Hi there. If you've found your way here by friendsfriends browsing or because we've had a conversation elsewhere or for whatever other reason, you might be wondering where all the content is. That would be because this journal is mostly friends-only (for the LJ definition of "friends", anyway). Any unlocked content is likely to be either ranting about the politics in this country (this coutry being Ireland) or fairly inane stuff.

I'm more than happy to friend back if I feel we have something in common, but please comment in this post and let me know who you are - I don't add back automatically!

My posts mostly consist of ramblings about my personal life and do contain the odd bit of language.

Sung to the tune of Twelve Days of Christmas and possibly only of interest to those that walk along the Kelvin walkway regularly....

( Silliness ensuesCollapse )

Have just returned from dropping himself off at the airport. You'll all be glad to hear that he doesn't seem to have forgotten anything (detailed lists were written and marked off as we packed) and the missing toiletries were found (behind the mop bucket, bizarrely). Check in closed at 11.30 and we had a chilled morning doing the Guardian quiz over breakfast (not dumb) before loading the car and getting to the airport for 10.30. We started saying our farewells, Michael declared he would check in and then spend a happy hour perusing the airport bookshop and grab a Starbucks, hoisted his new and snazzy rucksack over his shoulder....at which point the strap snapped. Upon further investigation, the stitching on the main straps was so flimsy, that the second strap would probably go the instant M tried carrying the entire weight of the bag with it and it quickly became apparent that a replacement had to be found and quick. First, M went into the terminal to see if he could buy anything there, but of course all the shops are past security. So we hopped back in the car and started driving homeward to get another rucksack from there. Of course, we didn't know if everything would fit into the back-up bag and would leave us on a VERY tight schedule, plus we remembered that there's a match at Ibrox today and that heading home might get us into football traffic. I suggested trying Braehead and by the power of iPhone magic, we found a North Face shop at Xscape where - lo and behold - they had a good selection of rucksacks including one as big as the broken one with a day pack attached. Of course, it was three times the price of the original one, but it was there and the stitching looked nice and secure. So...I ran out to the car and started emptying the packed bag while M paid for the new one, then quickly filled it, spent another minute or so making sure we'd found all the hidden compartments in the original bag and emptied those and then jumped back in the car and floored it. We made it back to the airport with about 20 minutes to spare, had a much briefer than intended good bye and M raced off to the very, very long queue at the EasyJet terminal and checked in in the nick of time.

He seems to have made it onto the plane and if this is means that they've got the compulsory travelling disaster out of the way, then so much the better. That said, I'm slightly peeved since we spent quite a bit of time yesterday and this morning packing the bag intelligently and adjusting all the bits that could be adjusted for maximum comfort, etc. So now I have a bag with perfectly adjusted straps and clasps and a broken strap in the boot of the car. I suppose I'd better go looking for the receipt for it...

f4f3 has just posted the details of our London adventures, such as they are, here!

For those of you in the vicinity, f4f3 and I will be in London the weekend of July 18th so that we can put himself on a pedestal (details here). It'll be fun! It'll also be my birthday, so there are plans for a birthday dinner type thing once he climbs back down at 8pm.

If anyone fancies an art/birthday do combo on July 18th, starting in Trafalgar Square and finishing....ummmm....somewhere else....give us a shout so we know how many to book a table for. It'd be great to have lots of people pointing and laughing supporting M while he's up there and if we can get together a bit of a birthday bash for me, then so much the better!

I finished my two-at-a-time, magic loopy Twilight socks while I was in Ireland. Behold:

f4f3 and I went to Crarae Gardens to make the best of the sunshine and see how the rhododendrons are doing today. And I played with my macro lens. A lot. Ummm...you'll have to wait for f4f3 to post the non-close ups.





Clicking the photies takes you to the Flickr page.

My friend Karina just linked to this from her blog, and I thought I'd share:

This is not a riot: an effective, nonviolent response to attacks by riot police

Especially the clips and the addendum about the birth of the tactic are fascinating.

(Post unlocked, because political posts ought to be)

Clicking on the Absinthe Fairy will take you to the full set. :)



( Some of my favourites behind the cutCollapse )