This is why Northern Irish People get so fed up - Coffee & Conversation

Are you from Northern Ireland?

Do you know anyone from Northern Ireland personally?

Do you know they are referred to as Northern Irish a lot of the time?

As a Northern Irish person who has lived abroad in both America and Belgium I have come across many people who have talked to me as if they know more about my country than I do. 

Including more about my city of birth than I do (no prizes for guessing which city that is - the one that has been heard of everywhere).

If we were to talk to Americans or Canadians, they would be very offended if we lumped both of their countries together and said that because they are both on the same (very large) island then they are both American or both Canadian.

Or what about the Spanish and the Portuguese; let's decide they are all one nation because Portugal is just a small part beside the larger land of Spain?

But we the people from Northern Ireland are too polite to do that.

Instead we just grin and bare it when Americans do not know the difference between the two countries of Northern Ireland and Ireland (Eire).

HINT!   One is part of the UK and the other is Ireland.

Just to educate everyone in the world because honestly it's not just the Americans that treat us this way, I have a short video which will also entertain you.

Yes I know just to confuse you all even more we have suddenly introduced the term 

The British Isles 

but one of those countries isn't British!

Who knows the difference between Ireland and Northern Ireland?

Segway Titanic Tour - Xtra Special Day

Okay so I never learned to ride a bike when I was young.

I know you are all thinking

                    "Who can't ride a bike?"

Well I can't.

But I can definitely ride a Segway!

Over the last several years I have occasionally seen people on segways and I always thought I would love to have a go but even though I am attracted to trying more unusual things I do not like making a fool of myself in front of others.

Then I read that they were very easy to ride/drive so I probably would not fall over and make a fool of myself and I also found out that a company in Northern Ireland were running "Titanic" Segway Tours which were obviously tours around the "Titanic Quarter" of Belfast on Segways.

I kept thinking how I would love to do it and hinted to my husband several times but Fred is not one to really take a hint - well not quickly anyway..

Then last year I decided we were going to go on the Titanic Segway Tour when all of the family would be together in Northern Ireland - not something that often happens now that our oldest son is living in Leeds and our daughter is living in South Korea.

To make a full day out of it we were going to go to the Titanic Exhibition first and then do the Segway tour and then go for dinner.

So we went online and booked 6 places on the tour one day in August, yes 6 because of course our middle son got married so we have a daughter-in-law as well.

Unfortunately Jonathan (the one from Leeds) took ill that morning and had to stay in bed all day so there were only the five of us in the end.

You can see the Titanic Building in the background - a rather impressive sight as you drive across the M3 over Belfast - designed to make you think of a ship.


I was so looking forward to this and as soon as the guy said we could get on the segways I didn't wait for the others.

It was so easy to do and very enjoyable.

We were told to go in single file and follow the tour guide so Linda led us off after him.


We were like ducks in a row and Linda enjoyed taking these selfies trying to get us all in as we rode along.

I laughed and laughed as we segwayed all around the Titanic quarter even though everyone we passed stared at us.  In fact I think that made me laugh even more.

The guide took us to different parts of the Titanic Quarter and we did listen as he explained what had happened at each part.

You can see me concentrating in the picture below when we were beside the dock.

Well shortly before that shot I had been giggling and not long after it I was giggling again but I did stop to listen in between.


When we had been all round the Titanic quarter and heard all about it we stopped for a ...

It seemed very strange parking the segways alongside the water and sitting in the coffee shop looking out at them.


Then after coffee we segwayed back toward the Odyssey Arena where the guide then let us have about 15 mins of free time on the large flat area riding round just as we pleased.

It was hilarious!



Daniel took this video.

No-one fell off, no-one collided with anyone else (although Daniel and Suzie almost did) or with the posts or the benches in the area.


Linda took this one.





Can't remember who took this one.  All I know is I was too busy enjoying the play time that I didn't take any videos or pictures at all.






But all good things have to come to an end and when Jonathan - the guide, said it was time to go back to the tour Office we were all disappointed but we had to go.

Well the chat was great after this event as we had all thoroughly enjoyed it and felt the time had gone too quick and I was already wondering when I could do it again.

However it is not a cheap day out, but it was a Special Day for us.

They do claim to be the only Segway Tours in the UK you see.

And I have been scheming & planning and hopefully there will be another Xtra Special Day !!!

