Well, it’s been one hectic ride this past week. The last couple of days in Belfast were a ton of fun. Jeremy and I were just taking it a lot easier since the first couple of days were intensely intense. Seeing as how we were going through pretty much every tourist attraction in Belfast and beyond in two days it made a lot more sense to kick back and relax. Jeremy also had class to worry about so I took the opportunity to just walk around Belfast a little bit and do some window shopping, as well as seeing other areas that I hadn’t gotten to yet. All of the while taking my time to hit Starbucks and do a bit of writing/reading of the paper containing news.
On Tuesday evening we managed to head over to Madden’s Bar (No, not John’s) for an Irish music session. This pub was insanely tiny….I mean…like small. Though this was in fact a good thing in terms of the music that would be occurring. For those of you who know the good old sounds of Irish traditional music it very much fosters a close sense of community. There’s a reason why the Céilidh is sometimes referred to as a Kitchen Céilidh…it is meant to be heard and played it a small group of people enjoying the music, tapping or singing along, and of course downing a few pints of Guinness while they’re at it. The bar itself was interesting just to get into. There are no windows or anything, however the bar is clearly marked with signage. You have to ring a bell and the door gets unlocked for you by the bartender who glances into a security camera first to ensure the visitor is not somebody they would rather not have in the pub. Once you walk inside you get immediately struck by the coziness of everything. The people are extremely friendly and give a welcoming hello and as we took our seats Jeremy introduced me to some of the people playing whom he had met in previous sessions. I strode up to the bar and ordered us a couple pints of Guinness. The bartender asked me where I was sitting and told me just to take a seat and he’d bring out the pints for us…a sign of a true bartender with knowledge on how to properly pour a Guinness. It should always take a long time to allow all of the beer to settle appropriately without layering the flavours too quickly….it’s science. In all there were about 10 or so musicians playing at any given time. Instruments included: Uilleann Pipes Tin Whistle, Harp, Fiddle, various other whistles and flutes. I tried to convince the bartender to let me borrow some spoons to rock out on but they don’t serve food in the pub so utensils were a no-go. It was a wonderful night full of great music and much craic. I took a video of some of the music and will hopefully catch Facebook on a non-douche day so it will upload properly.
The next day we were planning on hitting the Speakeasy (Student Union Pub) for trivia in the afternoon and some pints. The trivia was actually surprisingly difficult and including a lot of Halloween themes. I absolutely destroyed the visual round though…we received a sheet of paper with the pictures of 10 different horror movie villains and we had to name them. Everybody else was either at the bar or in the toilet so I just blazed through it on my own….please, please hold the applause…I know I’m awesome. We ended up in third place out of 8 or so teams so that’s not too too bad. We didn’t end up getting any prizes however because those only go to first, second, and third last place. Seriously….I have no idea why…finiky Irish. Oh…and by “we” I am referring to myself, Jeremy, and his two friends whom I had met just prior to trivia: Will and Leslie. Will is an English to Irish transfer (meaning he moved from England at a very young age) and Leslie is a 100% true blue Belfast…ian? Belfast-ite?......Irish.
Post-trivia we decided to head our separate ways and meet up again to head to a pub downtown. Jeremy and I headed back to his place to whip up some dinner and then it was back to the Speakeasy. We weren’t actually sticking around there however, we headed from there (in the pouring rain I might add) to a franchised pub known as “Wetherspoons.” There’s a lot of these pubs all over the UK and they have fantastic food and really good beers on tap. They also have wine on tap…yeah…it’s cheap dirty wine but it’s on tap so that’s just bizarre. Also, they had a ridiculously awesome festival going on in the pubs called the “Great Ale and Cider Festival”. Disapointingly this festival did not involve any cotton candy, clowns, or ferris wheels…however it did have a giant selection of specially brewed cask ales on tap or £1.45 each. So…I didn’t complain. Needless to say we tried ALL of the guest ales and then stumbled our way back to Jer’s to hit the sack.
