The first wintry morning of the year

Whilst preparing a small flask of tea in our kitchen on Monday morning it was bright enough for me to give the light switch a miss, it looked calm and warm outside. From that window I was lulled into a false sense of non-frozenness which meant that I wasn't expecting the winter scene or the clod blast of air that awaited me as I opened the front door. Never much of a morning person and out of the door a little earlier than usual, the sudden face-freeze was a wake up call that I hadn't anticipated. The bright white lawn and white peppered sky took me by surprise. Oddly though, not a bad surprise, it was quite a pleasant surprise, the crisp chilled air shocked my senses out of their sleep hangover like a splash of cold water and for once I felt quite awake. My brain shouted 'WINTER!' and as always on such occasions my hands reached into my pocket to grab my camera so I could share so here is our grass-weed-lawn with a dusting of frost:

I quickly walked to the bus stop where I noticed the Moon was still out and playing hide and seek with me, hiding behind and re-appearing from the fast moving clouds in an ocean-like sky.

On the bus everything was chilled to the touch. Using the rails to climb the stairs to the upper deck was what I imagine it would be like to use a zimmer frame outside in the Alps.
The bus was as cold as the air outside, cold enough to see your breath in the air and to feel the chill from the upholstered seat through your trousers and underwear.
I held my flask through the plastic bag to keep it upright due to its time outside it too was a lot colder than my hand to the point I actually thought it was wet and had leaked through the bag.

Heading into Belfast the scene out of the window of the bus was certainly that of winter. The Sun was low in the sky engulfing passengers in an orange aura, anything in shadow was still dusted with frost. The vents from large buildings had visible white plumes of water vapour rising from them, making the city look like it was still running on coal and wood burning fires like it had gone back in time or turned into a power station for the day.

I stepped off the bus and paid the usual visits to shops to pick up some food for lunch. The air-conditioning of the shops a nice relief even though I was wearing 2 layers and a coat.
Once supplies had been obtained I headed to work but took a few seconds out to stop by the River Lagan down by the Waterfront. There the sun was peeking out from behind a building, mildly glaring like a sunrise...

... , reflecting off the shiny exterior of the Obel building back across the water...

and planes having just taken off from Belfast City Airport were ploughing splashing through the white waves in the sky...

It was freezing but pretty. Rather than finally obtain some gloves and staying out in the crisp air longer taking pictures, I eventually had to focus on getting to work. Winter was certainly giving us a wake up call and a reminder that it'll be here soon enough. Time for me to re-find those hats, scarves and gloves that must be buried under several layers of household junk... brrrrrrrrrrrr.

Belfast Trade Union Rally against public service cuts

On Saturday Norngirl and I gathered in the crowd before a mobile stage set up in front of Belfast City Hall. The rain was pouring down soaking anyone without an umbrella but with a firm statement to make, thousands had turned out to tell our Finance Minister and the current coalition government exactly what the trade unions and like minded people think of their solution to the country's financial problems. Flags, banners, music and speeches were seen in front of a wet but determined crowd.

I'd never been to a trade union rally before - mainly due to the fact I'm not a member of a trade union or even work in a trade that has a trade union but in this day and age a bit of solidarity is much needed. Norngirl is a member of a union but I think we would have gone along anyway. We wanted to show our support in opposing the austerity measures in public spending to be inflicted on this part of the world and also to try and get some of the politicians in Northern Ireland (the ones who think they are above being held accountable for their actions just because there are hard choices to be made) to think twice... like Finance Minister Sammy Wilson who decided to tell everyone before hand that the protest was "a waste of time".

As reported by the BBC and was said quite eloquently at the rally by ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting:

"What annoys Sammy Wilson most is you being here today. [...] Sammy wants us to sit down, shut up and take our medicine - like good patients for his prescription of austerity and privatisation."

Thankfully not all of his colleagues agreed and the social Development Minister and Education Minister attended the event. Maybe he should listen to people first and then make his mind up rather than make his mind up and complain about people's criticism? You would think he would have learnt from his highly controversial spell as Environment minister and look how that turned out for him. To be hoped he's better with maths than science but anyway, back on topic.

