Yes, really. I sat down and did the calculation a couple of weeks ago, being vaguely aware that it was around now. And fifty-four years (fourteen of them leap years), nine months and one day takes you from 26 April 1967 to 27 January 2022. In better times, I would have planned an unbirthday party for the evening; but local conditions don't quite ( Read more... )

I see a lot of people writing blog posts etc about how the second decade of the century has changed their lives, so thought I would join in. (I saw a lot of people writing in similar vein about the first decade of the century ten years ago, but did not feel like it then ( Read more... )

Long long ago, between 1983 and 1985, I ascended the dizzy heights of Second Percussionist in the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra, the fruit of many Saturday mornings at Rupert Stanley College in East Belfast, rehearsing for church services (once a City Hall reception) and ending each year with a concert at the Ulster Hall.

The City of Belfast ( Read more... )

When I was young I wanted to be an astronomer. At 16 I proudly got myself elected as the Secretary of the Irish Astronomical Association, which still exists and meets in Belfast. (It had originally been founded in 1946 as the Belfast branch of the Irish Astronomical Society, but had split off in 1974, retaining an all-Ireland perspective.) At 17 I ( Read more... )

I posted last week about my efforts to discover whether or not the house where I lived in Germany in the summer of 1986 was, as my landlord's daughter claimed, situated astride the old frontier between the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Kingdom of Württemberg ( Read more... )

(See also update to this entry from a week later ( Read more... )

Patrick over on Facebook gave me a year: 1996

My age then: 29
My age now: 49
Relationship status then - married to Anne since 1993
Relationship status now - married to Anne since 1993
Occupation then - 1996 was a year of change. In January I was an academic, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies; in May I was an election candidate; ( Read more... )

Have seen a couple of other people do this, linking to the relevant WikiPedia entries.

1. Finaghy, Belfast
2. Stoneham, Massachusetts
3. Wassenaar, Netherlands
4. Loughbrickland, Co Down
5. Raunds, Northamptonshire
6. Armagh, Co Armagh
7. Leingarten, Baden-Württemberg
8. Clare College, Cambridge
9. The so-called Queen's Quarter, Belfast
10. Jordanstown, Co Antrim
11. Serpentine Parade, off ( Read more... )

Back in the days of my doctorate, the department had an annual Christmas party at which various people would perform sketches. My PhD supervisor and I did two Fry and Laurie sketches in successive years, which was great fun.

Click to view

(script). I was Mr Nude here, with Peter as the interviewer; I nicked two spoons from the students union as props, which ( Read more... )

We spent Christmas 1997 in Banja Luka, Bosnia, with six-month-old B and my mother. B at that stage had all the normal developmental signs, was just sitting up, smiling like anything, and weathered with resilience an attack of impetigo on her neck.


( Read more... )