It's 2016!

Greetings to you all.

Season's greetings

Happy Christmas!

Season's greetings

Happy New Year

Happy Christmas

New career

I'm thinking of a career change and thought I might have a penchant for children's play park design.  What do you think?  I think it's a winner and if I ever come to power ............!

Happy Halloween

Why you shouldn't leave alcohol near a pumpkin!

America

I originally posted the following image on 4th July 2006, but it seems quite appropriate to include it again now!

Pandemic update

Images courtesy of Mad Priest's Blog. As well as GS who emailed the top one to me just exactly when I was about to, ahem, re-use it from Mad Priest.

On an unrelated topic, it's been a long and rather boring bank holiday Monday today. I had plans to go for a nice ride on the bike, but it's been pissing with rain most of the day, so instead I've been doing some online housekeeping on my Flickr account.

Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow!

On another completely unrelated topic, have a look at this Ladybird Easy-Reading Book called The Policeman. It's very good! Read it all.

The Rev Vader processes

How cool is this?

Cathedral staff, take note! This could be a successor to the Cope of Glory!

It's from what appears to be an Italian Blog and, although they provide a link to the image, when I tried pasting it into this post, like I do for videos from Youtube, it didn't seem to work so I just "borrowed" the image instead!

Having also just had a better look at said Blog, it generated a warning from McAfee that it contained some sort of unspecified dodgy links (well, it would have been more specific if I'd stayed on it slightly longer but as soon as the warning appeared I closed it down), so I've decided not to include a hyperlink to it, like I normally would. If you feel like visiting it, it's at www.subtire.com and don't blame me if it's full of Italian nasty stuff*, or latin viruses!

Oh, and McAfee virus scanned the image as I downloaded it from the site, so there should be no problems there!

Ah, t'InterWeb, it's wonderful!

* Update: I just noticed that someone (from Riyadh of all places in the world) followed a link to this Blog by searching for the phrase I originally wrote here. These are not the links I want to my Blog, so if you've come here looking for stuff described by a 4 letter word starting with P and ending with O R N, then fuck off, you're not welcome! Thank you. Rant over.

It's 2009!

Nedivity

I originally created this post on 19th December 2007, almost exactly a year ago, but I like the image so much I think it's worth bringing back to the top of the pile for now, particularly after my recent post about Glasgow Neds.

Happy Christmas folks!

Dubai

I came across the following series of photographs of Dubai a few days ago. They were all taken from pretty much the same location and looking in the same direction over a 17 year period, and they go to show the incredible growth of the Emirate. I visited Dubai in 2002, not long before the second photo was taken, and was struck by the amount of building work which was ongoing, and by all accounts it's been increasing exponentially since then.

You can see the same row of tower blocks in each photo. It's Sheikh Zayed Road, which runs all the way to Abu Dhabi, another of the United Arab Emirates.

Update 11th December: I should have mentioned when I first posted this, I didn't take these photos and I don't know the provenance of them, so if anyone can oblige with the details then I'll happily credit the photographers, or even remove this post if they wish.

The first one's from 1990


The second one's from 2003


The last one's from 2007

Good and bad

The cartoon on the right is great.

In almost every choir of which I've been a member, every one of the characters depicted has been a member. I'm sure I've probably been some of them at various times too! And in fact, I proudly admit to being The Traditionalist.

Thanks to Sir Monocle, from whose Blog I shamelessly stole it!



Two things mark today out as different from the norm.

One year ago today, I became divorced. This was not a good thing. Not at all a good thing.

And this evening I went back to the IAM Glasgow North Group for the first time in almost exactly two months, and was asked, given the long break I'd had, whether I wanted to sit the Qualified Observer Practical Test which they'd been waiting to offer me. Which I did want. And did do. And passed. This was a good thing. A very good thing.

So, the divorce. Amicable, yet these things are never ever painless. In retrospect, and with the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, it was the right thing to do to separate. Yet one never truly gets completely over such a thing, and by that I don't want to suggest that I wish we were together again. We have both moved on and, I think and hope I'm right in saying, we are both happy. I know I am. Every now and then though, in the privacy of my own head .......... well, you know, it hurts.

