I have a secret and it is doing my head in trying to keep it from you and almost everyone in the 'real world'! I can't say here what it is as Patrick might see my blog - though he doesn't usually read it. It is a nice thing I am doing and a thing I have wanted to do for a number of years and finally I am doing it. I just can't say anything about it yet!

I'm thrilled that I continue to be busy with my private teaching, my therapy work and the college teaching too. I need to focus more on pushing the business forward but it's tricky organising my time to make that happen. It's not so much that I am fighting fires more that I am just busy and then very lazy when I'm not actively busy.

Patrick and I are very excited because not this weekend but the weekend after we are going to fly over to London to see a play at the National Theatre. It's a new play by Alan Bennett called 'The Habit Of Art'. Alan Bennett's previous play 'The History Boys' started at the National before transferring to America and eventually onto film. I loved the film and when I heard about this play I determined to get tickets ASAP. I'm really looking forward to seeing Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths on stage. We're going to stay in a hotel overlooking the Thames and quite close to the Houses of Parliament and plan to visit Tate Modern and take the tour around Highgate Cemetery. It will also be a chance to see a few friends from my mad London days - I'm not the only one who came out the other end of all that reasonably sane!

Then after that we will be getting ready to go to Gran Canaria on the 14th December till the 28th (I think). As people who have been reading me for a while know I don't get too many holidays (!) and so the Xmas trip to the sunshine is important for me. No, really it is!! We have continued cutting back on food and I have lost one stone and four pounds so far - I WILL get into that kilt, I will!

While typing this up I just got a call from my mother to tell me that my nephew (my sisters son) has been rushed into hospital for an operation on an abscess on his brain. I'm praying that he'll be okay. I feel so sorry for my sister. She has had the strain of the rape trial and now this. I'd appreciate you keeping my sister and her children in your prayers and thoughts right now.

weekend, did some work on Saturday and went to the market to pick up fresh fish and the most delicious gourmet sausages that are handmade, salt free and lower in fat than the usual ones. I then took Fintan out on a lovely long walk around the Ormeau Park and made the best of a sunny, dry afternoon.

Sunday is date day now that I'm so busy and Patrick is too. We are both cutting back on food at the moment as we're off to Gran Canaria in December and want to feel a bit 'lighter', but despite that Sunday is also the day we get to eat pretty much what we like. We met a friend Janice for a buffet lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then another friend to go and see The Men Who Stare At Goats. It was very good actually, funny and and also a little sad.

All in all it was a nice weekend, I'm going to try and update more often - though it doesn't feel like I have much to say at the moment beyond the fact that I am working hard as I can to get the business running smoothly!

Time is running away with me! I've been busy, so busy.

Most of October was spent locating and then moving into a new house: here. It has three floors and three bedrooms and so Patrick has his study as before and I have a treatment room situated in my home (hurrah!). The house was in fairly good condition - just dirty and missing a few bits and pieces but I have kept on at the agent and it was presented to us in a cleaner state and sans the cheap, ugly furniture that landlords always seem to dump on tenants!

My treatment room

Just a few snaps from the holiday taken with my lovely iPhone - great phone fairly crappy camera!

Aberdovey

The beach and dunes of Aberdovey

My first class train seat!

Barmouth bay

Sunset in Barmouth at the end of day one

Barmouth Estuary - the tide is out here and to the far left is the start of the walk

Stimulating food???!

Harlech Castle viewed from the train tracks

A view of Portmeirion - you really must see it if you can.

The Birmingham Bull - a rather cynical attempt by developers to create an iconic image for what is basically just a shopping centre... still, it's a lovely sculpture.

Not a bad view of Birmingham Cathedral

I've neglected my blog for such a long time now and every day I have intended to write something but I just haven't gotten round to it. Things have been getting very busy for me over the last six weeks or so, the therapy business is really taking off despite the Credit Crunch and I'm still privately tutoring several students in English. On top of this I am finally working for Belfast College and that's been frustrating at times due to a certain level of disorganisation that seems rife in large educational facilities but on the whole it's been great. I've started meeting some new people through working at the college which is really nice as although I've made plenty of Patrick's friends mine too it is always nice to meet new people oneself.

I really feel that I am part of this community now; I work in it, I help some of the people in it through the therapies I can offer them and also I enable immigrants like myself to have a better chance of being part of it and that's really nice.

