TV Licenses. Yes, that’s right, we have to have a license to have a TV. Yes, it costs money (its £135.50 a year for a colour telly.) (hey, look at me speaking Brit!). You only need one per household, not per TV, but you still need it. Or they threaten to send big men around to ‘collect’ it. Not really, but you do get letters telling you you need to buy one or you’ll pay a fine.

What is it for? To pay for the BBC, mostly. This would *never* happen in the US. Public Television is paid for by the public, by donations, not by forced participation. We even needed a TV License at NISP, to pay for the reception TV that shows BBC on occasion, although usually it is just a display device for our Science Park Promo.

The money was difficult for me as well.  For a long time I wouldn’t use change because I just couldn’t remember which coin was which.  Of course, now I used it with confidence, but it took me about a year.  Many people find this strange as UK money is pretty obvious, with the 5p being smaller than the 10p and the 20p being a different shape and so is the 50p.  But I still had a hard time wrapping my brain around it.  And don’t get me started on the 2p coin!  I do like £1 and £2 coins, that is something I wish the US would do, switch to coins for $1 bills.  So much more convenient.

I still haven’t gotten used to the driving on the left part of living in the UK.  I don’t actually drive here (and *that* was a big adjustment, considering I’ve had my own car in the US since I was about 17) because it still confuses me.  I still get confused crossing the street and look both ways multiple times before I cross.

I am sure there are other things I will think of that were an adjustment, but those were the hardest things for me to wrap my head around.

The other big change here in Belfast recently is the decreasing of security around City Centre.

You see, not so very long ago, they would, very often, block off City Centre streets to enable the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the military to control traffic into City Centre. In order to accomplish this they had movable, permanent barriers up all around the roads leading to City Centre.

About 1.5, 2ish years ago, they took them all down. It was one of those weird experiences because I was walking down the street and I was thinking, something is different. And then I realized that all the barriers were gone. Not one remained.

Then, just about 2 months ago now, they started tearing up the pavement between the court buildings. Now, you’ve always been able to walk between the buildings, but there was a guard house and traffic control. The entire area was blocked off from vehicles getting too close without a guard inspecting it.

Now its all gone. Its just a lovely pedestrian walkway with trees and benches and there is a bus lane.

Another thing I’ve noticed, just lately, is the lack of security guards in City Centre stores. Apparently, not that long ago, you were searched whenever you went into a store in City Centre. Since I’ve been here, there have been no searches, but always a security guard hovering around the entrance. In every store. Now I only see them where you’d expect to see them, like the high end jewellery stores.

Unfortunately, this just happened the other night. So the troubles are not 100% over, if they ever will be. But things are changing. For the better.

So I’ve been in Belfast just over 4 years. And boy, has the city changed.

In some bad ways, i.e. traffic has gotten worse, but mostly in good ways.  There are more stores opening all the time.  The huge Victoria Square Shopping Centre, a real live actual mall (we have a mall, but it is tiny and boring) is opening this year (whoohoo House of Fraser!  (no relation) They carry Donna Karan!).  We just got an Ikea.  We are turning into a real city.

We get more tourists now, also. It helps that Lonely Planet named Northern Ireland one of their top destinations, but I think we would get more regardless, as the troubles are over and we have neat things in this country like Giants Causeway.

And then there is the Ulster Fry.  The national dish of Northern Ireland….fried egg, bacon, sausage, Irish soda bread, fried potato bread, baked beans (optional), black/white pudding (optional) and fried tomatoes and mushrooms.

Gotta love a country where the national dish hardens your arteries.

This is a re-post from my now pretty much defunct LJ (not the one under my maiden name, the *other* one under my maiden name that hasn’t been updated since…October 2005!). With some changes.

