Stag do Last week, police shot and killed a stag that was running around East Belfast. That doesn’t happen every day. I was driving home from the pool--I finally went swimming!!--and I saw a large body on the Comber Greenway, the rail-to-trail path David uses to cycle
Internment My education on Northern Ireland’s horrible history continued today, when Sophie & I went to see another documentary. This one was about the scores of women interned in Armagh Gaol during the Troubles. I knew nothing about this. When I was a teenager, like my peers, I paid little
Don’t fence me in Today was mostly chasing after a puppy and a cat--letting them in and out of different doors. I take Paddy out A LOT to encourage outdoor peeing and pooing. I let Isabelle in and out of various rooms to keep her away from my needle-toothed buddy. She’s
Puppy love OMG he is such a bundle of energy. When you try to fold clothes, he jumps up and bites the legs of the trousers and the arms of the tops. When you try to pick up poo, he’s bouncing around your hands--and stepping in the poo. When you
Happiness is a ball of fur I had a frustrating morning dealing with five documents from PRI (employment, health insurance, beneficiaries for pension and life insurance, new employee form). I was meant to scan all 28 pages (which would take forever on my printer) and then figure out how to assemble each set of pages into
A harried Halloween Nine holes with Marian and Eileen was good crack. We are all well matched and it was very relaxed. I feel under a lot more pressure at Belvoir for some reason--bigger course, golfers more intent on improving. Marian used to be a large animal vet. Now she’s a
Golf Guilt I had this idea that golf courses were a benign use of land. They aren’t as highly manicured here as in the states, so I thought they’d be a carbon sink and possibly provide habitat. When I played at Belvoir last week I noticed two things. A LOT
Bake a Building I went to St. George’s Market today for an event put on by the Ulster Architectural Heritage society. It invited people or groups to bake cakes shaped like famous historical Belfast buildings. This is Stormont House: This is Queen’s University: This is Castle Ward. And the bakers who
The Patriot Game Today I went to see a documentary with my friend Sophie. It was by a man from New Jersey, Arthur MacCaig, who was living in Paris in the late 60s, early 70s. He was so moved by the deplorable conditions faced by the people living in Catholic ghettoes in Northern
Shawcross @ Titanic Today I parked near the Harland and Wolff shipyard and walked to the Titanic Museum. I passed a fairground. It’s in the 50s now, so fairgrounds seem a bit out of place. However, it is half term, so I guess you just bundle up and go on the rides.
I got the job! As dutifully reported, I had a good interview with PRI last week--Principles for Responsible Investment. The job is actually working with the ClimateAction100 campaign, but PRI will provide staff (campaigns often don’t have their own staff but borrow from member organisations). Around 5 pm I got a call
Shankill Road Twenty-five years ago, two members of the Provisional IRA entered a fish shop on the Shankill Road. The plan was to force customers out of the fish shop and detonate a bomb, killing the leaders of the Ulster Defence Association meeting above the fish shop. The UDA was a
The Greens So we had about 45 people at tonight’s Green Party meeting. The first speaker, a Queen’s lecturer on the green economy, was supposed to talk about investing in the green economy. The third speaker, the head of Friends of the Earth in N.I., was meant to talk
The Park Today I worked on my speech for tomorrow night’s Green Party event. So today’s entry is a photo I took recently of Cherryvalley Park, where I live. It’s lovely this time of year. 10-23
Mrs. Robinson Mary Robinson was president of Ireland from 1990-97 and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from then until 2003. She has a new book out called Climate Justice and last night she spoke to a packed audience at Ulster University. She is a wonderful speaker, charming, gracious, very
The passage of time Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mostly involved me sleeping or moping about. I canceled golf on Friday and I didn’t go to Derry on Saturday for an environmental rally. The nice thing about being sick is I take all pressure off myself to be productive. On a normal day, I
Ester A few months ago, I met a young woman in Belfast when I was walking down a street with a painting of David’s looking for the Royal Ulster Academy. David was entering the painting (a landscape he did in France) into an RUA competition and so was the woman,
CA100 Today I had an interview with the Principles for Responsible Investment for a really interesting job as steering committee coordinator for Climate Action 100. I think the interview went well but I’m of two minds about the job. I think Climate Action 100 is an important initiative--dozens of
Jenny & Arabella The reason the Portrush trip was so exhausting for me was that I’m much better one-on-one than in a group. Today I went for a walk with my Green Party secretary friend Jenny, who was also a lecturer at Queen’s before retiring. We walked and talked
It’s a bloody business I went to the doctor last week because I get so many colds. David suggested maybe I have a vitamin deficiency. I love going to the doctor here because it is so simple. You call and make an appointment. You walk into the the waiting room, enter your name on
Walk, Talk, Eat Yesterday, before we drove to Portrush, I went to Gary’s army surplus store in Belfast, where Sheina would collect us. While there I bought a flat cap, which has been popularised by the show Peaky Blinders. Here’s me in the cap. We probably walked for 5-6 miles
Swinging in Portrush I realise that doesn’t sound very good. I went to a swing dance in Portrush tonight with the Swing Belfast crowd. I really enjoyed myself for two reasons. The band was excellent. And I love watching people dance. It’s just such a fun atmosphere. There were a lot
UU at UU Today’s deadline was filling out an application for Ulster University, which is in need of a copywriter. I’ve been impressed by Ulster University since I moved here and I think it would be an interesting place to work. As a Unitarian Universalist, it might also create alliteration opportunities.
GICS Preparing for and giving a speech, even a short speech, left me feeling absolutely knackered today (plus finishing Marek’s paper on Tuesday). I had two files due for T. Rowe Price today and left it until late in the day because my resistance was High. GICS, the classification system
BITC Today was Business in the Community’s annual conference. BITC members work toward being responsible community members. For instance, their employees would be encouraged to volunteer. It is the weakest of weak CSR efforts (corporate social responsibility). It reflects Northern Ireland’s catch-up culture--we’re too busy creating
