...and Then Some

Over the weekend Edinburgh has had it's largest fire in living memory. The fire took over 48 hours to extinguish by over 100 firemen. Fire appliances were brought over the Firth of Forth from Fife and other neighbouring districts to help fight the blaze and maintain fire cover for the rest of the City.

It is ironic that this fire has served to highlight why we need dedicated firefighters, when it was a fire in the same proximity that resulted in James Braidwood being commissioned to form the first municipal fire service just at a time when the local authorities and the government seem to be trying to undermine the well trained and highly dedicated firefighters that we already have. It seems to be the view of the employers that these men and women should only expect to have a living salary by working overtime, yet by the nature of the work that they do working regular overtime would more than likely put lives at risk. Let us not forget, these men and women will go into burning buildings at the risk of losing their own lives, to rescue the likes of you and me. These are the people who are often having to extract badly mutilated bodies (sometimes even of young children) from vehicles after car accidents. These are the people who are frequently left to deal with distraught victims of fire or accident right at the time of the initial trauma.

Come on Tony don't be a tight arse. Just give them the money. You know they deserve it.

Discuss Edinburgh

Life Sucks

You realise that your life has suddenly become very full when you realise that you haven't updated your blog for a couple of months. Is it any wonder then that I feel the need to get a lot of things off my chest?

The two most important things are that my best friend's cat just died. The big blob that turned all my black clothes orange is no more. Last night was very weird because I went to my friend's flat and we sat watching TV and downing a few beers when suddenly we realised we'd spent most of the time talking about the cat and that we were in fact having a wake. Didn't make it any easier and I have cried a few times both last night and today. Charlie put an entry into his blog.

Old Photos

My boss has not been giving me much work at the moment which has been very frustrating to say the least. Friday lunchtime he called and apologised and then asked if I could do him a huge favour. Naturally I said yes (I may need a reference from him in the not too distant future). His parent's were visiting for a long weekend and had brought with them an old photo album. My boss wanted the pictures scanning so that they had an additional record of them. So I have just spent Friday night and most of Saturday scanning pictures of my boss as a child. I had to meet up with him today to give him the photo album back and he was so appreciative that I just had to forgive him for leaving me with nothing for a week. On top of that there were some older photos of his grandparents and great-grandparents that look as though they are original dagerrotypes, so I feel really honoured that I was allowed access to them. The other nice thing is that I have been told to take time in lieu at time and a half so it turned out really good in all ways.

Oh-oh

I really must start putting the interesting bits I find into my blog rather than passing them to Feorag and Charlie for inclusion in theirs. Over the past few weeks there have been several interesting things that I've come across and in every instance I've passed it to someone else.

For example, the rant on Kevin Carlyon's website, where he declared himself to be immortal, not to mention that he was going to raise the ghost of Nessie. This is after he put a protection spell on Loch Ness so that she wouldn't be caught! And he insists that in the Harry Potter film the broomstick is being ridden the wrong way. Apparently we only started to depict witches on broomsticks with the bristles at the back when we discovered the principles of aerodynamics. Of course, this flys (oops! bad pun) in the face of woodcut illustrations in 16th century chapbooks (before aerodynamics) where the bristles are at the back, but when did Kev ever let the facts get in the way of a publicity stunt.

My feeling is that this is a guy who really need to get out more.

Peeve

Today I did some errands for one of the doctors and as I arrived in the department (up two flights of stairs) I was gasping for breath. The combination of asthma, stress and physical exercise does not go together.

So there I am, gasping, and what does the doctor do? He laughs ...... ! big joke.......! In the end the boss thought I ought to have a puff of an inhaler (which we happen to keep in the departmental drug cabinet). So it has a happy ending after all.

Urghh

I am at work. I have a horrible complicated job to do that requires all my concentration. I have a migrane.

This begs the question why couldn't the migrane have held off until tommorrow? Alternatively I could ask Why couldn't I have been given this job last week?

The answer in both cases is "because that would be too easy".

Maybe I will write something when I feel human.

Retard of the Day

Just noticed this in my local newspaper.

"A teen pop star lost four fingers when he waved to fans as he climbed out of a helicopter. Crowds screamed in horror as the whirling rotor blades sliced through 16-year-old Ricardo Abarca's hand at Guatemala City airport."

Now correct me if I'm wrong but I always thought that the rotors were the principle feature of a helicopter, and the fact that they took time to stop was why people usually ducked down as they got off them. And if I know it then surely a 16-year-old boy who is travelling in one should know it.

Or do helicopters act differently for celebrities?

I Don't Believe It

This morning when I went to the boss's office for the usual what do you want me to do today meeting, I burst into tears. All he'd said was "Good morning, How are you today?"

The reason for the extreme reaction?

I got a phone call from the boyfriend last night telling me that a friend had committed suicide. Not a close friend, just someone that we knew from the astronomy society, but close enough that we would always stop and chat if we met on the street and who had been to our Manchester flat a few times. Under normal circumstances I think I would have said it's a shame and after giving appropriate words of sympathy to relatives would have got on with my life. But this year has been different. This is the fourth person that I know personally who had died since March.

