splatblog

All change

2010-02-04T09:51:00.005Z

Interesting times.

So, at the tail end of last year, my good friend - and flatmate of the past three and a half years - Hamish very nervously told me that his partner had been invited to apply for a job in Wick and that they were seriously thinking about moving there. Late last month they went north to see the place, and for Craig's interview and (unsurprisingly to anyone who's heard him talk about his work) Wick have snapped him up. They're relocating in April.

After some thought about what to do next, I've decided that I'm moving too. Our flat in Stockbridge is lovely, but it's at the upper end of what I can afford* and Edinburgh is teeming with other lovely places to live. Also (at the risk of jinxing things) I hope to be moving in with my partner before too long, and his pets are apparently not welcome in the flat by our current landlord. So while initially staying put seemed the ideal, on consideration it seems less attractive than taking the opportunity to move somewhere new.

It's funny how these unexpected changes can turn into really exciting possibilities. Nothing (except moving out) is set in stone yet but plans are coming together. It looks like, come April, I'll put myself in a kind of "parking orbit" around Edinburgh. All being well I plan on putting the bulk of my belongings into storage, and temporarily moving in with another friend who has a small (and cheap) furnished room going in her flat. I'm excited about that in itself because we've lived together before and enjoyed it, and because - while the room will be small - the flat is lovely and very well located for me. I'm also excited about the sense of potential that kind of a temporary move will open up in front of me.

Not everybody 'gets' this but I get very excited about possibilities... I love the thought of spending a few months not really tied to anywhere, looking around for where to make my next home, not least because (I hope) that home will be shared with Joe and - as well as being the most exciting prospect of all! - that will make it a completely different shape to anywhere I've lived before...

So its all change for my physical home... and this morning I learned of developments which will change my electronic home too. After six and a half years of publishing this blog through Blogger, the FTP publication channel that I use is being closed down. Apparently I'm one of only 0.5% of Blogger users relying on FTP publication and supporting us is hampering their plans to develop the platform so from next month it'll no longer be possible to update Blogger blogs over FTP.

I'm fine with that.

It would be easy to get all bent out of shape about the change, but I can see how my use of their tools isn't really what they were designed for, and (like with the flat) I'm excited about looking for a way to do this differently - right from ~~day one~~** the beginning my blog has been structurally a kludge and to be perfectly honest I'm surprised the basic form of the blog has lasted this long***. Time for something new... though I don't know what yet - suggestions welcome!

Wherever "splateagle.com - blog" finds its new home the chances are that you folk out there on the other side of the screen will notice little if any visual evidence of the change. There'll probably be some different typesetting and that little orange logo (which you hadn't noticed anyway) will disappear from the top right of the page. Happily one big difference to moving house online over the real world is that the address travels with you, so while the blog will have a new home, your route to come and visit won't change.

So, so long Blogger, and thanks for all the fish.

*mid-range for the city, cost-wise and imo very reasonable for what it is... although my recent searches have turned up some similar places for markedly less. Probably reflects the change in the economy since we signed our lease
**I didn't get the blog part of the site up and running until a month of so into the life of the website and (sadly) the wonderful wayback machine didn't notice and record splateagle.com until a few months after that... I think it's still fun to see back in time like that though, even if though the great web archive doesn't save the old graphics...
***Another reason I really don't mind being turfed out of my blog's electronic home since 2003, is that Blogger are very kindly helping me pack, they're offering a range of migration assistance for us tiny percentage of affected users, and I can take all my archives with me when I go. Very nicely handled if you ask me.

new old content

2010-01-17T15:41:00.003Z

I missed having them to point to so I'm putting back the photo albums of my old house and the renovation I did. It might seem odd since the oldest of them goes back around 8 years now but I like having them there.

Two new style albums are planned, the first one is up now with a handful of scanned photos from the earliest stages of the project. It's as close as I can get to "before", I'll bung up the "after" album later but right now I'm late for doing things out in the real world.

Going back over these photos reminds me how much I enjoyed working on the house. Hopefully I'll get to do that again someday (only with the benefit of everything I learned from the first one!)

Guisachan album

2009-12-08T20:52:00.002Z

How on Earth is it December?!

Right. Still haven't written all the comments for that last Japan album (sorry!) but I have knocked together a collection of snaps from mine and Joe's little holiday in the highlands last month, you can find it linked on the pictures page, but be warned: there are a few gratuitous happy couple photos in there.

Joe

2009-11-17T23:45:00.004Z

Up until now I've held off blogging about this. Mostly I think because I've been busy but also in part because it's kinda personal, and because I didn't want to sound daft... but thinking about it today I realised that one of the main purposes of this page (if it can be said to have one) is for me to be able to read about past points in my life. I really enjoy dipping into the archives now and then and I'm certain that in years to come I'll want to revisit this point in my life often.

So enough with the sidelong references and coyness. Here's a little post about my fella.

Two months ago (on my birthday) a man I didn't know sent me a message on the internet. At the time that wasn't in itself unusual, but the message was. Straight away I got a sense of someone different, and interested in getting to know me, and who I was very interested in getting to know... Hindsight is 20/20 but I'd like to think I recognised something special even in those few lines of text. We chatted online for a little while, then spoke on the phone, all the while with this exciting sense of having met someone... well, exciting.

A few days later we met in person, we'd arranged to meet for a pint at my local in the evening, after I'd got back from a few days away with work... meetings ran over and I wound up having to catch a later train, the journey North felt the longest it ever has even though I've spent more time travelling it on plenty of occasions. We rescheduled from an optimistic 6pm to a more realistic 7, giving me time to drop my bags at home, shower, change ...and breathe.

