“Belfast? Why on earth would you want to live in Belfast?” say about half the people I tell. Most people who’ve actually lived up here are fond of the place though and I love it. It reminds me a bit of Hobart, with a bigger harbour and a smaller mountain (well, hill really). And there’s nothing like living in a place to really understand its history.

Things have definitely changed for the better since the Good Friday Agreement and Belfast is now a relatively safe city that prides itself on it’s culture. There’s lots of public art, which I always think is a good sign, and there are great festivals.

The 4th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival was on recently and featured Patti Smith (70s punk musician and icon), Billy Bragg (musician), Benjamin Zephaniah (performance poet), Pete McCarthy (travel author), Frank McCourt (author Angela’s Ashes), and Mark Thomas (political comedian/writer).

Plus there was Pennie Smith (photographer responsible for the famous photo on the Clash’s album London Calling), Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (band), The Detroit Grand Pubahs (band), Felix Kubin (experimental musician), Seydina Wade (Senegalese musician), The Half Naked Chef (Australian TV cook), and that’s less than half of it. Looking back over the programme now, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get to more events.

I live in a fairly middle class area with lots of streets, parks and sports grounds called ‘Windsor’. It seems all very civilised and a bit posh, but just down the end of my road is a staunchly Unionist area with red, white and blue painted curbing and graffiti saying “taigs out”. Taigs is a derogatory word for Catholics.

It wasn’t too difficult to find work. I’ve worked in three different places so far, the Probation Board of Northern Ireland, the Volunteer Development Agency and my current workplace the Social Work Department of Belfast City Hospital. I’ve been at BCH for over two months. I’m a Personal Secretary and it is dead boring. I type, photocopy and run the switch sometimes. The people are nice though and my pay is comparatively good. It’s an ongoing contract at the moment, but I’m looking out for other stuff.

I’m well used to saying my name as “Crothers, C-R-O-T-H-E-R-S, like brothers with a C”, but here I don’t need to! There are quite a few Crothers’ about, in fact I just looked in the phone book and there are almost 200. A friend did a Google search and discovered that there is another Jen Crothers living in Belfast. It’s an outrage!

I miss Dublin for the main reason that I liked it — the people. Dublin is significantly warmer than Belfast. It feels like the icy days in Hobart when you can feel the wind coming up from Antarctica. But I don’t miss the dirty streets, the drunkenness and the violence. I’m very happy to say that Belfast’s streets are virtually vomit free. Belfast is also very green, which is remarkably calming. It’s quite astonishing when you realise how important trees and bushes are to your mental health.

Being away from Australia has given me an excellent perspective on all the good things about the place. Small things annoy me the most. Take the Post Office for example. I’m used to going into a Post Office in Australia and having everything I need available to me. It’s just not the same here and I find it very frustrating. There are no tables or benches to lean upon, there are never any pens and the range of packaging is woeful. What a nerd I am to get worked up about packaging! It’s just that simple things can make such a big difference. On the other hand, there are lots of small post offices so there’s usually one fairly close by. The post is picked up four times a day in some places and there are Saturday deliveries. So it’s not all bad…

Tags: Belfast, Ireland