Tag: spain

bookmark_borderCurrently..

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What a lovely start to the day. Stepped out of the station onto a pavement strewn with litter, foodstuffs, bottles, wrappers, newpapers all trampled and matted underfoot. Very much like the aftermath of a big concert which, as it happens, was apt because the rubbish had been generated by a large queue of people all of whom I presume are desperate to get their hands on tickets for this years T in the Park. They could’ve used the bins though. Young people today. *tut tut*

Apparently some of them had been queueing since 8pm last night. I didn’t realise The Who were that popular (you’d better you bet!).

Back at work today, having spent the last couple of days at home shovelling antibiotics down my throat. Nice big 500mg ones too, not the namby-pamby 200mg ones we get prescribed here, brought back from Spain where you can buy them over the counter. It’s nice to visit a country where you are treated like an adult capable of making responsible decisions. A couple of days (and only a couple of tablets) of those and my scratchy throat and ‘lively’ tonsils were back to normal. Unfortunately I seem to have swapped those symptoms for a runny nose. Win some, lose some.

Silver and gold are all the rage at the moment and little Britain have managed to secure one of the former in an event named “Skeleton” (no I have no idea why either). Apparently throwing yourself, on little more than a baking tray, headfirst down a curved ice track, will be the next big thing. After all, tennis gains popularity during Wimbledon, so why not… um… Skeletoning.

I just wish I could stop my brain conjuring up images of Peter Skellern.

The Metro (the internet, printed) offered a handy little medals table this morning, showing the lofty position the United Kingdom now holds. What I still don’t quite get is how Australia have managed a Gold medal. What in?

Postcards and Bankers appear to be the new spam. I no longer get requests from Nigeria, promises of a longer, more erect, schlong, or even a good piece of complete nonsense. No my email spam is no largely of the “You have a postcard!” or “[Insert Name of Bank] Security Update”. It’s both depressing and downright insulting.

bookmark_borderAttention All Shipping

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Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly

Received as a birthday present last year this was an ideal “train” book as it’s automatically broken into chunks for, as it says on the front cover, this book is “a journey round the shipping forecast”. It also holds a tiny bit of extra importance for me as the journey in question starts and ends on my birthday! (I’m certain my Dad knew that when he bought the book.. right Dad??)

Before I continue, I’ll ask you to stop reading and name as many areas in the shipping forecast as you can. Malin, Dogger, Fastnet, Trafalgar…. um …. Irish Sea?… erm… harder than it sounds, isn’t it. Well it was for me having never actually (knowingly) heard the shipping forecast itself. I did know of it mind you, although I’m not sure how. Osmosis is a wonderful thing. It was with this slightly befuddled, and somewhat sketchy, knowledge that I started reading.

The opening chapter of the book outlines a little of the history of the forecast, and the place it holds in the hearts of those who grew up with its weird and wonderful language. Of course the forecast is crucial for many but for us landlubbers.. well it’s all a bit odd, isn’t it, I mean what does “south-westerly veering north five or six, decreasing four” actually mean? Well, having read the book, I COULD tell you but that’d spoil all the fun.

The format of the book is fairly straightforward and has the author, Charlie Connelly, endeavouring to travel to each zone of the forecast within one calendar year. He takes us with him on a Bryson-esque look at the people and cultures that lie within the various shipping zones. From Spain to Iceland, from uninhabited rocks to inhabited metal turrets in the sea, he reveals the large variety of life held within the forecast area as he flits his away around it armed with little else than a dogged determination and the canny knack of always arriving at the airport several hours before his flight. Ohhh, he also travels on boats, which is just as well as it would have been a bit of a cheat, given the title of the book, to do it all by air.

Connelly comes across a likeable sole soul with a nice turn of phrase, he peppers the pages with an excellent mix of history, anthropology, and snippets of wonderfully quirky information; with historical names that include Chatsworth Musters and Sir Cloudesley Shovell he has plenty of “quirk” from which to choose. In fact, whilst we are on the topic of history, I’d like to apologise to the people of Barra for the way Lieutenant-Colonel John Gordon (for I presume he is related) manhandled them out of their homes. Appalling behaviour. I do hope his actions don’t preclude me from ever visiting Barra, although I’m pretty sure he is related on the ‘other’ side of the family, and distantly at that (hopefully my surname will throw them off the scent).

