Notes from the (never) bored-room

365:054 Signs of the times

Not a planned theme following yesterday's "stop" sign for the birds... but this one made me giggle this morning. It's on the drive through the grounds of one of the local schools (just at the Belmont Road roundabout for those with local knowledge!) and I think it says a lot.

D'you think it's a reflection on the old joke about this particular school educating the "cream" of society?!

365:053 "Fowl" play

Well it amused me this morning - the suggestion that the winged wildlife around Lough Neagh might be literate - they all seemed to be following instructions. I guess the guys perched on the railings were getting impatient though and none of the swans seemed to know why they had to "stop"!

365:052 0710am

Lovely surprise this morning when I had a look out the bedroom window - a fresh snowfall - unusual when we're just yards from the beach.

365:051 Down time

It's been a long run of panto, but at last I've reached the end. Now for some serious down time and when I'm too tired to "read", one of my favourite ways is to mosey through a pile of cookery books. Not the most inspiring pic today - but I'm so out of energy to even think :o{

365:050 Tomorrow's menu

Saturday's coming... and so are "the kids" - looks like finger lickin' fried chicken on the menu.

365:049 Crush hour

Every time I go to London for the day on work business, it takes an average of five minutes on the tube to remind me why I chose to work back in Belfast. Looonnng day.

365:048 Early start

So maybe I should be in bed already?

365:047 Ah Bliss

My favourite kind of "radio" therapy - BBC Radio 4, a mug of tea and peace and quiet. Perfect end to the day.

365:046 Harlem moment

So a new camera - seems sharper than the other one - and a tea break out of the office with Mark. Perfect for the first photo in the camera - almost as perfect as the apple tart... Cheers McC!

365:045 Love is...

365:044 Brushing up against history...

One of those old fashioned things I don't do so often is polishing my footwear with wax and brushes, even though I love the smell of the tinned shoe polish. I've got lazy and generally use the bottles with an applicator sponge attached. The brushes we use were my granda's from his time in the RAF (1938 - 1945). His id number is cut into them, but doesn't show up on the pic. The brushes live in a wooden shoe caddy made by dad as a sample piece to inspire his woodwork class long ago... so doubly special. (New camera due on Monday so an end I hope, to blurred, wick pics.)

365:043 Downpatrick today...

I've been in primary schools in different parts of NI yesterday and today. Today, it was the turn of St Brigid's. We've been "user-testing" a new website about St Patrick with 8 - 10 year olds. Some days it's a lovely job, despite the ridiculously early starts. The children had a display of crosses made for St Brigid's day which I think.. is at the start of February.

365:042 0530 start...

Dawn this morning... Belfast. Too early for any sane person to start work.

365:041 Currently listening to...

"Gospel Road" - Brian Houston. Track of the day - "The Lord is Still the Lord" - mmmm. Have a listen to the words and tell me this isn't a song for the season.

365:040 Mousemat

My favourite mousemat linking some of my favourite things... France, crafts, history and the computer - ok, the latter not a "favourite" thing, but it gets a lot of use. Roll on the holidays! Oh la la.

365:039 A day at the beach...

It's always a good time for family - today was time to catch up with another cousin. My parents are Nanny Leta and Papa for his wee toddler since my cousin's father was murdered 29 years ago in what we knew as "The Troubles".

365:038 Doodle's birthday

Happy birthday to my lovely brother. Blurry shot, bleary headed photographer. Candles being relit - one blow's never enough.

365:037 Windmill Lane Studios

No posting yesterday - had an exhausting day recording an album in Dublin. A very early start, and about 12 hours off and on just standing singing fabulous worship songs to the tracks laid down by the orchestra over the previous two Saturdays - possibly one of the top ten most satisfying days? Didn't get home until after 3am but wouldn't have missed it for the world. Too bad we have to wait for months to get the results!

365:036 TGIF

Thank goodness it's Friday... and chillin' out time for ten minutes. I taught myself to play backgammon on a flight to the States last year.

365:035 Catchin' up with the cousins

The highlight of today was catching up with lexibex and the family in their lovely new home. Great to see she's passing on the quilting bug to the girls too!

365:034 Sing out!

Big fat high notes for the sopranos make me glad I'm an alto. Windmill Lane Studios here we come!

365:033

First night of Moore study group after the Christmas break. Two exams down and we're full steam ahead on NT1.

