Speeding Around Northern Ireland

Hi guys this weekend Mr P and I had the wonderful privilege of spending time with my daughter and son in law. We arrived Friday night. Saturday up early to attend Banbridge Buskfest.  Here is my son in law and his friend eagerly walking ahead of us to get to their given spot. The friend actually got up really early to register (he's a baker - so used to waking early!).

We had literally just arrived and they were getting their guitars out when the judges arrived. It was a bit of a shame as they hadn't had the opportunity to warm up and my daughter had not started singing yet. But they played fabulously. Sadly they did not win but they went more for the fun.

Mr P and I wandered the streets to see the other performers. It was great to see so many youngsters taking part.

Oh these two boys bought back memories of my youngest son when he first got his set of drums. They were at that stage of banging as loud as they could! It attracted a lot of young girls!

Sadly directly opposite the lads were these choral singers! How they ever sang against the incessant loud drum beat is beyond me - but sing they did.

Then we came across this lad who had the most amazing voice and could play the guitar equally as well. He sounded amazing and we were not surprised to hear that he won one of the categories.

There were so many types of music and various instruments. It was lovely to hear these two instrumentalists. I love seeing a harp.

These two guys were opposite my family, they too were very talented, shame about the cigarette - didn't have any work leaflets with me!

I loved the way that people were so flexible were they performed.

My daughter grabbed me to sing one song with the group which was fun. Then it was back for a yummy barbecue.

Followed by a lovely relaxing stint in the hot tub. Note the slug climbing the wall! We spent ages watching where it was heading! Fearful that it might do a backwards somersault into the hot tub!

Let me show you a little of my daughter's home. It was great to see this quilt hanging as it was one I made for her.

Love this idea of using a picture frame to hang photographs!

Started to discover a stash of wool hiding!

And some more wool!

I think it would be unfair to reveal all her stashes but other than to say I've trained her well!

Such a neat idea to display your scarves.

Why am I showing you this picture well- it's the buntings. These buntings have come from the wedding of my youngest son. I have some of these buntings in my bedroom and on my bike. I know my other daughter has some of these buntings on display in her home! Soooo sweet to have these small reminders of such a lovely, special occasion.

Never tried a hammock but I bet it's a great way to relax after a hard day with a book and a snooze!

Sunday was my daughter's birthday and she had bought one of those cereal selection boxes - a reminder of special times as a child. But think the quantity of cereal in the boxes has rather depleted. Think even her baby nephew would be unhappy with the quantity!..

After present opening we then headed off to St George's Market in Belfast. I believe everyday has a slightly different theme. Sundays is crafts, live music and food already prepared to eat.

Then my daughter is not one for wasting time and we then left Belfast to head for Mount Stewart. But here are a few pictures I took on the drive.

There were lots of lovely murals, sadly could only take a few when we were stationary at traffic lights!

The flags are up for the marching season.

Then views of lovely Strangford Lough.

Finally we reach Mount Stewart. Lots of people flocking in as there was jazz music playing in the grounds.

Such a lovely atmosphere. After lunch we then went for a walk around the gardens.

Then all too soon it was time to leave Mount Stewart, head back to the home for a last quick session in the wonderful hot tub and back to the airport. We don't do goodbyes! :( But hopefully my daughter will be coming to the mainland in August for the Festival of Quilts, at the NEC, Birmingham. Hope you have enjoyed my whistle stop tour of Northern Ireland. Have a good week, speak to you all next week. Bye.

Surprise Weekend

Well I finished my last blog saying I had no idea about what I might be saying this week - well how true that was. Last Tuesday night I had a call from my older daughter saying that her hubby had let the cat out of the bag and told her where she was going for a surprise weekend. They were off to London and were inviting me to spend Saturday with them. Well a girl cannot refuse such an offer. At first I thought I would not be able to go as the train fare was mega expense at such short notice, then I observed that the trains were stopping at Luton as there were engineering works and the rest of the journey would have to  be completed by bus. So not fancying the expensive fare and the bus I gave up the idea of going to see them. But Mr P came up with the brilliant idea of getting a train from Rugby which would then take me into Euston instead of St Pancras. Brilliant not only is it just a 30 minute drive away but also the train fare was much much cheaper. So Saturday up very early, and also awake from 4.30am - all excited. I made my exit and headed to Rugby. Amazingly the train arrived exactly on time and I was cheerfully sent on my merry way to London.

Can you guess where abouts I am in London? More clues.

Any ideas yet?

Well I'll show you...

As we are strolling along my daughter starts acting all strange and I thought she had witnessed an accident but no she had spotted her most favourite shoes...all in one shop!

They had the most amazing shoes and if I didn't have such wide feet I would be sorely tempted.

I love the buzz of Camden Market and the architecture.

Sadly the shop Braintree had closed down :(

You see I have this amazing ability to be able to go to London and still find water and boats! By the lock are masses of stalls cooking and selling their food - oh boy the sights and smells are too much. If you were not hungry you soon are. Th.en comes the biggest decision of the day which stall to eat from - as you go from Mexico to Thailand to Italy to India to China to Peru to Poland to USA etc etc.

Eventually my daughter and I chose this stall for our dinner.

Oh boy the food was deeeeelicious, full of flavour and soooo fresh.

This was then washed down with a large glass of freshly squeezed watermelon - which was ok but I think I would have preferred the lemon but I wanted to try something different. Sadly our stomachs can only eat one dinner and we had to walk past all the other wonderful foods.

See through boots seem to be all the rage - in order to show off jazzy socks!

Oh I love all these wonderfully brightly decorated Moroccan themed lights - love to have a Moroccan themed room. On Pinterest I saw this picture of someone converting their attic into this theme.

Those Moroccan lights would look great in here. Anyway back to London.

Went into Cyberdog which is well worth a visit, if you can cope with the very loud music and flashing lights. No photography is allowed inside. I felt as if I had landed on another planet - oh word of warning we wondered around and went downstairs and suddenly found ourselves in a sex shop! To be honest it just made me laugh, but if I had had children with me it could have been a little awkward. There were no warnings!

I took this picture to reflect the atmosphere, but it was only seeing it on my lap top did I notice the girl with her phone! Golly I think some people are surgically attached to their phones and programmed to be always looking at them! I wonder if in years to come will there be a business for psychiatrists to help with mobile phone addictions?

Ok back to food - whoever would have thought someone could have a shop selling breakfast cereal?

Then we found this wonderful shop Collectif Vintage. They stocked clothes in sizes larger than a 10/12!!!!!!!!!!! Oh it was an amazing place.

A picture for any men reading this blog. Mr P used to have a Lambretta - if only he had kept it, would be worth a fortune now!

Well we started to run out of time and quickly headed to Angel Islington to my favourite wool shop!

Golly it's like being in a fantastic sweetie shop!

Did  I buy anything - well of course! It would be rude to look around the shop and not buy anything! So I got the pattern and some light green wool to make the shawl that is showing in this next picture. Think I must do a blog about my shawl fettish!

I don't think you can see from this picture but it has small beads attached along the lacy edging!!!!!!

I should say all this time we had my daughter's hubby with us and he patiently came with us - so he was treated to a super duper large fat free chocolate yoghurt. Then as soon as we had finished eating my daughter was off again - a vintage shop had been spotted!

Well sadly shortly after visiting this shop we had to say goodbye as I needed to head back to Euston to catch my train :(     BUT next weekend Mr P and I are flying to Northern Ireland to visit with my daughter and hubby 0 so I shall get to see my daughter twice in two weekends - such a treat. So next weeks blog should have some lovely pictures from the Emerald Isle! Have a lovely week and don't work too hard. Thank you for popping by.