Dear everyone,
It's 2am on Christmas morning, santa (such as he is in our house) is snoring on the sofa and I have just one more present to wrap before tomorrow. (I also have ironing, washing up and I was going to do my hair, but I think I might just opt for sleep instead for a change.) I hope you're all enjoying your Christmas lunches on the beach, by the pool, or wherever, while we wonder whether we should pack blankets in the car just in case we get stranded by ice. At least we're not travelling by Eurostar or Globespan.
You will all get your Christmas cards, but they will be late, as in most cases they haven't been written yet. When I realised how fast time was going, I thought it would be better to employ my time off writing you all relaxed messages than bundling a carbon-copy set of generic wishes into the nearest red box just so I could say that the reason you didn't get them by Christmas Day was the Post Office strike and not my own fault.
Em, you put me to shame, as I got yours two days ago, so thank you very much. Daasy, I have major grovelling to do to you. I went into my Sent items to check whether I mentioned something in the long reply I wrote to your last two messages, and it wasn't there. I spent two hours writing that and now I think I must have closed down without sending it. T-P, I'm sorry not to have replied sooner, but thanks for the address - there will be something winging its way to you soon. Everyone else, I have been remiss and I apologise. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and an even merrier new year. May 2010 heal rifts and bring you all prosperity, happiness and success wherever you seek it.
Lots of love, f.
I will post about it in more detail shortly, but, for now, as I dash to get ready to take my long-suffering sprog out to the footie, I just wanted to wish you all Happy Hallowe'en while it still is in your part of the world and post this:
Don't get caught by the ghoulies, or ghosties, for that matter. (With apologies to Daasy, for a) violating her copyright and b) doing such a crap job of it.)
( just joining in the rant theme )
- Mood:
frustrated
( light the blue touchpaper and get the hell out )
This will probably be my last big blog for a bit, as all Hell's about to let loose and I'm still working late and weekends, including this one just past and tomorrow. But it will calm down, I hope and then I will be back.
( Grr, cough, cough )
( Scandalous )
( Our man from Malawi )
( Bowing out, not so gracefully )
( Preamble, persuasion and puppets )
( Adam, Jason and more information about testicles than I really needed to know )
( Frankly, my dear, I did give a damn )
It's all part of my cunning plan. Seduce them with something they'll love and maybe they won't object too much when it comes to seeing stuff I like.
( Moody diva seeks publicity )
( Wednesday is Wil Anderson Day )
( Thursday: Randy and considering a tattoo )
I'll leave it there for now, if nobody minds, and go and grab a couple of hours' snooze. It's nearly 8am and I've been doing this for almost as long as listening to the Tattoo (I'm almost as cold too. We didn't do anything on Friday anyway, as that was the return of the sprog. Future episodes will include foam ventriloquists, Adam Hills and Jason Byrne, plus Frank Woodley on Monday night.
Knackered but happy hugs to all, f.
It's finally happened. The swarm emerges from every inch of the city, buzzing on iridescent wings, stirring the air into something intoxicating. The streets are full of it, the annual mass mating; the colourful displays and exotic rituals of individuals intent on disseminating their ideas among open, receptive minds. And I'm right in the middle of it.
A disclaimer before I continue. I may not be going to as many shows as last year, so there might not be so much to blog about. Unless I make good on my threat to kidnap an Aussie backpacker, I will be having to rely on my partner and family for company. Given that my SO is more into photographing than watching at the moment and that my son is 15 going on 75 and going back to school this week, that could be tricky. However, I shall do my best to persuade you that there really is no other place to be during August. There will also be pics, once he stops taking them long enough to download them onto the PC. Some of them are on his Flickr page, here http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_whyte/
( I choose to start my story here: )
Part 2, complete with robotic pop divas, twittering, bad boys from Brazil and Wil, yes, Wil Anderson, coming up next.
OK, so I've been meaning to do a catch-up post for over a month now, but it's been hard getting a seat by the PC again. My other half is out tonight, up Arthur's Seat, photographing some guy who impersonates Robert Burns for a living, so I'm getting to hijack it for a bit.
