tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post2790304033369554786..comments2024-03-12T15:28:22.012+01:00Comments on The Poet Laura-eate: Notes From a Northern IrelandThe Poet Laura-eatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07779308486569849157noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-14059730905621921392008-04-30T16:14:00.000+02:002008-04-30T16:14:00.000+02:00Thanks for great pics and lovely tour. I would li...Thanks for great pics and lovely tour. I would like to visit someday when the kids are older and it is easier to travel on a plane for more than 4 hours :)Crimzen Creativehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04666225868450577918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-70644742243112546742008-04-28T11:14:00.000+02:002008-04-28T11:14:00.000+02:00Steve, I think the handbags are the Irish version ...Steve, I think the handbags are the Irish version of what's hot in London, though personally I quite like a bit of kitsch!<BR/><BR/>Kaz, I shall put Oldham on my tourism trail forthwith.<BR/><BR/>Mrs G - Tesco supermarkets do indeed sell own-brand cookies and have branches internationally, so they may well be the same cookies you refer to.<BR/><BR/>Wisewebwoman, you have just reminded me of a fantastic shop which existed when I was about 3. Dunlop & Johnston household linen where money was stuffed into little wooden pods and whizzed to the back of the shop using wires across the ceiling! If only I had owned a camera (and a presence of mind) then!<BR/><BR/>Oh no Rol, not a bloody Eye in York as well - about an inch away from Minster Cathedral, right?<BR/><BR/>Moi, Check out Lamonts factory shop in Harryville (Ballymena) for the best linen of all when you go! By the way more NI piccies coming soon - of the prettier bits.<BR/><BR/>Old Fogey, Belfast certainly still has plenty of 'characers' left if you want to meet some real people (excepting everyone reading this blog of course!)<BR/><BR/>LucyFishWife, While there's a place for everything, in my view the former centre of British Shipping, the historic Baltic Exchange was completely the wrong 'site' to plonk The Gherkin on, out of context, next to St Paul's Cathedral. Ditto a lot of nice architecture is being demolished in Belfast right now, changing the character of the city forever, but not necessarily for the better if it's merely for shopping purposes. But I agree with you that the Radcliffe Camera is lovely and also that Oxford house prices are said to rival some of the most expensive parts of London now. Scary<BR/><BR/>RB, I can certainly recommend NI for a visit! <BR/><BR/>Oliver, actually it was in Ballymena, but a wise move to keep a separate empire going - no poet can live on odes alone!<BR/><BR/>Dan, I think the problem is that shop rents are now so high in Oxford you have to be a chain store to afford it (or chain coffee shop). However getting a store redesignated to 'residential use' if no shopkeeper can afford to take it on is pretty nigh impossible in the city centre, thus units remaining empty, sometimes for years. Then there's the capping they're trying to impose on any more bars opening in our city! <BR/>It's a crazy situation and the reason so many specialist shops have been forced out of Oxford.The Poet Laura-eatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07779308486569849157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-41458572307547512352008-04-28T11:07:00.000+02:002008-04-28T11:07:00.000+02:00Not worse, just comparably terrible.. There we wer...Not worse, just comparably terrible.. There we were blithely thinking that for the price of a biggish flat in London we could snap up a detached North Oxford rectory... tchuh what fools.. a small shed on the Woodstock Road is more like it...Lucy Fishwifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12468092971495182126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-9448224127858131282008-04-27T22:34:00.000+02:002008-04-27T22:34:00.000+02:00Regarding dereliction - I realised the other day t...Regarding dereliction - I realised the other day that a pocket of George Street (this is Oxford, folks), about three adjacent shops, has been derelict for what must be at least a decade - any idea why? Maybe the buildings condemned or something, but thats prime real estate surely!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-39288295311215708232008-04-27T22:16:00.000+02:002008-04-27T22:16:00.000+02:00Fantastic post, Laura! Droll yet written with obvi...Fantastic post, Laura! Droll yet written with obvious affection.<BR/><BR/>I'm curious that lucyfishwife thinks house proces are worse in Oxford than West London - surely not...