Ulster Museum, Sean Scully, Takabuti and first impressions
on Nov 14, 2009 in Belfast weekend This afternoon Littl'un took me on a tour of the recently reopened Ulster Museum. Already she's become a frequent visitor and has her favourite corners to visit.It's a bit like IKEA without the soft furnishings: white walls and a maze-like flow throu...

Holy smoke! Fire at Union Theological College
on Nov 14, 2009 in Belfast religion With only four weeks until the completion of the building work, this morning's fires at Union Theological College must be a real blow to their plans to expand the training they offer. UTC is the main training facility for Presbyterian ministers, but...

Does your town have the sparkle to be twinned with Disney World in Florida?
on Nov 12, 2009 in travel bizarre Does Belfast or Lisburn have the pizzazz to be officially twinned with Walt Disney World Resort in Florida?A competition to nominate villages, towns and cities is running until 22 November 2009. Creativity is encouraged: entries can contain words, po...

Katalin Varga - revenge will (not) set her free
on Nov 11, 2009 in film Katalin Varga (played by Hilda Péter) is overheard talking to her best friend, sharing a deep secret that she had bottled up inside herself for more than ten years. Word spreads and her husband hears. Disgraced and ashamed, he orders her to flee the...

Update on bmibaby – deliberately splitting up families and seating children out of reach?
on Nov 11, 2009 in rant travel I posted ten days ago about my experience of bmibaby’s strange approach of splitting up families and allocating children seats separate from their accompanying adults.As a family, we had the experience on the way across from Belfast International t...

Talking in the East (part 2b) // Alliance // Naomi Long
on Nov 10, 2009 in video Belfast politics So the promised follow-up post to the earlier first part of my interview with Naomi Long, Alliance party MLA for East Belfast as well as councillor for Victoria ward and – this year – Lord Mayor of Belfast.Part of this round-the-parties exercise...

Talking in the East (part 2a) // Alliance // Naomi Long
on Nov 10, 2009 in video Belfast politics In the second of the six planned interviews, on Tuesday 20 October I talked to Naomi Long, Alliance party MLA for East Belfast as well as councillor for Victoria ward and – this year – Lord Mayor of Belfast.Confident, professional, warm and with...

Belfast's black hole now has a webcam ... It could have been worse ...
on Nov 9, 2009 in travel Belfast bizarre The good news is:the new tunnel, dug as part of Belfast multi-million pound sewage upgrade scheme wasn't damaged as part of the road collapse in Cromac Street;the air bubble caused the tarmac to cave in early on Saturday morning when traffic was very...

A market, a boat, a fire, a lease, woolly hats and bad parking
on Nov 7, 2009 in Lisburn car weekend Bit of a compound post ...Lisburn City Council have been running a monthly Farmer's Market up in Castle Gardens for the best part of a year now. Once a month, a white marquee is erected, small traders sell their produce, and a donkey and cart give pe...

faith, education (Mike Wardlow), finance (Paul Moore), & postmodern dilemmas (Steve Stockman)
on Nov 7, 2009 in Belfast religion A quick plug for a few events coming up at the Centre for Contemporary Christianity (their domain temporarily down) in Belfast in the coming weeks. All the events are free.In Conversation With ... Mike Wardlow - Faith in Education?On Tuesday 10 Novem...