Big Pink Balloons

Well, I've been informed by a friend that, since I haven't written a post in this blog for awhile, I'd better make some kind of an effort to do so. So, here I am. But what to write about? Ah yes, I just had a baby shower for a friend at my place. Everything went great, but the problem is the balloons. I hate it when balloons pop, so I tried to pawn them off on the kids, but unfortunately there are still a few left. And since I will never, ever pop a balloon myself, I will have these big, pink, "It's a Girl!" monstrosities wafting around my flat until all the air has leaked out and I can safely get rid of them. Who knows how long this will take???

On another note, I went to Belfast 2 weeks ago. It's actually a great city, much quieter than Dublin. We had a grand time, but there were parts of the trip that were weird. Of course, being here in Ireland, I've heard all the stories about the Troubles, but things have calmed down considerably since the Good Friday agreement. Also, the two main factions (DPU and Sinn Fein) are now sharing power in the devolved Northern Irish parliament. But...it's still very much a place where the Protestants live in their own sections of town, and the Catholics in others. We could tell when we were in the Protestant (or Unionist) parts, because their were Union Jack flags everywhere. One of my friends told me that it would still be dangerous for him to go into these parts of town. I also saw some of the famous paramilitary-type murals, and also the cemetery where a unionist opened fire on the funeral party of a Catholic family. Yikes.

Ok, that's all I can come up with for now. Will be heading off to London next weekend for a conference, and I can't wait to hit the museums. Nerdy, I know, but I am a museum freak. Ah well!