Countdown to Christmas

Posted on by gizzajob

I am in my home; after spending Tuesday and Wednesday at a WAVE retreat cottage, in Killough, then getting buses between Downpatrick and Belfast for the day of it. The nightwatchman for the cottage brought me back, from Downpatrick, on Wednesday night; as the taxi I ordered went AWOL.

Last Friday, I got a portfolio report; from my Financial Advisor. But, the most important investment for me is another rental property – in Moortown – which is contracted; as we speak. The sale completes on Monday. However, indemnity insurance is required; as the water maps didn’t arrive, yet. Bloody Strike.

Also, I got to buy the tracks of a Belfast Busker, on Bandcamp, last Friday. While I was there, last week, I heard her perform ‘Red Right Hand’. I also heard the Busker – from Trillick – who sang ‘Grace’ fernenst a Loyalist Parade. Only a Tyrone Lad would do that. 😐

When in Belfast, this Wednesday, I got a lunch at Wetherspoon’s. However, I initially gave them the wrong table number. Senior Moment! At 43? However, a Chicken Tika with Rice for £3.99 isn’t to be sniffed at. The smell of the beer in the place; not for pansies. 😉

Another trip, to Belfast, is on the cards; for next Tuesday. It’s a Christmas Shopping Trip with WAVE in Omagh. However, I’ll take the opportunity to have a wee butcher’s at the Engine Room Gallery’s Christmas Exhibition.

Driving back, from Killough, yesterday morning was a challenge. I went back via Downpatrick, Crossgar, Saintfield, Dobbie’s Garden Centre and the M1. Getting the bus from Downpatrick to Belfast, on Wednesday, gave me a good sense of direction; beforehand. But the cold weather did stress me out. But I got back okay.

Then, yesterday, I took my Artist Friend to get his fortnightly medication injection. I went to town to get Insurance paid for my new rental property, then collect his repeat prescription. I used the opportunity to buy Evian Water, in a shop in Cookstown, for both my wipers and coolant; much needed, the coolant box was roasting.

All in all, another week of Bedlam. But I did see Coney Island, heading to Ardglass; in the Jam Jar, on Wednesday morning. Much needed rest at Killough.

Tunes:

I’ll find out this evening

Posted on by gizzajob

By the end of the working day, I’ll find out if I got the Shopmobility job in Belfast, or not. In the meantime, I put my name down for possible work at Fibrus in Belfast – who won a multi-million-pound contract to provide Fibre-Optic Broadband across Northern Ireland. It was because a woman from Dunloy, on my Quiz group, is a cousin of one of them employees. 🙂 Strike while the iron’s hot. 🙂

The Saturday-Night Quiz, which I was Quizmaster for, turned out well. They’re impressed by my added dimensions to each round. I was inspired by the Ardboe Quizzes.

Keep trudging along. 🙂

Tunes:

A Million-Step Challenge

Posted on by gizzajob

Walk A Million

Today is the start of a challenge, until 10 September, to raise money for a suicide prevention charity. The goal is to walk one-million steps in between then; on average, slightly less than ten-thousand steps per day. I have a built-in pedometer on my phone and can upload pictures with the help of Dropbox. Body-Magic on Steroids. 🙂

I have decided to form a one-man team since I’m not associated with any Primary School or Gaelic Football Club. I called myself ‘Des the Proclaimer.’ 500 miles in roughly one-million steps; oddly enough. 😀

I had my daily ten-thousand steps for record achieved by 1:15 pm today; to free up the rest of the day. I was up pretty early and had to walk to the shop and back for items.

Tomorrow, I plan to visit Belfast for the first Post-Lockdown trip. I want to get my steps-worth done there with a friend from Stranmillis who began Lecturing Nursing Students last Autumn. Thrown straight into the Bearpit.

Memorial day tomorrow in America. If only the Indy 500 was still on. 😦

Also, I am catching snippets of the Streamed Manchester Jazz Festival.

Tunes:

Bittersweet week

Posted on by gizzajob

On Tuesday morning, I received an email from Queen’s University in Belfast saying that they’re placing me on a twelve-month waiting list for available jobs. Not wholly there yet. But I’m within touching distance of work. 🙂

However, I found out yesterday from a friend in my art class that an old friend of mine; whom we both knew from the Beacon Centre in Cookstown, was found dead on Tuesday morning. Suspected suicide. That kinda knocked me off last night and I had a long sleep last night, until almost one this afternoon. Then I had to send a mass card to the Beacon Centre and they were away on a day out. I put it through the letterbox.

Also, I saw ‘The Meg’ on Tuesday evening in a Belfast Cinema with a Meetup group. Hooray for pippin. 🙂

Now, I have to feel my feelings. :S

Tunes:

 

 

Possible job interview?

Posted on by gizzajob

I received an email this evening from Mindmillasking what specific role I had requested with Deloitte. in Belfast. My choice was the financial aspect. 🙂

Last week I organised to have more money put away in a bond. I have to learn to live within my means.

Also, yesterday, I saw a money spider and my right palm was itchy all day today. Signs that I’ll get money, perhaps?

Tunes:

 

 

Acceptance this Christmas Time

Posted on by gizzajob

Acceptance is the hardest thing to do, but acceptance DOES set you free. After a strenuous week of Meetups and chores, my employment advisor made me realise that I am PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE  of working full time. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I am managing okay, as it is, in my life.