The motorcycling then. I haven't been back to the IAM for a while. There have been reasons for this, which I haven't Blogged about, but I will now. In fact I can copy and paste part of a posting I placed on the IAM Scottish Motorcycle Forum a while back. The rest of the post is of no relevance here, but the following bit might be:

"........ As an aside, right now I'm not sure whether I'll continue along the route to being a qualified observer, but that's because on one of my last runs I had a bad time of it over the Duke's Pass, and now, if the truth be told, I have a confidence crisis as far as my riding is concerned. I know the object isn't to go as fast as you can, I've never been of that opinion (I ride an R1100RT for God's sake!) but my associate on that run left me standing and I really didn't enjoy that evening, ending up feeling like I'd no right to be observing. The senior observer helped that evening, pointing out that in his opinion the associate had been riding too fast, and being of the opinion that I shouldn't have tried to keep up with him (that's where I went wrong), but the mental damage was done by then! I'll hopefully get over it at some point, but I don't feel like going back for the moment.

.........."

The Duke's Pass, for those outwith these shores, is a VERY twisty country road north of Glasgow, and during that run I was so far outside my comfort (and probably safety) zone that I felt sick. I have never previously ridden, and will never ride again, any motorcycle let alone a 44 stone tourer at that sort of speed over that sort of public road. And for the avoidance of doubt, at no time did we come close to breaking the speed limit.

So what prompted me to return? Frankly, it was the list of names of others who had recently passed as Qualified Observers which was in the quarterly newsletter I received a few days ago. I thought, if they can do it, then so can I. One of them in fact started out on the observer training the same evening I did.

I still, in the dark recesses of my warped mind, think I am pretty new to biking, since I didn't take it up until I was well into adulthood, so I tend to think that every other biker I meet has more experience than me. But then I consider the facts.

• I passed my motorcycle test in 1996, 12 years ago. Almost all the IAM associates to whom I've spoken, and a hell of a lot of the full members, have been riding for less time than that.
  
  
• Most motorcyclists ride maybe up to about 5000 miles a year. I worked as a bike courier for a year, riding about 1000 miles a week in all weathers. That was a steep learning curve. Last year I rode about 8500 miles.
  
  
• Until my present bike, all previous ones have been my only form of personal transport so I rode them all year round. If I could dig it out the snow I'd ride it. No fair weather biker, me.
  
  
• I passed my advanced riding test after only 4 observed runs. In other words, I was already pretty much at the advanced standard and just needed polishing up on some points.
  

And suddenly my confidence crisis disappears. And the weight lifts.

It's a bit like singing. Years ago, a LOT of years ago, I was occasionally asked to sing a solo in the cathedral choir. I would manage it OK, but would tremble and shake so hard while performing it that I could hardly focus on the music in my hands! For no good reason, out the blue, I had an internal conversation with myself, which went along the lines of "Fuck it! If anyone listening to this could do it better than me, then they'd be up here singing it, so I have nothing to fear." The shaking then stopped. I'm not for a moment suggesting that I am a brilliant singer, that's not the point, it's just that one needs self confidence to do certain things, even if that self confidence doesn't necessarily stand up to close scrutiny!

But that's enough Blogging for tonight I think. I am halfway through a large glass of whisky, partly to drown my sorrows on this anniversary, partly to celebrate having passed another milestone in my journey towards being the best rider I can be, and partly because I am happy having spoken to RE earlier, who always cheers me up, makes me laugh, and makes me feel wanted. Thank you.

Superstition

Friday 13th today. Probably best just to stay in bed.

But work calls, and I don't think superstition would be reason enough for them to allow me the time off!

The image? I just think it's funny in a thought provoking way, and it was the closest I could find on my hard drive to the theme of superstition! If that makes sense.

Can't remember where I got the image, it was somewhere random on t'InterWeb, so I can't credit it properly, sorry.

Even more dubious taste than usual

Been looking for a decent tradesman to do some work in the flat and I came across the guy on the right.

He looks like a nice man who no doubt loves his family, in a very tangible sense.

Seven Deadly Sins

Any questions? No? Good. It really works!

