I came across Google Romance on Sunday and thought it was the coolest idea ever! I raved to Mr Levee about how I wished i was single and could participate.
Of course I have since discovered that it was obviously an April Fools joke and I am the biggest fool ever.
No flies on me eh?
Well, the votes have been passed to our Independent Polling Authority (yes, another unelected government quango) for ajudication and the results are now in.
The IPA have followed protocol and ignored non-Northern Irish places such as Spain and controversially…..bed. While the Mournes and the Glens of Antrim area have both been well represented, the result is a tie between Belfast and Mid-Ulster. Since Mid-Ulster isn’t particularly specific, and I’m calling the shots, it looks like we can officially call Belfast the winner.
While I wait for someone from Belfast City Council to pick up the prize - a free fish supper from Bishops, Shaftesbury Square! - I’d like to thank Ed, Sandra, Geoff, Paul, Nelly and Jimmy for helping spread the word. Much appreciated. That email I sent to the Stephen Nolan show didn’t do much good, so two fingers to him, eh?
Thanks to everybody who voted, especially the two others who voted for Ballycastle!
Testing, testing. Can everybody hear me?
It’s been quiet around The Levee Breaks for the last few days because I’ve been changing web hosts. I had a couple of complaints that the site was running slowly over the last wee while and some of you had trouble posting comments, so I decided to move over to the mighty Dreamhost.
I lost a couple of late-breaking comments along the way, but all seems to be working better now. Be back shortly.
I meant to write about Chris Jackson’s The Abundance Site some time ago, but this has been languishing in my drafts folder, so I thought I’d share it here.
Mrs Levee and I know (more than our fair share of) miserable people. People who feel they are downtrodden, that the world is against them in every conceivable way. People who simply don’t enjoy life. Nothing ever goes right for them, people talk behind their backs, they’re always ill with something or other. They’re incapable of caring about anything other than their own problems, such is their self-involvement.
I find one of the common characteristics of these depressing, misguided creatures is the sheer chaos that defines their mental processes. So disorganised are their thoughts that they can only concentrate on the problem, rather than considering solutions. And so they seek solace in spilling out their problems to everyone they meet, accepting short-term sympathy instead of seeking a positive fix.
I’m not disparaging these people, I know what I’m talking about! I went through a period a few years ago where I was terribly dissatisfied with my life and what I’d achieved. This led to a lot of moaning and grumbling, and I was a complete bear to live with during that time (*sorry Mrs L!).
In recent years, I’ve learned that there’s a lot wrong with modern society, and that the values and pressures of modern life are just not healthy. In realising that, I’ve spent more time seeking what is important in life. Take this quote from The Abundance Site:
A friend of mine once said of his business partner, ?He?s given up his life in the single-minded pursuit of wealth. And now, wealth is all he has. So he obsesses about losing it. Since he never had a life, he has no idea of what to do with his money, even if he had time to enjoy it, which he doesn?t because he?s so accustomed to the treadmill he can?t even imagine getting off. Of course, the beautiful thing about the pursuit of money is that you?ve never got enough. So he keeps on chasing it, simply because he has no idea of what else to do with his life.? Barry Maher
The Abundance Site offers some simple, inspirational pearls of wisdom. Sometimes, when you’re blinkered by the trials and tribulations of everyday life, a visit to Chris’ site makes you stop for a minute and reprioritise.
The beauty of The Abundance Site is that it isn’t pushing a way of life on you, but - for me - provides a gentle reminder that the relentless cycle of modern life isn’t necessary and to slow down from time to time and enjoy life.
It’s funny how easy it is to forget these to take a step back. I originally wrote this piece back in October last year, but couldn’t find a slot to post it.
In that time - as regular readers know - I hit difficulties with my job and fell into every one of the symptoms I described above! I believe that I’m overcoming those negative tendencies now, I’ll just have to re-read this post every now and again!
I’ve since discovered Jangly Ganglia, a site by Andrea Schwandt-Arbogast where she aims to post one positive experience per day to remind herself that good things happen every day! It’s a great site, and I’m looking forward to see what Andrea will build there.
I hope this post helps any of you who are in a bit of a funk right now!
Have you voted in the “Favourite Northern Irish Place” poll yet?
We’ve had a whopping 92 votes in the last week, but I Want More!!! Email your friends. Pester colleagues at work. Call your mother and make her vote!!
I’m going to let the poll run until close of play on Friday and we’ll post the results then. So far, mid-Ulster/Sperrins is poorly represented in the poll. Will they catch up? Who knows….
Thanks to those of you who’ve bothered to link back to the poll - you will be honored in the evening of the results, a star-studded celebration of everything Northern Irish!!
If you’ve got a blog/website, please, please, please help us promote the poll! This poll has had the advantage of generating lots of positive comments about Northern Ireland, and it’s been great. See Paul’s post about the Castlereagh Hills, for example.
