Blogging - how not to do it.

…our water ran out (in that taps that is). For those of you in Burgh, who may be keeping tabs, things are not as bad as they are being made out, at least not for us where we are. We managed to get to a wholesalers on Sunday morning and managed to stock up. We have been told though that it may be upt to 14 days before water supplies are restored. For those of you who don’t know, the water treatment plant near us was flooded (not the sewage treatment) on Saturday at about 3am. Around about 4pm on Monday the taps started to run dry. The water company has brought in water bowsers (basically big blue tanks with taps) that have been stationed around the area so that you can get access to clean water for drinking, washing, flushing loos etc. etc. Things may sound horrid but we’re doing ok, we have been told we may have another deluge from the heavens either today or tomorrow, which will be fun. Some of the flood water has subsided over the last day or so and the local substation has been secured (apparently it was within 7 inches of going under water), if that had gone down then several hundred thousand homes round here would be without power for some time.

The kids are their usual selves, like most kids they get bored really easily, especially when there is little for them to do due to closed areas due to flooding. This does make them highly irritating to me and Kai though. We did discuss Kai and the kids heading up to Edinburgh for a week or so till all this subsides but she doesn’t want to leave me down here on my own. I can’t leave as I’m on call with work - in other words I may be brought in at any time with minimal warning to fix servers’n’stuff. So for the moment they are staying with me down here. If things change for the worse, we may review that situation. Currently the trains are running and whilst the roads aren’t great we can get through, so worse comes to the worse I take Kai to Brum to catch the train and then I crash at Scotts for the night (he doesn’t know about my cunning plan yet though)

Anyway, we’re alive, well, dry and with power/internet/phone/tv.

I ache - in some ways I think its a good ache. Its muscular, I know that for a fact and given the locations of the muscles that ache I’m guessing it may be related to some action with Kai a couple of days ago….

I’m also tired today, I have no idea why. I’ve been dopey all day today because of it, mind wandering off at tangents when I’m supposed to be looking at 100 line sql queries, and no thats not normal - well not for me anyway. My humour hasn’t suffered at least, still managed to get some witticisms into various conversations but energywise, I feel drained. This irritated me at lunch time especially as I had hoped to go out for a walk in order to see if it would help with general acheyness. Oh well, we’ll see how things go tomorrow on that one.

Kai had our friend T over today for company, they gossiped, shopped, debated, explained, knitted and drank tea lots. This is good, I generally think that Kai needs more female friends, ones she’s comfortable to hang out with and do girly things, I’m not saying I don’t appreciate my feminine side but frankly a bloke is no substitute for a woman….I suspect many of my hetro and even some of my bi male friends would agree. So yeah, Kai was in a good mood today, our friend T is in a good mood today too, tho not just because of Kai’s efforts, I know some of the details but it’s not my place to share or advertise. Just slightly out of context though as a private in-joke between me and her….

tell me T. Will you get bored as I suggested or will it last as long as your suggestion?

In other news it’s a suit and tie job for me tomorrow - won’t discuss why but for me it’s a rarity these days, so I have some ironing and stuff to do tonight, and WoW guild stuff too and we have to watch Pan’s Labyrinth at some point. Oh! and we (Kai and I) have a date at the local Beer Festival near our house soon too (we found a friend who has volunteered to childmind for us) -woot real ale and cider!

As some of you know I do go through bouts of low self-esteem in regards to my appearance - the root cause of this is linked to one of my ex’s and to some lesser degree my parents. Which means I’m trying to better myself physically. As a result I am back on my diet, I’ve gone out and bought some of that nasty tasting nail varnish stuff (I really loathe the fact that I bite my nails for next to no reason) and now I’m trying to work up the will to re-join the gym. We’ll see how I get on. Kai is her usualy supportive self through this, which I appreciate and am very thankful for but still, I do wonder what she see’s in me (physically, that is) sometimes. Oh and I also reckon I really need a haircut again.

Well, actually no I don’t, but it got your attention. I have on occasion thought about getting a tattoo but my problem is, like some of my peers, I’d get bored of it eventually and want to change it.  Those of you that do know me, know I do play around with chaotic Tribal (admittedly I have scanned and touched this one up a tad) designs (chaotic in that I put pen to paper and just go where the moment takes me and only remove the pen from the paper when the line finishes where I started) - often they are similar but I don’t think I’ve ever managed 2 the same. I reckon something like that would be rather nifty- maybe not original - tribal tattoos being an ‘in’ thing for some time now, but still I reckon it may well be pretty kewl.  Alternatively doing one wingshaped design then mirroring the image to make a pair of tribal demonic wings for my back!

