And that was Christmas

My dad doesn't have the best of luck, for our 2nd Christmas with him in a row, he fell ill for the big day itself.

Perhaps we're just bad luck charms? More likely I suspect his love affair with eating seafood on Christmas Eve may have played a part on one or both occasions. To be fair though, the 1st time was a combination of slightly warm prawns from Whitby and the crazy proof navy rum consumed that night. The 2nd time was more bad luck, perhaps related at least a little bit with a defrosted fillet of Plaice that was consumed, but more likely being in contact with someone who recently had the winter vomiting bug could have done it. Bless his cotton socks, he was still trying to do the cooking preparations when he just couldn't keep it in any longer and spent most of Christmas day in the bathroom and looking as pale as a sheet.

The 4 of us remaining rescued the preparations and Norngirl took charge of the cooking and we still ended up with yummy feast. We went buffet style on the table so I went for a giant Yorkshire pudding pile variety of presentation. It was delicious!

As well as the unexpected which threw the day out a little, we all managed to sit around the TV to watch Dr Who which I thought was very good, well structured and heart warmingly festive. The falling from the edge of space and being dead but only bruised on the outside did seem to push the need for a plot device a little far. Multiple fractures and a bit more of a pizza appearance seemed more likely but at least it was only for a little more dialogue and to probably not scare the children watching.

The rest of the Christmas period flew by, on boxing day we went to the pub to watch the football; Leeds were thrashed by Notts Forest and it didn't make easy viewing. Hopefully the lack of fight and skill was more a hangover of the Ken Bates era.

The best moments were getting a little bit of down time here and there with Norngirl as well as tasting lots of nice beer. Other highlights were visiting people and heading to a couple of tourist attractions.

One of the places we visited was The Hepworth Wakefield.

Being able to walk over the river on a springy bridge to get to it was great fun and there is a cool junk dude hanging from a crane by the river Calder.

The gallery itself has lots of space but very little content that grabbed my attention. I liked the medical drawings though they were all rather samey samey after the first 10 or more. My favourite artwork was the collection of images showing scenes of Wakefield as it was in the past.

If you've read my views on art before you'll know I'm not a fan of a lot of modern art and the majority of the pieces displayed here didn't win me over. By the time we had walked through all of the galleries it seemed to me that a lot of modernist sculpture (where it isn't self evident as to what it is) ends up looking like a case of someone creating something and then assigning the context or label to the form after the fact.

In fairness, I thought a lot of the Barbara Hepworth sculptures were quite good as they are sculptures that appear to have some coherent idea and design behind their creation. The museum itself is free entry so you've nothing to lose (time aside) by heading down to it.

If I dare say so myself, still not as good as my 'Using 2 Dominoes to balance the rest of dominoes and the box too' that I made on the table at my dads house when I was bored.

The building the gallery is in, it's boring grey facade aside, was rather modern and well thought out, the windows were huge and the views of the river were my highlight for me.

The other place we visited was the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds. The medical museum was more up my street. Though it's £7 admission for an adult there was plenty to see and it engaged us initially by picking a character which you then find out more about and end up seeing how long they lived and how long they ended up living for.
There was plenty of interesting things, a part about disability and people's perceptions, another about improvements made in medical science. I even got to try on a pregnancy empathy belt as well as find out lots about how medicine was in the UK before some major breakthroughs - like anesthetics.

Our time in Yorkshire was soon up and we were back on a plane and landing onto the runway at Belfast City Airport. Over the next couple of days we had a re-Christmasing in North Belfast which involved perhaps a little too much alcohol.

Time flew by and we didn't get much downtime, Norngirl only managed to get through a book or two instead of her usual libraries worth. The biggest surprise was a shock result in a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Also the news that we're going to be getting a pet cat! Norngirl okayed it with the landlord and surprised me on Christmas day with a photo of items bought for our feline to be. We’re planning to adopt a cat from an animal sanctuary so hopefully it’ll be a nice improvement in life for the cat too.

Christmas 2012 was busy but benign and hopefully the kick start into a great year ahead.

Merry Christmas to Belfast and Beyond.

Wow it's been a while, hi everyone, sorry for the absence, I almost feel like I should reintroduce myself but to be honest, people I already know probably make up 3/4 of the people who will read this. So instead I'm going to start by wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and a really brilliant new year.

