NorthDownMuse

Marathon

David and I began the day by moving furniture from room to room to clear out the guest bedroom. Heavy furniture. Then I painted the kitchen and David painted the guest bedroom. Then to hardware store to buy more paint. Then we watched Doc Martin, Foyle's War and

Poor David

David moved to the U.S. in the 1980s during the reign of Margaret Thatcher, whom he despised. He felt the Tories ruined everything that was good about Great Britain. One way to understand this is to understand how much he loves trains. Thatcher dismantled the British rail system and

Inspired

I was on campus much of the day and took a break at the new graduate centre, formerly the university library. Check it out [http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/graduateschool/PostgraduateCommunity/TheGraduateSchool/] by visiting the link. I've never read a Harry Potter book, but I imagine this

Waste not

Today Mr. McPherson laid down the wood laminate floor in the living and dining room. It looks great--along with the freshly painted walls, ceiling, and trim boards. Photos to follow once we've moved a few things into the room from the conservatory. In the meantime, I've

Voltaire

When I make my way from the bathroom back to my seat at the library, I often glance at the books on the shelves. I sometimes feel I'd be more interested in reading just about anything I see rather than ploughing through my assignments. The other day I

Fine Irish writing

Today I am writing about the LIBOR scandal and there is nothing fine about my writing. That is why I distract myself with the good stuff. Not whiskey, but the likes of Colm Toibin, Bernard McLaverty, and, currently, Sebastian Barry. Here is how fine he is, describing a priest attending

God, guns, gays, flags, parades

I was a political science double major long, long ago, and provide the following insight, informed by my decades-old degree. I don't think people in the Bible belt or in rural America or in blue collar suburbs wake up in a sweat over whether liberals are going to

Religious objection

Today is Day Three of painting (photo below). Yesterday, I took a break and visited my friend David, whose table was stacked high with political flyers (we have an election next week). His partner is a mail carrier and the carriers assemble their own mail. So if you have six

Health care in U.S. vs U.K.

I walk eight minutes from my house to the doctor's office. My appointment is at 9 a.m. I arrive a few minutes early--this is my first time at this practice and I figure there will forms to fill out. There are no forms. I see the doctor

I survived!

April was a cruel month for me. But I passed my driving test. I researched and wrote 40 or so fund performance commentaries in my freelance gig. I turned in four research papers at Queen's. I researched and gave a presentation, complete with executive summary and slides for

The Weather

Stuart McPherson will be installing our wood-laminate floor. Typical Ulster man. The store where we bought the floor ("The Wooden Floor Store") said it would cost 230 pounds to install the floor and they referred us to Stuart. When he measured the rooms, he said he'd

FWP Part 2

Totally into the acronyms. This is First World Problem, Part 2. Part 1 told the sad tale of us picking a tweed-covered sofa that was difficult to match with chairs/wall colour/rug in the palette I was going for. I was going to change to Moon's wool

HB2M

Happy Birthday to Me! I'm now 53. I'm tired of writing I want to be free. I got up at 4:30 this morning to finish a 2,700 word paper (with dozens of footnotes) and write a 500-word version of said paper. Both due by

AARP

I'm using this acronym to denote the Aspin Approach to Researching Papers, illustrated below. (note my goofy computer turned everything backwards) 1. Read anything and everything you can find on your topic, including the footnotes of the articles footnoted in the first round of articles you read. 2.

Roses

My godmother is Rosemary Casey McMunigal, my mother's older sister. To say I adore her is an understatement. She retired in Media after a 50-year law career in Chester, Springfield and Media, practicing with her husband, Uncle Phil. She was active in a long string of causes revolving

Zurich

Today's big news is I got a scholarship to attend a two-week business and human rights program in Zurich this summer. I'm not jumping up and down. This is partly because it is more work. It's intense, there's an exam, all-day workshops,

Commute

When I first switched from taking the train to the bus, I complained about it. I'm adapted now and it doesn't bother me. The 20-minute walk from Donegall Square downtown to Queen's helps me get some fresh air before I sit and study all

Spinning

I have a paper due Monday on a topic I know little about. Today I felt like I was jumping from place to place trying desperately to find things to put together for a paper and getting nowhere. I had a plumber at the house this morning then ran a

Casting my vote

There's an election coming up for members of parliament. Northern Ireland sends something like 9 MPs to the London parliament. I stopped in at an MP's office and learned that, on my spouse visa, I'm allowed to vote in local council elections, assembly elections

Heat Wave

So hard to study when it's so nice outdoors. David went to see his sister and her family in Sheffield this weekend returning home tonight. I was too freaked out about deadlines to take the weekend off. They all went hiking in Sherwood Forest, where they saw the

Get into the groove

Last night I was supposed to go to a ska dance party downtown. But a week ago I went to an 80s dance night and learned about the drawbacks of indulging my need to get my groove on (at 80s night, they played Madonna's Get Into the Groove,

First World Problem

Ever since I heard that phrase, I feel like my life is just a series of FWPs, which makes it harder to take myself seriously now that I'm not working or volunteering (and I am aware how working and volunteering lets you sew a tapestry of meaningfulness with

The cost of money

I went to an ATM in Belfast recently and got 100 pounds out of my bank account in the U.S. and 100 pounds out of my U.S. credit union account. I balanced my checkbook yesterday and saw that the bank charged me $153.74 for that transaction vs.

Catch up

I have survived the driving test and the 49 quarterly commentaries. Before I dive into the Queen's deadlines, I spent today catching up on e-mails and phone calls. I took three rugs to Ross Auctions that don't work in this house; Oxfam came and collected a

Relatively speaking

My predecessors are Irish on all sides: Casey, Riley, McGovern, McLaughlin. I guess it's not a surprise then that I'm constantly seeing people who look just like my relatives. I've recently "seen" a cousin, an aunt, and--yesterday--my grandfather! I was sitting at