Belfast

is the fairly small capital city of northern ireland. the Belfast City Hall is probably one of the most outstanding building in the city centre:

the city hall sits just outside the shopping area. Victoria Square is one of the main malls there, and it has a glass viewing dome:

to be fair, there’s not much of a view though:

Queen’s University is another major building in the city – it’s also the largest landowner in the city centre. Belfast is largely a ‘student city’; it empties out during the holidays as all the university students go home.

i think it’s because of the university that there’re actually quite a few asians (i.e. chinese) in belfast. and there i was hoping to be special and unique! i also saw several asian women married to caucasian men in belfast too, which was surprising since belfast really isn’t a cosmopolitan or global city by any stretch.

anyway, here’s another pretty building:

we went to the Museum and saw pictures of the Irish Elk (Irish Deer?), which had gone extinct but was enormous:

i also had the Koppaberg cider which i really like – perhaps my favourite flavour of all is this:

must also introduce the full irish breakfast – or the Irish fry – which comprises an egg, tomato, baked beans, sausages, bacon, soda bread and potato bread. the latter are delicious and i wish we had those here too:

for some reason, batteries sold in the UK – of which northern ireland is a part of – come with a rather unnecessary warning:

and this is apparently not an uncommon sight in Belfast:

it also turns out that other countries fine people for littering – “i’m sure you get punished for littering anywhere in the world”, said the boy – which makes me wonder why that Singapore does so is made such a big deal of.

When i was in Japan, some teachers used to introduce something unique/special about Singapore to the students by going, “You get fined for littering”. Or ask me in a slightly incredulous voice if it’s true that there’s a fine for littering here. Maybe it’s the severity of the fine that makes it worth talking about:

the great snowy outdoors

so i’ve taken ill since returning from ireland – i blame it on the weather there, as it was really cold outdoors but positively boiling indoors in the shops and malls. a week or so of sharp temperature contrasts and my body admitted defeat.

anyhow, ireland was good while it lasted, despite 4 days of no water and 1 day without heat in belfast due to the thaw that burst water pipes after the big freeze over christmas. thank goodness for the boy’s friends and relatives who lived nearby – that still only meant a shower every other day; perhaps greater kudos goes to anti-bacterial wipes and gel!

i was lucky to arrive only 2 hours late on christmas eve in dublin airport – there were people who had been delayed for 12 to 48 hours on my flight from amsterdam to dublin, and Schiphol Airport were yet others who had missed their flights due to the weather conditions and were still waiting to get on a plane. the way it works is that priority goes to passengers who have been allocated a seat on their boarding pass; if you missed your flight and hence have no seat number indicated, then you’ve just got to wait till the next available seat comes along. it’s really unfortunate for those who had been stranded as they have no choice but to wait for everyone else to board before they know if they have a chance to get on the plane.

the first 3 days over christmas and boxing day – which apparently is an English term; it’s called Saint Stephen’s day down south in the Republic – were beautiful as there was snow. Enroute from Dublin airport to County Tyrone:

look at the trees all laden with snow:

the view from the boy’s parents’ home:

you can see the frost on the branch – it was so cold that the snow wasn’t soft anymore. instead, it they were more like crystals of snow – hard and crunchy beneath your feet.

on the 26th, snow had melted a little and we were able to build a snowman! (took our faces out of this one though :P)

by later that day, the snow had more or less disappeared and we returned to having just slush and ice on the pavements and roads. neither pretty nor nice to walk on! :P

back to reality

so i’ve returned from a glorious (mostly) time in Ireland to several slightly traumatising events, all of which came courtesy of the 257 emails in my work inbox.

turns out that i’ve been arrowed to perform this particular responsibility which i don’t think anyone is fond of, and that a colleague is due to leave us soon. Due to this, there has been a shakeup in our responsibilities, and i’m in charge of yet another area i know nothing about!

i suppose ‘boring’ is something that can’t be used to describe this job!

(Northern) Ireland

i've been there for a while now, and managed to catch it in the middle of pretty snow.



post-christmas the snow had come and gone, however, and the thaw had left millions of people across the whole of ireland without water.

needless to say, i was one of those in belfast who had no water - the outage lasted for 4 days, and the heat also went out on the third day. i think it's partly cos we're in an older estate; the boy had a few friends who were in a newer part of the city and they had water - thank goodness for their shower!

good thing the water is back now - not sure how long it'll last though - and well.. i'd rather have no heat than no water! anti-bacterial wipes and hand sanitisers can only do so much - there's nothing to be done about dirty hair; i couldnt find dry shampoo here though i know some places that sell it back home.

off to dublin tomorrow!

Europe

Looking at the many Europeans on my flight, it strikes me that this is the first time I'm going back to Europe in 3 years.

Previously my thoughts were all centred on seeing the boy again, but the thought now of being in Europe is getting me more excited!

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20-something year old infants

Infantile behaviour was exhibited at the office today.

How do some pple at this age still do those stupid things like ask personal questions like 'how many boyfriends have you had' and then go one round the group? And not just that, but also give crappy comments like 'this is bonding' and think its really funny and fun.

Wth. The main insinuator in question is 27 years old. One would have thought a person would have grown out if such secondary school behaviour by that age. I really don't see how its any of other pple's business, especially if they're my work colleagues. In fact, they don't even need to know if I'm dating at the moment! It's really none of their business and I RESENT being peer pressured into bullshit like this.

I wish I were still at the age when I would have expressed my disdain and walked away from such a situation.

A person can do all the community service and good deeds in the world, but all that won't detract from the misgivings I might have about that person's character.

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happy birthday

it’s gonna be my birthday soon, so here’s some birthday trivia:

me, my colleague and our small boss all celebrate our birthdays on the same day. not only is that so, but i’m 7 years younger than my colleague, who in turn is 7 years younger than our boss too.

what a strange coincidence!

when that revelation was made, small boss spent some time over lunch musing that when i was born, he was already in secondary school; when he was in army i wasn’t even in kindergarten yet; when he was out in the working world i hadn’t even sat for PSLE yet.

something similar happened another day when we were discussing Prince William’s upcoming nuptials. i was raving about how he was so cute back then and all the girls in my primary school were gushing over him; we were in primary 6 and more interested in Prince William than Princess Diana’s death.

to which my colleagues replied: “What?? You were only in Primary 6??!! I was already in… (university, army, working, etc)”.

damn, i felt bad then :P