So I will be another year older on January the 18th Mum wants to do a family thing on the 16th and I think that the 16th already clashes with another party.

So I have several options:

1. Decide I am too old for this and do nothing.
2. Go to the pub with friends - pub suggestions please (probably on the 22 or 23rd)
3. Go for a meal - I like Nandos but other suggestions welcomed (probably on the 22 or 23rd)
4. Go to a Ceilidh (there is one at Pollock Halls on the 15th)
5. Something else?

Any ideas or thoughts?

The rough weather has led a number of unusual birds to our back garden in search of food, or at least bird species we don't normally see. A couple of times I've managed to grab a camera, and got these just-about-good-enough-for-id-purposes shoots of a redwing (top) and blackcap (below).





We also saw a fieldfare at Claire's parents on the second, though I didn't get a picture. The visit to Claire's parents was fun and relaxing. I should have probably mentioned it in the last post, but it didn't seem to fit into the general theme of doom.

***

Strangeness of the day #1. Someone has been along the footpath outside our house in some sort of mini-halftrack, maybe three feet wide. It's left a trail of what looks like charcoal - not evenly spread, more sort of here and there. Is this supposed to be some sort of council pavement gritter? The stuff isn't melting the snow/ice, nor does it provide any traction (if anything it makes the surface more slippery). But if it isn't the council, who would have such a vehicle? Some sort of all-terrain mobility scooter? Odd.

***

Yesterday, we had a few friends round to play boardgames. Well, Battlestar Galactica. It was a disaster (from the human perspective). One jump in it was all a little dull. I'd become Admiral Vice-President Tigh, most of the dials were at full or nearly so, and there was little sign of a player-cylon. Tyrol had got brigged, but that was easily fixed - I had a presidential pardon card. Then it all went pear-shaped. Three successive crisis cards left only one cylon ship (a heavy raider) off the board. President Zarek declared himself a cylon, leaving Helo in charge. The next crisis card was the map to Kobol, pushing us over the magic 4 distance, so sleeper loyalty cards were distributed. I sprang Tyrol from the brig so he could repair the FTL and jump us out of there. He'd just got a "you are a cylon" card, and promptly defected. We made the jump anyway, got slammed with the super-crisis cards, losing Colonial One and gaining two centurions on board Galactica. With nearly everything at one or two (other than food, we had a tonne of food), we made one last jump, reaching one jump from Kobol before three heavy raider activations in a row (crisis card, cylon player, cylon player) stomped us under a swarm of centurions.

Was fun anyway...

***

Strangeness of the day #2. Earlier, I got an automated phonecall from Southern Electric, wanting me to phone back with the meter reading for the electricity account they'd taken over last month. In a bit of a panic - we're not planning to change electricity suppliers - I found a phone number for them. Turns out that it was actually Scottish Hydro wanting the gas reading for the account they're taking over today. Which we did know about, but hard to see how the phonecall could have been more misleading.

***

We've spent this evening taking down the Christmas decorations, and Christmas is officially over. I always feel rather melancholy on this day. Still, at least Alfie seems to be on the mend.

... however, I'm being a bit unsympathetic about the child who is wandering around in shorts and a t-shirt complaining about the coldness.

Ascension is Edinburgh's leading alternative club night, bringing you the latest and best in Electro, Industrial, E.B.M., Goth and Darkwave every month.

Resident DJs: mr. SINister [Jonathan] & DJX [James]

Ascension takes place on the second Saturday of each month at Studio 24, Calton Road, Edinburgh.

Entrance price in line with Studio 24 pricing policy. Free before 11:30PM then £6/£4[members/students]

Important!
When you arrive at Ascension, please make sure you tell the staff at the booth that you're coming for Ascension, otherwise your money will go to the other club and not to us (which is used to provide gigs) - thank you!

Not the best start to the new year. Alfie's pretty ill - everything he eats goes straight through. One emergency vet visit later, and he has a host of pills, powders, and pastes. Hopefully he'll feel better soon...

