R L McCartney QC

I was getting a few groceries today - you know the sort of thing, gin, tonic-water, a few bananas - when, to my delight, I encountered the distinguished barrister, R L McCartney QC.

I grinned broadly, shook his hand and enquired as to his health, though I must say he looked well.

He intimated that he was enjoying his retirement.

Man O' War

Intrepid swimmers in Ulster beware! I have read that the Portugese Man O' War was been spotted in waters off the Irish Republic.

I swam at Portballintrae, County Antrim, a few weeks ago.

The men-of-war, which look like jellyfish, can cause severe pain and in rare cases,can be fatal.

There is a risk that they may drift into Northern Ireland.

Portuguese men of war are about 30cm long and 13cm wide and it has tentacles that can reach 50m in length.

It is not a true jellyfish, but a floating colony of closely-related hydrozoans that normally live at the surface of the open ocean.

The colony floats from the bottom of an air-filled float, and has many long thin tentacles hanging below that it uses to catch fish.

A sting may lead to an allergic reaction. There can also be serious effects, including fever, shock, and interference with heart and lung function. Stings may also cause death, although this is extremely rare.

Hamilton Pumphouse

I was in Belfast city centre today, undertaking research on the Hayes, Style and Musgrave baronets.

These gentry were all major landowners in County Donegal during the Victorian era.

I've been in touch with the company BTW Shiells about Queen's Arcade in Belfast. They run it. I'm keen to write about the arcade's history since it opened in 1910. I was tempted to pop in to their GHQ in May Street, though resisted the urge.

At Sawers, College Street, two pretty girls dressed in period attire were offering samples of special cheese and white wine to patrons; so, never one to be behind in the race to the food trough, young Belmont made a bee-line for 'em and flirted a little, into the bargain.

One of them informed me that the Lord Mayor had visited the new premises earlier.

The restoration of SS Nomadic and the Hamilton dock is progressing well. I took a photograph (top) of what presumably is the pump-house beside the dock.

Burlington Sale

For those readers who aspire to be, or already are, hoteliers, The Burlington Hotel, Dublin, which changed hands for £228 million at the height of the property boom, is up for sale for a fraction of that price.

I haven't stayed in the Burlington since the early 1980s.

The four-star Burlington, one of Europe's biggest city centre hotels, was bought in 2007 by a consortium backed by Bernard McNamara from the Jurys Doyle hotel group for one of the highest prices for land in Dublin ever.

McNamara has since become one of the biggest casualties of the property crash.

The hotel, with 501 bedrooms and conference and banqueting facilities on a 3.8 acre site in the south of Dublin, is the second-biggest hotel in Ireland after Citywest in County Dublin.

Known as the 'Burlo' in Dublin, it was placed in receivership by Lloyds Banking Group in February along with two other hotels, which all continue to trade as normal. The Burlington is now back on the market for €65m-75m.

CBRE Hotels is handling the sale on behalf of Paul McCann of Grant Thornton, who was appointed receiver by Lloyds-owned Bank of Scotland (Ireland), one of McNamara's main lenders.

McNamara owes the bank about €200m.

The Burlington is expected to attract interest from the investment partners of international hotel chains such as the Sheraton, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Crowne Plaza.

The landmark hotel, which opened in 1972 and briefly closed in January, 2008, is expected to change hands before Christmas, 2012.

Paul Collins of CBRE Hotels said the strong recovery of the Dublin hotel market had been "quite remarkable" since late 2010.

He added the Burlington "should appeal to many international hotel investors and the opportunity to acquire Ireland's most successful and best known hotel, is undoubtedly going to generate strong worldwide interest". 

This weekend the hotel is expected to accommodate almost 1,000 overnight guests for the US college football game between Notre Dame and Navy, an event which is bringing 35,000 American tourists to Dublin.

The hotel is estimated to have made profits of €5m-6m last year, with a large chunk coming from the conference space and banqueting hall, which can host 2,000 guests.

The room occupancy rate is running at about 70-75%.

The €65m-75m guide price equates to about €130,000-150,000 a room.

Hawthorne Lunch

I dashed over to Belfast's Boucher Road in the two-seater today, a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Nipping in to Lakeland, the kitchenware store, I was quick to notice free samples of Australian flavoured licorice. Scoffing a tiny sample, I favoured it and bagged a 500g bag.

It is made by a company called Ricci, and imported into the UK by Lakeland.

A new washing-up brush was needed, too, so I picked one up in the shop.

As regular readers will be aware, Timothy Belmont finds it extremely hard to resist the Hawthorne Restaurant at Fulton's.

Incidentally, the assistant in Lakeland apprised me that Fulton's will be closing down eventually. It has recently been hoped that a buyer might be found.

Having studied the fare on display behind the glass counter, I chose the Savoury Mince Tart, accompanied by a side salad and a good helping of coleslaw.

I invariably pour their delicious mustard dressing over the salad, as those eagle-eyed readers might discern from the photograph.

The tart was sublime. The old nose-bag was working overtime. If this place does close down, I shall greatly miss my trips to the Hawthorne.

After lunch, I passed Isaac Agnew's Mercedes showroom and admired the vehicular metal therein.

Visitor Numbers

Visitor numbers have reached 900,000 since the blog began in December, 2007.

It is expected that the number of hits shall exceed one million by the end of 2012.

Cullintraw Revisited

Timothy Belmont was working up a porcine sweat today at Cullintraw, fourteen acres of land belonging to the National Trust, between Comber and Castle Espie in County Down.

There were a mere six of us today, though we got the task accomplished.

We completed the rush-cutting and made larger stacks.

At lunchtime I handed round a box of mini chocolate-chip muffins. Apart from that little indulgence, I had a banana, clementine, apple and some strawberries; washed down with tea.

After lunch some of us dug a trench at the edge of the field.

The blackberry season is almost upon us! I sampled a few ripe ones in the hedgerows, and they were juicy and sweet.