NorthDownMuse

Imagine!

Imagine Belfast is an annual festival of ideas, with panels, films, performances exploring all kinds of issues. I went to six events. First on Monday was comparing the peace in Northern Ireland to the peace brokered in the Balkans, where the civil war was ended just a few years earlier.

Top of the world

Friday morning, St. Paddy's day, I took my own wee saint Paddy to Helen's Bay for a swim. I'd say 10-12 swimmers in during my visit (out of shot to the left). I met with my architect and learnt my planned extension (to replace

Snow!

I got mom to the airport in Dublin Thursday morning under a very low sky and sleeting rain. She left at a good time. It snowed Thursday afternoon and through the night. So I had a lovely walk on the golf course on Friday. I spent the day cleaning floors

The last week: Tea and more tea

My friends who wanted to have mom around for tea during her visit have realised time is running out, given we are in the final stretch of her visit. So she was busy during her last week here. March 1, tea and buns with Fiona down the street in her

Groomsport & Donaghadee

Sundays go like this for me. Walk the dog. Get breakfast sorted for mom and then get her into a neighbour's car for mass. Then to the golf club for 9 holes, more if I can fit it in. Then home and take mom somewhere lovely. Today we

Hitting the links

A quick round-up of our time since Tenerife. We don't do much Mon-Thurs when I'm working. The weekend after we returned, we had a visit to Newtownards on the Friday, lunch at the very traditional Knott's Bakery and a look around the very traditional

La Caleta

Our last full day in Tenerife I had to work, which meant focusing on statistical stuff from 6:30 to 2:30 pm then getting a taxi to La Caleta, our destination for Monday. We started at Restaurant La Caleta. Here's mom enjoying the view. I just happen

Playa Las Americas

Today we took a taxi to the beach named above. On this volcanic island, most of the beaches are black, like this one. Mom had her rollator and we went quite a ways along the promenade--which had the beach on one side and bars/sourvenir shops/hotels on the other.

Cruising

Today (Thursday) we took a dolphin cruise, during which we saw lots of pilot whales, which feed on squid in the strait off the island. Also, a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins swimming and skipping alongside the boat. This is the view looking back to Puerto Colon. It was a

Ten in Tenerife

As in ten photos. The first is from above Tenerife as we flew in on Tuesday and saw Mt. Teide peeking through the clouds. We had a few glitches during transport and getting settled in our room. In short, Jet2Holidays is not on top of the needs of elderly travellers.

Cyprus Avenue

Highlight of last weekend was lunch on Saturday with Ann O'Dwyer, who lives maybe 20 minutes away. She is just returned from a few months in Nicosia, where her partner is working on the Turkish side (it's a divided city and island, with Greece controlling the

Not staying put

While mom and I didn't go on our respective trips, we did make the most of our time at home. Friday we ran a few errands then explored the shops in Holywood and had lunch at the Camphill Cafe. We did a big shop at Tesco Extra, the

Best laid plans

Sunday morning another lovely breakfast--salmon for mom--then we visited the People's Park near the hotel. I regret not photographing the food--gorgeous pastries both French and English inspired. I bought a few books (because the stacks of unread books I own aren't high enough) then I had

Dun Laoghaire

Recent highlights: Mom had lunch at the golf club on Thursday with Eddis and Thea, who kept mom well entertained with tales of travelling to Syria, Pakistan and other Stans. While they lunched, I played golf for an hour and 10 minutes--a real luxury as the course was closed last

Seamus Heaney Homeplace

The past week has been a bit busier. Tuesday was our second swim at Lisnasharragh. Wednesday mom had a steakburger at the golf club--meat is something she gets only at restaurants as I would not be keen to buy or cook it. Thursday was lunch at the Stormont Hotel hosted

Settling in

First week of the year is closing. All good so far. Mom spends a good amount of time reading (Richard Osman's third mystery ATM) and at night we watch TV. Graham Norton, Escape to the Chateau, Love it or List it among the selections. I worked Tues-Thurs, however

Homeward bound

Dec. 30 was heading home day. After more phone chats with Emily, Bobbi, Dara, Julianna and Lola in recent days and lots of packing/repacking and cleaning and prepping a house for 2.5 months of vacancy... we hit the road. Mom's wonderful friend Janey not only drove

Parkersburg, WV

The trip over was unremarkable. I always am amazed when I reach my final destination on queue because so many things can go wrong. Not long after I traveled, 2000 flights were canceled due to cold weather. I wrapped one batch of presents for nephews and nieces and took it

Pre-departure

One of my pre-departure accomplishments. From this: To this: New cozy bedding for mom, quilt hung to cover thin wood doors into crawl space, and black plastic behind the doors. I have insulation left over from the big attic that will go into this smaller crawl space when I can

Dizzy December

It is full on. Today is 13 Dec. Since last I wrote--a lot of golf, a lot of Christmas shopping, 30 Christmas cards written, visits with friends, on and on. I visit city centre more in December than I do the rest of the year. I now have 15 of

D-i-v-o-r-c-e

Dolly--you have to love her. No really, you HAVE to. Everyone loves her. So today was the day. David moved out in July 2020, which meant we could apply for divorce two years later. It then took five months to get a court date--today. David had already signed the papers.

Losses, gains

Lately my focus has been on making the house warmer. Partly due to a November heating bill of 222 pounds. My monthly bill was 48 pounds two years ago. Thanks Russia! But I also need the house to be cozier when mom visits in January and February. To that end,

Black Friday

I've been getting black Friday sales ads for weeks, which is annoying b/c it isn't black Friday yet and we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. But this weekend my Christmas shopping began. I leave for the US in less than a month and I&

Joe North

My old friend Joe Hand visited this week and, when Friday arrived, we headed north to Donegal. We unloaded the car at the house in Creeslough then went to Downings beach. On the way we stopped for a photo of Doe Castle, renamed Joe Castle this weekend. It is barely

Derry Girls

Friday morning I played golf at 8:30 a.m. by myself--my first time using the mats that are required throughout the winter. I'm in a winter league--actually I'm captain of one of the 7 teams–and I have to get in a minumum of 8,