The Tall Ships in Belfast - Xtra Special Day

Many years ago (around 20) when the children were small, we had been to see the Tall Ships in Delaware.

A few years ago the Tall Ships were at our hometown of Londonderry in Northern Ireland but we were not living there anymore and also could not get there at the right time to see them.

Then when we heard that they were coming to Belfast (30 minutes from where we now live in Northern Ireland), I was determined that I would get to see them.

Well that was planned for last Thursday and yes it did happen as planned.

Everything seemed to be well organized for arrangements for transport and we we chose to drive to one of the Park & Ride locations to then be driven by bus to the docks at the Titanic Quarter of Belfast.

Wandering around looking at the ships from the dock  is enjoyable but who would go to this event without boarding one of the ships if possible.

Well not Fred & I anyway.

We joined a small queue and boarded the Netherlands ship The "Gulden-Leeuw" (Golden Lion)

Quite appropriate for us as we spent over 6 years living in Tervuren, Belgium and had to learn to speak some Dutch while we were there.


Although it was a bit overcast while we were onboard we did manage to get a few pictures.

I suppose I should be thankful that this Mechanical Engineer of a husband of mine did not end up in the engine room which happened one other time we were on a ship (another story to tell).

The ship in the background here is The Europa (The Hague, Netherlands)

and after we got back on dry land we noticed that something was happening onboard this ship but not where they would normally allow people to climb.

A well known reporter for The BBC was filming part of a report.

The BBC Early Evening Programme "The One Show" was going to be broadcasting live from the Tall Ships the following evening and his report would be featured then.

The thing I found most interesting was seeing how he got down from this position safely because of the harness and rope and clip (there is probably a proper name for that but Fred isn't here to help me with that).

When Dan Snow was unharnessed Fred suggested I go up to the same spot and he could get a picture of me.  

My husband thinks he's funny sometimes!

Just noting that there were some more quicker forms of transport around the Tall Ships too which definitely could not be classed as tall. 

Around this main dock there were two markets, one with international stalls and one with craft stalls.

We naturally walked around these and also saw the main stage with musicians, a funfair and another smaller stage with more musicians.

There were some activities for children but we did not see any of the street performers that we had read about online.

I was rather disappointed about this because I felt it would really have added to the atmosphere of the whole event - plus I wanted to see how large the bubbles were that the bubbleman was supposed to be making.

Perhaps they were not there because it was the first afternoon of the Tall Ships visit but the people were there so the entertainment should have been there as well.

Not all of the Tall Ships were moored at this main dock so we took one of the event buses over to Pollock Dock to see some more.

The largest ship here was the Statsraad Lehmkuhl from Bergen in Norway.

You can tell it had got sunnier now and I was able to hide behind my sunglasses.

The HMS Northumberland was moored here too but they were not allowing visitors onboard it.

This Type 23 Frigate was here to lead the Flotilla of Tall Ships away to the start of their races after their stay in Belfast.

Pollock dock was a smaller Dock however there was also a funfair here, a place to eat, another international market, a bar and a few tents which I think was to represent a Viking Village.

Then the thing Fred had been looking forward to - The BBC Zone.

He had a wander round their first tent while I found a seat to wait for him.

In the second tent I thought he was going to volunteer to do the weather forecast but I must say now we know more about green screens and what the weatherman himself actually sees as he is explaining the weather to us.

The third tent had the Daleks.

I got out the camera because I just knew Fred was going to have to have a go at programming the Dalek round a maze - well a few corners anyway.

I decided it would be good to try a short video on my phone camera so if you want to see how Fred managed with the Dalek you can watch it below.

Now apparently it was not Fred's fault the Dalek broke.

The girl explained that it was not programmed as accurately by them originally as it should have been.

So then he had another go

Actually before he had tried we saw two of the Daleks come apart and after he tried it was still happening to others but they were easily put together again.

There were various sizes of Tall Ships here at Pollock Dock as there were at the other docks.

To the right behind the Statsraad Lehmkuhl was the Sorlandet from Norway and then the Guayas from Spain.

To the left were some of the smaller ships.

After our time of much walking we rounded our day off nicely by meeting up with our son and daughter-in-law in Belfast and going out for a relaxing meal.

