Team Belfast on the Catwalk

'Twas an interesting chain of events yesterday here in Belfast.

My supervisor was gone at work, so I spent the day beginning an article for the next edition of the magazine as well as continued work on the website. I'm not sure how I kept myself busy for 8 hours (I never am sure, actually), but before I knew it 4:45 had arrived and everyone else was walking out the door. It's quite amusing actually, the workday is 9:00-5:00, but here in N. Ireland that translates into: Once you've gotton your tea and scone and settled yourself, stroll in perhaps around 9:20. Make small talk around the teapot for a while with your co-workers, and begin work when you're ready. Lunch is an hour long in the middle of the day, but feel free to take breaks and/or long walks outside if you're feeling "cooped up". The day ends at 5:00, but by that time we're all ready for a nice cuppa tea and dinner so just leave somewhere in the realm of 4:00-5:00. Yeah? Yeah.

I walked home and learned of two new pieces of information:
1. The Crumlin Courthouse in North Belfast was on fire. I'm not really sure why/how.
2. The police have learned that a 300 lb bomb has been smuggled into Northern Ireland and have many people trying to investigate and locate it before something goes awry. Hmm. When I alerted Brie to this, she said "Oh my gosh! Where is it?"

...I don't know where the bomb is, Brie.

Hopefully someone cracks the case-we don't need a 300 lb bomb exploding anywhere around these parts. Despite the news, our flat managed to keep our spirits high in the evening. On the menu was "chicken and eggplant parmesan on a bed of angel hair pasta", which Ben and I cooked. For the breadcrumbs: I took some dried out bread, put it through the toaster once, and crumbled it up with parmesan cheese. Mmmm...everything turned out SO good.

After dinner, a few of us from Team Belfast headed to a small wine bar near our flat to see Brie's supervisor's band play (yep, she gets an attractive, Irish band guy as a supervisor) at the premiere of a new organisation which promotes more a sustainable, eco-friendly approach to fashion. The place was cute-none of us complained about the free wine for the event, either. However, the real kicker was near the end of the night. One of the women promoting the event approached me and Brie and said "Are you girls 18?" We initially thought we were being asked to prove our drinking age, so we probably looked a little taken aback and Brie began to reach for her ID. "No, no, I'm not asking for that reason," the women said, laughing. "I was wondering if you two would be willing to be models in our fashion show next weekend. The show is all day Saturday, and you would have to get here at 8:00 in the morning for hair and makeup..."

Ummm....WHAT? So apparently, Brie and I are going to be runway models next weekend. HA. I guess she didn't realize when she approached us sitting down that I stand at 5'2'' and Brie an inch or two higher. I guess we'll see if it all actually works out. My mom is arriving next Friday, so it depends if we can work around her and my schedule. If we do it though, I'm sure it will be quite the experience. I'll keep you all updated.

The organisation is: www.thechangingroomni.com

Har har har. More later.
-Karen