Prosperity in Bangor

Saturday, November 3, 2007
Bangor

I’m taking a break from my shopping run today in the interests of resting and stretching my legs, and to save some money. Last night we switched bedrooms since it turns out the master bedroom has a firmer mattress, and slept better because of it. We woke at 7 am as usual since Reed had his alarm set – why he wants to wake up with an alarm I don’t know – and Reed and I came down and had some breakfast while the sun came up. Then we made some chocolate chip cookies when I realized there was no reason not to, since I had all the ingredients and all day. Then I made some lentil and beef soup, which is now simmering on the stove for lunch. Reed and Walt got out the microscope that Michael showed them and got it set up to look at bugs, and I’m thinking that pretty soon I need to get showered and dressed and do the housecleaning, but not right this minute. I'm listening to BBC2 radio and enjoying it too much to stop. I hear serious news stories and keep thinking it's going to be a Monty Python sketch; this morning when the announcer introduced a panel that had to do with gynecological health issues I thought for sure it was going to be a comedy, but no! I don't think I realized until now how perfectly Michael Palin and the gang satired British society, how spot on they mimicked BBC announcers.

Yesterday afternoon we walked into town along the coastal path and went to the leisure center where I bought Reed and I some swim passes and Walt bought himself a membership, so he can use the exercise equipment, swim, and use the sauna and Jacuzzi as well. We enjoyed paddling around in the very comfortable shallow pool, and admired the communal locker room set up, where there are lots of little cubicles for changing in privacy, and enough lockers for all, which operate with magnets that are on plastic wristbands. You pay a pound to get your bracelet, which is then refunded to you when you return your bracelet at the end of the swim. The locker area is open to the pool so it is staffed at all times, and easy for families to stick together.

After our swim we went through the downtown again, discovering a little shop called Spice off on a side street that carries artisan cheeses (including Gubbeen!) and olives and also has a little café for lunch. We got some blue cheese from the Pecos mountains in Spain, and some of the Gubbeen cheese, which turned out to be very creamy and mild; I will enjoy learning how it’s made and hopefully helping, when we go to Gubbeen next April. Then we got a sausage roll at Heatherlea to help us make it home, and then stopped to get a few groceries at the cooperative store upstairs in the shopping center. Go figure, grocery stores upstairs in a mall. But it’s true, there are two of them up there, and on Friday late afternoon, they were both packed. I was thrilled to discover some ham and some fresh pasta and some chicken pies that had reached their sell by date and were marked very cheaply; we got them home and tucked them into the freezer. We walked along the marina to the coastal trail and then home at dusk, admiring the lights of Carrickfergus across the lough and also of the lighthouse at the point – perhaps the town nearby is called Whitehead, I need to double check that. Reed gathered a shirtful of shells on the beach – it’s not hard, it’s all shells – and carried them home, with stern warnings from us that all shells gathered must remain outside and that all shells gathered will stay in Ireland and will NOT go with us back to France next spring.

When we headed out yesterday Charlie and Harry’s dad Robert was working outside so we stopped and introduced ourselves to him, he seems very friendly. Reed said the neighbors who live in the other half of this house, who just got home after being gone for a week, aren’t very nice since they had told Reed and Charlie in no uncertain terms not to go in their yard – which we explained was totally understandable, since they must get tired of all the boys playing ball right in front of their house all the time. We’ll go over and introduce ourselves soon. The next neighbor over, Pam, is very nice, even if her little dog Susie is a nervous, growling little fluffball.

Yesterday morning for my walk I went on the coastal path in the other direction, towards Belfast, walking along next to the Carnalea golf course, and further towards Helen’s Bay. I thought about Walt's brother Dave and his love of golf and considered what a shame it is for us to be living so close to the golf course and not play at all! Where the path isn’t right next to the rocks or grass it is lined with blackberry brambles, mostly. I walked as far as the long sandy beach that looks like a good place for Reed to go and hang out on a sunny afternoon. There were so many seabirds, some new to me, besides cormorants and gulls I think perhaps I saw shags and guillemots and I know I saw oystercatchers (I looked them up in the book when I got home) in a big tide pool, having a bath. Some of the birds out in the water were talking to each other, a funny sort of low pitched drawn out hoot, that sounds sort of like people talking just far enough away that you can’t hear individual words. I see lots of older women and men walking their chubby dogs on the path; it’s obvious that these particular dogs have got a pretty fabulous deal in life. Walkies along the sea as well as too many table scraps…

Walt has been reading the paper and he talked to an old sailor (he used to work for Exxon he said, and gave Walt the latest dirt on the Valdez' Captain Hazelwood, who claims he wasn't drunk when the Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, but that when it happened he was so upset he ran right down and tossed back a couple of shots, and THAT'S why his blood alcohol content was so high) on the path the other day, and is learning about some of the important issues. Housing prices here have skyrocketed in the past couple years so affordable and subsidized housing is a very big deal. Indeed we were surprised at the high prices for really small homes, until we reminded ourselves that Bangor is an easy reach for commuting to Belfast, and that the economy here is prospering. Shops have help wanted signs in the windows, everything is tidy and clean, houses are getting renovated, the downtown is bustling all the time. Just imagine what it'll be like when all the tourists start coming again, after 30 years of staying away.