I took some time out at the end of August and had a little holiday and it was all Enrico's fault! Enrico said on Facebook that he was planning to do an epic train journey from Scotland to London and he asked for tips and ideas on places to go to. I suggested a few places and it got me thinking of Wales and Mid-Wales in particular. Desmond and I used to love going there and the countryside holds many wonderfully happy memories of days spent just wandering from beach to mountain, village or market town. I found myself thinking about it more and more and before I knew it I found myself booking flights. I spent two nights in Manchester seeing my ex boyf. and my friend John before heading off into Wales.

I could have done the easy thing and got a train from Manchester down to Shrewsbury and into Mid-Wales but the whole point of this part of the trip was to do my own thing and not have a plan or to take the obvious route. So, for £50 I bought a train pass for four days out of eight with full use of buses during that time and I left Manchester and headed for the North coast of Wales. Towns like Prestatyn and Rhyl are etched in my childhood memory as like thousands of other kids I was packed onto a coach every summer for at least a week in a holiday camp! It was nice to see families from Manchester alighting there, no doubt heading off to have more twenty-first century fun in the camps but fun nonetheless!  I didn't get off but carried on along the coast and eventually got off the first train at Llandudno junction to transfer eventually onto a smaller trainline called 'The Conwy Valley Line'. This train brought me away from the coast and through a beautiful valley, filled with light and amazing views of castles, waterfalls and beautiful, beautiful nature. The train eventually went into a tunnel that takes it under a mountain and eventually we burst out into the sunlight again but the landscape was much changed as we had arrived at my next stop: Blaenau Ffestiniog and the hillsides were almost devoid of vegetation and covered in black shiny slate. Blaenau was the centre of the Welsh slate mining industry, these days the production of slate has declined - Chinese slate is cheaper - so tourism is the main employer now. I had a wander round the town and in the 50 minutes I was there I didn't hear a word of English - a good sign that you are approaching the centre of Wales!

From there I took a trip on a special train that Desmond and I always meant to take but didn't and that was the Festiniog Railway from there to Porthmadog. I decided to upgrade my pass for just £4.00 to sit in the first class carriage at the front of the train and it was lovely! The chairs were like the fireside chairs you can imagine seeing in a posh Gentleman's club and the carriage itself was full of light as it was the observation car. I found myself thinking of Desmond a lot during the hour I was on the train - as I would throughout the rest of the trip - and I shed several tears as I imagined him sitting opposite me enjoying the views and the atmosphere as the steam train pulled us along the track. Still, it was a lovely trip.

On arrival at Porthmadog I had to make the decision to stay there for the night and perhaps walk over to Portmeirion, the architectural child of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and a place we had been to several times in the past or perhaps head along the coast to Machynlleth or pop down to Barmouth with the prospect of a good walk the following day. In the end I opted for Barmouth and found a nice B&B to stop the night. The following day I headed out early to do a walk that Desmond and I did in the other direction possibly twenty years ago. The Mawddach Trail is around 9.5 miles long and hugs the estuary that separates Barmouth from Fairbourne on the other side. As I said Desmond and I did the walk in the other direction so it was a lovely feeling of closing a circle that we left open so long ago. It was perfect walking weather and apart from the occasional fellow walker or cyclist it was silent but for the sound of the wind, the cry of gulls and other birds and the ever present water of the estuary. It really was beautiful. I found myself chatting away to Desmond and though I might have been thought mad by passers by it seemed natural enough to do!

I could go on and on telling you about the other sights of the next few days but I think I've written enough already. It was a lovely time though and I found that it was good being on my own for a few days and seeing all the places that Desmond and I used to see. I think it was a lovely way to honour his memory, though do you think it strange that when I finished my trip with two nights in Birmingham I didn't go to see the grave where I put his ashes according to his wishes before I went to Belfast? I actually forgot to go! I think it was possibly because I had spent so much time 'with' him that it just slipped my mind.

I have read everyone's blogs but my Iphone won't allow me to comment! Those of you who know me on facebook will have seen my daily (sometimes hourly) updates and my pictures but I promise to find the time to sit down and blog about it all here.

For now let me just say that I have had a wonderful eight days away and I will tell all soon!

St George's Market, my Saturday morning habit these days!

Apart from my now usual trip to Saint George's market to buy my delicious fish, organic veggies and sundry home made crafts and foodstuffs later today I am also wandering over to see the Tall Ships. This seems to be a very big deal over here just now and I will tell you more about it when I've seen them.

Lots and lots of baked goods on offer - thank heavens I make my own bread so I can usually pass them by!

That's my fishmonger in the blue coat - a nice friendly guy who makes sure I get good fish.

