half hour. The band recommenced after a 12-round fight in which local boy Carl Frampton won

The Lovely Mournes

It was a lovely day for a hike--chilly but clear. Here we are heading up to the second reservoir. Here’s David on Ben Crom dam. Lunchtime. There were 10 of us on the hike. One more. 2-27

Bigger Splash

We saw this film tonight, partly due to my loyalty to Tilda Swinton and partly due to my crush on Matthias Schoenaerts. It was a taut drama involving Tilda’s character's ex-boyfriend (played by Ralph Fiennes) showing up uninvited, upsetting her current boyfriend, played by Schoenaerts. When Matthias’

Midweek Mingle

MeetUp.com is a way people connect with each other to go to films, theatre, concerts, etc. Every Wednesday is the Midweek Mingle, at a different pub each week. I’ve been to maybe two or three. Last night's meeting was at the John Hewitt, a pub named

Fay’s Folly

My neighbour Fay very kindly clipped a newspaper ad placed by the Human Rights Commission in Northern Ireland, which has four positions open. Given that my degree is in human rights and given that I want to be involved in an organisation working on justice issues, this seemed like a

FFx3

Today I went to three lectures: Positive Investment (how do we steer our investments toward positive ends), QUB FF (Queen’s University Belfast Fossil Free campaign), and Fossil Free Faith, a discussion among liberal Christians of the proper response to climate change. One of the speakers was from Oikocredit a

Blogged down

Back when I thought I was doing a good job on the blog, I would write every day about some small observation that generated a (sometimes) interesting insight. Now I write several entries at a time, usually backdating them a week or more. I look at my Google calendar to

Educating Rita

Today David & I saw Educating Rita at the Lyric, rewritten to take place in Belfast in the 1980s. Rita’s accent, so thick it could slice cheese, was terrific. Irish idiom is very rich and the script was rotten with Belfast bon mots. After that matinee, I went to

Introvert alert

I met in the morning with Andrew McMurray, a young engineer who is building wind turbine and solar co-operatives in Northern Ireland. Then I met with Kevin Donnelly, the director of the Belfast office for Trociare, the development arm of the Catholic church in Ireland. Neither of these have led

Catholic or Protestant?

I think it’s funny how--in trying to solve a problem--we often make it worse. For instance, Catholics have historically faced employment discrimination in Ulster. The solution? Ask job applicants whether they are Protestant or Catholic. The reasoning is in Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which "

Maynooth University

So today I went to Maynooth University, which is west of Dublin, for a conference on Ireland’s fossil fuel strategy. I mainly went to hear Mark Campanale, founder of Carbon Tracker Initiative and climate change rock star. I didn’t beg him for a job, but I chatted with

Alto angst

Monday is choir practice. I don’t read music so I sing the alto part either by memorising the alto melody or by leaning toward my fellow altos to try to match their notes. Sometimes the harmony is intuitive--I know when to go up or down and by how much.

A Swedish Valentine

I’ve been to Ikea twice recently and it looks like I have one more trip to go. We also made two trips to the hardware store today--how is that for romance? We’re trying to sort out the kitchen. In this photo from last year (which is reversed b/

Run Casey Run

The headline is an homage to Run Lola Run, one of my favourite films. I ran a 5K today--the first time since my accident in 2008 that I’ve run competitively. But competitively may not be the right word. Parkrun is a volunteer organisation that hosts 5K runs at 9:

From gasworks to wind farms

More gasworks photos. I like this melding of old and new architecture. The bridge is over the railroad tracks. I don’t know what the significance is of the metal sculpture on the bridge, but it’s cool. Funny what 60 seconds’ difference can make to the exposure. Yesterday I

PwC

Last week in London I heard a speaker from PriceWaterhouse Coopers. He’s in the sustainability and climate change division and he’s doing some very interesting work around the globe. I stupidly didn’t talk to him during the social hour--there was always someone else talking to him and

Another bloody book club

I’m in two book clubs--gets me out of the house. Today’s was my church club and the book was A Delicate Truth by John LeCarre. I had never read a LeCarre novel and I enjoyed the fast-paced drama and the clever dialogue. The book had it’s flaws

Spotlight

Excellent, excellent film. I highly recommend it. I was once an investigative reporter, I was once an altar girl. This film hit me on so many levels. The priest I served under never physically abused me but he was a miserable person and told me I was stupid--during mass. You