When you go……
January 16th, 2008I think one of the Proclaimers got on my bus this morning. I can’t be sure it was definitely one of the Reid brothers but the bloke didn’t half look like one of them. After all, who would go to the effort of modelling themselves on the Proclaimers?
If it was one of the Proclaimers then they are lying bastards. “I would walk 500 miles” they sang on Top of The Pops. It was a number 12 bus to South Gyle. That’s only 4 miles from the city centre. Walk 500 miles my arse.
Yer heid’s too wee
January 15th, 2008I’ve just applied for a British passport for Sam. An item whose importance should not be underestimated. There are people in the world who would kill for a British passport where as it is Sam’s birthright.
For me, the greatest gift he’s ever received is to be born in a Western democracy, free from oppression, persecution and hunger. There are no invading forces telling us what to do in our own streets, no secret police, no bugs in your phone. You can do what you want, when you want. Freedom is the greatest gift and a British passport goes a long way to providing that security, not only at home but worldwide if he is ever in trouble.
He’ll also be entitled to an Irish passport. This will be the one he’ll produce when the plane he is on is hijacked by Islamic terrorists and they are looking for British and American citizens to behead. Win win situation for the young lad.
Still on the subject of his head, it is apparently 1mm below the required size in the photo sent to the passport office. Can you believe that they would be so pernickety?
First post of 2008
January 3rd, 2008When I was a boy there used to be a Science Fiction show on TV called ‘Space 1999′. Everyone wore tight fitting space suits, carried laser guns and travelled the universe in spaceships called ‘Eagle’. As the title suggests it was set in 1999.
Here we are in 2008 and still no sign of tight Lycra spacesuits. I travel to work on a bus. Not a hoverboard. It’s all so disappointing.
There I go again. Off at a tangent. Happy New Year to all. I hope Santa was good to you. We spent Christmas with my parents. Sam was quite clearly the focus of attention for everyone this Christmas. The star of the show. He doesn’t know how charmed a life he leads. If I was to turn up on Christmas day, lie about in a nappy and spew, piss and shit everywhere there would be outrage.
New year was a quiet affair as expected. Whilst 100,000 people were freezing their bollocks off in the centre of Edinburgh, we were 20 miles away visiting friends in Bathgate, seeing in the new year in quiet, calm surroundings. Very nice indeed. In many ways I’m glad it’s all over though. As depressed as I am to be back to work today, it’s great to re-establish a bit of routine in your life.
Part of that routine is hopefully to update this blog more often.
Benazir Bhutto
December 27th, 2007They’ve killed Benazir Bhutto. The Islamists/Taleban whatever you want to call them have just blown her and 15 other people up with a suicide bomb attack. Quite why I feel compelled to post about this, I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s because I am a democrat (with a small d), a believer in democracy and as such I respect people who uphold the light of democracy.
That light is significantly dimmer today.
Merry Christmas
December 21st, 2007To all my readers - Merry Christmas.
I’ve not been around much lately, mainly due to work pressures and baby care. You’d be surprised how busy such a small person can make you. If it’s not changing nappies it’s walking around freezing cold city parks trying to get him to sleep. All go at this end.
On a Christmas note, I was in John Lewis toy department yesterday and stumbled across the top trumps aisle. Imagine my shock, horror and downright disappointment to find that top trumps have been made politically correct and fluffy. Nowadays top trumps are all ‘Dora the explorer’ and ‘The Tweenies’. What happened to Dragsters, football players, fighter planes and space rockets?
Top trumps. Not for the left wingers in the audience.
Ho. Ho. Fucking ho.
Very cold
December 12th, 2007I can’t believe how cold it has become. I’ve now taken to wearing a woolly hat for my journey into work, which plays havoc with my hairstyle for the remainder of the day. Even the house is cold, resulting in us putting the heating on for longer every day. At least we can afford to do so. I’m sure there are a lot of old age pensioners who just can’t afford to.
I’ve not been up to much of late. 3 days down in Leeds and Worcester giving training last week, so I’m glad to be back in the motherland this week. I even caught a bit of football last weekend, taking the young lad to his first football match. Ok, so he’s 8 weeks old and slept through it all in the ‘Baby Bjorn’ sling, but it’s an important father/son landmark. No?
December
December 4th, 2007In the nine months since the death of my Grandad, I’ve not really posted my feelings on this blog. I guess primarily because the feelings were very raw at the time. They still are. However with Christmas round the corner I can feel myself bracing for the fact that this Christmas he won’t be there. The man was such an integral part of my family that it’s hard to believe that he has gone.
