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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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
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’
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.
Wintry hike & songs I like My friend Bobbi complains when I don’t upload photos so here’s one from a few weeks ago hiking in the Mournes. I returned from the U.S. on January 1 armed with Singing the Living Tradition, the UU hymnal. I’m not a fan of the archaic hymns
H is for Harsh I joined a book club through MeetUp that meets one Sunday night a month. At the January meeting, the group agreed to read H is for Hawk on my suggestion. Maybe 14 people attended tonight’s meeting. I’d say three people hated the book and made no bones about
Amnesty has issues I spent all day Saturday at another conference, this one hosted by Amnesty International, which stays very busy in Northern Ireland. The four areas of focus: Reproductive rights. Abortion in Northern Ireland is governed by a law from 1861 criminalising the provision of abortion. Pro-choice advocates don’t even
Last London photos The other thing I think London does well is mix modern architecture among traditional streetscapes. All of these shots are near Liverpool Street Station, from where I departed by bus to Stansted airport. There’s the Gherkin photobombing my shot. 2-5
London Bridge is NOT falling down If I were to share one conference highlight, it is this conundrum. The greatest financing needs to meet climate change challenges are in developing countries. The money available to finance green bonds is in developed countries. Risk-averse bond investors have to overcome a triple crown of risk: currency risk,
Paternoster Square I’m not going to bore you with the four hours of presentations or the hour of green awards. Instead, here’s a green bus I saw on the way to the conference: Here’s a sculpture near St. Paul’s Cathedral. The conference was held at the London Stock