Duck duck goose One of the great things about walking along Belfast Lough is you'll never know what you'll see. Today there were eight Royal Navy ships heading into Belfast harbor. I heard that a cement truck was stopped on Crumlin Road in Belfast because it was feared it
Losing sleep over Downton Abbey A few weeks ago, David and I couldn't sleep, each for our own reasons. He was upset that he had sacrificed an hour of his life watching the first episode this season of Downton Abbey. He wanted that hour back. We had watched it for an hour then
Drone Lately, I've been getting up at 6 a.m., working on quarterly reports for a few hours, reading for an hour, going to class for a few hours, reading for a few hours, going to bed. Since I have nothing interesting to report, I'm going to
Marxism, Feminisim, Utilitarianism We were discussing three critiques of human rights in class today. What was cool was when the two women from Kazakhstan and Lithuania compared notes on the effect of Marxism, and the woman from Sweden discussed abortion rights in her country, and the woman from France discussed corporal punishment in
That's what I'm talking about "Whether progressive efforts to challenge economic arrangements are weakened by the overwhelming strength of the “right to property” in the human rights vocabulary, or by the channelling of emancipatory energy and imagination into the modes of institutional and rhetorical interaction which are described as “public”, the imbalance between civil/
Work and play The morning was work--hours of reading about corporate governance policies. The afternoon was play. We went to a play called Pentecost about four young adults struggling to make it through the strike of 1974, when loyalists brought down the Stormont government over objections to Catholics having any kind of power-sharing
Six years David and I celebrated our anniversary today--we married six years ago. We started with a long walk along Belfast Lough, where we met a Canadian who moved here 30 years ago and his friend, who were walking two labs. Then I got to take a bubble bath with bubbles David
Sticking plaster I listen to BBC Radio Ulster not because I like the music (sometimes country!) but because I love Ulster accents and Ulster idiom. One of the things that cracked me up today was the discussion over how the Ulster government is borrowing $100 million pounds from the U.K. Treasury
Quarterlies I spent most of the day today analyzing fund performance relative to benchmarks and avoiding the trap of confusing relative and absolute performance. This is my quarterly freelance writing gig. Day one went pretty well. One fund down, 30 to go!! 10-9
Ray of light I chose the option that focuses on "Concepts and Institutions" of human rights over the commerce one, which ended up being more about handling trade disputes between private parties rather than about trade policy. The downside of the concepts/institutions class is it is extremely academic--not a real
ex libris I'm taking something like seven classes this semester. It's hard to keep track b/c some are one day (all day), some two-day, some are two hours every week all semester, some are three hours for only two weeks. I'm still not clear about
Helen's Bay I spend a lot of time on the train between Helen's Bay and Queen's University. I'm on the train right now (having figured out how to connect to Translink wifi). Here's our train station (now a salon). And here's our
stress X 3 To recap: Can I learn all the tricks native to any 10-year-old in order to do this degree? Can I plow through readings that are way over my head in the hopes that it all leads somewhere interesting? And, as for stressor No. 3, I worry constantly that, even if
stress X 3 The second thing I'm stressed about is can I do the work? Because I've had SO many problems registering and then changing classes (via two entirely separate systems) once I could actually read the course descriptions, I'm behind in three classes. Each course has
stress X 3 Here are the three things I'm struggling with. 1. Technology. Learning how to use Queen's Online. How to log on when on campus (on MSFT machine with British keyboard) vs. at home (on Mac with U.S. keyboard). How to use my Q drive on campus
Pride We saw Pride tonight. If you blinked, you would have missed that the hero of the film was from Northern Ireland. You would not know, because it wasn't in the film, that he was a communist. That fact was removed so as not to offend American audiences, according
Eenie Meenie I have to choose from among three electives focusing on the laws underpinning human rights, the foundations of environmental law, and the treaties and legal framework governing international commerce. The reading for each class is daunting, as are the essay requirements. My panic attacks are telling me I'm
Hogwarts Today I went to my second wine and hors d'oeuvres reception at Queen's. This one was in the Great Hall. The walls are covered with portraits of famous alumni, such as Seamus Heaney. And other distinguished-looking folk. The vice chancellor went on and on about the
0 to 100 I've been in Northern Ireland on and off since the end of March. Main stressors during that time were making a decision on a house after looking at dozens of houses, and experiencing the loneliness that comes with starting over in a new place. The one friend I&
Talent pool The discussion with Michael Smiley was part of the Aspects writers' festival in Bangor, which highlighted maybe a dozen writers of poetry, journalism, films, and children's books. All of them are from County Down or nearby. At the same time, the Belfast Comedy Festival is on, highlighting
Tyres O'Flaherty One more picture of the walled garden. We returned to a marquee in the walled garden tonight to hear a conversation with the appropriately named Michael Smiley. He spent 10 years in London as a bike courier, then became a successful standup comedian, and now he is an actor in
Zumba I went to a zumba class for the first time in a few months and reminded myself of my clumsiness. In my clubbing days, I fancied myself a good dancer (this was the 80s, when there was lots of great dance music). Now I look in that wall-sized mirror and
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I've been spending some time at the award-winning McClay Library on campus trying to get my laptop and phone set up on Queen's Online. While there, I like to visit the C.S. Lewis Reading Room, which celebrates the Belfast native who brought us the incredible
Scotland and our house In case you were wondering, we converted the rest of our house money from dollars into pounds before the Scottish vote. The pound snapped back a bit in the wake of the no vote, but not much. Still, we could sleep at night knowing that we were not putting our
Annie get your gun When I was in West Virginia recently visiting my mom, I was very aware of how guns permeate every facet of life in the U.S. Here, I've never seen a gun or anything that glorifies guns. In Parkersburg, I went to the mall to get David a