Workmen. Bollards. Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast.

These workmen are installing bollards to stop nurses from parking on the pavement outside the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

They are cleaning up at the end of the day, ready to get into their van so they can drive home.

When do you think they'll notice their mistake?

Shhhhhhhhhh...the ten day migraine has gone asleep

...so I'm trying to creep around my head, to make gentle movements, to be quiet as a mouse in order not to waken that stupid bloody screaming pain in my head.

But it's hard to creep around whenever it's a sun shiny day here in Belfast, with blue skies and hot coffee and green&black's organic chocolate flapjacks aplenty! And the head doesn't hurt this morning. So of course I want to go rush outside, climb a mountain, surf a few waves, drink some Guinness and finish my novel.

And it's hard not to creep around whenever you've spent the last 10 days creeping around because of the pain in your head. I have my brain back, I want to use it. I'm not in pain, so I want to run about like a toddler on caffeine.

Hmmmm. Perhaps I ought to realise that there might be a middle ground between being comatose and hyperactive. A middle ground that doesn't involve wearing woollie cardies and watching Neighbours.

How to Save the World

Batman saves the World by Surfing



Captain Planet Saves Belfast by Being American

Notice on a Belfast Bonfire

"This is a bonfire, not a playground."

Magpie Picks

diamond heart
Check www.magpiepicks.com out...magpie might be based in Belfast, but she sure as hell browses far and wide to get the prettiest, glitteriest things for us to look at :)

Curious Tales

My friend Julie-anne Graham has launched her new blog site for her eco-friendly fashion label, Curious Tales...now she's busy putting her online store together. When it's live you'll be able to buy her organic cotton t-shirts and unique vintage pieces (LOVE Julie-anne's jackets). For now can check out her blogs here :)

ps Julie-anne is also restoring a 1930s velvet ballgown I have, which my granny left me...it's so fab and I love it, but the seams are beginning to give...when it's all finished I'll post a photo here!

Working from Home Disadvantage #1

When it has snowed soft and white and deep with clouds fat and full with more, you can't get a snow day off. So although with extreme global warming, I may never see snow again, I must sit and work at my desk, because I did not need a snow plough to get to it.

*sigh*

Belfast Vintage Unfair

Sigh. So I went to the Belfast Vintage Fair last Sunday. And after queuing for like HOURS (and trying to reassure the BF that yes there were men inside and no they're not all gay) I got to squeeze my way into the Ormeau Baths gallery, and joined the heaving throng of expensively perfumed ladies and gaily dressed gentlemen.

Think it's fair to say the Belfast Vintage Fair was a success. Not sure if the organisers expected the sheer volume of people...every beautifully arranged stall glittered with diamante, shimmered with sequins and swirled with vintage loveliness. Not that I could get near any of it.

Ladies who like vintage are vicious. Wow. Even when I dropped up to Julie-anne's Curious Tales stall (am LOVING JAG's new collection!!! Can't wait until she puts it online so's everyone can see) the vibe was very much 'Please can you stop hugging the stall owner, I'm like TOTALLY trying to buy this t-shirt'. Sigh.

Then when I got home, exhausted, I was on the receiving end of emails and texts from friends in Dublin who couldn't believe I hadn't told them the vintage fair was on this weekend, and that they missed it.

Hmmm. Michelle realises she does not have a large readership in Dublin...

Anyway. Guys, if you're organising this again next year, some advice:

- make it happen over two days
- be prepared for crowds or get a bigger venue
- charge less in - £8 entrance??? I wanted to spend that on the gear, not getting in!
- don't close at 4.30pm...God - who was that to suit?
- have somewhere where people can sit down, grab a cup of coffee/tea, then go back to stalls to buy more stuff
- don't make it so flaming hard to leave for a breath of air and then return
- don't fast-track entrance for people with tickets...it's not like ticket holders paid more...but they were fast-tracked in when the gig was at capacity, leaving us poor mugs standing EVEN LONGER to try and pay our way in!
- get a better website. Lads...no-one but no-one nowadays has a 2MB image on the front page of their website, that takes about 9 hours to download, and has been resized by code, not photoshop...or maybe this was a vintage web design joke? Web design from the mid 90s?