We're still in Belfast at the moment though heading over to Yorkshire for Christmas itself. We were just there a week ago for a wedding so it seems to have become more of a very well planned commute at the moment. Flying around like the pucks during the chuck-a-puck at the Belfast Giants!

Talking of long commutes, it's been an odd few weeks in Belfast largely 'thanks' to the law-breaking, offence-seeking, democracy-bypassing, unable to understand how they're being used as political pawns, 'peaceful' flag protesters. They're a strange bunch, able to happily live within a culture of ignorance and cognitive dissonance relating to what they claim to stand for and the wider reality surrounding them. Don't even get me started on the politics of it all. Suffice to say, far-right groups have got the sniff of the fact that there is a spoon fed target market for them here in N.I. The delicate balance of a slightly dysfunctional but peace brokering political system is really being toyed with by the threat of violence. These games are nothing new to N.I politics but still a disgrace to a democratic society. If there is any glimmer of light to all the inexcusable saber rattling and violence, it's that it has highlighted the latent problems that still exist and plenty of the more unusual dimensions to them. I'll undoubtedly end up posting a bit more about it next year.

It's not all doom and gloom though, don't let those who shout loudest convince you otherwise. There are plenty of great things happening in Belfast and the place is looking pretty good:

I'll not drone on too long, I just wanted to get back in the habit of blogging again with a quick update. I have a review of my 2012 List scheduled to be posted on the 26th and I'm working on my 2013 list so I'll be back with those as well as some travel posts and the likes as soon as possible.

Merry Christmas

Sweeping Over at Christmas

Oh hai! Thanks for coming to see us. You all seem a friendly bunch, join us for a moment if you like whilst I stare off into the middle distance and daydream for a few moments...

*insert a twinkly transition to a dreamy day dream scene*

Ah, Christmas, 2 days off work and the joys of the festive season. What a nice time it is.
A funny old Christmas though. It all started when we packed our bags when - lucky for us but unlucky for Norngirl's mum - Sweep had stowed away to join us in our holiday sleep over.
Luckily for Sweep, Norngirl's sister had prepared for his arrival and had knitted him a festive woolly hat!

Isn't he cute, with his little buttoned hat. Sweep squeaked out in happiness when he saw it.

It wasn't long before it was time for bed, even Dogs that squeak need to be asleep before Santa breaks in. Sweep could hardly sleep and watched on as the family drifted into the world of nod.

Unfortunately, that night Norngirl and I couldn't sleep very well on a strange mattress, we'd been too spoilt by having memory foam at home. Sweep wished his head was made of memory foam, he started to imagine what shapes he could mould himself into to escape Soo's wrath.

Before they knew it though, Christmas morning had arrived, well, a brand new car in the street had but it was only 5am. Me, Sweep and Norngirl were all very pleased that the happy people were happy but they were so noisy that the whole world must have known about it and at 5am on Christmas morning... really, just nooooooo.

Eventually we managed to get a little bit of rest and before we knew it the day had begun properly.

Sweep was very happy to find he'd been given some presents to open too and joined in with the rest of the family.

From paper plane books to film lens mugs... all sorts of weird and wonderful things were emerging from the bright and colourful wrapping paper.

Oh what fun!

But the best was yet to come as one box was opened to reveal a surprise of epic magnitude, so awesome that Sweep almost let out a little bit of wee.

SOOTY!

This Lifeform and his Sweep Clone now had a Sooty Clone too! Does that make me Soo? I hope not.

As with each Christmas, a lot of hard work goes into the preparations but undeterred, Sooty and Sweep gave me and Norngirl a hand in the kitchen preparing the vegetables for their Christmas dinner.

Sweep found the biggest stainless steel blade he'd seen since he discovered the wounded body of annoying little cousin Scampi clone who had been run through with a sword by the clone of Snuffles the rabbit. The poor rabbit, she might have had an appetite but even she couldn't stomach Little Cousin Scampi. Talking of Snuffles, she'll be due for release soon, I hope she visits!

Oh what fun it was to chop carrots on Christmas day.

Sweep couldn't keep chopping for ever though and there were so very many carrots and parsnips.

So he handed over to Sooty for a turn, who with a tap of his magical wand - which he keeps in his secret magic pocket for special occasions I must add - he had chopped the lot.

