Back again

Sorry its been a full month since my last posting. A lot has happened and life has been busy, fun and hectic.

Work wise I expect to meet myself coming back sometime next week as I seem to be travelling all over the place. Shouldn't complain as I would find it intolerable to go into the same office every single day. Today we have our Christmas party - what larks? Going to Le Monde on Gearge Street to overeat, overdrink and make a fool of myself - no change there. I have also done a couple of training courses which have been quite challenging, enjoyable and have also motivated me - which is obviously giving my employer a return on the investment, a win - win situation there.

I have also spent some time travelling between Edinburgh and Newcastle for social reasons, its always nice to go home. I had a fabulous night out in the Powerhouse in Newcastle when John and Edward Grimes (of X Factor fame) were on. I didn't go out until 10.30 in the evening and was still going at 4 am, a real triumph for an oldie like me. The atmosphere was electric and it proved to be one of the most enjoyable nights out in 2009.

As we approach Christmas I find myself getting annoyed at what I describe as 'political correctness gone mad', I firmly believe in respect for the dignity of every human person no matter what there race, colour or creed, but... I get rather annoyed when I see signs saying 'Happy Holidays' this is rather funny really because in attempting to deny the Christian nature of the primary celebration at this time of year in Western Europe they use an adaptation of another Christian phrase 'Holy Day!' (That's one for the advertisers to think about). An article by Yasmin Alibi-Brown (hope I got the spelling right) picked up on the same subject last week and put some of the blame quite firmly back into the hands of those doing the most complaining and to an extent I agree with her. We can have winter lights in our town centres and share them with our friends and colleagues who celebrate other religious festivals at this time of year, they don't need to be exclusively Christmas lights - fair point. However, if you want to send a greeting card because you are celebrating on 25 December at least have the decency to acknowledge the fact that you are celebrating Christmas. Enough of a rant on that subject.

The credit crunch seems to be hitting harder in national terms, we are seeing predicted cuts in expenditure in public services here in Britain. I am thankful that we are not part of the European currency. I have friends in Ireland who work in the public sector and some of them are taking pay cuts of up to 14%. Ireland, like all other members of the European currency does not have the same fiscal flexibility as Britain and they are feeling the pain of the recession in a very direct way. I am unsure as to whether we will be able to avoid that situation or if we are simply delaying it. Last week's pre-budget report was a real disappointment to me. It certainly had pre-election written all over it and does not appear to me to address the current financial situation at all. I don't approve of borrowing our way out of recession, in the end we have to pay for it.

Yesterday was rather enjoyable, a team day at work where we all got together to take stock - where are we now and what about the future - I really did enjoy the interaction with a range of colleagues. It snowed most of the day here in Edinburgh, fortunately it did not lie on the streets but Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park looked rather splendid with a dusting of snow over it. It kind of put me in the right mood for our works do today.

I hope to get back before the end of the year, unfortunately I am not that reliable with this blog just now so I am taking this opportunity to offer you all the compliments of the season. May you all have a very Happy Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010. For those of you who will not be offended let us rejoice: 'Christus Natus Est!'

Number 4

Hello good folks. Sorry it has been such a long time since my last blog.

I had a few days of flu like symptoms before heading off on vacation. Was it swine flu - you may well ask - I don't really know but I did feel awful for a few days.

I did some travelling at the end of September into early October, went off to Lourdes to do my annual voluntary stint. I worked at the airport for ten days helping people who are sick or have disabilities on and off the aircraft. This involved physically carrying some wheelchair users and giving an arm of support to others. As usual it was good fun working with an international team of volunteers my dear friends Paul and Aine from Waterford, Felice from Italy and a range of other Italian, Spanish, Australian and French friends. It did my French a lot of good and helped to develop my basic knowledge of Italian. I worked with a new friend Marco who is a forensics officer in the police in Rome, he and I worked well together.

In addition to the work there is lots of time for socialising. Some of my Italian Priest friends, Don Pietro, Don Enzo and Don Stephano had brought lots of interesting food for sharing. We visit a small community of Italian Nuns who we have all known since we were in Seminary and take gifts of food and wine to them. The first evening we had a real banquet as Pietro had brought a suckling pig from Sardinia. We ate Bruschetta, Mushroom Risotto, suckling pig with roasted veg, pears in chocolate sauce and then some very nice Italian cheeses followed by a liqueur from Sardinia called Mirto.

A considerable amount of time was spent eating. My Dutch friend Marietta who lives in Lourdes invited me for lunch one day and she really is a very good cook. Lunch lasted from about 1 pm through till about 6 pm. i then had to go on to meet some other friends for dinner, this resulted in me grazing from lunchtime right through till 10 pm - quite a good day!

