Apart from the awful weather and dreadful drivers (yes, it’s 0 degrees outside with ice on the ground and you still feel it’s necessary to swerve into my stopping distance space at the last minute? Fie on you!), there’s a lot going on in Northern Ireland.
For example, Today is the second day in the international MScape Festival which has attracted delegates from over 20 countries to Belfast. In the next week or so there’s two OpenCoffeeClub meetings, one Digital Circle event and a ‘collaboration’ event down at the Science Park (details for all of these can be found at http://digitalcircle.org )
I’ve still not managed to get down to the Christmas market in Belfast just outside the City Hall – doubly jarring because last year I remember downing oodles of garlic mushrooms, satays and crepes within minutes of each other and in great company too.
I love the cold weather as well. Not so keen on the rain, but I don’t mind the ice coating the car or the sight of the snow on Cave Hill and Black Mountain as I drive into work. I’m not madly keen on the dark mornings and dark evenings but I have memories of heavy snows up at Four Winds last year, a day off work due to being completely snowed in and walking a small troupe of family across the heavy snows to see other family which made it all seem like an Amundsen-Scott expedition.
This morning, however, we heard news of a death in the family and it looks like we’ll be battening down the hatches for the next week as a result.