First a guy that lives a floor above me fell down the stone steps of the tenement, resulting in my being "under house arrest" for the best part of the evening (the police woman was very nice and just said politely that I couldn't leave, and when I protested was told that if I really wanted she could make it official) Charlie wrote something in his blog at the time. A couple of weeks after that the old man who lives immediately above me died of a stroke.

My friend, David, died of a heart attack recently (which was the impetus for me starting this blog)., and now this.......

It has gradually built up and is taking it's toll on me. If I sat down and wrote out everything that has happened this year to submit as a plot line for a soap it would be dismissed as unbelieveable. I am sure people are beginning to think that I am a drama queen making it all up to get attention. I wish I was, because then it wouldn't be so horrible and I wouldn't be feeling as though I am sitting on a knife edge between complete hysteria and total numbness. I feel helpless, as though I am an unwilling passenger on a out of control roller-coaster, and at the moment I just want to get off and have my life go back as it was, nice and calm with nothing more than minor storms in teacups.

Whilst writing this entry I am holding down the urge to scream because I am at work and screaming will scare the patients. So, in the words of Penelope Pitstop HAAAAYYYYYLLP!!!!!

Friends 2

It would appear that things have been patched up between me and the guy on the mailing list. Not sure if it means that we are friends again, but at least it means we aren't enemies, so the various people who are in the middle can breath easy.

I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Friends

Well I just found out that my friend Charlie didn't win a Hugo, which is a shame because the nominated story was mighty fine. On the positive side it might mean that we can get his ego under control, because for the last couple of months it has been running away with itself, and trying to take over the world (narf). Currently I'm having a break from The Ego because Charlie took it to San Jose along with his long term partner Feorag. They arrive back next weekend at which point I (and anyone else within radius) will have to put up with the tales of what we did on our trip to California repeated add nauseum and it's no good saying that you've heard that tale because in five mins time you will get it again...... and again..... and again.....

But this is what you get when you have a self important, self obsessed couple as your best friends.

Boom-Bang-a-Bang

I've just got back from watching the Festival fireworks. These happens every year as a final full stop to the Festival. It is sponsored by one of the large Scottish Banks and to get into the Princes Street Gardens you have to buy a ticket which usually costs a fortune. However, the landscape of Edinburgh means that most locals go to the top of Calton Hill to look across at the castle and the display, and if we remember to take a radio we get to hear the music as well.

Last year was a pretty spectacular show using Tchaikovsky ballet music, so there was nice music and the firework display was visually pleasing. This year they tried to be too arty for their own good, lots of coloured lighting effects and showers of sparks tumbling down the castle walls, that were supposed to give atmosphere to the music (Mussorsky's Pictures at an Exhibition) and next to nothing in the way of "proper" fireworks. It was a complete disappointment, especially as the council had closed off all but one entrance to Calton Hill and the police were directing people from the Leith side of town all the way around Royal Crescent to another entrance that was also closed, so we had to walk several times further than we would normally expect to, or even needed to.

The best show all night was the moon, who despite being at last quarter was huge in the sky, and was a beautiful red colour. There was a band of cloud across the middle looking like a veil of sorts. The old girl was stunning, and it didn't cost a penny to look at her.

????

I've mentioned that I am pagan, and in true witch style I have all sorts of spells and things written down as reference. Most witches have all their accumulated knowledge written in a nice Book of Shadows. I on the other had have various bits of paper that are all lumped together in any old order in a box (Walkers smokey bacon crisps box to be precise). The result is I can never find anything when I want it.

So today I have bought myself a nice hardback notebook, a new nib for my pen, and some other bits and pieces and I am going to get the whole lot in order. Sounds good..........

BUT..........

I haven't a clue where to start. On one of the pagan mailing list someone recommended a book, however, that is out of print and unavailable in the UK. I tried the library but they haven't got it and are not sure they can get a copy.

Maybe I should just sit and stare at the big pile of papers and hope that they sort themselves out.

Boo Hoo

Boyfriend has gone back to Manchester, and despite the fact that he was getting under my feet and into the bits of my life that are mine (and mine only), I am actually missing him already.

I suppose it just goes to show that you never know what you have till it's gone.

At Last!!!

I took a couple of days leave from work (and a huge amount of pleading that took) as boyfriend was visiting and the weather was nice (for a change).

Edinburgh appears to be getting back to some semblance of normality. Princes Street wasn't anything like as crowded as it has been during the festival, you aren't accosted by people thrusting show flyers into your hand every few metres, and the prices in the cafes have dropped down to something akin to reasonable, which is nice for those of us who live here.

Today is the official last day of the festival, so all the venues that haven't already packed up will be doing that over the weekend. And just to prove that the festival is finished we are having a torrential downpour. I think summer in Edinburgh lasted about 4 weeks this year, which is not surprising seeing as we were having intemittent snow and hail storms right up to the middle of April. I just hope that we have a mild winter.