I got back and returned to work fully refreshed and have travelled arounf Scotland doing my stuff. Boy does time fly. Last week I attended a training course on project management here in Edinburgh. It was a tough week and I will find out in about six weeks if I passed the exam at the end of the course.

For the first time I have been taking an interest in the X Factor - whatever next?

Sorry this is short and sweet. I did pick up a quote from Abraham Lincoln recently, here goes: 'It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than it is to open one's mouth and remove all doubt'.

Till next time.

No. 3

Well here I am at the end of a really lazy weekend in Edinburgh. What exactly have I done over this weekend? Not much to be truthful. On Saturday I spent much of the morning in the flat and then went off to the gym full of good intentions, had a bit of a work out and spent more time in the jacuzzi and sauna than anywhere else. In the afternoon I did some boring shopping. Did you know that it is now possible to buy lo-energy spotlight bulbs, they are slightly more expensive than other lo-energy bulbs. I replaced the three 100 watt bulbs in the kitchen with these 100 w equivalent which use about 12 w each, on my reckoning a saving of 274 watts against the old ones. I can proudly tell you that every light bulb except my desk lamp (which is a small halogen model) is now lo-energy.



Sunday has been slightly less exciting than Saturday. The only thing I bought today was a newspaper. I have just finished reading it and have also completed the sudoku and godoku in the magazine.



News wise our political masters in Westminster continue to dig themselves into deeper holes, have they never heard of the expresssion 'throw the shovel away'?



I did some preparatory cooking this evening and prepared a salad and fruit salad for lunch tomorrow, trying to follow the principles of economy gastronomy and to stick to something like a decent diet. I am working on the basis of 'failing to prepare is preparing to fail', if I make good healthy meals to take with me I usually don't pig out on unhealthy rubbish during the day. Sticking to the subject of food, I can tell you that we have a bumper harvest of English plums this year. I know because I heard all about it on farming today earlier in the week. The farmers are having problems shifting them because last year a late frost spoilt them and the supermarkets all placed their orders with Spanish farmers because they were let down last year. Now we really need to get a grip and accept that nature is sometimes unkind to us. Anyway I made the effort to look out some English plums (which incidentally here in Scotland are labelled British - I don't know if plums grow this far north). I managed to buy a punnet in Morrisons for only £1. They were Victoria Plums, they taste absolutely delicious and are far superior to the Spanish plums that are for sale along side them. So go on get yourself out there and buy some beautiful English plums, support British farmers. If we let these supermarkets dictate what we can have these beautiful plums will disappear forever, the simple economic principle of no demand = no supply will lead to farmers growing something else instead. Enough about my plums for now.



I forgot to mention a novelty idea I came across in Holyrood Park at the beginning of the Edinburgh Festival which has ended this evening with a wonderful fireworks display, most of which I could observe from the comfort of my front room. Anyway, it was the Lure Coursing weekend mentioned in the my first post. I went to buy a sandwich and a coffee. The majority of the catering vans were from the same firm selling burgers etc, except for two. One was selling fish and chips and the other was selling steak sandwiches. I opted for a steak sandwich from the aptly named 'well hung and tender beef' company. Now this company really has got its marketing spot on, the name does grab the attention of most people simply for the novelty factor. They also sold teas and coffees. I opted for a coffee which was presented in a decent quality plastic mug and cost £2. All refills for £1. Well, the mug has the company name emblazoned on both sides so I now have a real attention grabbing mug for use at work.



Well I shall sign off now, leaving you with the 'Irish Blessing' on my coffee mug here at home; 'As you slide down the bannister of life may the splinters never point in the wrong direction'.

Second post

Hello people, its been some time since my last post, which incidentally was my first post. So this one is called second post - how original! We need to worry when I start one off called the last post, maybe some of you will give a sigh of relief.

Since I last wrote the Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie air disaster has been released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds and sent back to Libya. The kerfuffle continues as accusations about trade deals fly about and politicians attempt to score points against each other. I offer you my humble opinion. The Scottish justice secretary took a brave decision to release this dying man on the grounds of compassion. Compassionate release is an integral part of the justice system within the UK and there are a number of precedents for such release. The fact that there would be both a national and international reaction to the release obviously made the decision all the more difficult. I listened to the justice secretary's speech announcing the release and was impressed with his rational approach to the situation. I did send him an email offering my support. The only error of judgement in his speach was to say that the prisoner is now being judged by a 'higher order', this implies that his prostate cancer is a punishment and therefore implies that cancer is a punishment to anyone from a higher order. Notwithstanding this one error in the speech, he made a decision and has acknowledged sole responsibility for making it. I hope that we were told the truth, if we were I fully support this release.

