Seven up
Posted on June 18, 2008
Filed Under Music | 2 Comments
My first meme, borrowed from The Girl In The Cafe.
“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.”
So, in no particular order, 7 songs that I can’t seeme to shake from my iPod at the minute. In no particular order incidentally. Read more
Lies, damn lies and statistics
Posted on June 18, 2008
Filed Under Daft stuff, Life, Musings, Travel | 2 Comments
Going down Easter Road on a bus last night, I happened to look out of the window of the upper deck. Scrawled in what I can only describe as white paint, across the first floor window of the flat opposite were the following words:
“70% of stabbings happen on buses. Ha ha ha.”
Whether this fascinating statistic relates only to stabbings on Easter Road, the city in general or the world, heaven only knows. If this figure is reflective of the number of stabbings on Easter Road then I am eager that the tram work be finished as soon as possible and the diversion down Easter Road removed.
Saying that, the percentage of stabbings on buses on Leith Walk could be higher. It wouldn’t surprise me.
Dr Rubik provides a wake up call
Posted on June 17, 2008
Filed Under Daft stuff, Musings | 1 Comment
I recently purchased a Rubik’s cube. I bought it from Hamley’s in Stansted Airport and proceeded to tinker with it on the flight back to Edinburgh. I got some fairly bemused looks from my fellow passengers, many of whom looked as if they thought the plane was travelling so fast that they had gone back in time to the 1980’s. Like Superman did when Lois Lane got buried in mud and stuff in her car in the original Superman movie.
Other passengers were very interested and the bloke sitting next to me recounted his frustration with the puzzle as a child and we discussed the two well known methods of completing it. Namely :-
- Removing all the stickers and re-applying them in the correct order. Not a particular favourite of mine due to the general fiddlyness of the manoeuver.
- Breaking the thing up and reassembling all of the pieces in the correct order. The last piece was always a stinker to get back in but this was generally a more straightforward method.
Imagine my interest then when I saw that a new Rubiks Cube alarm clock had been produced.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/06/rubix_cube_alarm_clock_wo.html
The crazy thing about this is that to stop the alarm clock, you have to complete the cube, otherwise it will ring and ring. The main idea behind this is to force you to get out of bed rather than hit snooze. Therefore, so the theory goes, you will not be late for work, or that important appointment.
Thing is, I’ve not managed to complete it in thirty-odd years. At that rate, I wouldn’t get to work until 2 years after I had retired. Maybe that’s not a bad thing actually.
Unintentional changes
Posted on June 17, 2008
Filed Under Site stuff | 1 Comment
The more observant amongst you will have noticed the new layout and design. Believe me, it’s not intentional. It is a side effect of trying to upgrade to Wordress 2.5.1 which basically totally screwed up my blog and forced me to revert back to an earlier version. I also lost my amended theme, hence the design which you see before you.
I fancied a change anyway I suppose so this is as good a time to start as any.
When the Sleeper Wakes
Posted on June 13, 2008
Filed Under Life, Musings, Travel, Work | 1 Comment
So, the Caledonian Sleeper has been put down to a mixed experience. I’ve never been to prison and have no wish ever to do so, however the first class berth on the sleeper was about as close as I am ever going to get to being Norman Stanley Fletcher. Unfortunately the guard on the train looked nothing like Fulton Mackay or the experience may have been even more authentic.
The sleeper is a difficult beast to get used to. It’s badly named. You get bugger all sleep basically due to the general noise and jolting as the train starts and stops, slows to a crawl (presumably so you don’t get to London too soon) and then speeds up again. I can only liken it to sleeping inside a washing machine on spin cycle.
There are plus points of course. You arrive in London at 7am. Plenty of time to get a good breakfast and start the day. You also travel using dead time. I got to spend the evening with my wife and son, as opposed to travelling down on a 7pm flight and spending the night in a featureless travelodge.
I’m down in London again the week after next. I’m in two minds as to whether to do it again. We’ll see.
Night train
Posted on June 10, 2008
Filed Under Life, Travel, Work | 2 Comments
I’m off on the night train tonight. I go to sleep in Edinburgh and wake up in London. A bit like a very scary stag night but without the booze and the confusion as to how I got there.
I daresay the experience will be akin to sleeping on a baby changing table and a shoogly one at that. There will probably be an all pervading smell of wee and sick from a nearby train toilet (why do they always stink) and my breakfast will consist of a stale roll, strawberry jam and a cup of tea where the teabag is attached to the cup by a strange piece of silver foil.
I chose the sleeper train option because it allows me to still be at home this evening, spend time with my wife and son, see him off to bed and then travel down. The other options were either to fly down after work tonight and spend the night in a hotel, or get a silly o’clock flight tomorrow morning which would have resulted in me being up at about 4am. Sod that. I’ve done it too many times. Trying to present a course whilst yawning dramatically is just a horror story of a day and I’d rather do without it.
Anyway, wish me a nice sleep on the train. Fingers crossed I’ll reach London’s Euston Station in not too dishevelled a state.
Wee Sam
Posted on June 2, 2008
Filed Under Life | Leave a Comment
A progress update of sorts on the wee chap. Here he is in all his glory. Probably eyeing up something to grab and chew.
The Tram People are Bawbags
Posted on May 14, 2008
Filed Under Life, Musings, Rants | Leave a Comment
Bawbag. A peculiarly Scottish term meaning scrotum. Or more to the point, a person who is a total scrotum. Bawbags (plural) refers to a group of people who are indeed scrotums. The people responsible for the Edinburgh Tram Network, currently being built across the city, fit into this description nicely.
For weeks now we’ve had trouble with the water in our flat. “Not us” they have said on numerous occasions when approached. But it definitely is them. They started some kind of machinery outside this morning and instantaneously our water went bonkers. Once again, when approached this morning they denied all knowledge. See. Bawbags.
I passed the work they are doing yesterday (outside of our flat is like a World War One trench network with loads of blokes in helmets standing in trenches looking at stuff) only to witness a bloke putting human remains into a LIDL carrier bag. I kid you not. A bloody great set of bones from a skeleton. One of them had a hi-visibility jacket with ‘Archeologist’ on the back but I mean, a LIDL carrier bag. No respect.
I should point out that the road they are digging up borders a cemetry and also the area is around where the old walls of Leith stood in the middle ages so it’s unlikely to be a recent murder victim but dignity in death, please.
So you see once again. Bawbags.
Tidal pull
Posted on April 14, 2008
Filed Under Life, Musings | Leave a Comment
We spent both days of the weekend in one way or another back in the area where I grew up. By the sea. Very nice it was too. I’ve felt a dramatic pull towards the sea all of my life. It comes from growing up next to the sea. It’s like a magnetism which just pulls me towards the coast.
It could be any coast as well. Not just where I grew up. I’ve felt myself drawn to the sea in as diverse places as Tramore in Ireland and San Francisco. I think it’s in the blood.
Or you could love……
Posted on April 7, 2008
Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment
So he carried the stars in his pocket
Drank the sunrise till he was drunk
He embraced the angels
They swam like little minnows in his blood
Ghosts in his eyes
Out walking beside him
Laughing like children in his mind
They chanted his mantra together
You could love
They were happy
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