Attention All Shipping was a wonderful book to dip into, never failing to offer the reader something to ponder, and written in a welcoming, homely, style. Any man who can use the phrase “royster-doystering”, not once but twice, in a book surely deserves a glance, if not a thorough reading. He even manages to impart a lot of wisdom without ever patronising or boring, quite a talent indeed.

Comparisons with Bill Bryson are obvious – this is a travel journal, and Connelly has a similar gentle wit and easy way with words – so I’ll avoid them. Suffice to say that this is a well written, informative book that managed to illicit several chuckles from me (which in turn brought a few inquisitive looks from my fellow commuters).

Attention All Shipping, heartily recommended if you are looking for a change of pace, a change of scenery and change from a tenner.

bookmark_borderAll is calm

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The rest of February and all of March are going to be busy. VERY busy. I fully expect that, to meet both professional and, um, “pro-personal” commitments, I’ll need to spend several weekends working. However I’m actually looking forward to that, the pro-personal side in particular, as everything I’m working on is fun, new and fairly challenging. Given that the last year at work consisted of largely rudimentary work (as it always will at times), it’s good to finally be allowed to stretch my brain.

I’m also fairly pleased at my on-going weightloss. I put on about 10lb over the few weeks from Christmas to our return from Spain in mid-January, but since then have steadily lost an average of 2lbs each week. In other words, by the end of this week I’ll be back where I was just before Christmas. In the past that setback would normally have knocked me off track but, for the moment at least, my mindset seems to be fairly firm.

In fact I’m quite enjoying the fact that I can have a couple of bad days, we went to the chippy on Saturday night for example, but still be disciplined enough the rest of the week to lose a little more weight. I’m completely bemused as to WHY my brain is suddenly cooperating with me but I’m trying not to think on it too much lest it get suspicious and make me switch to a diet comprising solely of Sara Lee Chocolate Gateau.

I think that, and far be it for me to go on at great lengths about such a mundane topic (yeah because I NEVER do that…), it’s all part and parcel of being more organised. It’s taken a conscious effort on one level which has, I think, created a ‘learned’ response which has filtered into other areas of my life. So, my poor memory which forces me to make lists, and be organised (and consistent) about things, coupled with a desire to get more ‘stuff’ done this year, has ended up with me starting to feel all grown-up and organised, and finally cracking that “want to lose weight, don’t want to diet” switch in my head.

Sort of, let’s not get too carried away here.

Ohh and from the paper this morning and excellent quote (taken from some TV thing last night). A man who had lost tens of stones in weight, only to put it all back on again, was asked why it was so difficult for some people to stop themselves from overeating. His response:

How well do you think a heroin addict would do if he had to take just a little bit everyday?

But hey, it’s OK. We’re only fat people.

bookmark_borderLethargic

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Friday evening and as my family drive away I open the fridge, and crack open another beer. A quick check of the TV and I decide to finish that book I’ve been reading (review to follow). One page of text later and I’m done. Nice ending.

Upstairs to the computer, a quick check that I can just “copy and paste” tracks from iTunes to Louise’s new MP3 player (I can) and I start surfing. Blog after blog I realise that my interest is waning, so many, too many, time for a cull. Something in the air?

Tomorrow and we start planning for the week in Spain, teabags, square sausage, haggis, sweeteners and more to be bought, and packed amongst the few clothes we’re taking. A couple of books, the iPod and I’m all set.

Not sure how it will be, it’s the first time we’ll have been back in Spain since the funeral, and emotions will be running high. Just have to wait and see I guess, little else for it. We do have the company of Louise’s Granda who, on the grounds that his bus pass is free (he’s 80-odd) , is steadfastly refusing to accept a lift home from the airport when we return. No doubt which side of the family my wife gets her stubborn independant streak.