I celebrated my 44th birthday last week. The highlight of the day was receiving hand made cards from my nieces in Australia one was five yesterday and the other will be seven in November. The time and effort they put into it and the 'I love you' is so moving from those so young. My sister also used a painting by the youngest one to wrap my present which was a really nice touch. At the weekend I returned to my native and beloved North East of England for a long weekend. The original plan was to go camping in the lake district. The weather forecast put an end to that plan, and they were spot on the lakes experienced torrential rain for the whole weekend. Instead I went off to Beamish open air museum to finish off my visit which I started last Easter. I visited the manor house, the old engine works and walked through the victorian park. Beamish is really good value as you buy your ticket and if you gift aid the payment it becomes a one year pass which you can use as many times as you like. The Royal yacht Brittania has a similar deal at Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh.

I did some long dog walks. For the first time ever I went down to Crimdon Dene, which is a really beautiful stretch of coast near Peterlee in County Durham. Near the Dene itself are a couple of caravan parks, the Dene is a well kept nature reserve and then you have the beach. It was quiet and peaceful giving lots of time to think, I find the crashing of the waves both soothing and inspiring. Its strange but my best thoughts and ideas are usually generated near water, either when walking or in the shower! Enough said about the shower....

On Monday evening I met up with some friends in Whickham who I last saw on New Years eve. We had an Indian meal in a restaurant and shared stories from our summer holidays. There were eight of us out and six people had been on a cruise over the summer, two of us had been camping in Scotland. I believe we had the better time in Scotland. I got back to Edinburgh on Tuesday about lunchtime and hit my domestic chores. I did not make much of an impression as this weekend is also set aside for domesticity.

About two weeks ago I was driving through Edinburgh listening to Radio Scotland, it was a a Saturday morning. The female presenter from the BBC2 programme Economy Gastronomy was being interviewed. This was my first knowledge of Economy Gastronomy and I set the digi box to record the series. I have now seen two editions. One involved a family of seven spending in excess of £400 per week on food shopping. The presenters gave then some tips, recipe ideas and a budget of £160 for the week. The family managed on this. The next edition involved a group of five students from Cambridge, this produced a good saving too. I wonder how they would sort me out. I guess saving a single person about £20 per week does not make good tv. I have enjoyed these programmes so far and have picked up some good ideas from them both as money saving tips and new recipes. You might find it worth watching.

I said I would end these blogs with an inspiring phrase from someone, so here goes: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.— Maya Angelou

Until next time.

First Post

Hello and welcome to Pink Elephants on the move.

I have had quite an interesting week so far. Sunday was spent in Holyrood Park with my Whippet, Rush. We were at the Lure Coursing event in the park. Rush was not in the mood for chasing a rag around a field. We spent the day watching the races and followed it right through to the prize giving at about 5pm. We got back to the flat and Rush decided it would be fun to chase a cat around the car park . Edinburgh is lively just now with the Festival getting in to full swing, the Mela took place in Pilrig Park last weekend and was very well attended.

Anyway on Monday I had an early start, leaving the flat at 6.00 am. I collected a colleague along the road and went on to collect another. We waited outside of his flat and decided to give him a call on the mobile, we woke him up. Some twenty minutes later we were on the road heading for a day in Aberdeen. This was a long day and I won't go into the detail of the work as you might not have signed the official secrets act. In the evening we drove up to Elgin in Morayshire, my first visit that far North on the east side. Stayed in a lovely hotel and had a very nice dinner and an early night. Spent Tuesday in Elgin and drove back to Edinburgh late afternoon arriving in Auld Reekie about 7pm.

Yesterday was spent in Dunfermline in the beautiful kingdom of Fife and was interesting, exhausting and sometimes quite funny too. Last night I went to the temple of the body the Virgin Active and had a good work out and then ruined it with chicken kiev and a few glasses of red wine. You will find as we tread through this world together that I, like many others I know, continuously work to lose weight and get fit. It is a battle that gets more difficult as I rather regrettably acknowledge middle age.

Today has been rather sedate in comparison to the previous three days. I have spent most of the day sitting at my work laptop writing up my findings from the previous three days. I wish I was more skilled at interpreting my own notes and able to do it in half the time.

I only follow one other blog on a regular basis and will tell you about it in my next one, hopefully with a link if that is allowed. The guy, Ian Robinson, was a local radio presenter when I lived in Newcastle and usually posts some really interesting gems. I rather like to attach quotations to the signature of my emails, I usually use different one's for work and home and try to change them regularly. I was delighted to see a long list of them on Ian's blog earlier today. I will share some with you as I get into this. the current one on my personal email is 'Whether you believe you can or you can't do something - you are right!' Henry Ford.

I am off to the gym now for a swim and a relaxing sauna.