I've seen this image on so many sites on t'InterWeb that I have no idea where it originated. If anyone can clarify that I'll be happy to attribute it appropriately.

Video Eggs

A video, and some links to photos from the Easter Egg Run:



Ian Smart

Stewart Priest

Ian D (seems to have been close to St Mary's Cathedral)

Rosco B

Scott Hume

Zeezeephotography

The Committing Yak

Ian McF

A year later

It's pretty well a whole year since I completely snapped my Achilles Tendon while playing badminton, on Sunday 18th March 2007.

A couple of months of being in a non-weight-bearing plaster cast, 3 months off work, lots of months of physiotherapy, and a year down the line my left calf is still noticeably smaller than my right one due to muscle wastage when the cast was on, and I still have to concentrate on not limping.

Relatively recently I realised that the reason I keep getting cramp and aches in my left calf is because without having noticed it I now tend to walk with the muscles of my left leg tensed. When I manage to relax it I can walk a lot better and without limping, but I have to think about it as it doesn't come naturally yet. It'll come though, I hope.

So, since my previous post what has happened? I made a fairly rare purchase from Amazon. Rare these days anyway, although I used to buy a lot more from the site. A couple of posts ago I mentioned a few books which had been recommended to me, so that's me bought all three. Additionally I chucked both the Long Way Round and Long Way Down DVDs onto the order because although I've seen various individual episodes I haven't seen either series in its entirety. I really shouldn't place orders online after returning home from the pub, because I also added something off my Amazon Wish List, namely a digital photo frame.

In the flat I rented for a while before buying this house I had my PC in the living room, and quite enjoyed the experience of watching the screen saver of my photos randomly displayed (or rather, displayed in a random order). Since moving however, the PC is in a separate room and I've been missing seeing the photos. No one really ever looks through their photos and I found the screen saver to be a good way of looking at them with no effort involved. So anyway, I have been looking for a digital photo frame for a while, but haven't seen any, apart from pretty expensive ones, that I fancied.

So, I bought an expensive one. On the bright side I saved over £100 on the list price, but it was still well over £100! And it's a 10" one rather than the more usual 7"-8", so although size isn't everything (!) it means I can see it from the other side of the room quite easily.

And it's Wi-Fi enabled so I can just connect to my home network and display all the photos on my PC without having to transfer them to the frame. In theory anyway. I'm having a few teething problems and although I have connected it to the network, it keeps rebooting randomly every so often, so this week I'll have a proper look at it to see if there's something in the settings I need to change. Otherwise it'll go back to Amazon to be replaced.

On Saturday evening a friend, RE, and I were invited to a whisky tasting evening at G&G's house. Could have been messy, but it was actually damned civilised! When we were told about it, in the pub last week, there was some discussion about what the dress code would be, and "dress posh" seemed to be the order of the day, but in the event it didn't end up like that. However in the meanwhile I had decided that this was probably just the right time to splash out on some new accessories for my kilt. I've had the kilt for a number of years, but generally when I wear it it's worn casually with a big jumper and some heavy boots, and when I need the formal look I've always hired the smart jacket and brogues etc.

As an aside, my kilt is the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) tartan which is rather nice I think (see image).

So I went to Slaters Menswear and bought an Argyll jacket in a lovely charcoal grey colour and with bone buttons rather than silver so it's kind of semi formal, ghillie brogues, black socks, black sock flashes, and a new kiltpin. All for the bargain price of about £200.

As I say, the whisky tasting turned out not to be a posh dress event, but I wore the kilt anyway, and I'm very pleased to have at last got round to buying the stuff I have spent a fortune hiring over the past years! And a good time was had by all while tasting the whisky.

Next weekend will see this year's Motorcycle Action Group Easter Egg Run from the SECC to Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow, with 3000+ bikers bearing donations and Easter Eggs, and RE has agreed to accompany me by riding pillion on the bike. This morning then was a small scale trial run when we made sure she was OK riding pillion and I was OK with her on the back. Went well, exceptionally well, and we both enjoyed the experience, made better by having a decent intercom so we could speak to each other as we went along. So next Sunday, Easter Day, should be fun. I will, of course, report on it in due course.

Welcome to 2008