Escape

Julie and I hada day off work (or barfing) and went to Belfast. Charlotte was left in the nursery, not knowing we were away (so nobody tell her, OK?).
We stopped off at Emilie's Kitchen, at Drumadoon for morning break. Julie had the giant scone and I was tempted by the bagel with bacon and cream cheese (it was a holiday, ok). Really nice place, and John would probably like the special breakfast (scrambled egg, salmon on wheaten).
We ended up parking on top of Castle court multistory. The town was packed, so we just drove to the top, where only the few go. We were rewarded by a great view of the city. West Belfast with the Cave hill to the back.

St Ann's cathedral and the shipyard to the east (eithe Samson or Goliath peeping through)

(in)famous Divis Tower. The army post at the top is now decomissioned.

Black mountains.

Great to walk round Belfast holding hands with my wife.
I remember the days when the streets of Belfast were near empty, and the only bother of getting in a shop was the search by security, now its just bunged with other shoppers. The peace dividend is paying off.
I am proud of Julie for going into the Forbidon Planet and asking for my Christmas pressie comic. What a cool wife.

Update

Realized I haven't wrote for a while. Just haven't got round to it.

So, in work, we are trying to get the boys to volunteer to give up a couple of hours to serve soup, to raise money for charity (Tearfund), this not working at the moment, so we might have more luck convincing them to give up all there Christmas presents.
On one of the evening drop-ins, a girl gave me a phone to give to one of the boys. A few mins after he got it, it rang.
"Yes, its me.......of course I got the phone!!"
In the coffee shop, an old man wit a dog came in. Nice guy except he swears and has rather rude jokes such as "Why are policemen's balls bigger than firemen's?" When he left, some of our regulars asked about him. I told them he was a nice guy, except for his bad language, to which one old lady asked "Do you mean his grammar?"

Bible Class has now a web page for extras. We will be talking about the nine lessons for Christmas for the next couple of weeks.

We were around at the Rountrees today, where Charoltte insisted on calling Jenny "Lady", much to Jens annoyance. He, he.

Play day

Charlotte pretending to feed the ducks, but keeping an eye on the play park.

The Ballymoney ducks keeping an eye on Charlotte and hoping she will soon go to the play park.

Just to prove that the play park in Ballymoney has its ups and downs.

"Hey, Lady" (or, yet another Rountree photo shoot)

I am starting to be less busy, and feeling a bit more relaxed.
Sunday I woke with a headake that just got worse. I eventually eneded up in bed after phoning the manse to say I couldn't make it to Bible Class. Slept for a few hours. I think it was stress, just too much on my mind. We had a great roast dinner, with plenty of fresh veg, and Caroline came round in the afternoon, and stayed to late evening.

Caroline the intrepid reporter would do anything to get a photo of the 50ft toddler.

Girls like to shop.

Julie uses this tiem to relax

It was nice for several reasons

• It is great to see any of the Rountrees
• Someone else to play with Charlotte
• She didn't just visit for a short time, but wanted to stay for a proper visit.

Charlotte took her time warming to Caroline, but eventually made it. Caroline is a hard word for a girl who is almost two to say, so she shouted "Lady! Come here!".

Work has been fine. I was out for a good walk on Monday lunchtime, and we got the new window in. Since the putty would not set for a week or two, should we put up a sign saying, 'please do not touch this window'. No, of course not. The boys and girls did paly up a bit on Monday night, but the rest of the week has been good, except for the girls asking who is older, Ruth or me. Did they even have to ask?

Broken windows, broken lives.

I didn't want to do another boys night after Tuesday.
The plan was simple. Invite the boys to a night where Alex would talk to them about smoking (huge problem at the moment), and they would get food and then do a series of challenges, ala crystal maze. Simple and fun.
The older boys who came were actually interested in what was said, but a couple of the younger ones massed about right from the start. There is only so many warnings you can give. Having to throw out two boys really put a downer on the night, but not as much as one of them throwing a stone to break a window. The boys who were still in were furious. This is a place that they have, where they can come to relax, play pool, hang out. Some little snot can't act civil, and then breaks windows.
The problem is what next? Broken windows can be replaced, but can we fix the reasons for throwing the stone?