Happy Christmas!

Greetings, friends! Christmas is practically upon us, though it barely feels it. The weather in Shetland is mild and still, a little more like October than late December. We've haven't had more than a sniff of winter,... thanks to a few sleet and hail showers.

But I think Christmas arrived today. I went to a small and remote church on the far north part of the islands for a christening (baptism, actually). The tiny church in the little village of Ollaberry is situated close to the sea. I took a pugh next to the window so that I could look out across the water and watch the low sun shine in through the windows to cast a warm glow over the full congregation. Candles took over when the odd cloud slid past. It was perfect. The organist was a bit quiet, the guy singing behind me kept getting the words wrong, but apart from that it was nice.

Now, I'm warming some mulled wine and cider to have a festive drink before heading out to the watchlight service for yet another dose of the christmas message. Oh, how wholesome.

So, dear friends around the world, I hope you are having, or have had a pleasant christmas. May you have a wonderful 2007.

model mayhem

This week has been dominated by one thing - work. Apart from an excursion on Monday to have a few drinks with Czech mates (see what I did there?) Honza and Mira, I have had my head down all week - focused on the prize. The prize in question was the successful development of some models for a place to write and perform haiku in. A nice and fairly open brief. Friday is crit day, and today was our final opportunity to get some formative feedback on our design models, so we were going at it "bags out" as we say in Shetland, to have our models finished to the best of our ability. We were also being given a provisional grade, which was kinda scary. So, in order to meet this challenge, I have been putting in the hours at the studio - until 11pm on both Wednesday and Thursday nights. And I think it paid off. I don't know what my provisional grade is, but I feel reasonably satifsied with my scheme and my progress. So fingers crossed.

Whats really nice, is I can hardly beleive that this is my occupation these days. Gone are the woes of life in the world of education research. Instead, long hours in college are a relative pleasure! Hurrah for architecture!

Grassmarket

I walk home from college through the Grassmarket in Edinburgh - a square in the heart of the old part of the town which is dominated by the towering castle above to the north-west. The Grassmarket is lined with places to eat and drink (especially drink), a few hotels (mainly Apex) and, I think its fair to say that its a place for having a night out, either for dinner, drinks, or a night or two away in a different city.

Amongst the tourists I encounter checking out the bars and the places to catch some nosh, I have recently spotted a youngish guy who seems to be homeless, sat on the pavement near to one of the classy hotels. The first time I saw him I prepared myself for the typical "spare any change?" line,... which didn't come. He didn't even notice me walk past. Somewhat surprised, I looked down and saw that he was far too engaged in writing in a book. Even more surprised, and probably slightly relieved, I carried on. I came across him again later in the week, in the same place, and as I approached I wondered if he would still be writing, and what words could occupy him more than the thought of change in my pocket. As I grew closer I found that he was busily completing sentances in a language learning activity book. I almost fell off the pavement. Now, firstly, I was amazed and yet pleased to see someone in such dire circumstances attempting to learn something. I couldn't tell if it was English or a foreign language, but that might not matter. The point is this person was learning, doing something about his situation. Secondly, and much less importantly, I was pissed off with myself, for having made so little progress in learning another language, despite all the linguaphone materials on my bookshelf at home in my comfy, warm flat on the Royal Mile. It was a real kick up the arse for me. I was really impressed with this guy, and I suppose he's taking the same steps that people who sell the big issue have made - doing something. But his quiet and dignified modesty makes me more inclined to support him. Although I have thousands of pounds of debt, I think I'll give him a few pence next time I see him.

wild weekend in edinburgh

wow,... edinburgh nightlife hit me with a bang this weekend. everything looked tame when I got to Baraka and found little Miss C making knitting a scarf and joined in to help her finish it. But, that grandmotherly start to the weekend was certainly no sign of things to come.

We took advantage of cheap drinks offers, mated with our general enthusiasm for the time of the week, and became very jolly and silly indeed. From Baraka we went to Opium (following a little detour via City Cafe, where we couldn't get in cos one of our party was too drunk!). Opium is a rock bar, so we had to get down and dirty with all the other revellers. In sharp contrast to her sedate knitter mode, Ms C became an animal - biting people left right and centre, including a poor 18 year old architect from my course, who didn't know what hit him. News of this spread around college like wild fire and now I seem to be known for having the whackiest friends.

