I got a call from Birmingham to be told that they have arrested someone in relation to the rape of my niece - they have a DNA match so it's looking pretty positive. Assuming they do indeed have the right man hopefully he will offer names up for the two other men involved in the attack. I have to admit to a knee-jerk reaction and wishing for castration as a punishment but of course I understand that rape is less about sex and more about having power over another person. Still... at the very least I hope that he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Some other good news today was a call from someone who wants English lessons - three a week! I met him for a coffee in my favourite Belfast coffee shop 'Clements Botanic' and a needs analysis. He's from France and seems very motivated to learn so that should be good. When I left Clements Botanic I switched my phone on and there was a message from Starbucks asking me to do a second interview for the post of Shift Supervisor on Monday! Very pleased about that. I also got an interview tomorrow for a job at The Pump House Cafe  in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast.  Finally there is a sense that things are moving along!

After all that good news I wandered up Botanic Avenue towards Queens University and then into the Botanic Gardens. The garden was full of people sitting out on the grass and enjoying the warm sun. It was lovely and I really had a sense that I was living in a city that I really rather like.

On the other side of the Botanic Gardens is a district called Stranmillis and there lives a friend of ours called Lia. I went round to do an Indian Head Massage for her and also to learn how to make bread. We had a lovely early evening making bread and I am pleased to report that I can now make pretty decent loaf... which may come in useful! I brought some home made Houmous and she had made some carrot and coriander soup and we had a feast once my bread was ready to eat.

I went home in a taxi as I was feeling a little lazy and called my mom to chat a while. Tomorrow (Tuesday) she is going into hospital to have her knee replacement and she was understandably nervous. I wish I could be there but clearly there is too much on here in Belfast at the moment. I will just keep calling to get updates on her status and pray that she gets through the operation without problems. Any happy thoughts you can send her way will be appreciated.

Though this week shouldn't be as busy as the one just passed it is nice to know that there will be things going on here at last!

It's nice to be really busy doing stuff outside the house and this last week has been very much that. I have had job interviews, done some volunteer work for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, some paid therapy work and some language teaching too.

I spent this morning making roughly five or six litres of Gazpacho  and also a large quantity of  Houmous for Patrick, well not all for Patrick; for the Quire members and the other people performing with them tonight at the Waterfront Hall - click here for more information. I enjoy cooking and so making food for all those people is a pleasure not a chore.

This afternoon has been spent in my courtyard garden that I must take some pictures of soon. Fintan and I miss the large garden we had in Birmingham though we are lucky to have the outside space that we have here as most people only have a yard out the back. We have the yard and then through a door there is another garden area, it's lovely enough but it feels less accessible perhaps because of the gate. What I have done with the yard is clear out the rubbish and clean it up, then put some plants in pots, my wooden table and chairs from Birmingham and put some shelves up. I was sorry that I had to leave my potted plants in the old house as the van was too small to contain them but the outside space we have now is very nice and hopefully will be a nice space to have people over as the weather improves.

I'm looking forward to the performance tonight and then a fairly busy week ahead of me, not as busy as the week just passed but busy enough I guess.

I rediscovered this advert on Youtube - it still makes me laugh out loud at the punch line even now. The Pot Noodle people are always coming up with something cheeky and new, though this one was banned from TV in the end!

It might seem that all I do for fun these days is attend the theatre and volunteer in the Arts and there is some truth to this as I have seen four plays already this week but there are other things going on in Belfast and the Cup Cake Camp is one I am most looking forward to!

What is Cup Cake Camp? Well... it is an opportunity for cup cake lovers to get together, share recipes, sample the aformentioned baked goods, enter their cup cakes for judging and all of this in a supportive and friendly atmosphere far away from the prying eyes of Those Who Would Judge!

It's a for real event - check the link out here: CupCakeCamp I love that there is so much stuff going on in this city and it seems so much easier to access it too. I think I'm going to have to get my baking trays out and start practising for this one!