Luckily for you, I've forgotten most of what I was going to say, but less luckily, there has been quite a lot, so here goes:
( Tail end of June )
( Early July )
( Paul in all his Glory )
( Latter half of July )
( Nary a dull weekend )
( A little treat, if you made it this far )
Well, I think I've unburdened myself enough for now. My next post will be into Festival proper mode. It starts on Friday (officially Sunday) and the city's filling up with teams of people in identical t-shirts. I got my first flyer today. For Jerry Springer: The Musical. I just might go. You've got to reward the effort, haven't you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsqxR6FZp
and to assure you that I'm still alive and will post and reply to stuff soon. We saw this one in a tent at the weekend, at a huge Highland Games held on the hallowed turf trod by the DAAS boys at Fringe Sunday all those years ago. Never heard of him before then.
The sprog is back from France and we have been trying to get his new bedroom organised. Today I ordered the carpet. It's black! A real teenage choice at last. Everything else he's wanted is beige. So now we're painting, laying underlay ready for the fitters, putting up the new curtain rail (blackened chrome), hopefully in time for the bed being delivered.
Work is infinitely depressing because of a whole lot of uncertainty about our jobs, so I'm concentrating on trying to brighten up our new place for the students. It's basically a set of computer rooms in an old Georgian building, plus a newly-fitted teaching lab out the back. It's all blank walls, barred windows and concrete, so I'm trying to green it up a bit. Pics under the cut:
( Pics of plants )
Since I spoke to you last, hubby's had a birthday. He got new flash equipment, so he's been taking a lot of photos, much, much better than mine. Obviously. He's got a bigger lens.
We're now well into summer, so naturally there's a festival on, and yes, it is raining. The one we were at today (Leith) had a great parade, which A. wanted to take pics of. So we were at the gate until the last person entered the links, at which point the heavens opened. Everyone got immediately drenched and, once the rain went off a little bit, squelched off home to get dry. Such a shame for all the bands and stall-holders, highland dancers and particularly for the group of women wearing nothing but basques, fishnets and feathers (not sure who they were representing, but we were just up the road from the street the hookers used to stand on). Don't know if you'll see this but: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_whyte/3
I also just got my Fringe brochure.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
randomosity666 , if you're around, I got one for you. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. There's a viral thing going round at the moment, concerning a mysterious egg apparently found during excavation of the road for the tram works. Reminiscent of the Sultan's Elephant and the spider, although there isn't anything actually in the street except the roadworks. A Prof Ed Hegg is conducting experiments at this site: http://thefringething.com/ if you're interested.Think that's about it. I have missed you all.
Still slightly waterlogged hugs, f.
- Mood:
sore
Actually, we may not have to look far for something to worry about. There's our jobs, for a start, since our part of the University has got a bit of a funding crisis going on. And then there's Cosmo, our one remaining moggie, who seems to have sustained an injury to his tail. He was carrying it slightly oddly yesterday, but it's only just now that I've managed to feel a wound of some sort. Of course, now all the vets are shut. He's either been bitten or had a bike run over it, I think.
It's been a strange week. Monday and Tuesday we were on holiday, but the schools weren't, so it was a bit like bunking off. We'd had the news about work on Friday, which was a bit of a shock, but we hadn't had time to dwell on it as there was a lot of last-minute stuff to do for Iain going away. So on Monday we pottered about and ended up at our favourite garden centre, where I bought myself a bottle-brush for the other end of the bed that is now where Clara's ashes are. So it's gone from being a little Japanese to being a little Australasian. Tuesday, we spent the whole day at the zoo looking at all the new babies (mostly monkeys and penguins), with Alan taking some lovely pictures. Our new, state-of-the-art chimp house made me cry, but then the chimps usually do. At least this time it was because they seemed a lot happier.