Yesterday the Flotilla of Tall Ships, starting with The Christian Radich (also from Norway), left the docks at Belfast and sailed up the Lough towards Bangor to the East, then turning to Whitehead on the West.  They eventually proceeded on up along the north coast until they were at the starting point for their races starting today.

We will have to wait now to find out which of the ships win in each of the 4 classes but I suppose we will be hoping that the winner Class A might just possibly be The Gulden Leeuw just because that is the one we were on.

The Cows in the City! - A Dose of Encouragement

I know this sounded crazy to my husband who grew up on a dairy farm and who had often taken me out to the farm and then loved taking the children out to the farm when they came along.

But yes I was saying to him

I want to go and see the Cows in the city.

The city I was referring to was our hometown of Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, which is almost a 2 hour drive from the town of Banbridge, where we now live.

You see when we lived in Belgium I had just missed the cows in Brussels because they had come there shortly before us.  There was an odd cow here and there still in Brussels but I missed out on seeing all the cows that had been there.

Now you probably think I'm crazy because don't all cows look the same?

Well usually any one field of cows you might come across would have all the same breed of cow anyway.

But of course the cows I had wanted to go and see were not real live cows.

These cows were referred to as the painted cows.

During recent years different cities or countries have taken on this idea of having full size models of cows made and then painted by businesses, schools, organisations etc. as a form of advertising.

In Belgium apparently there had been many, many cows all over Brussels and perhaps in some other places too.

A few years ago Northern Ireland had the cows in a few places and one of the major places was in Londonderry.

Again there were cows painted by school children, businesses, charities and other organizations.

But there was one cow in particular that I really wanted to see in Londonderry.

The red one.

The one to commemorate Amelia Earhart (see info. on Amelia here)

Amelia was the first woman to fly the Atlantic and she landed in a field on the outskirts of Londonderry.  She is one of the claims to fame of my hometown and a small tourist attraction has been set up for any visitors who might be interested in learning more about this famous woman and her airplane and the special flight in which she succeeded in making history and showing that women could do some of the things that only seemed to be considered as things that men would do.


Google even celebrated Amelia Earhart's 115th Birthday with one of their Doodles.

Image from Google.com July 24, 2012

So I was thankful it did work out that within the time frame of the Cows being in Londonderry we were able to make a trip there to stay with my sister and her husband and I did have the opportunity to go to see the cows.

And we found the one in commemoration of Amelia,


the red one.

I thought this cow was very cleverly created because it was not just painted to depict Amelia as a famous and respected aviator but had also been shaped in a different way to the other cows.

To me this cow really stood out among the others.
Not just because of the expanse of red and because of the unique shape but also because of the simplicity in which the creator of it had portrayed the airplane and the woman who flew it.


It made me think of two things.

The cleverness of the creator and the respect to the person and their accomplishment.



We have the most clever creator of all.

We have the creator who made us so that every single little part of us works together to form a living being with an intellect and feelings.

How great is that?



We have the greatest creator of all.

We have the creator who respects us and all that we accomplish and has given us the ability to learn and create other things.

How wonderful to be part of such an intricate and planned creation.

How wonderful to be part of such an intricate and planned creation.

We have the best creator of all.

We have the original creator of all things.

I am thankful that God made us each unique and with abilities to do great things in all situations in life.

I am thankful that He respects us and cares about us so much we were not just a "toy" for Him.

I am thankful that we were created to have life and to love and to be loved by God.

We were created to have life and to love and to be loved by God.

I may have had my picture taken beside this clever cow creation but I (no matter how weak, sinful or small I am) am a more wonderful creation than this man-made one.


And so are you.

Walk This Way to Tayto Castle - Xtra Special Day

We can get soooooo excited when we are going to do something that we have always wanted to do.

That's the way we were just after Christmas in 2012.

We were nearly more excited about going to Tayto Castle than we were about our Christmas Dinners.

This was going to be one of our Xtra Special Days

If you are not Norn Irish then you may well be puzzling over where and what is Tayto Castle.

If you were born here in Northern Ireland or have come to live in this beautiful country then you will probably have heard of Tayto Castle in the small town of Tandragee.

But one thing is sure if you are in Northern Ireland and have not heard of Tayto Crisps then there is something badly wrong because they are the best crisps in the world.

Please note I have NOT been given a big box of Tayto Cheese & Onion or Smokey Bacon to make me write this - unfortunately.