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-50421537993523874712008-04-26T20:51:00.000+02:002008-04-26T20:51:00.000+02:00So, you found my secret Belfast shop, John Wilson ...So, you found my secret Belfast shop, John Wilson - my real name (it was only a matter of time!)Olliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17334117174803599416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-53028474480655707322008-04-26T20:15:00.000+02:002008-04-26T20:15:00.000+02:00I've never been to Northern Ireland but I think I ...I've never been to Northern Ireland but I think I should go. Reminds me a bit of some parts of Wales from some of the photos - the retro shops in particular, although of course in Wales they would be called siop y pethe or somesuch. <BR/><BR/>Interesting that Steve is so interested in the handbags!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-51077307457180394462008-04-26T11:02:00.000+02:002008-04-26T11:02:00.000+02:00Oh my god (or OMG as they say on the wibweb) I tho...Oh my god (or OMG as they say on the wibweb) I thought I loved the Gherkin until I saw the Pickled Onion! You do on the other hand have the incandescently lovely Radcliffe Camera in oxo though.. speaking as one who grew up there.. and YES the house prices are a shocker. We once thought vaguely about relocating from stratospheric and barely-affordable West London to Oxford (my family all still live there) but took one look at the prices and fainted..Lucy Fishwifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12468092971495182126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-42685781075058330542008-04-25T23:40:00.000+02:002008-04-25T23:40:00.000+02:00Belfast is now on my holiday list. It looks real -...Belfast is now on my holiday list. It looks real - really real - not like the London I see.Old Fogeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11247102564173946623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-41392393503565790622008-04-25T14:23:00.000+02:002008-04-25T14:23:00.000+02:00My husband has been jonesing to visit Ireland. Now...My husband has been jonesing to visit Ireland. Now, I can safely say I have a reason, too, as one of my Holy Grails is, I kid you not, the el perfecto tea towel. But that, uh, conical-shaped glass structure thingy scares me.moihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07824043795171732429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-49063662704478654902008-04-25T13:45:00.000+02:002008-04-25T13:45:00.000+02:00I'm sick of those big wheels now - like you say, e...I'm sick of those big wheels now - like you say, every town has to have one. They've even got one in York - like they needed to attract any more visitors!Rolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02103804480646939038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-82556212818611257772008-04-25T04:47:00.000+02:002008-04-25T04:47:00.000+02:00I waxed nostalgic reading your post, Laura. Seeing...I waxed nostalgic reading your post, Laura. Seeing the shops, and seeing the desecration of the old buildings too. How much we lose.<BR/>In Skibereen a few years ago I went looking for yarn needles and was enchanted when the old woman proprietor pulled out a little drawer and found me the right size. All behind her were glass fronted drawers with colourful skeins of thread and buttons. I just about cried to be so transported into a world I thought had long gone.<BR/>XO<BR/>WWWWisewebwomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15281689872840844191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-69576200569095646522008-04-25T03:26:00.000+02:002008-04-25T03:26:00.000+02:00What great photos! Is that the Tesco of the Tesco ...What great photos! Is that the Tesco of the Tesco Cookies I see on the international shelf at the grocery?Mrs. G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01171997573144385692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-54612783509381349162008-04-24T22:59:00.000+02:002008-04-24T22:59:00.000+02:00I see what you mean - those top pics could be Manc...I see what you mean - those top pics could be Manchester.<BR/>But not those lovely retro shops - though you may see a few in Oldham.KAZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06621294189351906599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239241293494668004.post-53951859894395452282008-04-24T18:56:00.000+02:002008-04-24T18:56:00.000+02:00Have to say - those handbags are horrendous... not...Have to say - those handbags are horrendous... not that I'm expert in judging handbags or anything but they look "a bit granny".Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02133900289384226725noreply@blogger.com