We were very impressed!

It wasn't long before the food was being put in the oven and the happy pair of puppets were enjoying watching their human friends enjoying their Christmas dinner.

After some TV, drinks and watching the Dr Who Christmas Special it was time to relax for the evening and Sooty and Sweep fell asleep after all their hard work.

Norngirl and I stayed up and wondered how bad the nights TV viewing had got on Christmas day. Thankfully the wine is always good and we had a very nice time chatting with our family and watching random stuff on TV before heading to bed for a relatively early night so that we could get up to help out at the football match the next day in which our team were victorious!

*Fade back into reality... wakey wakey*

I guess I best get back to reality. Is it Christmas yet?

Happy Christmas

Mad two weeks. Almost at it's crazy conclusion. Have a good one!

Btw here is a high level view of our festive train wreck :)

Just a reminder, here was the before:

Rolling Along into Christmas

It's all been getting rather Christmassy recently, both at home and in Belfast City Centre. During the first of two visits from my family we took in a fair bit of the city's festivities. My sister's boyfriend had never been to Ireland, let alone Northern Ireland before and so it was our duty to show them how awesome the place is. And Belfast didn't disappoint. The Belfast City Hall Christmas Continental Market was one of our many stops during our meanderings as we gave them a 'residents view' tour.

More on that visit later when I get chance, including our multi-weather coach tour along the North Coast - I'll at least post the windswept photos before too long.

After our guests had headed on home again, we looked at the calendar and unable to see another time that would suit putting up the Christmas decorations, we chose... ASAP.

And up they went. The tree and the rest of the festive themed shiny items are out and about the house. Including this Tiffany Glass Christmas Tree Decoration from our 1st Wedding Anniversary New York trip last year.

We've been saving like mad for our next US trip in early 2012 and this Christmas Decoration is a nice memory that we'll always link back to our wedding and first year of marriage. We're old hats now though, plenty into the 2nd year and counting so it came as little surprise when I was placed on the naughty list by Norngirl via Portable North Pole this website along with Elf Yourself are now a common place email lolage along the advent calendar journey to the big day. Talking of advent calendars, someone should tell Sesame Street to do a Christmas Special on advent calendar numbering, my advent calendar this year had me checking the back to see if I'd missed a box, turned out to just be my eyes and some chameleon like text/background.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we also bought a toy train, just a cheap and cheerful £5.99 battery powered plastic thing. We'll hopefully be painting and decorating it in due course but for now this is how it looks sat under our tree.

If only I could be as "calm and organised" (to quote Matthew Corbett in the Sooty Show) in my Christmas Shopping. Hardly scratched the surface of that job. On the plus side we did manage a bit of charity work manning the Giving Tree for a couple of hours. A worthy cause if you are in Belfast, like shopping and can spare a bit of money, just head along to the top floor of M&S (up until the 10th December) and pick up a tag and buy a present then drop it back. Sadly the UK and Ireland is still unable to look after it's most needy, even at Christmas time. Until the politics and economic idiocy of this country and others is rectified, if you can spare some money to give a present, it really could be the spark that helps a child through a hard time and set them on the way to better things.

So with all that in mind, a busy few weeks ahead. More soon.

Christmas in June? Gobble off.

It is looking suspiciously like it is restaurants who start this. *shake my fists at them* in a comedy "why I awd to" manner. Yep - selling Christmas in June, restaurants and bars appear to be first. Eateries around Belfast would like you to now start thinking about your festive preparations for in 6 months time.

Last week on the 21st of June - this date's significance being it is the longest day of the year... aka the summer solstice and I saw my first 'Book your Christmas Party here' banner of the year - a banner advertising the fact you can now book to celebrate a festival centred around the shortest day of the year... the winter solstice!

But why! I mean, if the planet Earth hasn't even made it half way around the sun or another spin around it's axis, you'd think a meal time booking could wait - it's not like anyone is getting married on a specific date at a specific time in one specific place.

I can understand being prepared and even making sure you get in early for limited places but surely the venues who fill up quickly could hold back and still be full? What happens if they're advertising steak at a set price now and food prices treble between now and then and they have to honour it? Is it really in a restaurants best interest to have reservations 6 months in advance? Is their star chef quitting next week and do they want people to book before they find out? Is it even in the customers best interest - who's to say the service isn't going to go down hill and they might get better for cheaper else where? After all 6 months is a long time - 1/157.7th of an average person's life expectancy in Northern Ireland in 2008 in fact!