Tayto Castle is the home of Tayto Crisps.

Yes they make the crisps in a Castle.

Only a Castle is good enough for the best crisps in the world.

When our three kids were young I kept saying that one summer we would organize a day trip to Tayto Castle to get the tour and see the crisps being made.

Yes I kept saying it but that didn't make it happen and the years went on with people telling us that you have to book months in advance if not a year in advance if you wanted to go during the school summer holidays.

So we never did make that trip when we were living almost 2 hours away but now we live only 30 mins away and yes we finally got to make that trip.

Only a Castle is good enough for the best crisps in the world.

The Tayto signpost points you to a door in a stone wall for your adventure to begin.

Our fun had already begun as Linda and I were giggling away while I was trying to take pictures.

There is an intercom but it was fun to knock as well.


Then when they released the door for us we were

ready to enter the grounds of Tayto Castle.


Inside there is a short walk up to the part of the Castle where we had to go for the tour

and we saw this lovely feature on the wall of the Castle.

As we got closer there was a part to walk through and of course we had to stop to get a picture of Mr Tayto and his crispy, crunchy crisps.

Inside and we were greeted with masses of crisp signs hanging from the ceiling.

See the yellow pack that's my favourite - Cheese & Onion.

Photo opportunity with Mr Tayto himself and he wasn't the only one who was laughing, we could hardly stand still for the picture we were all laughing so much at the thought of this grown up family (including the boys) getting their picture taken with Mr Tayto.

Everyone working there was so friendly and chatted to us while we sat and waited for the rest of the people on the tour to arrive.

All over the walls were letters from children saying what a great time they had had on the tour.

None of the tour could be photographed and there were rules and regulations about going around the factory which is understandable as safety and contamination has to be of the utmost importance, but no one minds rules for this type of thing.

We walked round and saw

• the potatoes,
• the slicing,
• the cooking,
• the flavouring
• the sorting
• and the packaging
• and also all the different types of crisps that they make

as well as "testing" out all the flavours.

Yes "testing" as in TASTING.

There is quite a lot of "testing" going on as the tour goes round.

We really enjoyed that part!!!

No handbags, phones, cameras, keys etc. can be taken with you on the tour because of the risk of contamination of the product so basically you take off your coats and empty your pockets and hand over your belongings before the tour starts.

Plus you have to put on an apron and hair nets just as the workers have to wear.

Here we are at the end of the tour when they have a very important moment.

The moment when you have to make the big decision as to what flavour of crisp you want because everyone gets bags of crisps to take home with them.

Now my favourite is Cheese & Onion but I chose Smokey Bacon for my free gift because I had already decided that on the way out we would be buying a big box of Cheese & Onion (they are cheaper to buy in the big box & since then we have rung up and ordered boxes whenever the kids are coming to stay for a while and then we just drive over and pick them up at the Castle).

All the way round in the tour various people were asking questions and the tour guides are very willing to answer and explain almost everything.


Everything except

"What is the secret of the great Tayto Taste?"

That has to remain a secret or Tayto Crisps would not be the greatest Crisps.

You may not learn the secret but the tour is well worth the money and the time.
You will find more info on Tayto HERE


In case you don't know, the pink packet is the Prawn Cocktail flavour crisps.

Remember back to the picture above with the hair nets?

In it we all had our free crisps.

3 of our family Fred, Jonathan & Linda had yellow Tayto Carrier Bags with their choice of crisps whereas Daniel & I had Tayto Multipacks.

Well 2 of the three with the yellow bags had prawn cocktail and salt & vinegar crisps (the two types represented in this picture above).

Can you guess who had the pink packets and who had the blue?


Well the tour was over and we had got our free gift and the last thing was the shop.
We stopped there and got our box of Cheese & Onion and also bought a few little gifts one of which was a yellow Tayto Mug.

Then it was on out to have a last look around outside before we hurried home to finish making our second Christmas Dinner because my sister and her family were coming to visit and it was the 27th December.

But before we got back in the car another picture had to be taken to encourage everyone to go visit Tayto Castle.

Ever the crazy, fun loving, younger sister; Linda had to pose while the boys walked away hoping no-one would know she was with them.


I think it was almost better to have done the tour now because of the fun and humour between us all at this stage in their lives than when they would have been so much younger.

I'm sure they would have been too young before to have enjoyed it as much as we did now.