Today we went to the seasiode town of Bangor, County Down (not the one in Wales) because P had to facilitate a drama workshop. It was a lovely sunny day after the stormy weather last night, so while he was working I went exploring. I knew it would be a good day when I saw a big sign for a second-hand bookshop. Then I found a few charity shops, saw the beautiful harbour and generally had a lovely afternoon. I bought a few books, a new man-bag, and a talking Kenneth Williams in Carry on Cleo action figure for P’s housemate’s birthday. Needless to say she was overjoyed. I even looked in the estate agents to find out about local properties.

I didn’t have a camera phone, so I couldn’t take any pictures. But I got P to take a few of the views from the train back to Belfast. This evening, P gave me his old phone to put my SIM-card in it. This one does have a camera phone, so watch out world…

The view from the train looking over Belfast Lough

The view from Holywood

Bridge End. The two cranes are Samson and Goliath from the Harland & Wolff shipyard (where the Titanic was built), and they are a striking element of the East Belfast skyline.

Samson and Goliath again.

Coming across the River Lagan back into central Belfast.

Crossing the Lagan.

Here are some pictures of Belfast as requested, mainly of the area around Queens University. I’m still here til Tuesday, and we are battening down the hatches for a supposed storm warning. Will chat more soon, if I haven’t been washed down the River Lagan in a barrel…

Queens University Belfast

More of QUB

Elmwood Hall at QUB

“I’m glad I went to Finishing School!”

The Theological College at QUB

A rainbow in Whiteabbey

I passed an exam today. Not my Reflexology one – that’s a while off yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that one too. I did a maths exam today and I was amazed to see that I had passed. I have always been really bad at maths. I used to be worse but having my own business helped me to learn a bit about how to make numbers dance to your tune rather than their own. I have never learned my multiplication tables and mental arithmetic was always a problem but no more! Well, maybe I am still a bit of a dunce when it comes to maths but I passed the test at the level I needed to so that I can continue to teach English so that is all I need for now.

I am SO looking forward to my holiday in Belfast at the end of the week. I know I haven’t been working that long at this particular job but I have worked so hard to catch up with myself that I feel I deserve the break. On the subject of holidays I am more or less booked up for the year now. I’m back in Belfast near the end of March and again in April, then in July I’m off to Prague, then August and September I’m off to Sweden, then across the country to catch a boat from Stockholm to Helsinki in Finland then after a week another boat to Tallin (Estonia) then flying home from there. Of course I should be going to Gran Canaria in December as usual and I guess that will be it!

I just had to blog this while I’m still seething with anger. I don’t know if you remember but in the week my grandmother died I also lost a friend, Kieran, in Oman. He was killed crossing a road in a place he had lived and worked for a number of years. His family just emailed us to tell us that the driver was found guilty of whatever offence they charge people with over there and he was sentenced to just seven days, yes DAYS!!!! I can’t help wondering what the sentence would have been if Kieran had been behind the wheel and the driver was the person who had his life so senselessly taken from him. His sister said that it has been like another slap in the face after the initial shock and grief of losing him.

I can only apologise for my silence recently. I’ve been sick with that nasty throat bug that’s going around and it’s laid me low. On top of that I’m working harder than I need to at the new job – by which I mean I appear to be working harder than the other staff there. I’m putting in more (unpaid) hours for a start and I’m determined to do my best by the clients I get in – no matter how stressful they are to deal with. This client group are challenging, and on so many levels that it would make your head spin. I’m doing my best to make sure they get what they need to meet their individual goals, even if they aren’t aware that they have any!

On top of that I’m still plugging away at the reflexology course. It’s the final lap now and I’ve done all the case studies I need to do, I had to redo three as people let me down having had two treatments then disappearing but I am almost there. I just have to complete the write up of the bloody things now! This weekend I will be doing the penultimate day at the college for the reflexology course and I know my tutor is expecting to see a completed file but sadly that’s not going to happen; by the time I get back from the training centre and have taken Fintan out and fed him all I want to do is veg out in front of the TV.

Still, the weekend after this one I’ve turned into a long weekend and I’m going to Belfast to see P. Getting away from the everyday stresses of here will be good for me. I just hope I’ve gotten over this cold by then.

Go and see Juno if you can – it’s very good! I enjoyed  it all, the music in particular caught my attention, I think I will be looking to get the soundtrack. One piece of advice that Juno’s dad passed on to her was especially nice: “In my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think the sun shines out your ass. That’s the kind of person that’s worth sticking with.”
Without giving anything away I think the fact that they didn’t end the story in the most obvious and conventional way was especially brave and good.

Busy busy busy weekend ahead of me – hope you are enjoying yours!

I have been reading Skintype’s film reviews from the film festival that he recently attended and I am certainly looking forward to seeing some of them over here in the UK. I saw a film on Sunday afternoon that was so beautiful and sad and yet funny that I wanted to mention it. It was called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon). It is a true story about a man who at the height of his career is struck down by a rare condition called ‘Locked in Syndrome’, he is completely paralyzed and unable to speak – the only part of his body that he can move unaided is one eye lid (his butterfly). At first he despairs (duh!) but then he decides to stop feeling sorry for himself and he learns to communicate with the outside world using his eyelid. He in fact ends up writing the book that the film is based upon.

Cast aside any weariness about having to read subtitles as the story and particularly the imagery of the film will draw you on. I asked you all to go and see the Edith Piaf film and you didn’t so you have to go and try and see this one!!

A stressful week at work – but we all have those so I’ll close for now.

I did the mock test today and it looks like I am fine! My teacher was very happy with the practical test and my theory stuff seems okay too.

NOW I can breath and NOW I can start the weekend!!

The ex Boyf. is up in Manchester this weekend looking at the house he and his mate are buying. I’m planning to pop up next weekend to visit some mates though I still have to finish off my reflexology stuff first.  

Oops! I have my mock exam on Saturday – for reflexology. The proper test isn’t till May I think but still… I am supposed to have all my case studies, my papers on conditions and disorders plus my business plan etc etc written. Well, I am ALMOST there, (read 55% there), so I am hoping that on Saturday I am not the only one who has fallen behind a little.

Work continues to be challenging. I am enjoying it but I would love to have the time to stop still and look around me for a moment. I wouldn’t say I’m ‘fire fighting’ as I do have a plan of what I want to achieve with the students and I am getting on with it, it’s just that I know I can do so much more given a bit of time to plan longer term. One good thing is that it is pay day on Friday – my first pay cheque since the first week of December! I went into the bank on Monday to change a standing order and I had an ‘assistant’ (why they call them that I do not know as they seem to want to prevent you from getting what you want not assist you!) questioning my finances. I had to assure them that I was going to get some money which annoyed me a little as I appeared to have a thirteen year old in a cheap suit suggesting I was no longer a good customer.  Anyway, on Friday it will be ok again.

I went with the ex Boyf. to the cinema this morning to see Cloverfield – it was very good and I didn’t puke when the camera was swinging all over the place! The other films we fancied seeing weren’t starting for ages so we went in and saw P.S. I Love You – the film of the book by Cecilia Aherne, daughter of Bertie Aherne. It was okay and a decent antidote to the death and destruction of  New York in the previous film.

Nothin much else to report. A pretty uneventful day – especially after the travels of the day before.