For a second I suspected it might be to do with the Turkey farming process in that 6 months might be about the right time to hatch and fatten them up. However, surely since most people won't book now, the market won't know anyway. I just don't get it. All it does is make me worry about saving up for actual Christmas festivities when I should be worrying about enjoying the summer and the next 6 months.

Seriously, would it hurt to take Christmas off the menu for just a few months more and at least give us a full 6 months of the rest of the year? Sure, if they advertise Christmas too early, the Turkeys might find out and have time to hatch an escape plan... oh wait, most of this years stock probably haven't even been hatched yet.

Sorry, I just had to get that out - I feel much better now!

Happy Christmas from Belfast!

Happy Christmas everyone :)

Tis the season to be jolly and after all the hard work of preparing for the day, hopefully it has been worth the effort for everyone. I'm (hopefully) not actually in Belfast on the big day as I hope to be visiting my family (if Belfast City Airport has it's flights running in the morning) but as I probably won't be blogging from Yorkshire this festive 'Happy Christmas' post is brought to you from chilly Belfast a day and a bit ahead of schedule.

I have to say I'm looking forward to this Christmas, lots of good TV seems to be on to distract us from the crazy cold temperatures and although the problems the freezing cold has given us, it's a nice reminder that this is winter. Why is that good, well, I think it's nice we can all appreciate how hard this time of year would have been for people in times gone by and why the winter Solstice and the lengthening of the daylight hours thereafter is a time for celebration. It's brilliant to live on planet Earth even if it does have a lot of man made issues for us all to work out but at Christmas time we have a reason to be happy, for some that might have adopted religious connotations since the party got branded with the Christmas tag, but sure, whatever floats your boat! If there is one thing that can bring everyone together... it's Elf!

Here is a festive photo of the Icy River Lagan from the 21st December, the day of the Winter Solstice to have a nosey at if you've taken a few minutes away from the festivities of what should be a fun long weekend :)

Roll on 2011 - catch y'all then if not before!

Belfast in December

Belfast is very cold! We've not had the quantity of snow that a lot of the UK and Ireland has experienced this week but this part of the world has nevertheless shared the freezing cold temperatures. So before I reminisce more about last months trip to New York, here is a quick start-of the-month feeler from the frozen streets of Belfast.

The city has been getting into the festive spirit. The Christmas lights were turned on the day Norngirl and I arrived home from NYC. The switch-on was apparently done by the Lord Mayor and Lisa Riley. Sadly though, we didn't head down because we were just too tired to do anything more than sleep. With good reason too! At that stage in the day we'd had a mad week, had been awake for the best part of 40 hours and needed more rest than we got closing our eyes for a few minutes on hard airport seats in Heathrow. The streets of Belfast therefore are now lit up with festive decorations, they're not exactly the Blackpool Illuminations but they do add a nice glow to our city's streets.

In the grounds of Belfast City hall is the Belfast Christmas Continental Market. I've so far only had the chance for a quick walk through and the shops seem quite similar to last year but it's still fun to take in the sights, sounds and more importantly - smells... though it would be awesome to head back and take in some of the BEER!

Belfast City Hall itself (and the rest of the grounds) have also been decorated. I think most people in Belfast, if asked, would count the City Hall as one of the gems of Belfast when speaking about its landmarks and I think the council have done a great job of decorating it again this year. Though it really is missing the Belfast Wheel :(

The other big change in this part of the city centre is the semi-completion of the paving on Donegal Place and Royal Avenue. This was a nice surprise! Before, the buses into town had to swerve through a roadwork chicane and it always threw you off balance. Now seemingly done, this area is more pedestrianised than ever and the first 2 of what are said to be 8 giant lighting masts have been installed!

Yep, the two random copper sculptures are part of 8 masts that will grace the street. They are known as Belfast City's Iconic Feature Lighting Masts though I suspect they'll get a new name before long. I've not been able to find too much about them but according to the Department for Social Development's website, the remaining 6 will be installed in January and each is to be named after a ship with a tie to the city. For a little more information here is the DSD page about the iconic feature lighting masts. I can't wait to see what it all looks like once they're done and the lights have been installed and turned on! The page linked to above has some artists impressions if you're feeling curious.