365:032 Chillin'

So when you've made yummy choc chip muffins to eat in the car (one in each hand) on your way home, it's a bummer when they're too hot to handle. Just as well your wheelbarrow of toys contains a handy mini-fan to chill things a bit. A 3 year old with a bit of wit!

365:031 Flowers for Anna

Some of the girls from our Bible Study group - the "Good Book Club" - met up for coffee this afternoon with "Anna", who's spent the week celebrating her 80th birthday.

To mark the occasion, she's reverted back to the name she was given at birth. Fearful that her birth name was "too German", she'd renamed herself at the onset of the second world war ;o)

365:030 One down one to go

Last night of the first panto... and beautiful flowers from the cast for managing to play not too many wrong notes. Best of all, pots of money were raised for Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda and a local cancer charity thanks to full houses at all four performances. Job well done guys!

365:029 ... and everyone passed!

Yeay! Four of us sat the OT1 exam in our theology course, and all of us passed with flying colours. Now that's cheered me up.

365:028 Bee-have please...

So anyway, there was this geriatrician... and this gynacologist...

No, not the opening line of a gag, but a description of cast members on stage during today's photo - taken during opening night of the hospital panto ;o)

Captions please?

365:027 Hat man

When a boy gets a new hat for his holidays, he just has to try it on... even when it's still January and his holidays won't be for five months. Now that's anticipation.

365:026

One of those kitchen nights when you know it's all going to be difficult. The night I decide to bake, the stove has been turned down for cleaning and was just warming up again - takes hours. The recipe includes chunky stuff that just wouldn't chop in the food processor - lumps of whole orange, dates and walnuts - wrong attachment. Then realised I hadn't pitted the dates... the results taste ok and that is sort of the point isn't it? But it's one of those nights...

365:025

You don't have to be quackers round here, but it helps. It winked at me... no, honestly... it winked. (One of my favourite Christmas gifts... not sure who the potter is, but it's just lovely work.)

postscript: just poked about on the web and discovered the artist is Guy Holder.

365:024

In an Austenesque sort of way, embroidery seems like a Sunday afternoon activity, and chain stitch seems appropriate. Ellie - my aunt - is cared for in a place where no-one seems to know who owns what clothing and more worryingly, no one seems to mind. Happy confusion reigns. Dementia, alzheimers and the elderly mentally infirm live in this care home - physically anyway. Mentally and emotionally, they're more likely to be found either in the past or wandering in the daze of days between then and now.

Despite having a name tag stitched into every garment, folk often wear other people's clothes. I'm hoping that having her name embroidered smack bang on the front of the softest, loveliest new nightdress might draw attention to the "mistake" if the wearer is not "Ellie". Anything to make a girl feel special.

365:023

"... and our knitwear range wear comes in chocolate or winter white...."? I love these guys.

365:022

It's that Friday afternoon thing, you know? DeskclearedanImouttahereseeya.

365:021

So another view from the train window on the way to work... and one of Belfast's many murals. This one's just past the Sydenham halt and is of an earlier incarnation of the UVF. The ship is the Clyde Valley - used for gunrunning for the loyalists in anticipation of the expected "Irish difficulties" in 1914. Home Rule matters slipped a little bit down the agenda when affairs in Europe deteriorated and war was declared. The ship apparently had a gold star painted on the funnel to acknowledge it's role in the sinking of a submarine during WW1.

365:020

Oh the stress, the stress.... here. Will this do? It's the photo board I went to great lengths to make with fabric I love... then I covered it. I'm sure this infringes some rule about children's photos on the web or something, but hopefully they're all too blurry to be of interest to the photo board police. (If you see yourself or your family there and you're offended, please tell me.)

365:019

One thing I'll say for this 365 project, it encourages a girl to lift her eyes out of a book on the way to work. This colourful graphiti is just along the railway lines before the Great Victoria Street Station in Belfast.

365:018

On a cold wintery night, there's no better place to be than sitting in the kitchen with your back against a warm stove...

365:017

Sunny sunny sunny harbour... but very very very cold so lazy me stayed in the car for this one.

365:016

The rules for completing a UFO... in this case, for someone with a left shoulder closer to their left ear than their right shoulder is to their right ear. NASA, we have a problem.

365:015

Today has been about editing a programme... in peace and quiet and (eventually) warmth. It's also been about prayer and concern for a little girl in Haiti.

365:014

When you head north for peace and quiet to work and the boiler blanks your every request (again) and you have to call out the lovely Danny (again) and the very bones of the building are colder than a Siberian winter, an open fire is the answer to most questions.