Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly (and other outdoorsy ventures)

Saturday I was scheduled for Newcastle, but plans fell through. Usually, I'd use that as an excuse to hermit up and watch netflix for multiple hours alone in my room.

This time, though, when Elaine invited me to jump aboard somebody else's plans, I said yes. 

The day started at Scrabo Tower. Once upon a time, Lady Londonderry looked out her window from Mount Stuart and said, "That hill is ugly. Put something on it." 

The tower itself is quite wee, but it looks out onto the most beautiful, most Irish landscape. 

This is Elaine by the way.

Next, we dropped off the two girls who were with us in Bangor and went ourselves to Cultra. 

Elaine (who for some reason I keep accidentally calling "Lainey," which she does not like) wanted to take me on a date, so we got lunch in a little inn there. Pretty across the board but especially in Ireland, I like to get food from the appetizer menu instead of the "oh my gosh how does any normal person put this much food into their body" menu. 

The key is especially good here, because they feed you like a horse. Seafood chowder in a Belfast bap. YUM. My mum would have loved it. 

After lunch, we went for a walk. Finally saw some trees in autumn glory. 

Ready for my favorite part? 

No editing this picture at all. That's seriously the way it looked. Don't believe me? Okay, here's another one. 

Holy goodness beautiful. 

Lainey (she's not here. she doesn't have to know) and I walked along the shore. Well, she walked along the shore. I ran around in circles jumping in the water and sniffing the salty air like some sort of very excited puppy that no one will play fetch with (reminding me, mother, are you playing with Cubby?) 

Home, switched groups again, and went back out into Belfast for dinner and Lights On Belfast. 

*More food photos taken for the sake of my mother and sweet grandmother*

 Dinner at the Crown Bar was brie with cranberry compote. Remember my note about the food here actually coming from animals and that being weird and awesome? Still true. Abby (one of the girls I was with) got lamb. Tried it, couldn't do it. Cheese is one thing.
Sheep is another. There are sheep everywhere here. I'd seen a whole flock just that morning. Wee sheep faces with their wee "baaaaaaaaa"s and there's slippery dead animal on your plate that may very well have been related to the rompers I just waved to in a friendly way.
Sometimes I struggle with animal eating. They have faces and personalities and families. (Do not invoke the New Testament blanket of meat thing).

Worse than me taking this creeper picture is that I had to turn my entire body in order to take it. Super obvious. I don't think he noticed, though. Why? Because this precious middle-aged man is on a date. He's got headphones in connected to his iPhone, and he was just facetiming away with his middle-aged counterpart. It was very cute. A little weird. But cute. 

Kacie, Abby, and I went from dinner to city centre. It was a free event, but you had to have a ticket. We did not have tickets but were fine with that, considering the event was outdoor around city hall. To wait out the kiddie music numbers before the actual light show, we hung out in a coffee shop. To get there, though, we walked through Boots and ended up in the "VIP" wristband section of the event. Funny how that works. 

Messy deliciousness in a cup. 

 City hall always glows, but during the show, it lit up all different color depending on the act. This was my favorite version of it. Belfast is so fun.

Through the whole ordeal, the emcee kept asking the crowd, "are ya feelin' festive?" I don't think I've actually ever used that word like that. No mention of holiday spirit. Festivity! It was also pretty applicable considering that the whole of city hall's lawn is a Christmas festival currently. WOO!

The Lord Mayor (in a festive reindeer jumper) counted us down, then the lights came on! Not even close to giving it justice, but each space between columns has a wee drape and star, the trees all along the entire structure are aglow, and you can see a piece, but there is a large tree in front that is totally decked. 

My day went on to include another walk, an evening spent with naomi, more tea, and a skype with my parents, the pup, and my wee niecey. Jansie was baking Thanksgiving breads (she makes three: banana, pumpkin, and poppyseed). The bully held the camera up to the oven and steamy breads. I was drooling. 

Do you see my face of incredulity at how she caused my tastebuds to stumble? 

So, crazy day, but good day. 

The paper, by the way, was cut down 770 words today. I'm still 230 over, but pfft who's counting? Once I find a printer, get it in hardcopy, and turn it in, that sucker will be off my mind for good. Until my marks come in. :) YAY GRADSCHOOL

End of gargantuan post.