Life

Life in Belfast has been FANTASTIC recently.

Concerts: Do You Remember the First Time? at the Ulster Hall. An Amazing line up of local bands (and bands that started as locals): The Lowly Knights, Kowalski, Cashier #9, Panama Kings, Foy Vance, Iain Archer, Duke Special, Fighting with Wire, Divine Comedy, Ash, Therapy?, JetPlane Landing, LaFaro. It was long, with lots of change over time, and not always the best sound, but SO fun to see all these bands I've heard about for the past year. Oh, and did i mention SNOW PATROL showed up. Yea. It was good.

St Patrick's Day concert at the Waterfront Hall, celebration of music by Bill Whelan (the dude who composed Riverdance). A free concert and it was super. Lots of Irish instruments and influences, the kind of music I listen to and then want to buy immediately.

Trips: Downhill several weeks ago. There's this beautiful little hostel right on the beach below the huge cliffs that hold up the Mussenden Temple. It's heaven on earth. My favorite place in N/Ireland. It feels like you're the only person alive and you've discovered magnificent buildings and ruins. The view is breathtaking and it was a refreshing weekend away.

Downpatrick this past weekend. A group of us spent a goofy day in the St Patrick's Centre (and excellent ticket for the money we paid), at St Patrick's supposed grave and the Down County Museum. I've heard about this town ever since my first flight over; the ladies I sat next to were from Downpatrick and invited me down for a cup of tea. It's the first I've been to look around the town though, and it was well worth it. I was inspired to make a list of the other little towns nearby that I "should" see before I go.

Visitors: Our house has been insane lately. On Sunday night there were 9 of us in our small home. We found beds and futons for everyone, and I was smart enough to get up early enough to miss the queue for the bathroom.

Small group: I finally figured out a way to get Thursdays off without feeling bad, so I've joined a small group through church. It's super. It's almost exclusively young married couples (except for me and one other) but I reallllly like them all. We're just finishing Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline.

That's the scoop. As always, I keep thinking of profound things to blog about, and then not doing it. This will have to do :) Happy Spring, friends.