Overdoing it

I got out of hospital yesterday after a middling serious operation. My home care instructions are quite clear, plenty of rest, don't lift anything heavier than 2L of milk, don't stand for more than 10/15 mins at a time. What better day then to go and witness the opening of a new landmark bridge in East Belfast.

 The "Sam Thompson Bridge"  is  named after an East Belfast Shipyard worker and Playright and links Victoria Park in Sydenham to the industrial heart of East Belfast at Queen's Island. The slogan for today was "get over it" and  the organisers wanted 2014 people to walk over  the bridge today to commemorate it's opening.

It was a beautiful spring day, the daffodils blowing in the wind and  the ducks splashing about on the river, a perfect day to make history.

When I worked in Titanic Belfast as a guide I met so many fascinating ordinary people with amazing personal stories to tell. People who when they were very small were taken to see the launch of or building of Titanic. I met the man who's first job in  the shipyard as a sheet metal worker was to make the iconic H&W for the first giant yellow crane , Goliath, that stands over Belfast's Titanic Quarter today, over 40 years later.

I met an American man on his first visit to Belfast who's uncle is in this famous photograph of Titanic's enormous propellers.

I think he is 2nd left. You can see a digitally remastered version of  this photo in Titanic Belfast.

It was for me the most interesting part of  the job. So I wanted to "Get-over" the Sam Thompson Bridge so I can tell my grandchildren that we were there making our own little piece of history. I'm shattered , sore and a bit emotional, but I am very happy we went.