Home in Houston

Hey everyone!

Well, I am back home in Houston and am a bit restless considering I fell asleep at 7 PM and took a 4-hour nap. I imagine it will take me a bit of time to get readjusted to the time change; however, I leave for the UK again in 8 days ... so I am considering just staying 6 hours ahead!

I have posted a few pictures from this past week in Belfast. It snowed heavily (heavily according to me anyways) on Monday - it was GORGEOUS. I figure if it is pretty enough, then I can stand the cold better ... unlike Sunday on top of the City Tour Bus! With Jan in town, Monday night, Jan, Chris & I went to a new sushi restaurant down in the city centre and it was absolutely fabulous. Tuesday night, Jan, Chris, Una, Daryl, and I went to James Street South for dinner. We headed to the Crown bar afterwards and then on to Fibber Magee's to listen to traditional Irish music. Honestly, if we wouldn't have been so exhausted ... we would have lasted longer through the night ... but it had been a LONG two days working and Jan was scheduled to leave Wednesday, so we only had one more day to get things done. All went well at work the rest of the week - we finished up late every night so I never did make it out again - work came first and again, I am a huge wimp!

I am sure I will make up for it in London since the majority of that 1 week (of 3 weeks total) is vacation! It seems a bit strange to be home already ... 2 weeks flew by and I guess being that I will be leaving again so soon - I am not getting used to anything too soon just yet. Just as a reminder ... I will be leaving for London on March 7th and spending a week there. On March 14th, I am meeting Jan in Norway for our first week of training on the SPM tool - our big KICK OFF! Uh, with Jan and I together --- the shops in Norway are going to LOVE us ... oh dear! On March 2oth, Jan and I will head to Aberdeen, Scotland for half the week and then to London for the remainder of that week. I am hoping to meet up with some of my friends from Accenture Core Consulting school that I met over a year and a half ago who work out of the London office - should be FUN!

Enjoy the new pics and the last entry for at least a week or so. Until London ...
keely :)

MAJOR SNOW in Belfast! The flakes were the biggest I have ever seen ...  

Una, Keely, & Jan at the restaurant for dinner. We ate at James Street South - even though I called a cab to take us to Jacob's South Street! How do you know when you have been to Belfast 4 times in the past year ... cos you end up telling your cabbie how to get around!?! Or it could be because it was the cabbie's second night on the job - just Jan & I's luck! 

Jan, Una, & Chris at the Fibber Magee's, where we listened to traditional Irish music. 

The traditional Irish band that we went to listen to after a round at the Crown bar. 

Una & Jan - Una is another project manager at Biznet who I have worked with a bit before. This is the 'girls' at the Crown bar in Belfast. 

Jan & Keely with the Europa hotel in the background - the most famous hotel in Belfast, which has been bombed over 20 times. 

Chris & Keely - he is the Project Manager at Biznet who I work with on this project ... we work very well together and many think we act like brother and sister! Chris is a brillant developer and even calls me "boss" ... ha ha ...!!! 

Historical Belfast City

Hey all!

Well, you are now getting to see a load of pictures from my touring around Belfast. I had a wonderful weekend FULL of shopping and sightseeing! Saturday, I spent about 5 hours in the city centre shopping - and did I ever!!! I almost bought this one store out of a few tops and even managed to buy a new suit too. I was trying to remind myself that I have about 11 more cities that I may want to do some shopping in and that I should consider budgeting myself a bit ... uh, yeah - that never actually happened.

Sunday, I braved the cold weather and climbed aboard the Belfast Tour Bus to get a good look at historical sites in the city ... as you can tell by the wonderful picture ... I was so cold that by the end of that tour, I was more than ready to get inside somewhere warm! Don't be mistaken - I had FIVE layers of clothing on and still was in an awful lot of pain sitting up there; the wind is NOT my friend. Despite the cold, I enjoyed learning more about the history and seeing the areas that I have heard so much about - especially the murals. Unreal! After the tour, I headed back into a few more shops that I had missed from the day before ... oh, for about another 2 hours.

Sunday evening, I met up with my client, Jan, and we went to dinner to catch up. It was great to see her and welcome her to Belfast - I have been here 4 times so far, yet this is her first time here. The funniest part of the night by far was when Jan went to leave a tip for the waiter and dug in her purse to pull out Euros. Now, for those of you who don't know - Northern Ireland is a part of the UK, which uses Pounds ... Southern Ireland (Republic of Ireland, where Dublin is located) uses Euros. Apparently, some guy in the Houston exchanged Jan's money for Euros even though she told him she was going to Northern Ireland. I told Jan that she needed Pounds and she said to me, "Are you sure?" ... it was hysterical because I had already been here a full week and 3 times before! Guess you might have had to be there - but we are still laughing about it.

This week is going well - getting loads done. Last night, we ventured to a sushi restaurant in town and it was outstanding! I have to give Chris and Jan credit for eating sushi out with me considering all the rice that I had to take out of the sushi in order to eat it (I had a huge pile of it on my plate when I was finished) ... they were very good sports. Tonight is the big night for us to go out - where we will be going to a group dinner with other people from Biznet and then to the Crown bar, then to hear traditional irsih folk music afterwards. Should be fun!

Hope all is well with everyone. I hope to make it to the "Bot" Thursday night and then hang out Friday with most of Biznet - but shouldn't be too much more to report. I do know one thing - I am not allowing myself back to the city centre for fear of more shopping!

keely :)

In front of Northern Ireland map; Belfast is on the East coast near the North Sea.

Northern Bank ATM machine, the very place where £26.2 million ($50 Million) was stolen in the bank robbery back in December! 

