Gang blogging

When I bought a new bike after my old bike was crushed in a car accident, I learned about gang shifting. You can move up or down several gears quickly without going from gear to gear.

So this is a gang blog entry.
Saturday--edited a newsletter for the asylum seekers organisation.
Sunday--carol service at church, which was fantastic. Tapas gathering at Ann O’Dwyer’s in the evening, where the talk was all about the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal (addressed previously).
Monday--house chores.
Tuesday--Preventable Surprises. I popped in to talk to Fay next door. She said only four people out of 20 made it to her choir rehearsal. There is a wicked cold going around and a lot of people, including Fay and Michael, have it.
Wednesday--I worked only in the morning and went shopping in the afternoon for Christmas presents. The cold has left me weeks behind on shopping. David leaves tomorrow for the states, so I’m sending him with presents for my nieces. I left the car in East Belfast, walked into city centre, walked up to Queen’s, walked back to the car. That’s maybe 90 minutes of walking (excluding standing around and shuffling through St. George’s Market and Victoria Station mall), but I got three presents I’m excited about. Then drove to Hollywood to collect another present. Then drove to Bangor for cat food and cat litter, getting caught in three distinct traffic jams on the way. My next pets will eat grocery store pet food, not the food you have to drive a half hour for, FFS. Absolutely exhausted when I got home.
Thursday--Took David into town to catch the bus to Dublin, from where he’ll fly to the U.S. for Christmas with his kids. Worked on PS stuff all day--researching whether there’s a net job loss or job gain from transitioning from dirty energy to renewables. My friends David and Stuart came over to see the new yellow hallway. We chatted for 2.5 hours--I find when you have social calls here, allow plenty of time.
Friday--Joe and Carlos arrive tomorrow from the states so today is about getting the house tidied and groceries bought. I’m really bad at planning meals for multiple people. I can get by on soup and peanut butter and jelly, but you want to up your game a bit for guests. Except I don’t have a game to up when it comes to the kitchen.
As I walked back to East Belfast after shopping Wednesday, I took this photo from the Albert Bridge of the Lagan River.

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