Favourite albums of the noughties

How to sum-up? A decade when I’ve had more disposable income to spend on music than before…and a decade when there’s been too much good new music to keep track of. Thought I’d pick the albums I’d listened to the most..and I’m leaving a LOT out, hence the strange number of top 14.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot [...]

Final Delirious? concert in Belfast

Enjoyed a fantastic evening at the Waterfront Hall last night. In hindsight I think this was the probably the right time for Delirious? to call it a day.
They’ve always been a contradictory band. When I was a church teenager they seemed like an attractively dangerous alternative to the traditionalism of my upbringing and yet looking [...]

Twelfth-mas decorations

Taken last night on my Lady’s Road

Scenes from the recession

The Boston Globe’s website has posted a stark collection of sober photos showing the everyday impact of the recession in the US and beyond.

Recession hits home

In Washington we paid a visit to the elegant Georgetown, the city’s main shopping district. It was a pleasant ‘Main Street USA” sort of area, but business certainly seemed slack. I’ve never felt as pressured into buying something by a sales assistant as much as I did in one particular clothes shop that day.
In the [...]

It’s a long walk to DC

Heading off to Washington and New York from 19-28 February so the blog might be post-light for a while.

My sister’s inauguration video diary

Judith is in Washington for a year on a volunteer programme. She was asked by the BBC to submit a video diary on her experience of President Obama’s inauguration. It looks cold.
Here’s another contribution from the BBC site: 
JUDE CURRIE, 22, COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER, COUNTY DOWN

Jude Currie is working in DC for a year

I am going to the inauguration because [...]

Following Tottenham – not dull

Spurs’ rollercoaster season continued yesterday with a tight 1-1 draw against Portsmouth. I attended the corresponding fixture last season and the stakes couldn’t have been more different.
Last March Spurs had won the Carling Cup and started coasting (ie. declining) for the rest of the season. Pompey has just reached FA Cup final and were happy [...]

Hello to 2009

Oh dear, the last day of the Christmas holidays has always been tinged with sadness in my mind. The intense excited business of the week before replaced with an nervous apprehension about the week to come, all those Sunday night feelings crammed into one. How I wish that post-Christmas limbo could last a bit longer! [...]

Off to France

No posts for the next while probably as we’re off to the Languedoc in France for a week of chilly sunshine!