Persistent

Worth seeing, but not worth going to see

Is what the great English literary Dr Johnstone said about the giants causeway in Co Antrim.

In a way I feel for him, there is very little there now and I would imagine that in the 18^th century 6 hours on a carriage from Belfast to see a few rocks may have been just a little difficult to bear. They hadn’t even had the decency to have invented the digital camera so Dr Johnson could never have had his picture taken on the rocks as a keepsake.

Now however with the invention of the motor car, a fairly decent road system ( you will see why I say fairly decent) and the ability to have your own little snapshot of the time we were in Antrim, I say GO!

Rebecca and I went yesterday, we flew in early morning, had a day in County Antrim and flew out late at night. The Coast around Antrim is stunning and it made me realise just why the Irish love their country so much.

I can never understand why you have to be at an airport 90 minutes before a 30 minute flight. It meant that we had to get up at

4am for a 7.10 flight and had to be back at the airport for 7.30 for a 9.10 flight (delayed).

No matter,we got sun at 23 degrees and a cloudless sky, I am told that is rare, but so is the two of us having a day away so maybe it was kismet.

We hired a car from Budget at the airport, a Honda Jazz that didn’t seem to use any petrol at all, no matter how far we drove it.. As it was last day of May yesterday I was a little surprised when I got home and looked at one of the pictures to see that the car was taxed to Feb 08. Good job the local police didn’t pull me in.

I have sent budget the picture and explained that as I paid an extra £18 for zero liability at the airport, and that as with no tax the car isn’t insured I would like my £18 back. No word so far but I will let you know how long budget try to ignore me.

Other than that the Honda Jazz has no power at all, but as it uses no petrol I suppose you can’t complain.

 We went from the airport to the Bally Robin country house (turn right as you leave Belfast International go ½ mile it is on the right) for a huge day filling breakfast. After that we were ready so we headed straight up to Portrush. When we reached there we were a little disappointed, it seemed like a little harbour as you would see anywhere else. But then we went to the other end of town and saw the huge clear yellow beach, the sea and the islands. That was enough to have us stop and be breathless for a few moments.

We went from there to Bushmills where I purchased a bottle of 1608 which is undoubtedly one of the finest mid priced whiskeys I have ever tasted. If you have never had any find some, try it. Don’t forget Irish Whiskey with an ‘e’ Scotch whisky without.

From Bushmills to the giants causeway where many people were taking advantage of the invention of the digital camera. We also took advantage of our National trust membership which meant we could ride for free on the causeway bus. (Thank you…you know who you are)

Rebecca got snap happy and took some great pictures. I just took my usual rubbish ones.

From there we followed the coast round to a gorgeous little harbour called Ballintoy. It was like someone had picked it up out of a fairy story and just dropped it on the coast of Ireland.

The water was so clear we could see the fish swimming.

We carried on to a place called Tor Head which used to be a lifeboat station and ship spotting point for Lloyds registry. You can climb onto the roof and see across the Mull of Kintyre to the coast of Scotland.

It is easy to forget just how close Northern Ireland and the West coast of Scotland are, but on a clear day you are reminded.

I also noticed that another Northumbrian our friend Tim had been up Tor Head before us.

On to the waterfalls at Glenariff then we met up with some friends for as Chinese at a great restaurant called the Bambou.

After flying back we picked up youngest daughter from her waitress job and then I got followed home by the police who pulled me in because they thought I was driving gingerly.

I had been up since 4am and it was now 11pm, but how does that make me drive like a Ginger person, and why is it illegal for them to drive?

.

Pirates

Last night I stayed in Manchester I stayed at a hotel called The Palace which in it’s former life I'm sure used to be ‘The Crimson Permanent Assurance’

Lovely building and well suited to being a hotel now.

After tour seminar ended I packed up and before going to bed decided to have a few beers in Manc to see what it was really like.

I do this in most of the places I stay. I like to get out of the hotel bars because
A: They are overpriced
B: I am sick of talking to IT professionals about their particular niche

I don’t know why, but every hotel bar seems to be manned on a nightly basis by someone who sells storage area networks or some breed of customer service software.

 This means that it isn’t unusual around 10pm to find me around walking around a city centre trying to find a nice bar that looks friendly and quiet enough to have a few beers in before bedtime.
I have done this in

London           (unfriendly),
Leeds             (loud),
Liverpool        (annoying),                         
Bristol            (peaceful),    
Birmingham    (cultural)
and Cardiff which was closed the night I was there (avoid Cardiff on a Wednesday)

I have walked these city streets in many weathers feeling comfortable not worried about anything but last night in Manchester was a bit different. The whole area seemed really grim, there were plenty of people smoking outside of bars, but there were more who seemed to just hang around on corners, and they watched you as you approached eyeing you like some sort of stalking animal.

There were people hanging around in the many tunnels. They stood around cars that just seemed to serve as some sort of jukebox, each railway tunnel having its own musical theme.

The whole place seemed to be angry and on edge, I was obviously out of place and looking alone as two young ladies offered to spend some time with me. It was nice of them to care so much but I declined.

This was the first time in a UK city that I have really felt scared as I walked up and down a busy street.

In the end I went back to the hotel bar, my company for the evening was a Hewlett Packard salesman and a software developer specialising in order tracking software.
Oh Joy! 

Hair....at what cost!

It was about 12 years ago when people first started taking the mick about the thinning patch at the top, it was apparently a lot more visible from the upstairs bedroom window if I walked below.

It also used to catch the light a bit, like a hairless halo.

Then about 8 years ago I decided enough was enough, it was thinning at the sides, the comb over wasn’t working and there was just too much upper hair loss for this to be good, and so I decided to buy a bottle of highly recommended hair restorer and so nightly I used to wet hands and massage into the scalp around the balding areas.

They say that it doesn’t work straight away, and this is true, but after a week I found that I was starting to coo over babies, then when people were talking to me about there problems, rather than just say “Oh Dear” I was actually empathising with them and feeling their pain.

I started to find kittens cute and then one night I realised that sex was OK, but you know I could take it or leave it….

THAT was the final straw, there was enough manliness left to read the bottle and find that there are in fact many female hormones that go into the making of this hair restorative, and perhaps there is a love of hair but not at that cost.

The bottle went into the bin and I have decided to live with the shiny patches.

It's just a little too quick

Rebecca and I were just remembering things over the weekend.
In 1995 when the new special MS Windows came out I was running Teklab.
It was the year I got my first mobile phone. It was only 3 years prior to that the first SMS was sent.
That's not long ago, and now just about everyone over the age of ten has a mobile.
Did you know that there are now 147 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people in the UK!

How did that happen?

We wonder at waste, we recycle to save plastics and metals and we turn off our lights to save energy yet we each have 1.5 mobile phone contracts and probably 3 or 4 phones to go with it.
I think we really are becoming more and more driven by what we want and what we can have.
There are people now who collect old mobile phones to send to Africans who need them.
WHAT!
And are the mobile networks providing the infrastructure for this need for free?
Somehow I doubt it.
Well at least now when the village runs out of water someone will be able to call up UNICEF to get a wagon sent. If he has a tenner for the minimum top up, thats only 2 months wages
Then of course they have to get passed the automated help line.

"Press 1 if you require an armed response to insurgence"
"Press 2 if it is an international aid package that you are looking for"
"If you need new mobile phones for your village please press 3"....

I seem to be playing catch up with myself at the minute, I try to get one thing done and it seems to lead to another needing to be done.
I started writing and don't seem to be able to stop. it's strange, I have never planned to write a book, but these words keep falling out of me. I am doing that whenever I can.
I tried to fix the car which needed a new thermostat and I broke the thermostat housing, so now I neeed to do a bigger fix.
Then I rubbed some of the effervessence from the damp off the wall and plaster came with it. BUT HOORAY....underneath that it is dry. So I am filling and sanding and then that will be repainted this weekend.
I also found a job I would really like yesterday, it is working for an ethical company doing Operations and IT, so if there was ever a job with my name written on it!!

I have applied, but we shall wait and see. It would be nice to be interviewed at least

And in between I don't seem to be blogging. But I do read your blogs, so don't stop writing on my behalf.