More Cup Cake information here. Have a great weekend.

Doing some volunteer work for the Belfast Film Festival was great. I got a free pass to see as many films as I liked but saw very few in the end. I was chosen for some reason to work in the office rather than in the cinemas and this really was a good thing as I was working with the judges of the documentary contest and through that I got to see some pretty interesting films that I would have missed. As I type this I am trying to see if I can find anything online about them to share with you.

Hair India was fascinating, it tells the story of what happens to the hair of the devoted which is shaved off in the temples. It is sold by auction to the highest bidder and ends up glued into the heads of the wealthy. What I liked about the film was that they didn't make an obvious East v West tale; the poor Indians being exploited by the First World nations - it showed how India itself is a powerful mix of contradictions. Yeah, I know that many of us know this already but with so many strands (no pun intended!) it was a very interesting film indeed. Have a look at the trailer below - it will give you a good sense of the film.

Yodok Stories was an especially shocking film. I found myself shedding tears at some of the stories as they emerged. The documentary follows a group of refugees from North Korean death camps who find a way to tell their stories - through the medium of the stage musical! Sounds camp/crazy but I tell you that at the end of the film I just sat there feeling such anger and such hopelessness as well. I've tracked down a trailer in Youtube - the voice over wasn't on the documentary and it spoils it a little but the main message still gets through.

The other film that really stuck with me was Presumed Guilty and this turned out to be the film that the judges at the film festival chose as their winner. They said:

"In Belfast, we saw many excellent films, gripping and well-crafted.
Yet, PRESUMED GUILTY stood out, with all the right ingredients a
documentary could possibly have.

With astonishing access to a prison in Mexico, we get to follow Tono,
a young man who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder
he most likely did not commit. There are unbelievably revealing moments with the judge, the prosecutor, and police officers, which make us question
their concepts of justice. The documentary takes us on an emotional rollercoaster. Very well shot and edited, the film literally had us on the edge of
our seats.

This documentary competition honours direct cinema in the tradition of
the Maysles brothers. Almost 90 minutes into this film, it suddenly switches from verité to intervention, and unusually for documentary it seemed rightfully so. The filmmakers were forced into being involved and start a final rescue attempt, using their very own powers of observation. Never have we been
more thankful to a documentary maker for interfering with his subject.

PRESUMED GUILTY saved more than 17 years of a young man's life." Sadly I couldn't find a trailer for it but here is a link to the BFF page describing the film: http://www.belfastfilmfestival.org/2009/programme/films/307

After the festival I was a little flat. I'm still looking for work and still not getting anywhere. I am not getting too paranoid just yet but I really would like to be doing something and soon! In the meantime I volunteered for another festival - The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival which starts at the beginning of May and should be great fun.

Last weekend I had Hitler, Che, Ms Pankhurst & Martin Luther King over for dinner. It was a fun night though I spent a day or two preparing for it as I wanted it to be a really good dinner! I made lemon posset and also shortbread - both went well though I have to say that the lemon posset was probably the triumph of the night... nothing like ending up on a high! I made houmous and guacamole for when they arrived and then gazpacho for starters, I got a recipe out that my mom gave me last year for a spicy lentil stew and jazzed it up with sweet potato and chickpeas - it was served with enough rice to stuff a medium sized animal - oh and I made Sag Aloo as well. It was just easier to prepare a vegetarian meal as half the assembled cast - sorry - guests were veggies.

Though it is tricky getting set up here and into employment there are so many reasons to be thankful for being here - not least of all is being with Patrick of course, but having such interesting people around, getting to the theatre and so many other things make life here so much better than the last two years in Birmingham with all that sadness and at times despair.

Almost up to date... more later.

