Greetings from a Cold, Wet and Foggy Northern Ireland

I’m away in Northern Ireland over the weekend doing my last bit of work for the Victoria College of Music for 2008. I have been here before during the Summer months. I’m hoping that I will get a bit of time to have a look around this time but we will see how it goes. With the weather being the way it is, I might not want to go out exploring!

I travelled down to Nottingham East Midlands Airport on Friday afternoon to catch the 16:20 plane to Belfast City with Ryanair. I quite like East Midlands Airport, it’s certainly much nicer and friendlier than Heathrow, still it doesn’t beat Doncaster which is by far my favourite airport. The journey was fine until we got to Belfast where the weather was awful. Gale-force winds made landing difficult and pilot recieved cheers all round when we landed safely.

Upon landing, I proceeded to the Avis Car Hire Desk to pick up my hire car. I was slightly disappointed when they handed over the keys to a Citroen C3 as I was looking forward to driving something different! Last time I came, I was given a Peugeot 207 which I thoroughly enjoyed driving. However, when I got in the C3 I was pleasantly suprised to see that this 2008 model had been given a makeover since my 2005 spec car and it was interesting to see the differences even though it is the same car. I will probably write a post comparing the two at some point.

I am staying in a Premiere Inn in a place called Carrickfergus. The Premiere Inn is joined to a Brewers Fayre, both of which appear to have only been year a year or so. It’s right on the Harbour edge and you can see all of the boats moored in the harbour. It’s also a stones throw away from Carrickfergus Castle. This Premiere Inn is, so far, the best one I have stayed in. The staff have been extra friendly and helpful during my stay, which is always a good thing! The food has also been good with the staff in the Brewers Fayre, called The Harbour, being equally as pleasant.

Yesterday, I did my work for the Victoria College of Music before returning back to the hotel. It was a miserable day with only a few hours of daylight. The rest of the day was covered with all nasty forms of weather. The only thing I didn’t get was snow and ice! It was certainly the tickets Fog that I had ever driven through and I was glad the C3 I had been given was equipped with both rear and front Fog Lights! I took me over 2 hours to make the, normally 45 minute, journey back to the hotel.

Today, I’m hoping the weather is going to be a bit better and that I will have chance to explore a bit more of Northern Ireland before I make my way back to Belfast City Airport for my flight back to EMA at 5pm.