***

We saw in the new year at chris's. More a gathering than a party, but the company of good friends is a good start to any year. Several people failed to notice the bells - distracted by fireworks over edinburgh castle.

By the time we got home and walked dogs it was gone three. We were awoken after 4 hours sleep by the phone ringing. Both of us jumped out of bed in a panic - no one would phone that early unless it was an emergency... In fact, it was a badly generated voice saying, "You have a text message. Happy new year." all of which had woken the dogs, so I had to walk them, and didn't get back to bed. Good start to the day. Then Alfie became ill...

***

I did get to see Doctor Who almost live, and before seeing any spoilers this time. I rather enjoyed it. I loved that the regeneration happened for noble rather than heroic reasons. I liked that John Simm got more to do. I liked that the Master drifted towards "amoral schemer" and away from "I'm mad, so I'm evil!" I loved Bernard Cribbens. I liked that the plot more or less worked, and that the solution to the dilemma followed obviously from the whole set-up. Sure there were flaws - not least the long, dull last fifteen minutes - but overall quite enjoyable. And as for Matt Smith, from the couple of minutes he got at the end, he looks rather good. He's got an intriguing alien quality that Tenant always lacked. Looking forward to seeing what Moffat has in store for him...

***

Anyway, I've had about 14 hours sleep between the last three nights, so I'm ging to crash soon. Hope your year so far has been better than mine, and that everyone's gets better.

I am suddenly and rather explicably taken by a really strong urge to play Ecco The Dolphin. Tomorrow I will try and dig up my old Sega Mega Drive and see if it still works.

So been away a while I know.

I have been busy getting diagnosed with depression, trying to cope with yet another new manager at work, hurting my back and having to dig my car out of snow/ice, christmas and now new year.

All in all I'm pretty bored with things.

I have nothing good (at least new and good) to rant about, and just more stress. This of course in not helping in any way shape or form

But, I am alive.

I have a wii

I have Guitar hero metalica and a drum set.

I may just go and kill things...

Ki

10 inches of snow outside.

this is getting rather silly, now. dont remember there being this much for years.

brr. can I just hibernate till summer? :/

Happy New Year from Sandwick, Shetland everyone!

It's an end to the decade that I shall refer to as "the units". Now we will be able to comfortably say "twenty ten", rather than "twenty oh-nine", which never seemed to roll off the tongue. For me, personally, it was an interesting 10 years, with some high points, and at times some low points, but it's ended so well.

I never thought ten years ago I'd be married (to Jules, who is happily tapping on a drum listening to the music on TV), and have so many lovely friends (sorry I can't see you tonight). I never thought I'd have long hair, or a beard (or set fire to them both, twice by candles, once through stupidity). I never thought I'd turn out to be such a geek, nor did I think I'd be doing mathematics now. I never thought I'd take up smoking, happily I've dropped that habit.

There's been so many surprises, some I should probably mention here, but I'm too tipsy to remember them all ;)

Here's to the next 10!

Love Jamie

Were interesting to say the least.

Up until Christmas Eve we did not know if we would make it to parentals... but snow abated slightly and I drove to Berwick. Roads weren't brilliant, so was 10mph below the speed limit at most times. Got to Ki's mums just after six and settled down for Christmas dinner. Food was yummy (choice of pork and beef) and then we opened pressies. Was a bit miffed over what Ki's brother got (new HD tv, gamining chair, electric guitar...) compared to what Ki got (Digital photo frame) especially as he did not get a birthday pressie in Noveber. He was later given £30 cash. I got a bracelet. Not sure what to make of it. Its one of the ones that you add beads to and can get gemstones and dangly bits to add to it... I'm not a chunky jewellery fan really. But if I take some of the beds off it may be more suitable.

Didn't do much after that, snow had started again so decided living was a good reason not to go to midnight mass.