Last Thursday I attended a Coffee event in Belfast run by Specialisterne. We explained to an organiser, originally from Seattle, that French Fries were Belgian and served to US Soldiers in WWI by Walloons. Net Neutrality was also discussed. Shame the Verizon Lobby won that vote. 😦

With one week to go until Christmas, I wanna take it easy until the new year. My brother came home last night and this afternoon I found out that his old mentor from the SUSE Program’s gran died during the weekend and I went over to the wake with a mass card. Thank God the weather this afternoon was mild. The road the wake was at is in the arsehole of nowhere.

Also, I thought of freelance writing as a career option. But that proved to be just another cosmetic expense. At the moment I wanna focus on being social and my artwork.

Ladt Friday I attended a painting session in Dun Laoghaire. On the train back to Portadown there was a guy with a Christmas Jumper saying, “Merry Chris-Marx!” Another Champagne Socialist in Ireland. lol

Tunes:

 

The connectivity of the world

Posted on by gizzajob

Last night I attended a Christmas Dinner run by a Social Meetup in Belfast at Crumlin Road Gaol – a former Prison turned tourist attraction run by two guys I know from my home village. They’re even married to two sisters from a nearby town; I know their mother-in-law.

I was glad to have attended the dinner especially as I was talking to a woman I sat beside on the bus over to Belfast who I found out, from speaking to her, is a relative of mine. And also, at the dinner, a woman sitting beside me was from a village in my neck of the woods; Bellaghy, the location of the Seamus Heaney Homeplace. (he was actually from Newbridge/Castledawson, to be pedantic) She became interested in me as I used the Mid Ulster idioms she never heard since she moved to Newtonabbey.

In the end, I had to leave early as the demon energy drink took over.

meetup_christmas_selfie

 

But, as you can see, I’m king of my castle.

Also, I have an Adobe Spark journal of creative ideas throughout this month;

 

https://spark.adobe.com/page/yYX2sdIjLjoMp/

 

Tunes:

The Cities (Poem I wrote about cities being too similar) *Contains Profanity*

Posted on by gizzajob

Nothing is pretty anymore

for the cities have to settle some sort of score!

The atmosphere everywhere is nihilist and caustic

stuck in a dystopian vortex!

 

Every city has a Student population

which contributes heavily to Microsoft Corporation!

Non-differentiating, multinational multilingusists

where London is Irish

and Dublin’s English!

 

And young men express their resentment towards University Flankers

by saying, “Youse are all fucking Wankers!”

Cities engulfed in Government-run Drug Wars

where there’s no innocence anymore!

 

Manchester now has Tory conferences

no more terraced housing!

Just run down ghettos with high-rise flats

and a well-done-up City Centre arousing!

 

Liverpool’s no longer about the Tavern

just Culchie Blades from Ulster on Hen Nights!

And Blokes after Strippers

looking to watch the next Bellew fight!

 

But where’s Belfast in all of this?

Going down the same road?

Reckless Nouveau Riche like Mr Toad?

 

We have our problems

but we need to put things in perspective!

Hopefully there won’t be a driective

that would make our way of life ineffective!

 

Compared to one hundred miles away

we’re doing pretty well!

Hope and pray we keep our identity

to avoid a cultural Hell!

 

 

Weekend in Glasgow, plus other things

Posted on by gizzajob

The weekend just past I took a cross-ferry coach from Belfast to Glasgow to see the Paul Draper gig at King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut. The night before I left I only had two and a bit hours sleep and had a long day afterwards. On the coach from Cairnryan to Glasgow – en route to Edinburgh – I was sick on the twisty cliff roads heading to Ayr. I went to the toilet to be sick and lost my balance. The coach driver was pissed off at me – wondering why ‘A Grown Man’ would leave such a mess – but at Ayr a woman getting off there let me have the rest of her water bottle so I could get a Co-Codamol in me. That – plus frantic prayer – got me to Glasgow without barfing again.

The main issue was eating too much on the ferry. I had a fish supper, plus a few other nibbles. But on the way home I only ate a light breakfast; granola with yoghurt and milk plus a cappuccino. Also, I bought two bottles of water for Co-Codamols and I didn’t barf yesterday at all.

On the way over at Saturday morning, I spoke to a guy from Lisburn who is heading to Ayr to star in a pantomime. We had a good conversation about how the British mock our Northern Ireland accent whenever we head there. Also, I was talking to a couple from Leicester on the ferry to Cairnryan on Saturday and they met Mark Selby – the World Snooker Champion from Leicester – and showed me a picture of him on their phone.

Also, there were quite a few from Quebec who went on the same coach from Belfast on Saturday as me, then on the ferry back to Belfast, I spoke to another couple from Quebec who rented a car from London and were driving across Britain and Ireland. Plus I got to see the last twenty-odd minutes of the All-Ireland Final. Heartbreak for Mayo; what’s new?

The gig itself went well but left early due to having a long day. But getting sleep on Saturday night really lifted my mood on Sunday morning.

Tunes:

 

Hectic week

Posted on by gizzajob

On Monday I was preparing to head on Tuesday morning to Dublin for a graphic design Meetup whenever I received an email for a cloud technology academy in Belfast inviting me to attend an introductory presentation on Wednesday evening and a job interview on Thursday morning. However I managed to attend all three as I then booked a night at the Hotel where the introductory session was held after coming back from Dublin. It was almost divine intervention that I went to Dublin and back from the Aircoach bus between Glengall Street and O’Connell Street.

My employment advisor came with me to the interview yesterday and said that I did really well given the circumstances. I was given a real time problem to solve. I solved it, but only through trial and error. They used an Excel function I didn’t know about. It’s all up to the Gods now.

Now today I have an appointment with my occupational therapist then plan to drive to Cullybackey to get a train to Portrush to relax on the beach; the Irish Open (Golf) is on this weekend, but I’m not interested. 🙂

Tunes: