School's Out For the Summer...

I can't believe it - first year of architecture is over. We've had a pretty insane couple of weeks working up to the final deadline. But now we are free! I'm off to work my butt off and enjoy the summer - including two weeks in Iceland! Yae! Catcha soon, cool cats. xx

Well, well, well....

I'm suddenly tremendously enthusiastic about blogging! I have even created a new blog where I will post stuff from my life as an architect - it hasn't got anything on it yet, but it's called archsutherland.blogspot.com

I'll give you a teaser though - with some of my scribblings and skecthes.... a CAD 3D image of a rooftop room and terrace, and some sketches of my library which I'm designing at the moment.

xx

almost nobody...

... ever reads my dreary blog, but I thought it might be time to add a few lines, just so those few people who do tune in don't think I've dropped off the edge of the world.

Well, things in Edinburgh are going pretty well. Since my last digest of news I've spent a week in Paris on an architecture study visit - which was great fun and I'm now (at last) a great fan of Paris and various things French. My former housemates Agathe and Alexis should be delighted to hear this.

The Shetland Folk Festival was held at the start of this month, and through an old and dear friend (Mhari) I got involved as a raffle ticket seller and went home for one of the best weekends I've had in absolutely ages. I can't rate the SFF enough - the islands come alive with revelry. The music is great and the party just never stops. My hit acts were Americans Crooked Still, Canadians Mauvais Sort, Terra Folk from Slovenia and Orkney's excellent Lazy Boy Chair. Check them out if you can.

College is treating me well. We have only a few weeks of term left before embarking on a lengthy summer break - which, as usual will see me spending a couple of weeks in Iceland doing a bit of volcano climbing, hot spring bathing and gaying it up at Reykjavik Pride. But I'll also be busy working in Edinburgh - mainly at the very excellent Hewats Restaurant - where I've been a happy part-time waiter for the last month or so. The food is as good as it gets and we're an extremely friendly bunch of staff - so do drop in for a special bite.

Love and lots...

more model mayhem...

Here are a couple of my favourite models from our current project to design an island retreat for a writer. And beneath, one of my currently favourite songs - Heartbeats by The Knife.

Piracy is Illegal

"Valderee, valderah, my nap-sack on my back"

Check out this intrepid traveller! Caught on camera buying luxurious foodstuffs in M&S. "This isn't an ordinary backpacker - this is a juicy and ripe Icelandic backpacker!"

another crazy night in edinburgh!!!

MIKA - we love you!

You surely can't have escaped noticing that a hot new talent tops our British charts. Yes, the afore described MIKA is the latest entertainment sensation to Grace (Kelly?) our ears - an boy, what a pleasure it is too. Check out his number one hit!

Congratulations!

Brushing with nature...

A third-year print-making student has created an odd installation in our sculpture court as part of a college exhibition. A live hamster powers a wheel which in turn powers a cam which causes the front leg of a stuffed hamster (raised on its back legs) to wave up and down. Very odd,... and slightly distressing. Not least for the live hamster, having to animate his dead cousin.

This was my first brush with nature today, and it wasn't going to end there. Only about 30 seconds later, while walking out of college down to Lady Lawson Street, I was confronted by the unusual sight of a fox trotting towards me on the other side of the driveway. "How odd", I thought. But quite pleasing. Certainly the closest I've ever experienced these beautiful and timid creatures. Well, maybe not so timid. It carried on past me, quite unperturbed by my presence.

Then,... later still,... on arrival at my flat, I encounter yet more livestock! This time in the form of a mouse,... scurrying first across the kitchen floor, then, horror of horrors, into my room,... then back into the hallway and into the utility room, where I promptly locked in, hoping that the snug fit between carpet and door would keep it quarantined until a trap can be procured! The hamster and fox I can cope with,... but the mouse is doing my head in! It is probably gorging itself on my washing powder as I write, before nesting in the box to have a litter of 16 micelets. I will never be able to wash laundry again. Save me from a clean clothes catastrophe!

Merry Christmas to me...

I have a habit of buying Christmas presents for myself, and they usually involve travel. Christmas treat 2004 was flights to Iceland, which opened a whole new chapter in my life. Christmas 2005 saw the purchase of flights to Sweden, which was my first ever Christmas away from family. This Christmas (2006) I reaped a wad of cash from family, and I'll be using this in the most fabulous ways. Firstly, I'm buying a hydration back pack to encourage me to train for the Landmannalaugar to Þórsmork run (a cross-mountain ultra-marathon of some 55km in Iceland). My second indulgence will take place on Feb 24th when I head down to Newcastle for a day out and to hear the fantastic talent (in every department) that is MIKA! Check this guy out!

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!