One more thing. I won’t be counting the smart-arse comments like Spain and bed!!!
I dropped a few emails this evening to places like the Belfast Telegraph and the good old Stephen Nolan show to see if we could get a mention. I’d be interested to see if anything happens!
If anybody out there has media contacts, point them this way and we’ll see what sort of debate this will open up!
Let’s have a bit of light debate (for a change) about your favourite places in Northern Ireland. We’re asking the question in the poll in the sidebar.
I’ve popped a few options in there for you: Belfast, Ballycastle (my home town), and Lisburn (Belfast-lite?) - you can add any other places or vote for whatever’s already there. At the end of the week, we’ll see what the most popular location is. Hopefully…
I’d like this poll to be a big one, so those of you with blogs out there…you know what to do 
I’m not sure how deep some of you are into your blogging. I think the furthest extent some people go to is to add their blog to all of those crappy directories that are out there.
I go a little bit further. Rather than checking other blogs daily, I subscribe to RSS feeds. RSS feeds are little files your blog supplies which get updated each time you publish a new post. Little RSS reader programs check your RSS feed for updates and notify you automatically when there’s new posts to read. It’s actually a little bit like email.
Another useful blogging tool (and the point of this post) is Technorati. Technorati is primarily a blog search engine, but can do a load of other things for you. It can tell you how many blogs are linking back to you, how popular you are in the blogosphere and it allows you to tag your posts to make it easier for people to find your posts.
Anyway, they’ve just launched Technorati Favorites, a service that allows you to bundle all your favourite blogs together in one place.
For instance, you could line up Slugger, El Blogador, Desolate Row, Big Ulsterman, etc all in one place. It’s great for a bird’s eye view of what’s happening in the blogosphere and the best bit is, you can share it out. Here’s my list of favourite blogs as an example.
Here’s a conversation I didn’t think I’d be having with my four-year-old daughter. At least not within the next two decades.
We were sitting in the kitchen this evening and Ray sauntered down from her room with a box of toy jewellry. “Mum, can you help me put on my necklaces?” she enquires in sugary tones. “No problem, pet,” comes the reply and soon both are busily covering the girl in plastic jewellry from top to toe.
After they’re finished, Ray swans around the kitchen playing the princess. We all tell her how pretty she looks and then she breaks the big news. She’s getting married! To a boy in her nursery class. The whole thing’s arranged it seems and nothing can stop the “big day”:
Me: “Ray, after you get married, you’ll be Brian’s wife. You’ll have to move into his house and live with him and his family….”
I trail off, waiting for the inevitable cries of protest. The smile on Ray’s face freezes for the briefest moment. Then she turns away and reaches for her plastic hairbrush.
“Alright, but only after I brush my hair….”
I know its been a while since I posted ? a mixture of having a very busy life (?) and not keeping up with what?s going on in the world. However, one thing that I can not help but notice is the DAMNED postal strike. It is the most irritating and selfish thing for the postal workers to strike and not consider the damage they are doing.
?I agree with the basis and logic behind Unions completely and think that workers must be protected and Unions are a perfect way of ensuring this. I think Unions are there for a reason and this is why illegal strikes are so abhorrent to me. Are these people not thinking about the damage they are doing? What if the hospital / doctors had sent you or a family member a letter telling you about urgent treatment that you needed ? what if you or they did not get that letter and subsequently fell ill or worse, died? Would this illegal and altogether strange and vague strike seem justifiable to you? What if a car crashed into you and you latter found out that the car driver?s insurance was up for renewal but due to the strike he/she did not know that it had expired and was therefore uninsured? Would you think its OK because the postal workers were striking, that?s life?
These are just a few of the examples of the damage they are doing, never mind the monetary damage to small businesses in terms of lost revenue and damaged reputation. In addition, I am not altogether sure why the strike is even happening ? I have heard so many stories but the common thread running through all of them is bullying by management. If this is the case then industrial action is more than justified but illegal action is not. The word on the grapevine is that the strike is nearing an end ? its about time, lets just hope most of the damage done is not irreparable.
Mrs Levee knows I hate Valentine’s Day. What good is a day spent professing your undying love, spelt out in sickly cliches of chocolate and roses, when the other 364 days are spent barely tolerating each other.
No, Valentine’s Day is a load of crap, and anyone who pours money into insincere shows of affection should be dropped immediately by their significant other. If you’re not making the effort every day, then your paltry box of chocolates is nothing more than a tasty, hi-calorie insult.
I started thinking about Valentine’s Day about a month ago and decided not to honor the day. I thought, do I love my wife? Yes. Do I show her enough? Not nearly enough. Instead of a crappy card, I decided my gift this year would be to try harder and to always have at the front of my mind the reasons why we’re together. So, for Mrs Levee, and the rest of you:
So, despite my assurances that Valentine’s Day would not be observed Chez Levee, I’d like to (very publicly) wish my wife a happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you have a lovely day, sweetheart!
I love you.
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