Thought For The Day*

If we all follow God's will - who gets the bulk of his estate?

* Probably copyright to the BBC

Honey, I'm Home...

My significant other is here visiting. He arrived last Wednesday and goes back to our Manchester flat on Friday. I couldn't get holiday though, so I was working, leaving him to his own devices during the day. Having been, to all intent and purpose, living on my own for the past two years, this was a scary thought. Boyfriend is now like a stranger to me, he has acquired a whole new set of habits and foibles. Added to which there are things that I have been doing that I have become quite possessive about. One of these things is the computers. I have over the past two years been learning a new operating system (linux). I was perfectly happy using it as a user, in fact, when I was a University I became very friendly with the VAX/VMS system. However, in the last two years I have had to learn how to be a system administrator, keeping the firewall running, setting relays, etc, etc, the bits that are usually referred to as "the hard stuff". I frequently make a mess of it, which then involves running downstairs and pleading with the resident geek to please come and tell me what I have done wrong. Boyfriend is much more computer savvy than I am. So I have been spending all day worrying about the things he could be doing to my computers, and will any of these things have a knock on effect that I won't be able to fix. I am getting to the point where I can't wait to see the back of him because then my nice little flat will be mine, and if I want to slob around in yesterday's clothes there is no one tutting at me and commenting that I'm wearing the same clothes two days running.

Today, it took him two hours to get ready to go out because he kept stopping to "just do something", whereas I was washed, dressed and ready to go. Fortunately we managed to get all the things I wanted to do done but it was a close call, I only just got to one shop in time to get the fabric and binding needed to make a corset, and he had the nerve to complain that I was dawdling.

I have actually come to the conclusion that I like living on my own and I am dreading the time that he moves up here permanently. If only things could stay as they are.......

Oh Well

I've had my little reflection and have decided what the hell if I sound like a self indulgent whinger. Having looked at other blogs out there in the big bad internet it would appear that I wouldn't be out of place, so I can have my own little piece of self gratification, combined with miscellaneous side swipes and the odd funny thrown in for good measure. I will be going back over the old posts to try to correct some of the grammar and spelling errors, and I will probably add some relevant links as well.

Meanwhile, I am starting to get into my research relating to Paddy Slade (See previous blog entry). Some one has mentioned that her dream is suspiciously like a Rudyard Kipling story but they can't remember which one. If it is true I can throw plagiarism at her as well. The best of all was finding that she is going to be one of the main speakers at the Pagan Federation Scottish Conference next year. I think if I supply the rope there is likely to be a very willing lynch mob.

Happy, happy, joy, joy, joy, joy JOY!!!!!

Pagans...... Feh!

I was involved in a very animated discussion on a Pagan list relating to sexual mores, where it would appear that I was on the losing side. Now I don't mind losing a reasoned debate, because I've at least given the grey matter a good work out I'm had to find evidence to support my case and the same is true of the other person(s) involved. What I don't like is arguing against someone who has decided that I am wrong no matter what I say and will then take the very argument I used and quote it back at me as though it was their original thoughts. For example, if you say coal is black, these people will proceed to tell you how you are wrong, for what ever reason they come up with, you reply to their argument and get a scathing response along the lines of "you are so - stupid coal IS black". I sent a long email explaining my thoughs on the over reliance of penetrative sex and how this places too much pressure on people to "perform", I went on to explain that it is possible to have a fulfilling sex life without the need for penetrative sex by developing a fuller understanding of your partners needs and desires, and by using that knowledge even living hundreds of miles apart wouldn't detract from a full love life. I got a scathing reply from some woman who in telling me I was wrong proceeded to give me a lecture on how you can have "sex" with your partner 24/7 through email, text, phone calls etc and didn't I know the brain was the biggest sexual organ? I wondered if she had actually read my mail. I doubt it.

Of course, in the middle of this I decided to change my mailing list settings on the groups web page and I hit the wrong button unsubscribing, (doh!) and the list owner/moderator has publicised this to the whole list without any reference to me. So now I either look like a sore loser or a bimbo who can't operate a web browser without getting it wrong, whereas I was taking multi-tasking too far and got distracted by one job whilst doing another, resulting in them both going wrong.

Life.... Don't you just love it?

List of Lists

Okay I'm starting the list of lists here. There is a new link to the home page of one of the lists. Beyond_EM is I think one of my favourite lists, it is supposed to be about discussion of electronic music, but the list membership is very much a community so we end up discussing all sorts, (past discussions include cars, computers, Lord of the Rings, Charlotte Rampling, Charlotte Church etc). The noise to signal ratio is high but the noise is so entertaining we wouldn't do without it. There is also an associated chat channel on Undernet, where a few of us hang out on a Friday night.

You might find if you are lucky that you are chatting in a message thread with one of the many musicians there, but then there are so many musicians on the list it would be hard not to speak with them.

Hmmmm

I'm at work, I have a lot of work to do, yet I'm hoovering the cat. Reminds me of a Mary Little quote "There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it."

Couldn't have put it better myself.