Last Christmas he was still in hospital and having visited him on Christmas Day morning with my Granny and my parents, I returned alone later on that night and the two of us sat in the two comfy chairs at the door of the ward and shot the breeze and ate mini sausage rolls and cocktail sausages provided by the ward staff. Looking back now there was a finality to us sitting there. Unspoken, it sat like a huge elephant in the room. I think we both knew that this was a goodbye and we were more frank with each other than we had ever been. Occassionally he would drift off into confused ramblings caused by a mixture of drugs, infection and oncoming dementia but on the whole it was the closest and most relaxed we had been since he went into hospital in the July.
My only regret from that day is that although I probably knew it was the final chapter of a long (in my case lifelong) friendship, I couldn’t acknowledge that fact and say everything I wanted to say. A broken hip isn’t like a terminal illness where you know the other person is definitely dying, so I ended up waffling a lot of shite about “when you get out” and “we’ll need to get up to Tynecastle for a Hearts match once you are back on your feet” just to keep his spirits up. In his usual placid way though he smiled and agreed, even though he clearly at that stage had given up hope.
And that was the essence of the man. Selfless and unassuming. When I was a teenager he used to return from a game of golf on a Saturday, have some lunch and then get out the (always immaculate) Ford Cortina and take us both away to a local non-league football game. Looking back I can imagine that he wasn’t all that interested in some of the games. Sometimes the weather was bloody awful and I’m sure he would rather have been at home reading the paper but he went anyway. For me.
I wish I could go back to Christmas Day last year and say a lot more rather than endless bravado and empty promises to lift his spirits. I know what I would have said. I won’t write it here.
Possibly my biggest regret is that he never got to see his Great Grandson. Two days before my Grandad died I told him that my wife was pregnant. By this stage he was like a skeleton and had stopped speaking entirely. I later learned that people close to death do that. His only means of expression became this pair of blue eyes staring up at me. When I told him that, he cried for an hour and a half. No sobbing, just tears rolling silently down his cheeks. When my wife came into the hospital a few hours later he started crying again the minute he saw her. I can only presume he understood.
We toyed with the idea of naming the baby after him (we already knew it was going to be a boy). My wife referred to the baby all through the pregnancy as Charlie if the truth be told. In the end though, I couldn’t do it. There was and only ever will be one Charlie in our family and it wouldn’t have been fair to ask such little feet to fill such big shoes.
Instead, Sam was given the middle name of Charles. One day he’ll ask about the origins of his middle name and I’ll tell him about a very nice man I used to go to the football with.
Happenings
December 3rd, 2007Time seems to be passing by very quickly these days. At this rate I’m going to look up one day and be old and grey and wonder where the time went. I guess thats what kids do to you. You spend so much time firefighting that just getting through to the next day with the required amount of sleep seems to be the main focus.
I wish I could say that we’d had the required amount of sleep this weekend but our fuckwit neighbours again decided to come back from the pub on Friday night and ‘rock out’ until 1.30am. Not only that, they decided to do it in the room above where the baby sleeps. Wanks. What goes around comes around though and when he started screaming uncontrollably at 6.30am we made sure he was transported to as many of our rooms as possible to wake the bastards up.
Saturday was spent visiting my parents and Grandparents which turned out to be a very pleasant day indeed. As per usual with a 7 week old, Saturday night was a staying in night. My wife was meant to go out with the girls but experience last week showed us that Sam just won’t settle for me when he is really distressed. We don’t know why my wife can settle him so much more successfully but I appear not to be alone in causing this reaction if the interweb is anything to go by. I’m sure it all gets better in time.
Sunday afternoon my wife went out for brunch with friends and I was left to chill in the house. A few hours of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ on UK Gold fairly recharged the batteries. Only Fools is still a classic series even after 20 odd years and numerous viewings. I always feel good after watching a few episodes.
This week it’s work as usual although Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I am giving training courses in Leeds and Worcester. Should be straightforward enough. It’s really just the travelling which grates after a bit. Due to the weaknesses of the British Rail system I am unable to travel from Leeds to Worcester in anything under 4 hours, even though I am reliably informed that this is a 2 hour drive.
Anyway, nose back to the grindstone.
Snap happy
December 2nd, 2007Ocassionally I plan to post photos which I’ve snapped using my mobile phone. Some of these will have been on my phone for a while so don’t be confused if it looks like it’s summertime again.
First up, Edinburgh Castle viewed from the bus stop at the foot of Castle Street.
Edinburgh Castle in the summer time
The big wheel on Princes Street. Part of Edinburgh’s Christmas celebrations.
Not long now. Gig starts 8pm.
November 29th, 2007So won’t you show me those pictures you hold in your head
And can you lose me somewhere inside them all
Because there are colours that run through the heart of me
That only you can see
