Virtual Methodist

No Saturday supplement this week... not because there isn't much out there of interest in the virtual world... if anything there is too much to swiftly sift it... but because there has also been too much on in the "real" world with the beginning of September and trying to find a new rhythm to life in a new setting... But despite my busyness I did manage to carve out a whole day last Saturday to enjoy my birthday present from my wife... a triple bill of Henry VI parts 1, 2 & 3 performed by the Globe Theatre company... So at the same time as 400 people were gathering in the Lyric theatre to mark the passing of the bard from Bellaghy, I and about 400 others were staggering punch drunk into the Grand Opera House for the final furlong of nearly 8 hours of Shakespeare. I don't recollect ever having seen any of these three history plays before so I have nothing to compare them with from my own experience... all I can say is that I enjoyed the whole day. There were ...

To follow on from the nuclear timelapse video on Friday, here's another one (or rather two for the price of one). Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, suggested last Wednesday that the Euro-zone was "tearing itself apart." This timelapse shows that Europe hasn't been a particularly stable place politically over the past 1000 years... It is interesting that two of the most unstable areas historically have been the Balkans (nothing new there then) and interestingly, up until the mid 19th century, Germany and northern Italy. Take a look at both the shorter video (with the scary music) and the longer one, with much more information...  Cheers

Things are definitely changing. Certainly in East Belfast. The writing has literally been on the walls for years... The fabled gables of East Belfast have been changing… Instead of pictures of King Billy you have more recent "heroes": C.S. Lewis, George Best and David Ervine... And where victory is celebrated it is of Norn Irn beating England at football rather than King Billy beating his father in law at the Boyne (although the artists in question still have difficulties with faces.) Then this week I went out for lunch with a colleague, to a pub which was, until recently a paramilitary drinking den. It has now, however, gone up-market and you are more likely to meet a Church of Ireland Bishop, (as we did) than a UDA brigadier, unless of course the Bishop is meeting a brigadier, which is not inconceivable these days. But anyway the bill came to £16.90, and my colleague quipped that he would remember that easily enough, but the waitress looked at him with total incomprehension...