Got up late morning and headed over to my mums about 2pm. Huge Christmas day dinner was had with all the family (including my sis and her husband for once). Got guitar hero metallica and cash from my sis. Mum and Dad had given us their present a few month back (the memory foam mattress). Brother didnt get me anything... but he had just turned 16 and spends all his money on computer games atm.

In the evening my cousin Zbyszek and family came over. Was good to have a conversation half in english, half in polish, but a few of the family were a bit bewildered. Shame I didn't remember more Polish...

Boxing Day was sales shopping in Meadowhell - was quite restained to be honest. Got a new skirt and some stockings from Evans, some Vera Wang Princess perfume (have wanted this since I worked at Sky!!! - maybe 4 years now) in a boxset, and the Guitar Hero Drumset. Went to Kit's via Matalan (nothing found there) and exchanged gifts. From her Ki got a "rude" origami kit. I got a necklace with butterflies... not delicate in anyway and perfect for Marianna to wear at the January event :D We gave her a necklace and earrings set (black roses)

27th was a last minute round up of presents and stuff and then heading home. Didn't get back till late so was more or less straight to bed.

28th was a lazy day, films were watched that we had on the Sky Box... and watched it snowing.

Was back to work Tues to today.

Had to cancel driving lesson on Tuesday due to the snow, and as a result have had to postpone my driving test. Am glad though as I haven't had time to practise my manouvers, and theres a high chance it owuld have been cancelled anyway.

Yesterday I started with the fitness kick for 2010 - I joined the onsite gym :) I also went swimming for the first time in 6 months. I know how unfit I've got now. Swimming 250m (10 lengths) has made both my arms and legs hurt badly, not just ache. But can't wait to do more next time (as I was signing up I only ended up being to swim for 20 mins)

Also met up with Yvonne and family to say goodbye last night. Jimmy Chungs was had, though we did have to trek from the Waverly Bridge one to the Grindlay St one. Food was yummy and said our goodbyes then ran for the bus.

Got home at 8.30 last night, collapsed in bed and read. Decided after I'd been reading a while to call Ki to bed - thought it was 9.30 and we'd be getting a very early night.... turned out it was 10.30 :S

Anyway, managed to dig car out this morning and get to work. No idea what time I'll be let away, but looking forward to tonight at Bryans.

Anyway, I'll stop boring you for now. Resolutions to follow....

K

So, we managed to get through Christmas without anyone getting stuck in the snow. We did chicken out of heading into Edinburgh to meet friends on Christmas Eve. We got as far as getting in the car, at which point a snow storm started, and we quickly retreated home...

Our parents were round at ours on Christmas Day, then over to Mum's for Boxing Day to see my sister and her family. Anne and I had bought Mum a Wii/Sports/Wii Fit Plus combo. Yep, Mum got a games console before I did. My own presents were largely of the pile of books/CDs/DVDs variety, plus the Battlestar boardgame, and various edibles. My nephew is turning into quite the gamer, though being ten he's mainly focused on yugioh (or however it's spelt...) I'm slowly weaning him on to real games. So far, Dragon Dice and Lord of the Fries seem to be the successes.

***

I didn't get to see Doctor Who until a few days after Christmas. Thanks to everyone who needed to post spoilers all over Facebook and blogs... I thought it was alright, so far. Much will depend how good the second half is. Oh, sure, it suffered from the usual Davis problems - bad guys who lack any motivation beyond being "evil" or "mad", an unjustified fascination with its own continuity, failure to lay pipe, and a "shock ending" that was telegraphed 15 minutes in - and John Simm's maniacal laugh isn't much cop, which is a shame given how little else he was given to do. But I enjoyed it anyway. Hopefully the second half will pick up the pace, and not descend into techno-babble...

***

I've been witness to two violent incidents since Christmas, both on the street outside our house. The first occurred in the early hours of Monday morning. A group of four or five blokes having a drunken argumetn woke me up, but the noise didn't last long, so I went back to sleep without looking out the window. Turns out that one of them had thrown a bin across the road, someone had staggered off bleeding, and someone else had been knocked over before staggering off in a different direction. The police seemed to be taking it all pretty seriously, spending most of the day going door to door collecting statements, despite not appearing to know the identity of any victim, or indeed whether any of those involved was particularly innocent.

