Summertime

It's funny how my posts so far have all been triggered by the weather – being here must be rubbing off me. It's summer proper, and thankfully the weather has been warm for nearly two weeks now and it's simply gorgeous.

Plane spotting from my backyard.

Everyone around me is complaining about how hot it is, but it's great. I actually feel like I don't have quite enough weather appropriate clothes, given that I own a lot less casual summer clothes than office-suitable summer gear, the latter being completely useless given the place that I am currently working at.  The only thing stopping me from buying more clothes is the (probably valid) fear that this weather will end all too quickly and abruptly.

To be honest, it can get a bit too warm here - the house has no fans and there's a lot less cloud cover – but rooms quickly cool down due to the strong breezes. That said, my colleagues all feel that the office is too warm (it's not) and turn the air-con on, chilling my arms and numbing my hands and necessitating my donning of a cardigan – it seems like regardless of where I go, I can never escape unnecessarily cold air-conditioning.

Summer brings about another seemingly strange phenomenon – the ceasing of all classes and courses at the local arts centre and other private teachers. My ballet teacher (who teaches from a church) is off for 2 months, and the Crescent Arts Centre sits empty for a similar (if not longer) period of time. It has meant that I'm having a fair amount of time to myself, but it also means that I'm gaining weight and losing flexibility and strength because I'm too lazy to exercise at home!

Showing off the gorgeous scenery with the Beaghmore Stone Circles

On the work front, things are as meh as usual. On good days I'm fine but on bad days I'm really bored, and today I spent most of the day trying to look busy. However, as luck would have it, 15 min before the end of my shift things started pouring in, and I couldn't leave till 20 min later than I was meant to. It hasn't been that great a fortnight, and that's already with me taking 1 day off last week in lieu of the May day holiday I was owed, and another off day tomorrow in lieu of last week's public holiday.

On a personal level, an article that was shared on Facebook today regarding how modern weddings are a waste of time and money evoked strong feelings. While I don't feel that things like marriage seminars or counselling are necessary (my personal view is that living together before marriage is not a bad way to find out if you want to do this for the rest of your life, but given that the article is written by a pastor he's not going to even suggest that as a viable option), the article brought up feelings that I had a while ago.

Marriage and weddings (both in the recent past and near future) are thick in the air this year, and the more that goes on regarding weddings – not marriage, mind you, but weddings – the more intensely I feel that 1) they're a bloody waste of time, effort and energy; 2) they're darn expensive, both for the couple and for their guests; and 3) that if my turn to get married comes around I'm going to wanna do something like a small ceremony with a big party after where everyone can just come, help themselves to a buffet spread of some sort, drink, dance and get wasted while having a good time.

I know that (3) is a lot more fantasy than reality, as the fact that I'll still want things like photos and videos to remember the day by (as well as to show friends and relatives who can't be present), but I think that having this ideal in mind will help keep things simple. Perhaps that and the reminder that the less money we spend on the wedding the more we'll have for our honeymoon and for feasting and enjoying life for the rest of our days together.

Wildflowers grown on the Hill of the O'Neills which the O'Neills I was with half-heartedly tried to reclaim.

Summer Days

Summer came and went one glorious week a while ago, and now it's back to chilly spring weather without the blooming flowers.

I only wish I'd known then that it was all the sun I was going to get!

Two months

That's how long it's been since my last post, and it's nearly 4 months since I arrived here.

It doesn't seem like much has happened since then at all. The last post coincided more or less with the start of my job – a crappy, low paying one which I'd decided to take up while looking out for something better. It's quite life-draining, but at least it covers my expenses here, which is useful given the glacial pace that the job hunt is going.

It has its experiences I think. People who somehow think they can get things without paying on the spot. Foreigners who don't know the English name of the place where they work. Non-native English speakers who get annoyed that I don't understand their English even though it's they who have poor pronounciation. I've never been in this sort of environment before, and while I wish I could take away more from this experience, I guess there are still incremental pluses as a result of this.

At the end of April, it got warm and sunny enough for flowers to bloom:

I managed to do a bit of sightseeing too, to Belfast Castle (more a mansion than a castle):

We also went to Carrickfergus Castle, which is actually a fortress and a short drive away from Belfast. It was a gorgeous but extremely windy day out:

I've also been learning how to drive, which has been fun yet stressful. I've had 5 lessons so far, but need to work a lot harder on the steering and general control of the car.

I'm disappointed by the lack of ballet classes for the major grades though. I've been going for classes whenever I can with at Crescent Arts Centre (CAC) and with another teacher, but although the CAC is an open class while the other teacher's is for RAD Intermediate students, I feel that the CAC's classes are more challenging and more enjoyable. I can't believe that the Inter class is still doing stuff from the exam syllabus even though the exams were last Saturday, and I'm astounded that the girls are doing their exam material – albeit to different music – for a showcase at the Lyric Theatre in two weeks. I'm even more shocked by the low standard of dancing – it's bitchy but I truly think that they have a long way to go before they should appear on stage. Everything contrasts starkly to how my teacher back home conducts her lessons, trains us for the exams and demands perfection for our school's performance. The girls can't even do their exam routine without mistakes, much less execute it with good technique or dance quality! We wouldn't have been allowed to take the exam or go on stage if we were only at that level. More importantly, I'm bored of doing Intermediate exam stuff which I wasn't even taught properly, and yearn for us to do something different and more challenging.

