An Unconventional Shankill Birthday Card

Craig thought I would find this coincidentally funny because of our own Maggie...

Happy New Year!

It's 2011 in Belfast!

I'm still stuck in 2010...8 more hours!

Lady vs. Snow

Lady vs. Bone

Lady has been eating (or trying to) this bone treat for 45 minutes. She's knackered.

Christmas Shopping in Belfast

First Frost in Belfast

Food Porn: Chiquito Mexican Restaurant in Belfast

This is what they consider "Mexcian Food" in Northern Ireland...

Steak and corncobs with cajun sauce

Chicken Wrap

Food Porn: Avoca Cafe in Belfast

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Burgers and Fries

Grilled chicken and couscous

Sea Bass

Cappuccino

Acai juice

Latest News From the Shankill...

So the story is that a few nights ago down this street one guy was asking another guy out of his house for a fight. The guy in the house wouldn't come out so the guy outside started damaging the other guys car. Today just down at the corner of the Shankill and the next street down from us a guy was standing on the corner. Just before 1pm 2 masked dudes walked up to him and shot him twice in the face. Turns out he was the dude who was in the street a few nights ago asking the guy out for a fight. I love this place.lol

Love,
HopAlong

Bloody bandages mark Shankill murder spot in Belfast

Food At Avoca in Belfast

HopAlong decided to torture me today. He went to Avoca (my favorite store/cafe) to have lunch with his sister. I'm so jealous!

Laura treated me to lunch at Avoca this afternoon. Not much atmosphere. A little noisy. The food is fantastic though.

Laura had the chargrilled chicken salad with couscous.



I had the grilled seabass and white beans and sun dried tomatoes. I can honestly say it was very close to being the nicest fish i've ever eaten. A very close second to our seared salmon.

Dog Owners In Belfast

I find it weird how dog owners in Belfast treat their dogs like cats. They kick it out for the day for it to roam the streets.

Today I get an email from HopAlong about his dog, Lady, who by the way fears walking her because of this very reason...

Lady has almost just been mauled to death by some big fuckin black dog in the street. It then bit some woman. The owner lives just across the street and apparently the dog warden has been out quit a few times and they don't answer the door. I've just called the police. Lady has disappeared under my sister's bed and won't come out. I don't think she's hurt but she seems to be in shock!

This is Lady...she's just a wee thing.

Belfast Made It Into the Wall Street Journal

I was browsing the WSJ and came across this article...

From The Wall Street Journal Roundup (February 5, 2010):

BELFAST-Northern Ireland's main Protestant party backed a compromise plan with the Catholic minority to transfer police and justice powers to Belfast from London a nd save their power-sharing government.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson, who leads the 2 1/2 year old coalition at the heart of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, announced the breakthrough in the early hours of Friday. Terms of the deal would be announced later in the day, he said.

The DUP and its Catholic parter sinn Fein have been mired in a long-running dispute over delays in the transfer of justice power from the U.K. government to Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein sees the issue as crucial to the political process that was designed to end decades of sectarian violence.

Sinn Fein -- which precipitated the power-sharing crisis by threatening to withdraw from the coalition -- had already announced its backing for the plan. But the Democratic Unionists were divided over whether to cut a new deal with Sinn Fein.

Mr. Robinson said his party's lawmakers "have unanimously supported the way forward."

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams welcomed the Democratic Unionist approval, saying the deal would cledar the way form the crisis-prone coalition to "proceed on the basis of equality, fairness, and partnership."

The agreement charts a path for creating a new Justice Department in Belfast that will take control from Britain of the province's police and courts. The deal will give Northern Ireland its first justice minister and marks one of the boldest steps toward consolidating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Introducing Belfast's New Political Commentator: BIG EVA!!!!!!

HopAlong's mom was interviewed on Belfast's local tv news station. Click here on Flippin 365 to see her big debut!

Sucks To Be in Belfast!

HopAlong emailed me these pics from his iphone. The UK is experiencing the worst cold snap in history and I hear they are ill prepared! Thank goodness I'm in California! (Yes, I am rubbing it in :P)

Dear Racist Morons in Belfast,

If you're going to advertise racist slogans, please learn how to spell IMMIGRANT! What a bunch of knobs!

Christmas at HopAlong's House

This is Christmas in Belfast

Belfast: Us and Them

Kilometres of graffiti-daubed concrete walls snake through Belfast. They divide Catholic neighbourhoods from Protestant. But do these Peace Walls keep the hatred and suspicion locked outside or inside?

The consensus among the locals is clear if the walls came down there would be a return to intractable sectarian violence. If you pull that wall down therell be murder, mayhem, therell be blood spilt, says a loyalist resident. The recent killings of two soldiers, a policeman and a Catholic community worker, indicate that trouble is still very close to the surface. Theres walls of prejudice; walls that were built here 300 years ago and they're still here in legislation, in prejudice and bigotry', tells Republican Sean McVeigh. 'So those are the walls that are going to have to come down first. Are the Peace Walls monuments to the past or vital and necessary peacekeepers in the present?

Produced by ABC Australia, distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Halloween Ritual and Tradition in Belfast

Halloween in Belfast is very different than in America. In Belfast, the kids are in costume and armed with a collection tin FOR MONEY (not candy). They come round knocking on your door all throughout the month of October and it goes something like this...


Ding dong

HopAlong opens door...

A Choir of Children Sing:

Halloween's coming on and the goose is getting fat.
Could you please put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do.
If you haven't got a ha'penny then god bless you and your old man too.

HopAlong proceeds to tell them that Halloween isn't for another two weeks and slams the door.

Pillow Fight in Belfast

There was a pillow fight at Custom House Square yesterday. I'm surprised Chavs didn't join in the festivities. Knowing them they would have filled their cases with billiard balls...