10 things I now know about Belfast

Even when there isn't a football tournament on, they still fly flags from lamp-posts.

It's not very easy to run across a busy road in a chicken suit.

Room 1107 at the Belfast Hilton is huge, comfortably sleeping 7 or 8.

Even lucky people have a day off the good fortune. The only two times my horse was mentioned in the Grand National was at the start of the second circuit to say it was still upright, and then with three fences to go to confirm it wasn't. However, this wasn't to be MY day off the good fortune, as it was then confirmed that King John's Castle had, in fact, finished second and the commentator had got it wrong. £15 to me thank-you-very-much.

The bar at East Midlands airport IS open at 5:30am, and is strangely quite busy.

I've learned this before, but still need a lot more testing, the Guinness in Ireland tastes better than over here.

I now know all the words to "A little respect" by Erasure.

Irene & Nan's is one of the top ten bars in the world, apparently. God knows why.

The older you get, the more recovery time you need.

Men being men, at some point someone will try to set fire to alcohol, and then someone else will suggest a way of drinking it that would leave the recipient in need of A & E.

You would think that the older we get, the more experience we pick up along the way. This person here, for example, decides to light the glass nearest first, then wonders why he burns his fingers trying to light the second glass.



Nothing wrong with that you might think, BUT, this is the SAME PERSON who did this nearly two years ago. D'oh !