1. The 5p is smaller than the 10p.
2. People say to me “What’s the craic?”
3. My boss laughs when I use the word “bloody” because he thinks it sounds silly in an American accent.
4. My boss often says “Today’s a day for a pie and pint, we need a pub around here.” (my office is in the middle of no where, hence no pub)
5. People say “aye” and “cheers” rather than “yes” and “thanks”
6. Store clerks call me “love”.
7. They shoot off fireworks for Halloween.
8. Grown men call it a “brolly” (umbrella).
9. We get a four day weekend for Easter (Easter Monday and Tuesday are holidays)
10. St Patrick’s Day is another day off of work (in fact March is shaping up quite nicely this year…Monday 17th St Patrick’s Day, following Monday and Tuesday Easter Monday and Tuesday. 2 short weeks in a row!).
11. We get July 12 and 13th off (for the Battle of the Boyne, whatever the hell that is, but there are lots of parades and its a Protestant marching thing)
12. The summer in general is filled with short weeks. May Day Holiday, July 12 and 13, Late May Holiday, August Bank Holiday. There are actually 12 statutory holidays a year, at least for my company, since we get 3 days at Christmas. Its quite nice.
13. Something else that happens in the summer is, quite often, the CEO will say “Its sunny. Its Friday. Everyone finish what they are doing and go home!” Sometimes as early as 3pm.

Did you know that the HMS Titanic was built here? Yup, she sure was, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards, which still exist today.

The Titanic’s final work was done at the Thompson Dock and Pump-House, which also still exist today, although not in great shape. The Thompson Dock and Pump-House are now ‘owned’ by Northern Ireland Science Park, for whom I work (and no, I am not afraid of being dooced, as I am the Web Mistress from the Park and the only one who knows how to check our referrer logs!!).

NISP is currently refurbishing the Thompson Dock and Pump-House. The first works were done over this past summer and more work is being done now as I write this. We are trying to make it a tourist attraction that will be self supporting. The only way we could get it fixed up was through grants from Environment and Heritage Service, Belfast City Council and Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Our remit is as a Science Park, so it took some convincing of our Board to let us do it at all!

So, there you go, a small fact about Belfast that you might now have known. Don’t worry, there are more coming!

Simon and I have a flat in City Centre of Belfast. Our new flat is only one street away from our current flat, so we will still be living in City Centre.

We don’t have a car, so living near the shops is very handy. It takes about a 5 minute walk to get to our local Tesco and all of the other High Street Shops that we like.

A lot of people ask if we live down here because we enjoy the pubs and other nightlife, and we do. But we don’t go out every week or even every month. We are very much stay at home people. When we do go out, we enjoy it, we just don’t go out very much!

What I like about City Centre is the atmosphere. The people wandering the streets. The shops. The diversity. From what I can tell its the most diverse area of Belfast.

But don’t quote me on that, as I don’t really go anywhere else other than City Centre very often!

That’s what Belfast is.  Now, this may be true of all modern European and British cities, but Belfast is the one I know well, having walked her streets (we don’t have a car) for the past 4 years.  (Actually, Belfast is the really the only one I know at all. Well, I’ve been to London twice.  But I have never been on The Continent.  That will change when I get to go to Tuscany in September for Simon’s Sister’s Wedding.)

Belfast has been around since the Bronze Age.  That’s a long friggin’ time.  And parts of it are very old worldy, with narrow winding streets and buildings made of stone.  Other parts of it are very new worldy, with wide boulevards and buildings made of metal and glass.

Then there are the streets that are both.  Where we currently live, there is a church that was built in 1844.  And a block of flats that were completed about 6 months ago.  They are building ‘Belfast’s Tallest Building’ (which we locals joke will be 4 storeys) next to Queen’s Bridge, built in 1849 (named for Queen Victoria, BTW).

Everywhere you go there is a mix of the old and the new.  The current and the past.  And quite a lot of the future, as construction cranes go up all over town.

I, as an American who grew up in a town where I think the oldest structure was from the 1950s, find this fascinating.  I love old architecture and marvel at it. I marvel at the fact that our local Marks and Spencer is in a building that, in the US, would hold a bank, and would have been built to look that old.  I marvel at the fact that our local Tesco is in the former home of Allied Irish Banks and has the most amazing arts and crafts style ceiling.  You should see this thing, you’d be amazed that you are in a supermarket when you look up.

So Belfast is a study in contrasts.  And I love (nearly) every minute of it.