Thursday 17 December 2009

Yuletide Gifts


I paid a visit to the Ulster Historical Foundation's new office at 49, Malone Road, Belfast, this morning. Some of their publications interested me. Their new office is beyond the Botanic Inn bar.

I think my amateur research of various country houses and estates, particularly in counties Tyrone and Armagh, has whetted my appetite.

I purchased the Plantation of Ulster by Philip Robinson; and Early Belfast, by Raymond Gillespie.

I was intending to pay them by debit card and, when I inserted it into the machine, the card was rejected because the PIN number had been locked. This is the second occasion when this has occurred.

I recall entering an incorrect PIN number with it several times at Donaghadee Garden Centre recently; and then having to use another card or cash. What a confounded nuisance! Still, I imagine its all for my own good.

I've contacted my bank about it.

4 comments :

Unknown said...

Ah, Ulster Historical Foundation: my previous employer!

Timothy Belmont said...

Well they're well installed in a quite compact office now near a few pubs! :-)

Stephen said...

I think P. Robinson was a history teacher at Regent House, could be wrong.

The security features on modern debit cards are obviously designed to help the average punter, and no doubt do on average... however, I always have a nightmare scenario of being somewhere in Africa, with a Kalashnikov (sp?) shoved in my mouth, frogmarched to an ATM and told to withdraw $500... "Transaction refused. Contact your branch" ooohhh!

Timothy Belmont said...

Ha ha! Very good, Stephen. The stuff of nightmares... :-)