Near, Far, wherever you are.....

I'm so glad we went to the Titanic Exhibition. It was just as good as folk had said it would be. It brought you right into Belfast at the time the Titanic was built, and it told the story of it's build, launch, fit out and departure, it's crew, passengers and untimely end. But what screamed at me afterwards, and Mel agreed, was that while I have always been awed by the human loss of life of the crew and passengers and how vividly it's sinking shone an uncomfortable light on class systems, the exhibition left me with a sudden realisation of all the hard labour, unforgiving and unrelenting working conditions and inevitable death of many workers that went into making this massive ship, all that toil and master craftsmanship lost at the bottom of the ocean. What a waste of their toil and artistry. And the stories of those who had lost their lives and those that had survived, and the debunking of the daftness of the Hollywood films that came after. Like Ms Doyle, I could go on and on and on about how good it is.

Afterwards it was into Belfast for a quick wander in the......torrential rain. Here's Mel, who fed and watered us and toured us for the the week, taking shelter from the downpour in Central Belfast. They had had a sunny summer, we took the bad weather with us, and left the door open for returning sunshine when we left the next day.

Thanks to the stones for a great week. And even though you didn't get to eat any of your own homemade delicious feta lasagne Mel, you inspired me enough to ditch my kitchen fear and make a version of it the week after, but I made blimmin' sure I got a portion, hahaha.