After meeting a small band of Shetlanders in Opium we moved on, probably to find food, but we stumbled instead upon an irish pub that none of us had ever seen before. So, we ventured in, thinking it might be some sort of strange portal to another world occupied by leprachauns. What did we find? Yet more Shetlanders,.... in abundance! Live music was still blaring loudly, so we danced that off in style (with Magners in hand) until it was time to leave there too.

By this time fast food establishments were drawing down their shutters and we were hungry. We wandered kinda aimlessly (losing more and more of our party) until we came upon a dapper young man in an elegant suit (which was what caught our eyes). Moments later we were sipping a nice red wine in his flat, which just happened to be nearby. Oh what a pleasant, if slightly unusual ending to what was a rather bizarre night.

(PS,... there is masses of stuff that I can't possibly write about here. So, you'll just have to use your imagination and read between some of the lines, somewhere)

Saturday was mostly spent in bed until it was time to meet the motly crew for drinks again,... this time in the convivial surroundings of Cafe Royal. Dearest A from Cambridge was up, which was a delight. And we enjoyed a humourous evening of talking utter bollocks. It would have been a nice pilot for my new TV Show, "Bringing Out the Bollocks in You"... a nonsense-speak chat-show, hosted by yours truly.

Sunday was the healthy part of the weekend (apart from the wine with lunch and the pint with dinner). A nice day trip out to N Berwick to stroll around by the sea and take in the country air.

Mmmm,... its nice to be back in Scotland!!!

Feerie settin' in...

I think I'm coming down with something - a feerie, as we call it in Shetland. A flu, or a "bug" of some sort, I suppose you might say. I feel cold though it is warm, my eyes smart and sting a bit, my back and neck is sore, and i feel generally listless and disjasket. Too much revelry at the weekend? Perhaps, but you don't usually pick up a flu when you go out for a pint or three. I suppose it depends who you end up snogging at the end of the night!

John Schneider...!!!

Is his man a god, or what?

Soft Parcels and Birthday Thanks

Many of you have been writing to me and asking about how my birthday went. So I'm posting a short response to you all.

Firstly, my birthday this year fell in the middle of week two of the term - a week busy with lots of unfamiliar work and highly important getting to know each other type activities. I decided to play my birthday fairly low-key amongst all this (partly didn't want to draw attention to my age amongst all the youngsters on my course). So I celebrated my birthday on Tuesday night (after midnight) with course-mates down the pub, after an Architecture night out. And on my real birthday I joined Nick and friends for a pub quiz down at the Blue Blazer. No real parties, no real attention drawn. But pleasant, nonetheless. Also, Carlos (a friend from Cambridge) and I had celebrated heartily the weekend before, so I was partied out.

A few notes of thanks are appropriate though. To mam for the very generous cash gift which I will spend wisely on sensible clothes purchases (plural intentional). To my flat mate for the very nice bottle of wine (which we are in the middle of drinking). To friends who bought me drinks on my birthday, especially Ro and Nick. To Þórhallur for all the cards from Iceland, including the prestigious message from the "icegays". And finally, to my sister and family for the "soft parcel" they sent. My sister has a tendency to send me soft parcels which can often cause me concern. "Soft parcel" is code for "I've got you something to wear, and I hope you'll like it". Anyone who knows mean will understand how much of a risk this is. Nine times out of ten it has to be swapped for something else. I'm afraid this was one of the nine, dear sister. But it's the thought that counts!

Win over GNER!

Travelling home from Iceland to Shetland this summer involved a long and slightly convoluted journey. Þórhallur and I took Árni's car to the bus station in Reykjavík, where I caught a bus to airport at Keflavik, and from there I took a very comfortable flight down to Glasgow with Iceland Air. I went through to Edinburgh by first taking a bus to central Glasgow and then a train to Waverley Station. I needed to swing past a friend's place to drop off luggage, so I took a taxi to his house.

After a pleasing al fresco lunch with Nick I began my journey north to Aberdeen to catch the 7pm ferry to Shetland. I took a taxi to Waverley to get a train. Up until now, everything had gone perfectly according to plan - no delays. But GNER let me down royally. The train was late in arriving at Edinburgh and continued to experience further delays all the way up the NE coast, such that we arrived in Aberdeen some 90 minutes late - and only 10 minutes after the ferry to Shetland had departed. (We pleaded with Northlink to wait for us, but they wouldn't budge!)