For me, the saddest thing is when the government's only plan is to ask the every day hard working person to pay more than their fair share to fix a problem most helped prevent rather than cause. A plan that was dreamt up by the same political party who encouraged the philosophy and ethos which resulted in the need to bail the banks out in the first place. Yet the way the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition have chosen to proceed just places even more trust and control to the very same organisations that have been shown by their failings to be inept, greedy and untrustworthy. So politically the cuts are Conservative in nature - using the opportunity to pass more control of government to business, to pass even more of what I would see as the government's responsibility on to big business in the hope they will be able to do a better job.

I mean why should our government worry about looking after the basic needs of society and its future health and mobility?

David Cameron wants us to look after that aspect of society for free as a part of his 'Big Society', and whilst we'll all be happily doing our bit (twice over) to get the country out of a mess, is he going to put pressure on private businesses to give people more money or time off to help us achieve his public aim? I doubt it very much. I rather predict that if our government didn't bend over to their friends in big business, their friends wouldn't be so friendly and would take their bat and balls away to play with another country and leave us even worse off. Some would say that's 'market forces' other might find blackmail more appropriate.

So the plan is to let big business have more control so they'll stay and even more will want a slice and of course they will. They're operating to make a profit, and so they should if that is what the business is set up to do, but how many investors will hang around when the going gets tough since many are even finding ways around paying tax when the going is good? Unlike our Finance Minister's attitude to those trying to make their voice heard, maybe he, along with MPs on a national scale (especially those who have the final say in Westminster), should be putting up a little bit more of a fight. Maybe standing up for those who elected them when it comes to clawing back the bailout deficit? Is it unreasonable to expect government to first demand a proportionate amount from those who gambled and lost causing the problem? Especially from the likes of the financial sector, an industry where the highest level of incompetence is rewarded by pay-offs. Payouts only outshone by the extremely disproportionate bonuses awarded for even the smallest success.

Yet instead what do we have coming? Well Corporation tax with this government is expected to be dropped to 24p per £1 of profit for large businesses. To put that in perspective it will be the lowest corporation tax of all the G20 countries and the lowest of any large western economy including the USA!

It is also the lowest rate this country will have ever had and a reduction of a huge 9% from 1997. In that time we have gone from boom to bust and instead of asking the businesses who have profited in this time from operating in this country to help bring back their own good times the majority of that bad debt is passed onto the lowest denominator... the individual who isn't positioned to argue back.

I honestly do realise that commerce, trade, the financial markets and interactions between government, the public taxpayer, other stakeholders and the business world are a little more complicated than the simplistic views I'm waffling on about here and there are safeguards (at some levels) in place, but sometimes the set up just becomes a huge joke which might be legal but it isn't right and it winds me up.

I'm sure I'm not alone in being very worried about the attitude of putting even more faith in non-democratically elected hands in regards to the welfare of the state. The current record of private enterprise holding back from making poor choices for short term gain is not good. Things might get better but then, if and when it all goes wrong again, where do we end up? After a few such cycles and a few currency wars, when do we either declare the country bankrupt or have the package we call the UK bought out like a football club with the cost of the debt of buying us secured against the country and further strip the country of its assets?

Inept government choices and greed of the financial world apart, when are the chummy pals in higher government in the UK going to earn their keep? Even our First Minister and Deputy First Minister are trying to get the government to see some sense in relation to Northern Ireland's funding.

It is understandable that people stand up for their livelihoods and that today means saying "no" to non-democratically elected individuals and organisations getting away with not paying their fair share. To call for a change in philosophy when it comes to finding a better way rather than taking the easiest way out of the situation and to call for better governance of what we do have.

What sort of life are we setting up for those future generations who aren't born into a privileged background? If we only have a puppet government which is only there to facilitate economic forces, at what point does the power of democracy shrink to the point where we're not working to live, we're living to work, or have I just got the wrong end of the stick when it comes to the average citizens role in life? I thought freedom was somewhere in that list of human rights.

The job losses in Northern Ireland have been generally reported in the local press at a figure of around 30,000 in the public sector. That doesn't include the knock on effect this will have on the private sector. Unions such as UNISON and NIPSA are trying to protect the public sector. That is, trying to protect jobs and prevent the government detrimentally affecting the most vulnerable in society. They will undoubtedly oppose cuts which impact worst on front-line services in anyway possible. In the likes of myself there is support from those working outside the public sector even if we can't actually do anything but add volume to their voice. I may not agree with every last point I heard at the rally but compared to what I hear from Westminster and from our own Finance Minister here in Northern Ireland, it's a point of view with reason and with people rather than profit at heart. That is admirable in my book and it was well worth getting a soaking for.