There has also been a little bit of snow and at times it has been looking quite like a winter wonderland but there hasn't been quite enough snow to be able make some snowmen or snow animals like we did in Yorkshire back in February this year. Sadly there has been just enough snow/ice for the primary school kids (who don't live in our street) to come around and pelt the windows, grrrrrrr, wee brats.

Victoria Square is also alive with festive glow; a massive tree like cone is its centrepiece but the whole shopping centre is filled with hanging lights and bunches of small Christmas trees. It's quite a sight. Sadly I've not had chance to take any photos of it yet but do head over to San Fran ♥ Belfast where Flippin' Yank has been busy sharing some snaps of those decorations and scenes.

So with that I'll get back to some online Christmas shopping and putting together some more posts about New York... that is if I can draw myself away from my new toy! I recently hit the 200 limit on Flickr so succumbed to paying to go Pro.  With this purchase I've found a new addiction... like I needed one! I've now taken to ploughing through people's photos and commenting on them as well as sharing my own. So if you also use Flickr too, don't be shy to say hi and add me as a contact, I'll be sure to reciprocate. Here is my photostream on Flickr. Tis the season to be jolly after all :)

Christmas starting in September, Ho Ho Yo or Ho Ho No?

Token Christmas movies on cable TV stations in Summer aside, earlier in the month the first signs Christmas were crawling out of the woodwork and into plain sight pretty much on schedule compared to the first signs of Christmas last year.

It started with 2 Christmas songs played on Radio1 on Thursday 9th September as I happened to be tuned in. One played by Gregg James on the ten minute take over (so technically not his fault) - Last Christmas by Wham! The other song was a slight tounge in cheek running joke on the Scott Mills show that was encouraged by a famous generic reality show boy band, thankfully it wasn't the whole thing but Mariah Carey's version of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' was pumped through my earphones.

That was preceded by another christmas spotting when we had to nip to Tesco at Yorkgate/City Side Mall the day before. We were looking like we'd had strokes at the time (due to our first of 2 visits to the dentists and the use of a few jabs), the numb faces weren't the shock though, for in the little entrance way where there are a few shops leading to the supermarket there is florists/seasonal shop that is already decked out as a winter wonderland with flashing xmas trees and red scented candles.

The craze of selling xmas as early as possible certainly seems a general UK commercial meme as it is also being felt in Yorkshire over the weekend where each restraunt we visited was already touting with crackers and wrapped boxes their xmas party menus. A visit to a garden center also led us to another display of festive decorations including an A3 sized felt advent calendar that was almost cute enough to buy until we saw the price.

I wonder if 50 years ago were people also being offered Christmas goods and services before the first frosts of Autumn had even arrived? Maybe the preporation of festive pickles and beverages might have to have been planned ahead a little more but surely early September is pushing the need to have a fibre optic fake tree in your house. Sure, the decidious trees native to the UK and Ireland are still pretty much fully green leafed and again its only just turned September people! September!

Even now at the end of September we're only just starting to see the first real signs of Autumn as the leaves are changing colour and the temperature drops enough to need the heating on.

Who is buying this stuff so early and why? Do the shops really get that much benifit by being the 1st to offer seasonal items so far ahead of the actual season? I just don't get it. I mean I love the festive atmosphere but I think it takes something away from a special occasion if you have a long drawn out build up where you get to sample most of the atmosphere beforehand, so for now, I'm still a Ho Ho No. Give it a month or two.

Is it Christmas time already?

Merry Christmas! It’s here; it’s the most wonderful time of the year. That time honoured festival, where people throughout the ages have celebrated the coming to an end of darkest days of winter by filling it with a feeling of optimism and togetherness for the year ahead. It had only just turned September when the 1st signs were there to be spotted by the curious passersby. And in the race to win over the hearts and minds of those less fortunate than themselves, it’s the business world who, as usual have bolted from the start line.


First signs were the sneaky inclusion of some wrapping paper and bows, hidden low down at the foot of the shelves in a few stores. “What a funny sight at this time of year”, I did think to myself as I first laid eyes on them. I wondered who in their right mind would have already brought Christmas presents and be looking to wrap them? Are there really that many people heading away on a 3 month vacation who will be out of reach of a reliable post service?