Well, enough about ballet and more about the weather. It was only recently that the weather started warming up properly, and this week has been just lovely. This was us the day before, out at the back with a drink in hand; i was in shorts and a sleeveless top and it felt so good to be warm again:

I'm not sure how long the nice, sunny, rain-free weather will last – the sky's all clear till next Monday according to the forecast, so here's to continued fine weather!

The changing normal

I nearly died from my lunch today.

I occasionally forget that starter portions here are fairly big, while mains can be downright enormous. So, I order what I think is a fair amount until the food comes and I end up bursting at the seams – without even finishing everything on my plate.

Granted, we had a late breakfast of pancakes at about 11am, but it was nearly 4pm when we ordered lunch and I couldn’t resist starters that cost just £2 – part of the Carlito’s meal deal where a main is £5.95 and two courses are only £7.95.

We got some chicken tempura – two pieces of tender chicken breast coated in crisp fish ‘n’ chips batter, served with Thai sweet chilli sauce – and gorgeous deep fried brie served with berry compote.

We were happy and satisfied by the very delicious food, until the mains came and we were horrified -they were giant portions! Here’s my Fussilli ala Carlito’s – pasta in white wine cream sauce with chicken, mushrooms and peppers:


I looked at it, wondered how I was going to finish everything, but plunged on anyway. The pasta was even better than it looks, and somehow the combination of cream, mushroom and chicken made for an extremely tasty sauce. I wanted so very badly to consume every last bit of it, tried my very best, but failed anyway – it’s been 3 hours since lunch but I’m still feeling the effects of overeating :S

I was very surprised that the food turned out to be so good, as Carlito’s is in the middle of Botanic Avenue – a very studenty place which is full of cheap eats. I thought it was gonna be pub grub – which is pretty good here anyway – but the interior looked nicer than I’d imagined and the food far surpassed my expectations.

But the above review of Carlito’s is a long introduction to thoughts that have repeatedly occurred to me since I came – that what was normal back home is far from what’s normal here. And I don’t mean the quirks of the country, but what things like ‘fast’ and ‘average’ means.

For example, I’m considered a big eater back home. Everyone I know can attest to the fact that I eat a lot for a girl, and my appetite is often joked about among my former colleagues. I used to be hungry all the time and out-ate everyone on my team – but it seems like I can’t eat much more than a main course here. And it’s not like the women here don’t eat much. Head out and you’ll see them order starters and mains and finish everything on their plate – and it’s not because they’re bigger than I am, as I’ve had the opportunity to see a girl smaller than me eat a lot more.

Also, I’m considered to be a fast walker (also frequently joked about), a fast eater, and the owner of a loud voice. Unfortunately, when I came over I realised that my walking speed is very slow in comparison, that I don’t eat particularly quickly but am actually on the slow side, and I struggle to be heard over club music when other girls don’t seem to face a similar problem. Again, I don’t think it’s to do with me being smaller in built than most others – there’re many people my size here as well.

I suppose it’s welcome to the ‘real’ world, as someone joked, but it’ll be interesting to see where other Singaporeans - whose appetite, walking speed, eating speed and voice volume are ‘normal’ or ‘below average’ - stand when they come over :)

The Dirty Duck Alehouse

Good food has to be shared – and The Dirty Duck Alehouse is definitely one of those.
We dropped by the Dirty Duck the other day after a trip to the transport side of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. The alehouse is a large but busy place; it was nearing 3pm but it was still full of customers.

We were seated upstairs by the window. E settled for standard pub fare – the Dirty Duck Angus burger (£9.25), which was a large, juicy burger with generous toppings.

I, on the other hand, couldn’t but order seafood given our view overlooking the sea. As I’d been completely off seafood (apart from fish) for more than a month, I jumped at the chance to have Crab Claws (£10.50). The crab claws are actually on the starter menu, but I love that restaurants here tend to offer some, if not all of their starters in main-sized portions.



The crab claws were absolutely divine – no points for guessing that the reason why there isn’t a picture of the Angus burger is because I was too absorbed in and excited about my meal! There were so many crab claws that I actually got a bit tired eating them at one stage, and – to my own disbelief - gave at least 4 of them to E. I estimate that at least 12 crabs gave their lives for my wonderful meal.

The ciabatta was a brillant touch. It soaked up the flavours of the garlic butter-infused broth, and complemented the textures of the tomato and leek perfectly. The portion of bread was just right too – I dipped it in the broth, scooped up leek and tomatoes with my fork and placed it atop the bread, and dunked bite-sized bits of it into the broth at the end to absorb all the garlicky seafood goodness. E teasingly offered to get me a spoon – but who needs spoons when you have ciabatta!  ♥♥

Be prepared to get your hands dirty when you have this dish – as there’s no way to eat crab claws without using your fingers – but the warmth in your tummy and your garlic seafood insides (yes, I do love the combination) will make it more than worthwhile.

The Dirty Duck Alehouse
2-4 Kinnegar Road
Holywood
Co.Down
BT18 9JN
Tel: 028 9059 6666

Best friends

When I hung Totoro up, I wished I'd bought more Ghibli souvenirs when I was still in Japan.

*Bitch alert*

I wonder how some people can be celebrity bloggers when their writing style is nothing to shout about, the topics they blog about range from the mundane to the inane, and – of all things – every other photo of theirs is a blurry shot, and it’s not even blurry for artistic effect.

Surely there has to be more going on here in Belfast.