I got up the next morning and already had everything packed up the day before (smart move) and slickered and slunkered and slithered my way to the bus depot. From this point I rode in a bus, flew in an airplane, rode a train, rode a subway, and walked my way back to my house. I got home and slept for a bit…then I slept some more…got up and ate…and went back to bed. That was pretty much my Thursday.
Friday was a bit more interesting. I managed to make my way into the city in order to purchase a winter coat for…winter. It’s actually a pretty decent peacoat style jacket that’s got a military look and is black. I got it from H&M, a pretty decent pick-up if I do say so myself. Which I do. I grabbed a coffee from my FAVOURITE café in Trafalgar Square…I literally take the added effort whenever I’m in the city to hit this particular coffee shop. No reason in particular other than Trafalgar Square offers some very interesting people watching opportunities and if I’m going to be working a lot more on my writing while I’m here I need that inspiration right? Plus sometimes it’s just hella funny. Friday night I headed with my flatmates to a friend’s house. We just enjoyed some beers and they were heading to Southbank to go to Rollar Disco (yeah..London has pretty much everything) and I just headed home and went to bed.
Now, Saturday was a big day. I managed to get up early and make some breakfast, shower, and head out to grab a paper (I got dressed in between the shower and paper parts). Once the rest of the crew awoke we headed over to Fulham to attend the match against Wigan Athletic. It was actually a pretty cool experience…waaaaaaay different than the England match. First of all, they served beer at this one (mind you they only do at halftime and you can’t bring it back to your seat with you), there’s a lot more of a fever in the air for the team too. Not everyone in England really follows the national team but almost everybody follows a club team so there’s a lot more support happening. Fulham ended up taking the match 2-0 with both goals being scored by Clint Dempsey (American player). It was really cool and I definitely am excited for the Champions League matches at Chelsea later in the week. From Craven Cottage we went to a local pub to kill some time before heading over to Stratford for a Halloween party. Now, I didn’t really have prior knowledge of said Halloween party before getting back from Belfast…plus I don’t usually do Halloween anyways so I didn’t have a costume. People didn’t seem to care too much though. Plus I borrowed a pair of funky glasses and just called myself Kanye West….it kinda worked…don’t judge me. It was a fun night even though I didn’t know too many people but still a fun party.
Sunday was literally spent recovering from the entire day before…it was a long one and there were a few beers consumed. I slept in seriously and then spent the whole of the day catching up on the t.v. I had missed over the week. After another great Skype convo with my family it was back off to dreamland to prepare myself for getting back into the swing of things on Monday.
Today (Monday) was actually a very trying day…not exactly how I wanted to spend my first day back after such a great week off. I was back at Bishopsford (one of the very difficult schools) and every class I had seemed to just be totally out of control. I don’t know if it was a combination of them being just back from half-term and me being a supply but it was a big pain to try and get everything in order. I knew I wasn’t going to get 100% cooperation from the class but there were those students that did their work and did a great job of it…it’s those students that I really try to focus my efforts on because I know they are going to be leaving the classroom having learned something. If the rest of the class forces me have to become a glorified babysitter there’s nothing I can do about that at the moment. It’s worth it for those kids that are taking something away from the class in a positive way.
So, that’s been about my last week in a nutshell. I’m hoping that I’ll be getting a better placement tomorrow but at the end of the day a job’s a job and I gotta make that money ha ha ha. I’ve got the Chelsea match on Wednesday so I’ll be sure to report in on that soon. Also, I have an audition coming up for a show at the South London Theatre. It’s a community theatre that operates just east of where I live. The show is called “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” and was written in the Sixties. If you feel so inclined to Wikipedia it there’s a plot synopsis amongst other information there. I’m auditioning for the role of Mr. Sloane, a pretty boy charmer who’s also a murderer on the run taken in my a bizarre family who he has to play off of one another to keep his identity secret. It looks quite quirky and I’m looking forward to potentially being a part of it. I’ll make sure to keep everyone in the loop in that regard and definitely to make some blog updates on a more consistent basis!!
Cheers, Tons of Love, and Rock that World!!!
Erik
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