So, are the stores making a good profit and getting the cash flow running early? Is it just planning ahead and filling the space? Or possibly, could it just be to get people thinking about buying? Besides my suspicions, there are probably many other reasons that are better known to those in seasonal sales and marketing. However (and feel free to call me a cynic) but it doesn’t seem anything new for a group to manipulate a holiday to suit their own cause. Even a celebration seemingly originally founded from the best of humanity’s spirit.

Pinned to today’s Gregorian calendar there would be a 1 in 365.2425 chance of getting it right, however when Hippolytus of Rome put forward the suggestion and when Pope Julius the 1st and others declared the date of their Saviors birthday, it seems a co-incidence that they picked the date they did. Especially, when the decision came centuries after the event. I heard a line tonight, it was from the Deep Space Nine episode ‘Cardassians’ and it seems quite apt to share at this moment and it went as follows, "I believe in coincidences, coincidences happen every day... but I don't trust coincidences."

So it seems quite likely they were assimilating the winter solstice holidays to suit the pursuit of strengthening their belief system in the same sort of way that Patrick popularised Christianity in Ireland. That is by adapting what had already evolved to be the predominant cultural focus of a people and their communities, and to manipulate that to be an integral part of what you want it to become. Sure, it could have been the masses who, taking on their new beliefs, adapted them to their old festivals and celebrations. But all this without the drive or influence of those at the head of an organized religious group who would have had the biggest vested interest in controlling the hearts and minds of people? The best part of 2 millennia later and the themes and methodology of controlling powers of religions and states seem to have put to bed much doubt. So moving on, cultural change and through the centuries of developments, we meet with Capitalism and eventually, mass production. At this point, the most powerful ideas being sold are purely of financial implication. Those formerly able to control states (in what is now seen as the developed world) with religious dogma, now have to settle, on the face of things at least, for a control of spirituality. The door to the sale of ideas to the masses is largely in the hands of the corporation and the press. Along comes Coca Cola, and looking for a new marketing campaign, didn’t create, but adapted on an already popular image of the day, that of a popularised American interpretation of a religious figure - St Nicholas – aka Santa. Since that marketing success, Christmas has since become a quirk of the materialistic and consumerist western world. Both taking advantage of as well as adding substance to - as Christianity did - the good nature and goodwill of mankind. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, is an opinion entirely at the judgment of the individual.

So looking around town this weekend, where numerous shops like BHS already have some of their ranges of wrapping, cards, chocolate advent calendars, ornaments, toys and other festive decorations, it’s not so difficult to understand that it’s not really strange at all that we’re being offered such items at this time of year. For these items, which relate to the current convoluted symbols that now help us feel attached to our continued interpretation of an ancient celebration, are our link to our ancestors and to their hopes, fears and optimism relating to the natural cycle of our planet. For that, it is likely there will always be demand. As is the case in Britain and Ireland, where power and heat is largely taken for granted all year round. A sense of connection with the seasons, even though it may only be a case of whether it is dark when we wake. Or our sense of community within our families and with others. Still brings even the most secular of us to understand that Christmas, aka x-mass, the Winter Solstice, aka the winter holidays, is whatever we want to make of it. If that’s led people to wish to prepare for it 3 months early, then there doesn’t seem much harm. People and this celebration have been manipulated for a very long time but when we look back at what Christmas has been, Christmas only matters in what it means to you.

Personally I see a Christmas shop, even at this time of year, and it makes me smile. It gives me a sense of excitement and warmth as I recall and relate it to many fond memories. Sure, I’m as confused by the desire to sell or buy Christmas themed goods so early as I am by the Church and religious groups who advertise that we should remember ‘the real meaning of Christmas’ each year.

So, the PLC’s might have their foot in the Christmassy door first, the Church won’t be that far behind, but when it comes to the time when the traditions and festivities are played out this year, it will adapt to whatever we each make it. Hopefully the more hopeful and forward looking ethos, of those who first gathered and instigated a celebration (for whatever their reasons), will shine through.

In the meantime, there’s a good chunk of this year left to live. I for one intend to make the most of it before I even start to contemplate any major Christmas related plans. Time to put the Snowman back on ice.