 So, my mom had a great time being here and I tried not to walk her too far but it is clear that once she has the operation on her knee she is going to be far happier. On the last night of her stay I took her to see the actor who was going to do the Hitler speech as part of the performance 'Sunday Service' that Patrick had created. Patrick was also performing either side of the Hitler speech with the Belfast gay choir 'Quire'. I loved seeing my mom in her element as she was chatting away to all of my new Belfast friends and it was watching her then that I realised that although not at all a timid woman (she's Dublin Irish to the core after all!) she has always had to reign in her gregarious side to placate my dad's ego. I love my dad so much but I guess like most gay men I love my mom more!

Anyway, the Hitler performance was electric! Richard Orr, who played Hitler, was amazing - terrifying and awesome in the fullest meaning of the word. The speech was horribly anti-semitic and it was chosen because at the time the things he was saying were against the government of the time and that was the thread running through all of them. After his speech the Quire quietly sang a moving Jewish folk song which juxtaposed perfectly with the ranting and aggressive hate speech of Hitler.

I know that when I saw my mom off the following day that she'd had a great time and was sad to leave. I think I did the right thing getting her over here for a few days away from the stresses of her life back home and I know she'll back soon as she's made some friends here.

A few days later was the turn of the ex boyf. to come over to stay! We had barely enough time to wash the sheets and he was with us. Conor and Patrick have met before and indeed he came over to Gran Canaria for the Christmas week of the holiday so I knew they'd get on and guessed that they might well gang up on me at times - which they did! It's so unfair when people who know you too well decide to join forces!!

Like my mom Conor is someone who was born and bred in Dublin and never dreamt of going up the motorway to Belfast. I enjoyed showing him some of the sights; we went to the seaside town of Bangor and had plenty of time to see the city of Belfast. It was nice just catching up with him face to face again. During his visit the Belfast Film Festival was running and as I was a volunteer we went to see a film as well as the final speech from the Sunday Service - in fact we had to almost run from the Ulster Hall to the cinema! The final speech was Che Guevara which was performed by an actor and friend called Nikki - she is a tiny thing but her command of the audience was clear from the start! We managed to stay for the full speech but then had to run.

I also had the great idea of telling Patrick to invite all the actors over for dinner to celebrate the end of the Sunday Service!

Conor left to go back to Manchester and work and though it was sad to see him go it was good to hear that he had just had a really decent pay rise, and when so many people are taking pay cuts it shows they must like him and his work.

more to come...

Time has run away with me again. I have been meaning to write something for days which turned into weeks. It's been a pleasant enough late March and early April and now suddenly it is Easter.

I had my mom over to visit for Mothers Day (UK) and that was lovely. She is in a lot of pain at the moment with her knees. When we were in Gran Canaria in December I told her she should put some pressure on her doctor to make them consider her for a replacement operation; they had previously said she would have to wait till she was in her seventies as the replacement joint only has a certain useable life. I suggested she point out that as she is in her early sixties and in a lot of pain and not able to get around then sooner rather than later would be the way to go. Thankfully she took my advice and went to the doctor and he agreed. She is having her operation in the middle of May, well hopefully. I knew she was a bit down due to the pain and also if truth be told she is having all kinds of problems settling down to a life of retirement in a house with my father and her sister - they seem to drive her mad in different ways! So the trip over here was a way of easing some of that tension and also, quite selfishly, of me getting some time with her away from my father's rather passive/aggressive beahviour.

My mom is a fairly devout Catholic so it was important that a trip here for her would have to include a visit to the shrine of Saint Patrick - I was interested in seeing it too I should say. We had a lovely trip on the bus to the town of Downpatrick and we went to the St Patrick visitor centre first of all and then made a slow and careful trip up the hill to the church where he and two other Saints are reputed to be buried. It's funny but I guess I have always thought that Saint Patrick was 'ours' by which I mean a Catholic Saint alone. I was suprised to see that the church he was buried in the grounds of was Church of Ireland (Protestant). I think my assumption that it would be a Catholic church stems from when we were growing up in England and Saint Patrick's day was an important reminder for us and the neighbourhood we lived in that we were Irish and as it was a religious festival that we were also Catholic. Anyway... the church was quite grand from the outside but rather bland and disappointing inside - as is often the case with Protestant churches (for reasons I do understand).

