“I, I sometimes lose myself in me, I lose track of timeAnd I can’t see the woods for the trees, you set them alight.Burn the bridges as you’ve gone, I’m too weak to fight yaI’ve got my personal hell to deal with” – D:Ream (Londonderry, 1993) Paddy Campbell and I sang along to it instead…
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“Don’t be someone who they forget” – Melanie Chisholm. The Spice Girls were pretty big weren’t they? They were huge in fact. They were noticed. They won’t be forgotten. Neither should you strive to be the forgotten one. I hate anonymity. It grills me. It’s almost fake. Standing back and hiding yourself. Do you dress…
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In life, at least where I come from we all have a “local”. “Down the loke”, “down the wins”, “see you in the local” are all phrases we use to describe that one pub or bar where we feel at home. We know the staff, we know the customers, it’s our local. Most of my…
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My Working Wednesdays series covers stories from my constantly changing career. For today’s post we head back to January 1998, exactly 15 years ago this week I was working for the local newspaper, the County Down Spectator in Bangor, Northern Ireland. Now obviously writing is something I love doing, so this seemed an obvious job…
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“Wee pastie supper please love” – Any given Northern Irishperson of a Friday night. Today’s Friday’s Featured Food is a personal favourite of mine as it’s from my home country – the Northern Irish pastie supper. From my experience most travellers forget Northern Ireland exists, some even forget that it’s on the island of Ireland…
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This post really takes me back and I am so glad I found these photos last month at my Mum and Dad’s house on a rare return to Northern Ireland. I found them in a box in the garage…above is the amazing view out of my bedroom window as a 10 year old. We moved…
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I grew up and was raised in Marlo, a small housing area in Kilmaine in the south of Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. That is where I’m really from. This year I have thought about my childhood a lot, probably too much. I liked some of it, but not all of it. I miss the…
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I come from Bangor in Northern Ireland. Its a medium sized town in my homeland. Bangor is just a name, and is hardly unique. There are many “Bangor”s all over the world. I know for a fact there is one in Wales, Republic of Ireland and the USA (the capital city of Maine, I believe),…
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In many ways, the 1980s were the best decade ever!! I love looking back 20 odd years at those photos, and this one here, in particular encapsulates the sort of Jonny Blair I was and always have been. Plus the furniture, the style, the fashion and the era of the 1980s is fantastic. For the…
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“The living daylights” – James Bond movie / A-Ha. This is the scariest blog post to date, and looking back at this event scared the living daylights out of me. I guess most of us will have known someone or have been in a car accident at some point in their lives. According to DingGo,…
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