Castle Ward on the hill viewed across Strangford Lough

It's turning into rather a busy week work-wise. I'm very pleased about this of course and at the hourly rate I work at these days a busy week doesn't compare to how busy my week was when I was working in that last teaching place in England.

Castle Ward's Classical frontage

Last weekend was rather relaxed, I made some more bread 'cheese and onion loaf' and then some carrot and asparagus soup to go with it. On Sunday we all got into a friend's car and we drove to a National Trust property called Castle Ward. It was a lovely day for walking and we brought Fintan with us and how we walked! He slept all the way back in the car but never considered stopping when we were walking the magnificent grounds. There is an interesting story attached to Castle Ward and that is that the woman who married the Lord of the Manor has very set ideas on how she wanted the house to be built, sadly so did the Lord and so one frontage is built in the Classical style and the other in Neo-Gothic. Inside you go through one door with a classical arch above it and look back as you pass into the next room and above you is a Gothic one! Nice to know that no matter how much money you have and no matter how high born you are you still have an arguement on your hands when it comes to DIY.

That was Sunday and then back to teaching and massaging the good people of Belfast - it's very up and down of course but I do hope that I am finally going to be able to support myself and not have to work too much for other people. That said I am still hoping to hear from the college in Belfast soon to see if they have some hours to offer me.

The farm buildings in the grounds of Castle Ward

I ended up working for just one hour last week - not good! This week will be better but last week reminded me that I cannot sit on my laurels and that I need to keep thinking of ways to get the profile of the business high in the minds of people.

I had a lovely weekend though. It was Belfast Pride weekend and we had a full house with a friend of mine and a friend of Patrick's here. It was nice to see some of the cultural things that were going on around the week of Pride but I was less bothered about the 'party in the square' afterwards - I remembered that last year it seemed to be mostly straight people using the day as an opportunity to see some free music and drink in public. I have no issue with any of that really; I just didn't need to see it. Still it was a decent enough day.

Mount Stewart's back door - really!!

Sunday we went to a National Trust property that my friend wanted to see. I joined the NT a few years back but let my membership drop as it was rather expensive and not being a driver made it hard to get to the houses and gardens. We went to Mount Stewart which was a property by the side of Strangford Lough and it was so beautiful. The house was very special, sadly we couldn't take pictures inside but it was very interesting journey through 400 years of one families history. The gardens were magnificent and went on for acres. We had a really nice day out and I found myself signing up again - this time for joint membership! I guess we will do our best to get our money worth from the member card (free entry into all NT sites and properties) but the way to think of it really is as a donation towards a charity which does so much to preserve the ancient for the future.

A dovecote with a summer house below in one of the gardens

Monday was my friends last day here and we went to Cultra a place not far from Belfast to go to the Ulster Open Air Museum and the Transport museum. We could have spent a day in just one of the museums but did our best to see as much as possible of both in one. I think what I enjoyed most was seeing the old trains and especially the carriages attached to the engines, seeing how people in the past travelled was fascinating but also intensely romantic. The Open Air Museum was like nothing I have seen before. They have created a village by bringing together a variety of houses, shops, churches etc from all over Northern Ireland and in addition to that they have set down farms, forges, schools and halls in the fields around the village and you are free to wander into and out of them.

Interior of a house in the open air museum

So despite having a slow week work-wise it's been a very busy few days in others. If you ever get the chance to see this beautiful part of the world then you should try and see some of these places.  

Basket weavers cottage

This week is going to be a bit slow business wise. I have a few English lessons and a 'therapy party' on Friday night but that's it. I've had a few really good weeks but when one works for oneself a slow week is a thing to fear. I have decided to use the time productively though and I am going to do a bit more leafleting for the therapy business, drop some cards into local shops that the immigrant population are likely to shop in for the English classes and start working on a package to approach corporate clients with. One thing for sure is that it's all down to you when you work for yourself.

I've always been a bit of a collector of kitsch and recently a car boot sale has started up nearby and there is nothing more seductive than having a look through other people's junk! I've bought a few pieces and have shown them on my Facebook profile recently but I thought I'd put them on here too. Btw on Facebook I am Birmingham Bear (!) feel free to say hello there too.

C'mon... if Jeff Koons had made him he'd be worth a fortune!!

'Autumn Leaves' by J.H. Lynch - this print is actually worth a bit now, some some crap is worth keeping.

Dallas Simpson is another collectable kitsch painter - though I have to say this one is a bit faded now.

Hideous scary clown! I bought him for £2.70 and I reckon if I hide him in the attic for a while I'll make a profit.