It was a blustery day and the church was up on a hill over the town and so we didn't stay too long up there but it was lovely to see the stone that marks Saint Patrick's resting place.

I was teasing friends on Facebook yesterday with the comments on how I was cooking dinner for Hitler and how much he seemed to enjoy it. I thought it best to explain what I was on about.

The Ulster Hall

The Ulster Hall has reopened - it's been closed for longer than I have known Patrick so of course I've not been inside but I know it is has an important place in the memories of many Belfast people as it was  one of only two venues during the bad old days that you could go to and mix with whomever and see local bands and more importantly bands from outside Northern Ireland that would deign to visit and perform. 

So... as part of the reopening festivities there have been various events including the music festival that featured, amongst others, the bands with youtube videos below this post. As part of a free fringe festival currently running Patrick was approached to get involved and select speeches, actors and direct them for a project called 'Sunday Service' click here to read more about it - you'll see links on the right that will take you to each Sunday Service.

Two sundays ago we had an actress over for Sunday lunch and pre-performance rehearsal upstairs; she was delivering the Martin Luther King speech, last Sunday I went to the Hall to see another actor and a friend of ours perform an amazing speech originally presented to an American audience by Emmeline Pankhurst. This Sunday it is the turn of Hitler! The key thing here to remember is that all the speeches have one thing in common; that in their time they were all anti-establishment. The actor presenting the Hitler speech on Sunday came round last night and again had dinner and a rehearsal. Judging by the noise upstairs last night it should be of suitable volume to fill the hall if nothing else!!  

There has actually been some controversy over the selection and airing of a speech by Hitler but it seems silly when one considers that the words of the man are available to purchase from any bookshop and to loan from all public libraries. There is a chance that there may be some protests on the day but surely the attempts by a few people to silence the voice of others is exactly why we need to hear Hitler's words to be reminded of the danger of listening to those who shout the loudest.

March 22nd is Mother's Day in the UK and I have already suprised my mom by posting a plane ticket to fly her over to Belfast for the weekend. I know she's been a bit down since they had to move back to Birmingham from Wales last year and though we met up in Gran Canaria just before Xmas I know she could do with a few days away from dad and my aunt.

What I want to do is to make sure that she has a lovely time while she is here and I'm planning to take her to a few different places.

Though my mom and dad were born and bred in Dublin, just two hours down the road from Belfast neither of them have ever seen the city and the surrounding countryside and so I plan to go to the Giants Causeway for sure and also possibly to Downpatrick.

Downpatrick (Dun Padraig) means 'Patrick's Fort' and is reputed to be the burial site of Saint Patrick (the patron saint of Ireland) and also Saint Bridget and Columba. It is a medium sized town that is mostly Catholic in it's make up and only an hour away by bus from Belfast. My mom is a devout Catholic and so I think she'll love the chance to see St. Pat's resting place.

I'll have to be patient though as she's been having increasing trouble getting about as she has some arthritis in her knees that is getting steadily worse. I nagged her a bit about sorting it out while we were on holiday - not because I was impatient at having to walk slowly but because she is, to all intents and purposes a young woman (she is only 17 years older than I am) in her thinking and she has so many things she still wants to see and do. It paid off though - the nagging - because she saw her doctor in January and now she is waiting to have an operation to fit a replacement knee joint, or part of one. This will mean that she can get about a lot better than she has done recently and will hopefully experience less pain too.

We should have a nice time all in all; there is plenty to do in Northern Ireland and the transport system is pretty good. I have never taken an open top bus tour before - of any city - but maybe if the weather is good we might do that too.

Tonight I shall be seeing the following bands plus some others:

...and many more!