I got mail!

Recently, I received some mail in the post from Canada.  Well, sort of from Canada.  The truth is that it originated in Northern Ireland, then traveled to Canada and then back again.  You see, a year and a half ago, I sent my sister a Christmas card and, last week, it returned to my door.  Let me reiterate that point. . .  A YEAR AND A HALF AGO I SENT THE CARD!  What had happened during that time to the envelope?  It's well splattered with dried rain drops, so it certainly saw the light of day at some point.  I can piece some of the picture together.  I know it made it to the house my sister lived in at some point, but apparently at least 8 months after I sent it, since that's when she moved out of that place and some one else had scrawled "Not at this address" on it.  It then mysteriously visited the street our mom lives on, but a couple of houses down from her.  I know this because it says not at "1## *%$£" Street" which is literally steps from my mom's apartment.  It then, at some point, decided to cross the Atlantic again, this time in the opposite direction and return itself to me.  I wonder what it says inside?  I can't actually decide if it's amazing it made it back to me or truly sad that it never made it to my sister's address!  (This comes as news breaks of Canada Post possibly going on strike this week too)

Perhaps it's best if I hand deliver this one in person when I go home in August?

Ancient Arachnid?

Goliath Bird-eating Spider

Recently, I was watching a wildlife program where the tv presenter was getting rather over-excited by a spider.  Mind you, the spider was cool (it even had an incredibly cool name: the Goliath Bird-eating Spider.  Sounds impressive, no?).  However, what excited the presenter the most was how old this particular arachnid was.  "This spider is ANCIENT! It's at least 25-30 years old - ANCIENT!!!!!"

If that is what constitutes ancient then what hope is there for the rest of us???*

*Please note that this message was written by a greater than 30 year old and therefore may be *slightly* biased

Cultural Differences

For me, NI has many similarities to my home province in Canada. It's a fairly small place where everyone knows everyone (or at the very least, knows someone in common). However, there is one big cultural difference that I do not think I could ever adjust too.

Bombs.

This includes bomb threats, pipe bombs, car bombs and left-in-random-places bombs. They must happen at least once a week in Northern Ireland, and while most of the time it results in a hoax or the item being safely destroyed, occasionally it results in severe destruction or even death, as these links will tell you.

Bombing of Santander Bank, Derry


Car bomb under police officer, Ronan Kerr's, car