The second was Monday evening. The driver of a pickup truck (going well over the speed limit on an icy road) got annoyed at a bus with right of way turning into the road some 300 yards away. He showed his annoyance by turning on full beam lights (including stupid flood lights on top of the cab), blaring his horn, slamming his brakes on, skidding, and shouting abuse at the bus, which completely ignored him and carried out the turn calmly and safely. The pickup driver then reversed, blocked the bus into the bus stop (using a parked police van to do so), got out and started abusing the bus driver. The police officers (who'd been gathering statements from the previous incident) turned up at this point, and despite having a witness (I was walking Alfie and saw the whole thing) merely nodded their heads at the guy's ranting, then let him drive off. Presumably charging the guy for dangerous driving, breach of the peace, and possibly driving under the influence would have required too much paperwork...

***

And so we reach Hogmanay. No idea what we'll be doing for the bells. There's a couple of parties, but we haven't decided which to go to, or whether to do something else. Still, tomorrow is clear for recovering, and I've done all the shopping that needs done before next week. Have a good New Year when it reaches you.

Am now onto version 5.0 of the pommel I was whinging about last week. I can make the basic profile easily enough, but cutting each spiral into it evenly, on a tapering cylinder is proving to be bit of a bugger...

I'm now starting to seriously contemplate building a small lathe to get it to work....

this may be a Silly Idea (tm)

Today the world lost an amazing, strong woman. I'll never forget the first time I met Ruth Cooper, even if I have forgotten when it was. She was very outgoing and opinionated, but not in a bad way. She had her opinions and she spoke frequently about them, but she listened to you and respected yours as well. I used to talk to her for hours at a time, and never found myself getting bored of listenening to her ideas, bantering with her, and learning from her.

She was my surrogate mother, since mine was 4000 miles away. I'll never forget when I came back in 2006 through Heathrow and there was all that trouble and we got home at like 2am, and she was still awake. Her righteous indigation on my behalf helped me feel a lot better about the whole incident, calmed me down, and helped me remember why I was in Britain in the first place. Immigration can sometimes make you forget.

She also made our wedding blessing go much more smoothly than it would have otherwise. She took care of the flowers, of the church, and helped a ton with planning the reception. She also made both the cakes - for the wedding and the blessing. I honestly don't think I could have found anything better in a professional baker's window either.

You never would have guessed by looking at her back then that she had cancer. She did so much - worked tirelessly around the house, rang bells and took care of rescued Labradors to name but a few. She was active and looked great, and her attitude was the kind of "can do it" one which helps you win marathons. I honestly think if she could have beat the cancer through sheer willpower, she would still be here today. She beat it so many times, but it spread and came back, and finally settled in her brain. That was the worst. To watch her go from an energetic and talkative person to someone who couldn't get out of bed, couldn't remember what day it was - it was heartbreaking. I think that's probably the worst thing about cancer.

Now she's no longer in pain. She knew us at the end, and was having coversations (albeit short ones) with us on Sunday. She saw her whole family before she went. I suppose no one can ask for more than that. RIP Mom Cooper, may you be surrounded with happiness and light until we see each other again.

This is more for my records than anyone else, since I like to keep track of when I got what.

( What got given and gotten )

All in all, a very nice Christmas. I feel a little bad that we got very same-y gifts for everyone - not much thought went into them - given the fact that it's obvious a fair bit of thought went into mine. They say it's the thought that counts though. I feel really bad that we didn't get anything for Ruth, since everyone else did. In our defense, we didn't know what to get, and I wasn't even sure if she would be cognizant enough to reconise anything. Turns out she was doing really well, carrying on conversations (well, short ones) and making known what she felt. She's even back on solid foods. And that was a super Christmas present.