belfast
16,146.2 km, if you go by the book. The rest was three planes.
Bridie swam her last Saturday while I was somewhere over the Indian Ocean. 12,192 lengths. She wouldn't stop until I'd actually left. In case.
I got here Sunday. She was out on the front step of Mam's house before the taxi had stopped. She's smaller than I remembered. She said, "You've got old," and I said, "So have you," and that took care of the first ten minutes.
Today we walked down the Ormeau Road to the baths. It's offices now, all glass doors and young people with laptops and lanyards. They let us look in the foyer. There's nothing left of the pool you can see. Bridie stood at the bit where the shallow end would have been and said, "You were about here."
On the way back there were two magpies on a wall. Not ours, the small black-and-white ones that don't go for you. Bridie said "two for joy" before I could. It was Mam's rhyme, every time we saw them.
The blog says it's five in the morning. It's gone eight at night here and I've no idea how to change it.