Tick tock

I arrived in Belfast on time at 9 a.m. today (4 a.m. EST). After a groggy day of reading literature from Queen's University, David took me out for a wonderful meal at the Jamaica Inn on the Belfast Lough. Then I slept the sleep of the dead.

My trip was made more stressful by my traveling companion. In my carry-on bag, swaddled in a new set of sheets and a blanket, was the Victorian clock below, which my parents bought in Derry in the 1970s. My parents bought lots of clocks when they lived in Ulster and my mom is OK with me repatriating one of them.

When the TSA agent saw what was in my bag, the whole TSA staff in the Parkersburg airport came to ooh and aah over it. Thankfully, she cleared it, and all I had to do was fight off gate agents who wanted to take it from me and check it on two of the flights. We made it and I'm really looking forward to putting it on the mantel in our new house.

9/16