Indian Summer

So its almost closer to winter than summer now. Mid autumn. Last night I was driving around Belfast and the temperature for most of the time was 19c, on a dark October night!

So big question, is this an example of global warming ?

Belfast Floats in the Clouds

This amazing photograph was taken this morning (Wednesday) by local digital artist Ken Lucas. The photo shows a blanket of fog engulf the city of Belfast with only the cranes of the shipyard appearing above the clouds.



http://www.artirelandkenlucas.com

Grumpy old man

Ok, right, i've taken stock of my life, been a little bit too much fun over the summer, too much drinking, too much good food and the worst thing, i've started smoking again after working so hard at giving up.

Well i've decided to get things back on track, got a Nicotine patch on and haven't smoked for 48 hours, on a great healthy diet, taking more exercise and watching the Alcohol.

I also started taking stock of my life a little, i'm 28 years old but over the last while i'm really turning into a terrible cynical grumpy old man. So with the new lifestyle change i've decided to have a much more rose tinted view of the world, unfortunately this is the most difficult thing!

Yesterday someone told me about a "great" bar where the girls and guys danced in Bikini's and shorts on tables, usually even the thought of such an establishment would fill me with horror but I decided to put on a really silly grin and say, "Wow, that sounds FFFFFaaaantastic, must give it a try".

Smoking, Pah, Dieting, a Doddle, watching my Alcohol consumption, EASY-PEASY, Cutting out the Cynicism - AAAAAAAAHHHHH! Anyone thought of starting Cynics Anomomous?

I just LOVE X Factor

This clip requires no introduction !

Fighting nation

Today I read again another story of a "row" over planning, this time of a memorial to the 1998 Omagh bombing on BBC News online - Omagh Memorial in inscription row.

Has 30 years of bloody conflict and the following resolutions and peace movement not taught the people of Northern Ireland anything about solving arguements. Why the hell are we so terrible at planning ANYTHING in this country. We can't agree on the things like the Maze site, decommissioned police stations, and Giants Causeway visitors centre, which is a glorified gift shop and toilet block!

If this country wants to move on people MUST find a way to quickly and easily get over these agruements without it decending into a long drawn out legal or political debate.

Omagh Bomb Memorial Proposal - Constant Light

My personal option is not a very popular one. If we are going to move on to the future, we should drop plans for memorials to the past.

Idiot Idol

I was watching Pop Idol at the weekend, definitely not something I make a habit of doing, but some of the auditions were Belfast. Simon Cowell announced during the recording that this was the worst batch of auditions that he’d ever seen, I can agree with him, the standard was TERRIBLE.

So many people with a HUGE opinion of their non-existent telents.

It got me thinking about people in Belfast and how high an opinion they actually have on themselves. People in this Northern Ireland ready do play to the local audience, they have no idea of how they are going to come across to people outside the country and most of them couldn’t care less. This sounds perhaps like an endearing quality but trust me it isn’t.

Belfast is full of pretentiousness these days, pretentious coffee shops, cafes, bars, hotels, shops, fashion fads, advertising houses, design agency’s and even the new modern architecture. Unfortunately our city has a terrible mixture of arrogance and stupidity, the arrogance to support pretentious, new fangled fads and the stupidity to hold them up like the emperors new clothes.

Get it sorted Belfast, we think we are wonderful but continue failing to deliver.

Remembering an Angel

Ten years ago a beautiful woman was taken from us. A woman who travelled the world, helping the poor, sick, orphaned and dying. A woman who never ever played on her "celebrity" status, a woman who was always honourable, kind, fair and just.

Many have said how she personally touched their lives, how she created miracles worldwide and to this day she is remembered as one of the greatest women of all time.

I refer of course to the wonderful Mother Teresa of Calcutta.