GNER put us (myself and lady going home for a funeral) up at a hotel in Dyce so that we could fly home the following morning. They met the hotel expense, but wouldn't book us on flights - we were told to do that ourselves and present a claim to GNER. We did this (thanks to a free wireless connection in my hotel room, I was able to book us flights online for 6am the following morning). The flights were a reasonable £145 return. I filled out the complaint form, wrote a long letter, included my receipts and waited patiently.

GNER have just reimbursed me this very week, some two months later. Hence the celebration! To mark the occasion, I'm going to swing down past Princes Street and do a little autumn wardrobe shopping this afternoon! I should also point out that GNER were kind enough to give me a compensatory £8 voucher for use on their services in the future. How nice!

Gripe of the Week: Round Taps!

Ok, as a grumpy old man, I'm going to start reflecting on things that annoy me. I expect I will have a design focus, being as that is what I'm concerned with at the moment.

This week I'm picking on the rounded tap! Britain doesn't really do plumbing fittings very well, in my experience. The Scandi's are great at it, as are the germans and italians, of course - famed for it! But we get it wrong, left right and centre. Not only are round taps quite ugly, but they are also really impractical. Try gripping and turning on a sticky round tap with wet or slippery hands. Nightmare!. Its a bit like round door knobs - I think they are problematic! So, bug thumbs down to the round tap! As an Architect, I won't be specifying them!

Fuss About Nothing

I don't want to start some kind of a rush on tickets to Iceland, but has anyone out there realised how cheap it is to fly with BA when you book well in advance? I have just checked flights to Iceland for next summer (for Reykjavik Pride) and return fares with BA, inclusive of taxes are currently a mere £78 return!!! This is about half what the Iclandic companies are charging. Lets get booking!

Settling In

Well, three weeks have passed since I arrived in Edinburgh, after a hectic week in Malmo which ended with a very drunken night out in Copenhagen with Arni Gretar which resulted in the loss of my phone! Don't worry - Mr Vodafone kindly supplied me with a new sim card (for free) which I stuck in an old phone that I had lying around. Some of you may remember the old ericsson with the "active flip technology". Pórhallur, you were very familiar with it - well now it gets yet another lease of life.

Week one here was taken up with Fresher's Week and lots of rather tedious introductions to Edinburgh College of Art life, facilities, etc. I couldn't wait to get started. And in weeks two and three (one and two of the course) we have launched right in. We get lectures in design, materials, sustainability, and visual culture. In addition we get a whole day of drawing classes each week, and about 2 days of studio time where we play with materials and build models. Its going great! I actually feel like I can become an Architect. I'm dead interested in the work, and I'm discovering expressive, creative and drawing capabilities that were previously untapped. This is a relief.

Excitingly, I've made contact with an architects practice nearby, which is quite well known in Scotland, indeed, across the UK. I'm very hopeful that this might lead to some part-time work, either during term or perhaps in vacations. I will keep you posted on this.

I feel like some nice Scottish porridge now.

Palace fit for a King!

Friday turned out to be a great day - I got the flat on the Royal Mile. Anyone arriving in Edinburgh is only a few minutes walk from the train station to my flat, and only a further few minutes from some of Edinburgh greatest attractions, cafes, shops, bars and restaurants. Oh come all yea faithful!

Edinburgh times...

I've been in Edinburgh for a couple of days now, having flown down from Shetland on my GNER compensation flight (cos their late train on the way home in August caused me to miss the ferry and to take the plane instead). The focus of my trip down has been on finding a place to stay for the coming academic year. And let me tell you all, it has been difficult. I say has, because I'm hopeful that my search is over. What I've found is that almost all rooms to let are within about 50 quid either way of £300 a month, but that there is a massive difference between places that are palaces and flats that are more like slums. Luck of the draw is what its all about.

If all goes well tomorrow then I'll be moving into a flat on the Royal Mile. For those of you who know Edinburgh, that is a very central location - right on the approach to the castle. The flat is on the north side of the street and has views over Princes St gardens and beyond. With any luck I will also be able to see the sea, something I missed sorely in Cambridge.



