The Irish have messed with my internal compass, with my sense of direction.

The tourist map showed north to the left.

The first tourist information plinth we saw showed north to the right.

My brain computes with north at the top. That was my excuse for getting lost occasionally whist walking around the city, and for getting cross with the sat nav lady when driving.

I’m not sure how my internal compass will work when we move to the southern hemisphere. A long undecided dilemma in our family……in Sydney, when walking along George Street, Pitt Street, Elizabeth Street or Macquarie Street , do you walk up to Circular Quay or down to the quay?…….. Up because you are heading north or down because it is downhill?

There were a few other quirky things we noticed in Belfast. We parked on the 2nd floor of a car park, walked down one flight of stairs and arrived at the ground floor…….?The following day we took the lift and it only had buttons for even number floors.

An odd comment came when we ordered two “eggs benedict” for breakfast. The waiter came back and said that they could only do one. We asked what ingredient they had run out of, to be told “poached eggs but we can do fried eggs for you.” That was when I started to worry about the food and how long ago the eggs had actually been cooked. We chose somewhere else for breakfast the next day, for fresh baked scones and muffins.