The whole tattoo thing has always intrigued me, why people get themselves inked, what they get done and where. From the completely Freudian examples (not work safe or for the easily offended) to the usual fantasy art ones. Is it wrong that I can extraploate a coresponding male design incorporating a face from that explicit one ? Hmmmm…. in any case answers on a postcard.

I do know some people who do have the whole angel wings thang on their back and it does look rather fetching, my partner, Kai has a Bio-Warning tattoo on her lower back, if you get her in her corset and pvc jeans you’ll see it - if you can take your eyes off her that is.

Her brother has some truely nice bits of artwork on his arms and legs, such as flames ecompassing his lower leg, the skin peeled back on his arm to reveal bicep and tricep muscles and some meshed gears too. Not to mention an interesting piercing which he’s happy to show even if you don’t ask - (I hear some ladies like that sort of thing). Even my sister has had some inking done - very minor bits to be fair though.

Then again I love the idea of getting my arms done with an ultraviolet tattoo. For my style of designs that may not only look excellent but would also completely rock! Now I just need to do a few bank jobs to afford it….

What are your opinions on body art - piercings, tattoos, etc.

Yeesh, 3 weeks into the month already? Time certainly has flown, probably first class and joined the mile high club.

So what have I been upto? Thats a very good question. Work would be my first answer but thats only a partial answer to be honest. I have been running my NWOD game for friends - they seem to be enjoying it now we’re finally hitting into the supernatural bit. Judder was enjoyable, I didn’t drink much this time but I spent most of the night chatting and mingling with our new friends down here. We had T’s birthday BBQ as well which was all well and good - much meat was had by many. Oh yeah I went to Cornwall for an overnight thing - drove far too fast but overall it was good and we didn’t get pulled over which is a bonus. We went on an aftrernoon drive into Oxfordshire which was good too - Kai got to see and take piccies of Dragonflies.

In a slightly sadder piece of news my sister’s boyfriend has just been diagnosed with a very arre form of cancer, the poor kid just turned 23 and whilst he’s fighting it, it doesn’t sound good. Needless to say my family are most distraught by the whole series of events. My sis has been biting people’s heads off but heck, she’s afraid so I can understand that. Down here we feel pretty helpless about it all, there is just so little we can do and that just sucks.

As a final note Kai has re-taken up knitting, her guitar stuff and various other crafts and is now teaching some of our friends in these things, which has made her a bit happier, the downer is that she has ahd another cyst - we think, and as such is in a tremendous amount of pain again. :s

Thats about it on the rollercoaster of my life for the moment. Not much to cover 3 months I know but with all thats gone on I’m not sure what more to say.

So at 0530 on Friday 25th May I seized conciousness with both hands and planted a big, wet, sloppy kiss on it. I then realised I was in the shower. After stumbling out, cold, wet and I’m pretty certain, naked I towled myself off and started preparing for what was to be 6 hours of driving. Our destination? Edinburgh. Our reason? A wedding, namely my cousin’s. It was also a chance for Lexxie’s dad to see her before her birthday today. So at 0630 we left our home and set off on the M5 North. Birmingham was the usual circus but nothing we hadn’t seen before and by 1300 we had caught the sight of a castle jutting out from an ancient volcanic plug and the familiar sight of the extinct volcano itself. We were back in Edinburgh. We visitied my grandparents, my mother and then Kai’s mother. We dropped the kids off at 1700, saw my father and went for dinner with my mother. Dinner was vegetarian, hand cooked but vegetarian. I am not a vegetarian. We have a fridge full of meat just for bbq season. However, it was still a good meal. Afterwards was a trip back to Kai’s mothers and bed for me. I was exhausted.

Saturday 26th.

