Cavehill and the ancestral homelands

I headed across on Tuesday 27th on the Cairnryan to Belfast ferry arriving at 54 Moira Drive in the evening with a mission to clear Maxwell's house in preparation for the next owners to move in in around 4 weeks time. 

On Wednesday the charity Restore came along and filled a van with most of the furniture leaving a small rump to collect in a weeks time. 

On Thursday I had the day off for travel and fun. In the morning I headed to Belfast Castle and Cavehill for a 4.5 mile walk around the park and to the summit. Very nice views over Belfast and blessed with very good weather.

 After this I drove down to Banbridge, Banville House, Loughbrickland and Rosemary & Maxwell's grave, Rathfriland, Poyntzpass & Mullaghglass. Lovely countryside throughout although all the villages small and not terribly attractive.

SciFi Season at Cineworld

A season of 5 classic sci fi movies on the big screen at Cineworld for £5 per ticket (+booking fee). 

2001: A Space Odyssey (8/10)

Interstellar (5/10)

Dune Part 1 (9/10)

Blade Runner - The Final Cut (10/10)

Blade Runner 2049 (2/10)

Alba Flamenca

Some excellent tapas and then a roughly 1 hour show of music and dance. As always very powerful and engaging.  

Harvest Moon Half Marathon

A very chilly morning but clear blue skies with East Lothian coastline looking its very best. A delightful course of trails through pine woods and runs along the short and several miles along the beach with views to Bass rock in the distance. Well marshalled and marked route. Form was pretty good today and whilst I was slowing in the second half was still running the whole way. I think the course was slightly shorter than 2 years ago and a bit less than 13 miles. Time was 2 hrs 2 mins and about 10 minutes quicker than a slow run 2 years prior.

 

Two Sisters at Royal Lyceum

Saturday night at the theatre. Both enjoyed this one. A new play written by David Greig.

MTB Rides

A quiet couple of weeks as far as work concerned so planned a sequence of 6 MTB rides. Inital though was for 6 consecutive days but given weather conditions the better plan was to spread over 2 weeks as conditions allowed. 

Ride 1 was to Little France Park taking my time to explore as much as possible around LFP, Craigmillar Castle and Jack Kane Centre.

 Ride 2 was Glentress - the blue course. Fun as usual.

Ride 3 was out to the Far Side of Balerno. With weather still cold feet and hands pretty frozen by the end.

Ride 4 was South Queenferry. A very nice route and destination.

Ride 5 was a circuit from Melrose with a hike to summit of Eildon Hill added on.

Ride 6 was Glen Finglas at Brig O'Turk. A rough, tough, remote climb.

None of the rides terribly long - generally 2 - 3 hrs duration but all pretty good fun.

Transatlantic Sessions

A nice trip to Glasgow for a meal with Max and Kasha at Ask Italian and then on to Transatlantic Sessions as part of Celtic Connections at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. A good show featuring as usual a number of artists; Carlene Carter, Lindsay Lou, Joshua Burnside, Kim Carnie being the headliners with a good mix of our musicians getting their turn including the ever present Ally Bain and Phil Cunningham.

We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn express. The bed was a bit small, the room a bit hot and breakfast not great. Probably a good idea to stay over as the show finished at 10.45 pm but find a bigger bed!