A Walk Along the Lagan

Last Thursday I took a walk through town to visit the Odyssey, to buy some tickets for Graeme Walton's testimonial game and to get some more flexi tickets. The day was overcast and wet, I'd go so far as to say it was miserable. Despite the weather it turned out to be the same day that, completely separately, Neil over at Belfast is my Mojo also took a walk along the urban banks of the River Lagan. Here was Neil's walk in his blog post 'Down by the Lagan-side'.

Most of my own walk was on the opposite side of the river. After buying the tickets and setting off back towards the city center I was stopped in my tracks (in the rain) by this Black Guillemot who, all alone on this part of the river, was seemingly on a hunt. With what must have been a chance of some dinner, it was DIVE DIVE DIVE! The legs kicked up into the air as its head went under.

Then there was just a glimmer of those bright red webbed feet disappearing in an instant into the abyss.

In less than a second all that's left to give away the bird was ever there are the small ripples that fade into stillness.

I watched this a few times before heading on along the towpath, mostly because I was slowly getting soaked.

Further along before the footbridge that is part of the Lagan weir is a nice view of the Lagan Boat Company's MV Joyce Too' and MV Mona.

After another small stretch of water between the weir and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge are some benches where on a nicer day than this you can watch the traffic and water flow by.

Back on the city side of the Lagan, down by Lanyon Place and the Waterfront is the MV Confiance aka 'The Belfast Barge' which is home to a maritime exhibition and cafe.

I wasn't alone in arriving back at the office drenched that day but it was still worth it for the lunch time walk and the tickets.

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!

Lake Placid on a Boat: Belfast Film Festival event

The sun had set, the blue lights of the Lagan Weir shone brightly and we stepped onto the boat. We headed down below deck into a blue/purple glow, in there were benches lining the walls and 3 rows of bean bags strewn across the floor with a big screen the size of the rooms width at the front. Everyone settled themselves in and got comfy. After a quick briefing about the location of life rafts and life jackets, the engine started, the screen came on, the snacks came out and our floating cinema headed out into our very own Lake Placid - the channel of the River Lagan connecting to Belfast Lough.

Yep, we managed to make it to the 'Big Fish' in time to take in another of the 10th Belfast Film Festival's events. This time, as mentioned in the post about the disappointing Queens Film Theatre Quiz, it was a showing of Lake Placid on a boat, in the dark on Wednesday night. We had high hopes and it didn't disappoint. How could it, we were on a boat! (link warning - explicit lyrics)

We had all met by the river after passing by the few hours after work in our own ways. I had intended to go to see a movie but through either my fault or the websites, the showing/movie didn't exist so I then resorted to having a look around the shops, loitering in Starbucks (which for me, as someone who doesn't like coffee or the smell of it, isn't as fun as everyone else seems to think it is) and then when Norn Girl had headed off to her class, waited for her in the Kitchen Bar by Victoria Square with a pint of Guinness – much better!

The time flew by and it was soon time to make the short walk down past another Boat (of the building variety) which on a side note, from the outside almost seems complete now. It was all lit up with its big square frames surrounding its balconies.

We didn't have time to muse though as we didn't want to be late. So we scurried on and got to the 'Salmon of Knowledge' aka the 'Big Fish' in time to meet our friends and get in the queue. Boarding was quick once it was all ready to go and we made it into position ready to watch Lake Placid. Prior to going I could have sworn I'd seen it before but as it was I didn't remember any of the plot so maybe I was thinking of something else. I thought it was a great choice of film though, just the right amount of comedy and jumpy moments to make the tight but friendly environment of the boat the perfect location.

The Lagan Boat Companies' boat that we were in, chugged by alongside the docks and we passed by the Odyssey, the area the Titanic was launched from and the other cranes and buildings lining the docks in that area. Each was fairly brightly lit and we passed some big container vessels and other such maritime truckers who looked on into our wee boat looking a bit perplexed. Had they never seen a cinema boat before!

The noise from the engine was minimal and the sound from the speakers was great. The lights from the rest of the docks wasn't too bright, though at one time we did get glared a little by some floodlights on one of the container ships but that passed as quickly as it had found us. The screen was a decent size in the main part of the boat with a smaller but still big flat screen TV for those sitting/smoking outside.

All in all was great fun and so much more enjoyable than the quiz. Watching a movie rather than talking about them is looking a cert the way to go in this festival. Though the quiz wasn't my cup of tea, this certainly was and I'll be scouring the events listings next year and booking another cinema on a boat experience if they do it again!

We were kinda hoping that they'd start screening more films and make it a permanent thing - though we did realise there is the big question of how many movies there are that are focused about being in or on a lake, river or ocean? There must be quite a few... any good ones spring to mind?