Conciousness called me back. Kai was awake and heading for the shower. I lay in bed and read a bit of my book. I then took my turn under the constant fall of nice, hot, water. I quickly dressed in my suit. The wedding was in 5 hours and we still needed to go collect my mother and sister. Kai eventually joined me downstairs and damn me but she looked radiant. I was very, very impressed. Her gran was as stunned as I. We left her mother’s home and went to the Savacentre (I needed a tie, I forgot mine here at home). We then had a quick lunch at mother’s and left for the wedding. It was at the Mansfield Traquair. A very impressive place. After a very quick wedding (2 hymns and a vow) we were taking pictures, congratulating the newly weds and watching the room get setup for the reception (yes it was in the same place). The dinner and dance were exquisite, people revelled in the joy of the day and the happiness of the couple. We saw a lot of family, Kai got to hold my cousin Stefano’s and his wife Jane’s 6 month old son, Luca. He is a fantastic wee lad, healthy, happy and very good. We left the wedding at about 2230 and went briefly to the Auld Hoose, shared a drink with Angus, said some hi’s and then drove back to the wedding at 2330. We then hung around until 0030 and then drove Jane and Stef home before returning to Dalkieth and our beds.

Sunday 27th

Sunday was a day for chilling. We spent the morning doing very little, drove to Tescos then onto my fathers. After an hour or so and some teas we went on to my grandmothers for lunch. I’d forgotten how big Italian lunches were. I can’t eat like I used to. We helped her tidy up then went to Gorgie and met up with Will, Keith and Adam. Card games ensued as we chatted, laughed and generally caught up. We gave Will a lift to the cinema and returned to Kai’s mothers. The kids were due to be dropped off at 2000 (about and hour) after we arrived. We chilled with Kai’s mum and stepdad. Ordered a chinese which was so-so and waited for the sprogs. They soon turned up. After a quick bath (to rid them of the smoke smells) they settled into watch Sat’s Dr Who before bed. We stuck up until about 2300 then I retired, Kai soon followed.

Monday 28th

We were woken at about 0930 and set about dealing with the kids. The plan was to spend the morning with Kai’s mum. Which we did. At 1230 we left for town to sort out Lexxie’s birthday present. We parked in Castle Street and wandered over. Lexxie went nuts when she started picking her bear’s skin, her heart, her clothes and her accessories. Soon we had a little Rose-May. Lexxie was extremely happy. The store got everyone to sing happy birthday to her too. Tom got a small bear too on the premise he’d do extra chores upon getting home. We then left, visited my uncle’s shop, had a coffee with him and then met up with Keith. We had another coffee with him and then gave my sister a lift to my gran’s. It was time to start saying our goodbyes. After my gran’s it was off to see my father. Then a short stop at Tescos petrol station and back to Kai’s mums. We found dinner cooking, we were grateful and slightly annoyed, we were supposed to cook. It was still kind of her uncle though. We chatted with him and with her step dad. Sorted things out, put the kids to bed, waited up for her mum and then we too retired.

Tuesday 29th

We drove home. Traffic Jams between Stafford and Birmingham. Enough said really. We got in at 1800 and just collapsed in a heap. Work beckoned for me in the morning.

Wednesday 30th

I came, I saw, I worked. I went to the cinema. Lexxie was bouncing, enjoying her birthday. We watched Pirates of the Carribean 3. It was good. Gyarr! Much better than the second one imho. Now we’re home. We’ve eaten cake and the birthday girl is in bed. Thats it for me I think. Work again tomorrow.

I’ve been busy and not so busy the last few days. I’ve seen friends, tidied, worked, played computer games, ran mini rpg sessions, cooked, dealt with smalls, watched movies, played card games, worked some more, watched a hell of a lot of you tube (grr), caught up on some fantasy reading (not that sort you filthy minded heathens! Oh right, I am a filthy minded heathen, nevermind then) and listened to music. I’ve been so busy that I found some solice in this quote:

“God put me on Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I’m so far behind I will never die!” - Unknown

However I may have found a cure or possible curse (anyone else notice that the only difference between a cure and a curse is a misplaced ’s’?) to this with my wild experimentation….Coffee. Terry Pratchett was plainly talking about the effect this stuff has when he described Knurd and Klatchian Coffee.