On a very different note, I was in Blackwells yesterday, a big bookshop, looking at the architecture section, when an oldish man came along and started perusing books next to me. While flicking through the pages of a book on the history of London's architecture he started to mutter and mumble to himself. Distracting though it was, it did raise a question in my mind - do deaf people speak to themselves in sign language? Or is it only those of us who are blessed with hearing who do it?

Reykjavik Online

Hello listeners! Service has been resumed following a long period of e-drought during my rural isolation in iceland. I'm back in the land of the city-slick and am relishing everything that urban icelandic life has to offer, including exceptionally convenient free wireless internet access all across this fine town. I love it, and I feel very connected again.

Iceland life has been trating me well. Apart from a couple of things. I have a large gash in my leg following a lava incident on the 1980 flow on Mt Hekla. It is healing nicely now and I think I will have a handsome scar to proudly show off to demonstrate my manly explorer-like lifestyle. I have also had a few too many hangovers following generous drinking sessions with new freinds in Hella. I can't remember most of your names, ladies, but I will never forget your faces! So, fieldwork in the name of Geoscience really has proved to be the rather extreme experience I had always imagined it would be.

Highlights from the last few weeks include trips to see the iceberg-filled lagoon Jokulsarlon, visiting the puffins and cliffs of volcanic Heimaey (Westman Islands), taking a trip to the hot-springs of the interior of Iceland at a place called Hveravellir, and getting my hair cut this morning. Photos of these will probably follow (not the haircut, maybe).

So, I have a few day left in Reykjavik before returning back to the UK. I'm having so much fun and enjoying catching up with all the friends I have made here, and I do not relish the thought of a return to terror-struck Britain. I hope the travel crisis wil have abated a little, and I hope that the clear plastic bags for minimal carry-on luggage mean more generous check-in allowances. I have soooo much crap to ferry home to lovely Shetland.

So, this Friday sees the start of Reykjavik Gay Pride - an extremely popular weekend of events to show support for and celebrate gay, lesbian and transgender people, and their struggles, achievements, lives. I'm heading off to the opening ceremony in a few hours, which, if it is anything like last year, will be a lot of fun. Norway's Vigdis and Ruth wowed us all with such a hilarious blend of drag, song, and humour, and now they are back to host the entire evening. It promises to be a great weekend, even if the weather man doesn't agree!

Fond farewells?

My final days in Cambridge are ebbing away - less than 5 to go. Some of you will no doubt be of the opinion that I'm making mountains out of mole hills, what with all the fuss I'm making. I suppose I've never felt so settled before, and never have I worked in the same place or with the same people for so long before. Moving is a big deal. So, I've started to say goodbye to colleagues who may or may not be around over my last few days in Cambridge. I've started to see more of my dear friends T, L and A so that we get the best of each other before I leave on Sunday. I had my final boogie down at Life with some of my other dear friends tonight - a place which holds many memories indeed. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. I wonder how many of those promises to "keep in touch" will be borne out? Some more than others, I hope. Who knows!?

No more trips to london

Today I took my last trip to London - to visit my sponsors for a project meeting and a farewell lunch. Its the end of yet another era - one which I have enjoyed tremendously. They have been excellent funders, and I shall miss there support and the very personal relationship we have enjoyed over the last 4 years of collaboration.

What I won't miss about my work life in Cambridge is the trips up and down to London on the train in a suit, and stuffy and threatening underground trains. Public transport in the south east is so unpleasant and unnerving! Today I encountered numerous transport police on my short journey between Bank and Kings Cross. Should I feel reassured or scared? "During this time of heightened security..." the repetitive announcement warned - a stark indicator that London lives under the threat of attack. I love London - its a vibrant, exciting and diverse city - definately one of the world's best, but frankly, I'm glad I'm out of it for now.

Before I go

As I close the door on my old life here in Cambridge, and turn the handle to the door of my new life in Edinburgh, it seems like a good time to start this blog. A place to where the life and times of little old me can be shared with friends old, new, near, far, and the like. A place where I can wax on about the new stuff I do and the new adventures I hope to have.

Cambridge, you have been good to me, and I will miss you and all those of you who have been important to me during 5 unforgetable (if hazy) years of fun. You know who you all are. Farewell.