Sunday’s Inspiration: 10 Ways to get Noticed (and the Day I…Scored a Hat-Trick)

“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 Read more about Sunday’s Inspiration: 10 Ways to get Noticed (and the Day I…Scored a Hat-Trick)[…]

windsor bar bangor local pub

Thirsty Thursdays: The Windsor Bar Bangor, Northern Ireland (My Local Pub)☘️🔴✋

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 Read more about Thirsty Thursdays: The Windsor Bar Bangor, Northern Ireland (My Local Pub)☘️🔴✋[…]

Jonny Blair of Dont Stop Living featured in the County Down Spectator in Bangor in January 2013

Working Wednesdays: Journalist for my Local Newspaper!

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 Read more about Working Wednesdays: Journalist for my Local Newspaper![…]

Jonny Blair lives a lifestyle of travel and hails from Bangor Northern Ireland a pastie supper town

Friday’s Featured Food: Northern Irish Pastie Supper🟡🍟🥔in Bangor, Northern Ireland🟥🤚☘️

“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 Read more about Friday’s Featured Food: Northern Irish Pastie Supper🟡🍟🥔in Bangor, Northern Ireland🟥🤚☘️[…]

The World From My Bedroom: Aged 10, Marlo, Bangor, Northern Ireland (1990)

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 Read more about The World From My Bedroom: Aged 10, Marlo, Bangor, Northern Ireland (1990)[…]

Road Trip Part 9 – Flashback to my Childhood at Marlo

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 Read more about Road Trip Part 9 – Flashback to my Childhood at Marlo[…]

Drawing Maradona and Other Things in 1986

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 Read more about Drawing Maradona and Other Things in 1986[…]

The Day I Almost Died in a Car Crash

“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, Read more about The Day I Almost Died in a Car Crash[…]

Working Wednesdays: Temporary Work with Grafton Recruitment, Bangor, Northern Ireland

After leaving the Halifax in the first week of April 2002, suddenly I had my final pay packet and was going to sign on to the dole, but the same day I signed up with a job recruitment agency based locally in Bangor. It was the first (and only…) time I have ever signed up Read more about Working Wednesdays: Temporary Work with Grafton Recruitment, Bangor, Northern Ireland[…]