Gaming at Catalyst Arts, Belfast Festival 2010

Norngirl pressed the bell. Having never been here before (let alone down the street we were on) we thought we had maybe arrived at a time when the place was closed. We knew it was the right place though as there was a big poster on the door. Puzzled, we were starting to doubt ourselves a little but then at the last moment the door opened and a friendly, smiling lady led us up a few flights of stairs into an art galley. The main attraction wasn't any regular art though, this was the world of Gaming, to be more specific - Catalyst Arts Gaming, an event put on by the organisation for the Belfast Festival.

So there we were on a rainy Saturday being introduced to an art gallery full of games we could play. There were retro video games and classic board games. On our left, Giant Draughts (checkers), Chess, Scrabble and other games. To our right several games consoles (a Sega Megadrive 16bit, N64, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2 and Gamecube) set up on individual TVs. Behind them a Foosball table and on the walls; game posters and game themed paintings.

The place was quite quiet, just a couple of other people around so we pretty much had a full choice of what to do. Our first choice was the Foosball table. Table football/foosball or whatever you want to call it can get quite frantic and as soon as we had started we were both struggling to keep one hand on the goalie and like crazed organists waiving our other hand back and fourth between the remaining handles. We tried our best to keep that little ball heading away from our goal but it was a futile endeavour. Lucky for me though I finished victorious, muwhahahaha.

Once our game was at it's end we moved on to the video games. On the Megadrive is was a game of 2 player Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I have to explain at this point my wife Norngirl has completed Sonic on the Sega Game Gear several times so before the excuses continue - Yes I lost.

In my defence I'm a Nintendo child having played on my cousins as a kid from an early age then eventually I was lucky enough to get a Nintendo Entertainment System as a joint birthday and Christmas present when I was about 8. After that my next console came when I saved up my pocket money for a few months and with Birthday money to top it up I was able to buy myself a 2nd hand SNES - that was about 1997 when they were starting to wind down making games for it. I love the SNES, it's my favourite console and ever since that day I've collected 2nd hand games for all Nintendo Consoles, so I am indeed a Nintendo nerd and totally addicted. Sadly, I only ever played Sega at friends houses so never found my way around the 3 main buttons of a mega-drive controller, an odd number of buttons in a line on a control pad just doesn't seem right to my fingers. At one point as Knuckles was already checking into an overnight hotel recuperating for the challenges of the next level, I had Sonic stuck in some pinball purgatory and ended up timing out to his golden ring dropping death.

Moving on and sadly Goldeneye on the N64 wasn't up and running at the time and I didn't want to start messing with it or know if it was the console or the cart or the TV but at any rate I didn't have my tools with me if the console or cart needed a clean (If you collect things that are old and dirty you get used to this). So we moved onto the other consoles.

I headed for Tekken 2 on the PS1 whilst Norngirl tried Space Invaders on the PS2. We tried the other games, one was a Warner Bros game, maybe Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck or on something on the Gamecube. The other a game on the Dreamcast that I'd never seen before, some shoot-em-up at any rate.

After losing our numerous lives in many amusing ways, from being popped by orbs of energy to falling into the abyss that always seems to be a never ending pit at the bottom of a screen, we headed to the oversized floor draughts (Checkers) and had a quick game. I ended up winning though a little unfairly given Norngirl wasn't too clued up about the rules before we began to play. Understandable too given we don't own a board and she hadn't played for a longer time than many of the consoles in the room had been in existence.

Winning or losing we had a good time and were very glad we went along. As a display I would have loved a SNES or a NES there, there was oddly a SNES game on the table so maybe they have one? I dunno. but whichever it was still pretty awesome to have such a venue set up to play games. The lady who had shown us up on the way in kindly gave us a quick overview of the Art Gallery and explained that normally it is contemporary art on the walls and they planning on a move down to a lower floor which will undoubtedly given the amount of stairs improve access.

I didn't know this at the time as we only heard about this free event through word of mouth but it turns out that Catalyst Arts have been providing a cultural outlet in the city for 16 years and per their website they are a non-profit, members-based organisation, good stuff.

If you might be interested in heading along to play some games, do head down to the 2nd floor of 5 College Court Tuesday to Saturday between 11am-5pm next week (it finishes on the 30th October) and press the buzzer if the door isn't open. Good times and more buttons await those who do :)