When I got back to work, it was straight into the last week of exams, at least as far as our students were concerned. A couple of weeks before, I'd put up a notice asking what people thought of having a Survivors' Lunch (we inherited a coffee room at our new place). Before I left, there was hardly any interest. By Wednesday, there was a lot more, so it was all go to get it organised for Friday, yesterday. I decked the place out with balloons, Linda, the woman I took over from in March, came up and we put on quite a spread between us, if I do say so myself. I made sangria for the first time. (It won't be the last time though, as it was rather nice.) The students gave me a really lovely card. I'll see some of them again next year, but others will be off home by now. Maybe they'll pop in on graduation day. I've only had a couple of months with them, so we haven't really had time to get close, but I think I'm going to love that part of the job. I used to have that with the postgrads, but then the job drifted away towards other aspects, so I've missed that the last few years. And then it was home to finish packing and do all those time-consuming little things, like download CDs into iTunes, sync the iPod, reorganise backpacks and dole out motherly reassurance late into the small hours.
Now it's just us and a cat with a base clef for a tail.
- Mood:
pensive - Music:Charles Aznavour doco on BBC iPlayer
I apologise on behalf of everyone (especially on behalf of those who don't think they need to apologise for anything), to everyone, for everything.
It was my fault.
Mea culpa.
I won't do it again.
Well, I might, but I won't mean to.
There.
I've said it.
I'm sorry.
Now, can we all get back to being friends?
Hugs, f.
- Mood:apologetic
- Music:The vegetarian's plea - Give Peas a Chance.
spaciireth (76 weeks ago), closely followed by babyzblueze and randomosity666 were the first people to friend me on LJ (or anywhere in cyberspace) and I'm happy and proud to say that they're still around.
I'm really chuffed to have all the people on my flist that I do. Each of them brings something unique into my life and a day which includes a message or a comment from any one of them is never a day wasted, no matter how crap the rest of it may be. At the risk of being cheesy (Hell, why stop now?) , I'd like to envelope all of you in a massive group hug.
got a list of complaints, nay, a litany,
that his host, while onscreen,
had said something obscene
and replied, 'You mean Paul? So when didn' he?'
Happy birthday.
Clara, our kitten of nearly 18, is gone.
Almost as many months ago, she was attacked by something called a squamous cell carcinoma, which is as nasty as it sounds. On Thursday night, after months of treatment and two major operations, I had to take her to the vet to be put to sleep. We've known it would have to happen, ever since we noticed the lump growing back again a couple of months after her second ear surgery. She floored the vet with her resilience - at her age, they weren't sure she would wake up, never mind wake up demanding to be fed and let home.
( Hah! Let's see how you like it at the vet's, mister. )
( You don't need to read this bit. I had to write it. )
That's all for now. Sorry I haven't been around lately. I've kept up with pretty much everything, but, between this and trashing my laptop, I've not been able to sit down and reply properly. I hope you are all well and happy.
- Mood: sad
It's a University, right? I work at the bottom of a tall building full of academics and students in what is called a basement, but which is really just a different level of ground. We have a refectory (recently re-christened Senses Cafe because no-one knows what a refectory is any more) and a shop. Above us there are Lecture Theatres and staff offices/tutorial rooms and teaching rooms.
A couple of weeks ago, the powers that be decided we needed a machine to dispense confectionery at twice the price to be paid in either the shop or the caff. Said machine is roughly 20 yards from each place. OK, I believe the rationale is that, when the other places are closed, people can still get a Mars Bar without leaving the building. That's fine. I know what these urges are like. But is it just me that thinks it a bit lazy, not to mention, profligate, to feed the beast with double coin rather than walk the extra few paces when the shop's open?
Tonight, when I walked past the machine, I'd swear it whispered to me. They often do, if truth be told. But this time, it was a 3/4 size cardboard cutout of Mr T, trying to make me splurge out on a Snickers Bar. Motion-activated, it might have made more of an advertising impact if he was loud enough to hear and not pitched at the same level as the voices in my head.
Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I don't really need cardboard figures hiding behind vending machines to make me feel the need for sweets. It would be infinitely more helpful if, when it caught me loitering longingly at the glass case, Mr T. would bark, "Put the purse down, sucker, and step away from the chocolate."
They say we're getting a drinks machine next. I hope it serves vodka.
- Mood: pensive
- Music:Goodnight, travel well (The Killers)
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