Why I Love Living in Belfast

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.