I had my first dose of this stuff (£2 a bag at my local Sainsburys) at about 2pm today, I’m still buzzing. Now given I drink on average an 8 cup Cafetiere twice a day every weekday, I’m no stranger to the coffee kick. However I only had half a pot of this stuff and it’s still working….. I’ve stopped twitching quite as much but dang what a rush! At least I’m not a deranged caffeine addicted spider…..(the side image shows caffeine’s effects on spids….)
Currently I’m waiting for the truck load of caffeine to wear off and hit me….which led me to the next quote:

“If everything is coming your way then you’re in the wrong lane.” - Unknown

I’m hoping I’ll change lanes before the high wears off…

Oh and feel free to share some quotes you feel are amusing or approriate in my comments.

Amish Paradise Weird Al Music Vid.

Smells Like Nirvana Weird Al Music Vid.

Like A Surgeon Weird Al Music Vid.

Tom Lehrer 1 - Video of the man himself in concert…. (Part 1 of 2)

Tom Lehrer 2 - (Part 2 of 2)

Type O Negative - I Don’t Wanna Be Me

Over the Hills and Far Away - Nightwish

Phantom Of The Opera - Nightwish (Fanmade video but not bad….)

Sonne mmmm Fairy tales…but they do make such fun vids!

Ok thats enough from me. Feel free to comment up you’re favourite vids on you tube and I’ll watch em and post a comment on it myself.

Last night I went out on a scouting mission, my aim - to find out what consitituted a rock club for our new home.

Wanting to push my luck I donned my kilt, slipped on a good Cyberdog T-shirt, my flashy belt and my long coat. Kai approved of the outfit. Shortly after my ride turned up, our friend T had offered to be my Gurkha guide for the evening - along with her bf coming up for the weekend from London. So, a cup of tea and a short chat later and we were on our way….to her house. We had to wait for the bf to arrive first. The wait was not a long one and we had some red wine and conversation to help pass the time. When he did arrive T. went and got into her ‘hiking’ gear and I sat and chatted with the bloke. I was impressed, he reminds me of Red Phil of Edinburgh, but with a longer beard! Overall a very nice bloke. Oh and he’s not the messiah!
Anyway, I digress, we all piled into the man’s car and set off to the fabled Shangri-la, also known as the 2 Pigs…
We arrived just after 10pm, I think. I was introduced to a few people very friendly people, all good, but that was after I got stopped by the club’s doorman…..

Dm: ‘You a true Scotsman?’
Me: ‘Aye. Any problem with that?’
Dm: ‘Ah’m no trying to be funny, and I don’t want a look to prove it.’
Me: ‘Thats ok with me.’
DM: ‘Where you from?’
Me: ‘Edinburgh’
Dm: ‘Oh god, I’m from Glenrothes…’

He let me in after that… I can’t seem to escape them, even down here.
And yes, I normally do wander around as a true Scotsman when I wear my kilt. Well, Kai’s never complained

Anyway, the club, yes, drinks were ok, pretty standard stuff, people were friendly, all good there. Layout, reminded me a little of Opium in Edinburgh, (upstairs and a downstairs), though dancefloors on both. Downstairs was more the metal, stuff like NIN and Marilyn Manson. Upstairs (and annoyingly, I didn’t make it up there) was the Goth/EBM/Industrial floor. I had a good time out overal, and I’d recommend it for other visitors if they are down when it’s on. T’s bf gave me a lift home after the night out. Kai was already in bed by the time I staggered in.

Police officer: Yaw rite?
Driver: ‘maw rite.
Yeshoor?
Aye.
Zisyoors?
Zwitmine ?
Ris caur
Sibrurn laws
Wers heeren?
Raboozers.
Yebeen garglin’?
Jissa cupple.
Yur stoatin’.
Naw’mno’
Ye urstoatin’
Umnoe.
Geezyer licence.
‘Vno Goatwan.
Geroot racaur.
Whiffur?
‘Mapolis.
Ommigoad.
Geroot Ren.
Awrite, ‘mcomin’
Blawintaethis.
‘Mgonny Besik.
Noanme Yurno.
‘Mawrite Noo.
Getna Paddywagon.
Wer Wigaun?
Ra Jile.
Ohmigoad, rawife’ll murder me.
Getna Wagon.
Aw, Neveragain.
Ratsit furme.

Comments on a postcard with your translations….

Oh and for this one I’ll be screening your comments, I’ll post them later, promise but I want to see how well you understand this missing link dialect…

The very secret diaries of Lord of the Rings….

Secret Diaries