So apart from some shopping the weekend stretches out in front of us, a few chores to attend to but little else that must be done. I’d like to draft a few articles that will get posted whilst I’m away, but aside from that I’m looking forward to picking up a book, watching some movies and generally starting the wind-down to Wednesday. Pity I have to be in work on Monday and Tuesday.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to catch the recording of Peter’s interview with Alan on Leith FM, delivered by the rather snazzy Castpost system, first time I’ve used that and quite impressed. You can find the recordings on Alan’s site. You should also catch up with mike’s adventures in hangzhou, find out what Stuart thinks of Trivial Pursuit (and find out what “handies” are), and nod along with Hana’s post about the recent debacle surrounding George Galloway (although I’m sure someone will trot out the old “no such thing as BAD publicity” line soon).

In fact it’s annoying me so much that I’ll chip in my tuppence on Gorgeous George as well. I’ve said before that he seems self-serving but so far he’d managed to deflect any real ire directed his way, even if it was by walking out in the middle of a televised interview.. I agree with some of his politics but the more I listen to him the more I realise he’s just saying what some people want to hear, and what will get him press inches. And now he’s in Big Brother and I’m sure he’ll wonder why people don’t take him seriously…

Anyway, enough of this. My beer is finished, time for another! Diet? what?

bookmark_borderChristmas Shopping

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Understandably, this year Christmas will be decidely low-key. However that, unfortunately, doesn’t negate the need to tackle the beast that is “Shopping for Christmas presents”. However this year I think we’ve got it sussed.

Louise has been saving – well, giving to the Christmas hamper scheme to get shopping vouchers back – all year and, armed with the knowledge that we’d have a fixed budget we sat down over the weekend with the Argos catalogue and picked out Christmas presents. Not that we’ll get them from Argos, not all of them at least, but it’s a good source of ideas. Thankfully we’ve just about completed the list and we know what we are getting people. So rather than having to wander round shops, trying to think what to get people, we’ll just have a couple of days of ‘blitz shopping’ and it’ll all be done.

In fact I’ll probably do most of it on my lunch hour(s).

I hate shopping on busy days at the best of times, so Christmas shopping comes with an added bunch of stress and it doesn’t take me long reach my limit – memories of yelling at a woman in Milton Keynes shopping centre several years ago, who was walking along pushing her pram whilst looking the other way, still ring clear in my mind. Thoughts of physical violence and hatred aren’t far away at those times so I figure it’s better for everyone concerned that I limit my shopping during the stupid season. Either that or everyone could just bugger off out of my road…

Of course I’ll be doing as much of the shopping online if at all possible, although the vouchers kinda limit that side of things. Overall though I don’t think the shopping will be too arduous this year, and even if it is we’ve already got flights booked for a week in Spain in January. We’ll be airborn in 59 days time.

And yes, I’m counting.

Anyway, I do have a question… are you a Merry Christmas or a Happy Christmas kinda person? Apparently there is a right and wrong answer to this (according to my wife at least) so I’m curious to know. Ohh and for some reason I seem to have ditched Xmas in favour of Christmas all of a sudden. Not sure why though..

So – Merry or Happy, Christmas or Xmas. I’d setup a wee vote thingy but I can’t be arsed.

bookmark_borderWeekender

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Well done Coco.

Well done Scotland (hey we WON the second half 19 – 8!).

Ohh and there was that article in the newspaper (scroll down a bit for that).

Aside from that it was a fairly quiet weekend. Saturday saw me multi-tasking like a woman; finishing off some work, dealing with stroppy clients on the phone (kidding!), and getting the house into some sort of order as we had friends over on Saturday night.

I enjoyed a stroll to the shop on Sunday morning, glorious it was, very cold but the sun was blazing and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. Headed through to Dumbarton to pick up my father-in-laws birthday present which will get shipped out to Spain today. Then on to dinner at my parents and then home in time for Crufts and 24.

The upcoming week will be a bit weird I think as I’ve got very little planned. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got plenty to DO, just no plans to do it!