Belfast

Posted on October 5, 2011 by nicdempsey

We’ve talked, walked, drunk cocktails, watched movies and fallen asleep on the sofa. We are masters of arsing about and it’s really nice..

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Instagram

Posted on October 4, 2011 by nicdempsey

Running out time and on the way to Belfast, these are the photos I would have instagramed (is that a word?), if there had been any kind of signal up north!

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Holy Island

Posted on October 4, 2011 by nicdempsey

So being as Ma and I were so far north as to be almost in Scotland, we visited Holy Island. Ma had been before, I hadn’t. I have often heard it described as a ‘thin place’, a place where the the veil between this world and the other is thin. A place where you might feel closer to God. I didn’t. I have a bit of a problem with the concept of thin spaces. The places, I have found God, haven’t ever been the ‘mountains’ or the places set apart. God comes to me when I least expect to feel Him, a hospital room when my grandfather was dying, at a family party, in the city with the noise and the bustle so although I think Holy Island is special, for me it’s special in the way all of Northumberland is special, the sky feels closer and it’s beautiful.

The priory..

the staircase for the teeny, tiny monks, seriously these steps were the night stairs for the monks and they were tiny..

We also went for a walk (an 8km walk)

It was lovely…

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Warkworth

Posted on October 3, 2011 by nicdempsey

Or, I like ruined castles, part one.

On first day of our holiday, we went into Alnwick to buy food and then decided to walk from Amble to Warkworth, where there just happened to be a castle!!

The walk was lovely, as was the weather, it’s was a short-ish walk about a mile and a half and we weren’t in any hurry.

Warkworth is run by English Heritage and has a free audio tour (which was great). It was a secondary seat for the Earls and then Dukes of Northumberland.

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Things that are happening in October..

Posted on October 1, 2011 by nicdempsey

1) I’m going to see Ryan (on Tuesday in fact), two days in Belfast and general talking and arsing about..

2) Ben has a birthday. Also last week Ben got an A at his appearance (really hard to do), he’s now onto 21 days and well on his way to being a black cab driver. (For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about taxi drivers in London have to pass the Knowledge, Ben is currently in the process of doing this and it’s pretty difficult!)

3) The clocks go back. This sucks for me, I’m not keen on winter and the reminder that’s it’s coming is not a happy one. However, I am going to make a more concerted effort to up the exercise and be outside in the sunlight more to see if that helps.

4) Shopping for wedding dresses. Not for me. I’m being the supportive friend and ‘helping’ Christelle in preparation for her and Mike’s wedding (on Mike’s birthday) next August.

5) Sipsmith Cocktail Masterclass as part of London Cocktail Week. I’ve visited Sipsmith before and this should be fun!

6) Theatre. We’re (Ma and I) going to see the new Mike Leigh play, Grief.

Should be quite a good month..

 

 

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Middleham

Posted on September 29, 2011 by nicdempsey

The 4th and last castle of the holiday. I will write a lot more about the castles later but for mow I’m going to enjoy the last night of my holiday!

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Warkworth Castle

Posted on September 25, 2011 by nicdempsey

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We walked to Warkworth today and visited our first castle of the holiday!

I reckon we’ll manage at least 2 others before Middleham.

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Tomorrow, Holy Island…

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Growing Up

Posted on September 23, 2011 by nicdempsey

I’ve mentioned it about a million times in the last couple of weeks, Tina and Charles moved yesterday. I helped. As a result, I have 6 bruises and am quite tired. It was hard work but I didn’t lose any weight (I don’t think) because Tina kept feeding us. I got to know Tom’s girlfriend, Yoey a bit better and gained a cupboard, 2 highlighters, several plants and a bottle of whisky, so I think I did better out of it than they did!

I’ve written about how the move has affected me and how much harder this must be for Tina & Charles’ children. Christina has best expressed it here, with her usual wit and eloquence. I hope she doesn’t mind me quoting her:

“The house has been a family home to hundreds of people who aren’t technically family, a place to sleep for countless friends-of-friends, and the means of creating many new friendships. It represent more than bricks and mortar in our collective subconscious: it’s a monument to our family history.”

One of the plants I inherited was Tom’s aloe vera, the plant is called Christina, because it’s a bit prickly. Both of them can be but Christina the person is also clever (she knows a lot about 18th Century smut), she sings amazingly well, her Twitter stream makes me laugh all the time and, as her blog about her parents moving out of their family home proves, she writes beautifully and wisely…

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Started in the Kitchen

Posted on September 22, 2011 by nicdempsey

This week in the middle of helping T & C move, I gained some plants and a cupboard! I’ve been looking for a freestanding cupboard to replace the trolley for a while. The trolley has been great but there is a lot of stuff on it so it looks a bit messy and when Olly and Tabitha are around and now they are moving, open shelves within their reach is just too much temptation for them. However, cupboards are expensive (especially when you’re unemployed and have no money!). T & C were going to get rid of this cupboard, they inherited it years ago and it’s been in Tom’s room, it wasn’t worth keeping and not good enough to sell. So perfect for me!

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

Yay for free furniture and check out the new begonia too!!

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Old labels

Posted on September 21, 2011 by nicdempsey

wish I had had time this week to take photos of the very ancient labels on things we’ve been clearing…

This was my favorite so I did get a photo

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