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Loughries Party

I was at a birthday bash last night; three of us shared a taxi to Loughries, which is just outside Newtownards in County Down. The party was in a private barn so we brought our own booze. I filled three mini gin bottles with you-know-what, brought a bottle of tonic-water and a cling film-wrapped slice of lemon. The taxi fare was reasonable enough at £18 so, divided by three, that came to £6 each; £12 each, return.

I have been restoring - or reconditioning - the firescreen I bought at Ross's earlier in the week: I took it apart completely, cleaned the glass pane, washed the tapestry and treated the woodwork with a special mixture of stuff which had a potent aroma!

I'm off to Holywood this morning for coffee and a scone at one of the coffee-houses.

A Proper Pasty

I ventured into central Belfast this morning. I had my eye on a tapestry firescreen, so I registered upstairs, at Ross's office, had a browse round the sale-room and waited.

Well, I won the bid and bagged it for twenty pounds. I'm not terribly keen on the tapestry design. It's all right; however I shall have a look on the Web for something more fitting.

I was having a little chat with the lovely girl behind the counter at Ross's, joking that I felt like a minnow among sharks what with all the dealers hovering about! I settled my account with them; though I popped in to Lunn's earlier in order to collect some jewellery.

Whilst ambling down Queen's Arcade, I noticed a chap munching away at something or other; then spotted a member of staff from what turned out to be a new pasty shop in the Arcade, offering bite-size pieces of pasties to passers-by in order to generate interest and awareness. I did a U-turn and grabbed a sample from her tray.

It was delicious! Better than supermarket pasties, at any rate; so I discovered the new shop at the far end of Queen's Arcade. It was called The Proper Pasty Company. I wandered in, explaining that the girl outside had just persuaded me to buy one. I purchased a traditional Cornish pasty which, I think, cost about £2.60. They have a big selection of other kinds, too. I thought the beef and Stilton ones sounded good.

A Good Shave

I used the new shaving brush this morning. I followed their instructions, which included squirting a small ball of gel into the brush head. Given that I can be slightly sceptical - not to say cynical - about some things, I was rather impressed. This method seems to work. Using a shaving brush provides one with a lot more lather than smearing the gel on manually.

I may well be converted already!

Many thanks, Theo.

New Index

I'm compiling a comprehensive alphabetical index of the Northern Ireland peerage and peers, both extant and extinct, whom I've written about. I shall provide links to individual articles about each peer and courtesy lord. For example:-

ABERCORN, DUKE OF

Hamilton, Marquess of; see Duke of Abercorn

ANTRIM, EARL OF

...and so on. Would anyone find this a useful feature?

Ballymacormick Footpath

I'm just back from a day's volunteering at Ballymacormick, beside Groomsport in County Down. I joined a National Trust working party, a group of people spending their holiday working at various projects around Strangford Lough. There must have been about fifteen of us altogether. We were widening a footpath.

Craig invited me to a boat trip on the Lough this Sunday; and suggested that we retire to one of the hostelries in Strangford afterwards! Hopefully I'll be able to have a meal there.

Kent's Shaving Brush

I was watching Dragons' Den, the BBC's flagship entrepreneurial programme, last week and chuckled when some loony invention appeared, viz. an electric shaving brush: Apply gel or foam and the stuff doubtless peppers the walls, floor and towels of your bathroom.

Theo Paphitis told us that he uses a shaving brush to spread the gel on his face which, I thought, sounded quite a good idea. I've been using my fingers to spread the shaving foam ever since I grew out of short trousers.

Consequently, I have bought a shaving brush by Kent Brushes. My father always shaved in the old-fashioned manner, with shaving soap and brush. He had several authentic shaving brushes and I have tried to find them; but I must have got rid of them years ago. I never bothered with the classic method, myself. It just seemed simpler to spread foam from a can directly onto the face.