The Northern Irish play that we went to at the Opera House called "The History of the Troubles". 

Grand Opera House in Belfast, the building has been bombed twice in the last 15 yrs. 

Outside the Opera House 

OUR TOUR BUS! 

Sitting on top of the tour bus FREEZING cold ... I am going to have trouble in Norway! 

The river Lagan, on which Belfast is built. 

"SAMSON AND GOLIATH" - The famous cranes are the center of the shipbuilding company, Harland and Wolff, the builders of Titanic. Each has a capacity of 840 tons and used to be the biggest cranes in the world. 

Recognize this - look like the Titanic a bit? The Titanic was built in Belfast in this very shipyard. 

The old Crumlin Road courthouse, which closed in 1998 after 150 yrs. This is where all of terrorist trials happened during the "Troubles". An underground tunnel links it to the jail located on the other side of the road. 

A wall mural on the Protestant side of Belfast. This depicts some of the volunteers of the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) who died during the "Troubles". The image in the middle is the Red Hand of Ulster, with the text "For God And Ulster". 

Republican murals first sprang up in areas of Belfast in 1981, when IRA inmates of the Maze prison began a hunger strike in an unsuccessful bid to be recognized by the British government as political prisoners rather than common criminals. The first and most famous to die was Bobby Sands shown in this mural with the words: "Our revenge will be the laughter of our children." 

End of the first week

Hey all!

This week has gone well at work; we are well on our way to having the system ready for roll-out, which is a relief. The best news yet is that I have received approval to have an analyst come in and help me on this project! I never thought I would see the day ... granted she will initially only be chargeable 1/2 time to my project for the next 3 weeks - but after that, I believe she will be approved for full time. It has only taken me over a year to get some help! Thankfully, it looks like I will finally be getting it and from a good friend of mine actually - so it is an added bonus that I already know the analyst, adore her, and that she happened to be unstaffed at the perfect time.

Thursday night, we headed to the Belfast Opera House to see a local Northern Irish play written and performed by 3 guys who grew up during the "Troubles". Most everyone knows of the city of Belfast because of the fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants that went on for so many years; hence the title of the time, the "Troubles". I have learned quite a bit being that this is my 4th time to visit Belfast but I think the main misconception about the fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants is that it was about religion, however, this is not how it all started. Essentially, the English (Protestants) wanted the land that the Irish (Catholics) were settled on. So, England went after the land by encouraging Englishmen to settle in Ireland, which was not well-received by the Irish. The religious part of the conflicts came as a result of these two groups mixing. The Irish felt invaded and were treated as 2nd class citizens; in fact if you were Catholic during the 60's, you were not given the better jobs, you were paid a great deal less than a Protestant, etc. Sound familiar? Yep -while the U.S. was dealing with its own civil rights protests, so was Ireland! I find it all so fascinating.

While Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland, Whales, and Northern Ireland - the latter 3 act as their own states in that they have a local government in place apart from the British parliament. BUT - almost 2 years ago, Northern Ireland's local branch of parliament was suspended. Apparently, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) had bugged various offices (big scandle) and the British parliament decided to stop their ability to govern themselves locally as a state. Today, Northern Ireland is locally run by the British parliament (functions as England's state government too). Some of you may have heard of the 26.2 million pound bank robbery that occurred here in Northern Ireland this past December, one of the largest bank robberies the world has ever seen! Apparently, there were allegations that the IRA was involved and yesterday, they arrested 7 people who they believe were connected to the robbery. The police found 2.2 million of the money stolen and one of the suspects is a former Sinn Fein member of the local Irish parliament - Sinn Fein is the name of the party that represents the Irish Republicans (it is gaelic, like my name). Needless to say, there were talks about allowing the Irish local parliament to be unsuspended; however, this arrest has changed the minds of the British parliament and the suspension will not be removed for quite some time now.

As you can tell, the time of the "Troubles" is so interesting to me. The Irish obviously wanted Ireland to be a free country on its own, completely separate from Britain's rule. There are things that I had no idea about - for example, did you know there was a huge hunger strike started by a group of IRA prisoners who wanted to be treated as POWs instead of petty criminals? The British parliament (Prime Minister at the time was Margaret Thatcher) did nothing about it and all 11 died. On my tour this weekend of the city, I will see where that all happened but not where "Bloody Sunday" occurred because it happened about 100 miles from here in Derry (or Londonderry if you are Protestant). Most of you know "Bloody Sunday" because U2 sings a song with that title, but it represents a turning point in the conflicts when British soilders attacked a civil rights march - turning point because while there were protests before, however, all had been peaceful until this one. Up until Bloody Sunday, which happened in the late 60's, the IRA had not caused too much trouble. After Bloody Sunday was when the IRA began recruiting and the bombings and such began.

Also, I hadn't realized all that President Clinton had done to help the peace process between the Protestants & the Catholics. He came to Belfast in 1998 for the signing of the "Good Friday Agreement". This peace treaty marked the official end of the "Troubles", even though a cease fire had been in place since 1995. This treaty allowed the release of every prisoner who had been charged with any offense connected to the conflicts to be FREE. There were quite a bit of innocent people who had been in prison for years and were freed - and of course there were the master minds behind the bombings/killings who were also let go.

I could go on and on ... but I think that is enough history for now. Can you tell it is Friday and I needed a break?

Keely 

Inside the hotel, picture of where the staircases used to be before the bombings. 

Biznet, where I am working for the next 2 weeks. 

The hotel where we had Sunday lunch. 

Windy, much?