Freewheelin' on Freecycle

Well, what a surprise, my second offer on freecycle has been a bust. The guy said he would be here between 1.30 and 2.30, and so far is a no-show. Ah well. There was plenty of other interest, so I guess this is not a problem, it would just be nice to get rid of the shit as early as possible.

I am still trying to figure out how exactly to jettison the two CRT monitors, but since they are so very very old, I am not sure how to go about this. I think it might just have to be a visit to the electronics recycling plant at the dump.


....


Ok maybe I spoke too soon. The freecycler just turned up and it is all good.

A couple of nice recent photos

Lovely evening sunset on nearby Blackford Hill




A quick shot of the architecture of McEwan Hall at Ian's graduation




View of the pool 'installation' at the Modern Art Museum at Belford

Radio 4 'The Now Show' - not quite as good in real life

Saw the above show at the fringe in Edinburgh last week. Pretty good, but somehow not as funny in real life as it was on the radio (or rather, podcast, since I rarely actually listen to the radio).

The gags were all kinda amusing, but maybe they were just caught off their stride as this was the same day that UK airports got totally locked down by the whole terrorist plot situation. And I was terribly disappointed by the absence of a certain Mr Marcus Brigstocke, of whom I am a huge fan.

I was interested by the audience profile though. We were safely in the youngest quartile, not something that I can say very often as we both lumber inexorably towards our thirties. There were also a handful of much younger kids, some who were obviously accompanying their parents, but also a fair few of late teens kind of age. Actually, I wish I had discovered this show much earlier, as it is pretty damn funny most of the time.

Still, I guess I shouldn't complain, it was still quite amusing, and best of all it was totally free!

Wasted holidays...

So, I have now been off work for just over a week, and what have I accomplished in that time? Nothing. Well, maybe not nothing, maybe just next to nothing. I guess that is the consequence of getting sick on your first day off. Sucks.
We took in a few fringe shows, got a plumber out, and most frivolously splashed out on a ridiculously expensive (but gorgeous) apple monitor.

You know, I have been writing this for some time now and the widget still doesn't seem to be working. I wonder what the hell is the matter with it. It used to work the way we had it set up before. Ah well, never mind.

The ongoing saga of our building's plumbing also raised its ugly head again today. I spoke to my neighbour this morning and discovered that if the problem is not the responsibility of Scottish Water, then it might actually require our entire stair to be dug up. I don't like the sound of that at all, especially considering that our flat has quite enough crap to deal with anyway. I am getting so sick of this place recently, it is like a needy little child that is never content with the amount of attention it receives. Yuck.

Speaking of which, I had sent the OP a warning email about the potential nightmare that may be about to ensue from the bathroom leak, and she seemed well keen to sell up ASAP. That took me a little off guard, but I suppose she must be looking forward to making the decisions for whatever her next step will be. Still, her suggestion was to sell up and move on next summer and I think that is just a little too early for me. It would be nice to have hit my big salary before having to find a rental.

Eurovision madness

Spent Saturday night in front of the goggle box, watching the good old eurovision song contest.  Mediocrity ruled as usual, but the unexpected did happen with  the victory of Finnish 'horror rock' band Lordi.  The UK even gave them douze points.  Mental! 

Well, that sucked

You know, it is supposed to be called 'busy season' for a reason.  'Busy season' is SUPPOSED to last from January to March, however, it was not until this week - that's right, the last week of MAY (!), that I actually managed to have completely free time in my evenings (apart from one) and not opened by work laptop once over the weekend.

I am so tired I could puke.  I have a list as long as my arm of stuff I need to pay attention to, like the fact that I owe a whole year's council tax and haven't gotten around to contacting them to tell them that I am not really a student any more. So, this list is ridiculously long, but I never quite seem to get around to ticking off any of the things on it, basically because I am total lazy bastard at the weekend.

Work is really driving me crazy too - I seem to slack off at exactly the wrong times, and then have to do horrible amounts of overtime to make up for my uselessness.  Then I make a comment to my boss about being a slacker, but she tells me that I have been doing a great job!  I feel like such a fraud!   On top of that I seem to keep end up working with complete morons, but then I wonder if my colleagues think it is me that is the complete moron... 


I dunno, I just don't think I am in the right job.

Yippee!

My scanner just arrived.... photo cornucopia on its way!

Wednesday afternoon violets

I guess I should have bought a newspaper or something else to read, as my
internet connection has just died and now I don't know what to do to amuse
myself for the rest of lunchtime.

Nevermind, I suppose I can fill the time by preparing a journal entry.
Unfortunately I don't have much of interest to report today.

One observation from yesterday afternoon is that my bus driver on the way
home was a bit of a bastard. He was running about 10 minutes early, and
yet wasn't prepared to stop and wait for people running for the bus - that
is just mean - but to top it off, as we were heading along Potterrow, there
was a little posse of blind kids at the bus stop next to Native State, and
he just zoomed on past. Now, maybe I am being uncharitable here, and
perhaps one of the posse wasn't blind and made some kind of indication to
the driver that they weren't waiting for the 42, but it seems to me that if
a bunch of blind kids are standing right at a bus stop, waiting
expectantly, then it should be the driver's responsibility to stop and ask
them if they wanted the 42 or another bus. Doubly so if the route goes
right past the school for blind children! That little experience is just
another one of those things that reminds that people will be complete
fuckwits given half the chance, and bus drivers perhaps moreso than most.
I'll never forget being shouted at by a bus driver who was doing a crazy
speed along Buccleuch Street and had to do an emergency stop (well, almost)
to let me on, then gave me a rollicking for not paying attention to the
arrival of the bus and therefore being slow to stand up and flag it down,
when his speed was the main problem. Aaargghh. I could complain about
buses and bus drivers all day, why can't they be nice like the ones in
Vancouver?

I am working in Fife this week and next, on a manufacturing client.
Everything is going quite smoothly, although, as expected, I am moving so
much slower than I would have liked. I don't know what is wrong with me,
but everything seems to take a lot longer than I was expecting. I am not
getting on great with my co-worker - he never seems to speak unless I
strike up a conversation, and let me tell you, the sitting here in silence
thing is getting very old very quickly.
Plus, any job that takes longer than about 45 minutes and more than one
mode of transport to get to just isn't worth the hassle. I am leaving the
house at 7.30 in the morning, and not getting home until 7pm at night, and
we aren't even doing any overtime!

I decided to avoid the pub quiz last night as I was totally wrecked - the
plan being to get to bed early. How did that one work out? Oh yes, I was
still awake at 1am. At this rate I am going to spend the entire weekend in
bed trying to make up for all the lost sleep this week.

Now THIS is a lovely edinburgh sunset

From the Castle Plaza

Trying out the publishing from email thing

I wonder how quickly this will update?

Sitting here with Ian, watching 'Murderball'.  I should be out with friends from work, but it is so fucking cold I just can't cope with the idea of going out the door again.  

I feel a little guilty that I have set up this blogger blog, when I already have a livejournal, but I suppose it is kind of like making a new start, with no connections to the past.  Making a new start is something I have become more and more familiar with as I have come to terms with the losses I experienced in my recent burglary.  I know I shouldn't miss data as badly as I do, but I just can't help it.

Trying out the dashboard widget now

Seems pretty cool so far!

And for the photo segment of tonight's performance

I know it's just a photo of the sky, but again, TESTING!

Move along, nothing to see here

Just testing it all out.