I reached the pub first, ordered a pint of Trade Winds, and had just taken a mouthful when Joe walked in. He says that's his enduring first impression of me: man supping a pint. I reckon it's a fairly accurate one. I'm not describing for you lot my first impression of Joe because it's private and I won't need reminding. It always makes me smile thinking about that moment.

We spent a wonderful evening together, both with a growing sense of having stumbled into something special and unlike anything that had come before... That same feeling keeps growing as we get to know each other better... One of my Dad's many wise -isms has been echoing in my head a lot lately: love isn't something you fall in, it's something you make. The feeling I have around Joe is that we're making something amazing together.

So two months in, we've each met the other's families, and each felt welcomed and at ease. We've begun introducing each others' friends to each other and so far they all seem a very compatible bunch which is fun since (for both of us) they're very important. I like the idea of his friends and my friends gradually just becoming our friends...

Speaking of friends they've all been really lovely with Joe so far too... in fact a few of them were invited along to his birthday last weekend and Hamish (who by dint of being my flatmate as well as my friend has seen more of Joe than anyone else in my life so far) made him a card:

Inside the card Hame thanks Joe and calls him "heaven sent" for making me so happy. So no pressure then :D ...but seriously it's wonderful to me that all the other important people in my life (who've met him so far*) seem to enjoy this man's company almost as much as I do.

This Friday Joe and I are going on holiday together. We're off up into the highlands for a few days. I'm giddily excited about it, even though I fully expect constant rain. With luck we'll manage to take some photos and if we do I'll post an album** so those of you who live far away can see this man I'm talking about... In the meantime there's a new reason for my long lapses between posts (not that I needed one). Sorry about that, but if it makes it any better it is a very happy one.

*I'm acutely aware of the important people in my life who - due to geography - might not get to meet Joe for months or even years... I'm not forgetting you guys, and I'm looking forward to you meeting him too
**along with the long delayed last Japanese album, promise!

Is it that time already?

2009-11-09T08:30:00.003Z

Winter it seems. Well late autumn certainly. Frost greeted me for the first time in months when I opened the blinds this morning. I smiled. Last night I'd finally got round to taking down the hanging baskets from either side of our front door (they've been giving a good show all summer in spite of suffering with some nasty root eating bugs early on) and rescued the four (of six) surviving fuchsia, potting them up as houseplants to over-winter. Fingers crossed they'll do well, but I'm dead chuffed I got them in before the first frost.

In other news I'm eagerly anticipating a short holiday with my man at the end of the month. We went walking boot shopping together on Saturday to get his first pair of proper hillwalking boots. Exciting stuff. It is November so we're unlikely to do anything too challenging but being properly shod matters.

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm in love? ;) I'm not going to go on about it at length partly because I've already bored most of you about it in person/via email/on the phone quite enough, and partly 'cus there's not much to say beyond that he's called Joe, he makes me happier than I ever imagined possible, and he tells me the feeling is mutual.

with a hey ho the wind and the rain...

2009-10-05T08:52:00.002+01:00

Had another fantastic weekend, totally indolent on Friday night and all day Sunday but Saturday was spent walking in the rolling hills of the Borders while the weather tried alternately to bake, drown or ... damn I can't think of a metaphorical way of saying blown off the hill by gale force winds :D

We knew it was going to be windy before we set out but there kept being these tantalising sunny spells and it just felt like a day to be outside. Happily we didn't go anywhere with a lot of high ground or I think I really would have been blown away, but we battled through the teeth of the gale and into a brilliantly lit wooded valley with a grand house and a ruin hidden away in it. It rained on us at intervals but they were short ones and we didn't mind.

I've been meaning to explore the Borders more for years - it's a very pretty part of the world, and right on my doorstep, but left to my own devices I've always gravitated north in the past so it's good to have an excuse to discover some new ground...

breathless

2009-09-27T15:46:00.004+01:00

I've been having an unutterably wonderful time the past few days... I'm struggling to put anything into words that even begins to express just how good I'm feeling, but the title is a start.

I want to mark this point in my life somehow and at the same time there are details that I'm not ready to share here yet. Since my blog is - in ways - a selfish exercise (written as much for my future self as for any present reader) I'm conscious that this means some people will find this (and possibly a few more) entries frustratingly cryptic. Some of you will know what I'm on about and perhaps read this and smile knowingly (or shake your heads wryly, depending on how much of my optimism you share) others will be totally mystified! To anyone in that second group, I'm sorry, bear with me. I'll explain myself in time... If you like guessing then conjectures can be drawn from certain changes to the links and about me pages that I made this morning... if you don't like guessing of course you can phone up and ask me what on earth I'm blethering about... or (if you don't have my number) you can just wait and see ;)

I'm supposed to be working (yes, on a Sunday, damnit! This is not the source of my joy...) I'll get back to it in a second but I needed to put something down about this even though I'm not really saying anything, otherwise I'll just spend all day staring into space with a mad grin on my face.

[laughs at self]

It's ridiculous, but I don't care. I'm very happy

swingin' the world by the tail

2009-09-21T23:05:00.002+01:00

Edinburgh is run through with a warm wind, this time of year it often fills the city. It sweeps through the city in waves and makes me restless... but in a good way!

I know it would be arrogant to assume a connection but every year around this time, the city does this - a kind of autumnal seasonal change that resonates really well with my mood after my birthday. It feels similar to the air moving past you at sea - oceanic transport has that enlivening sense of change and adventure and the autumn winds in Edinburgh create a similar mood... of course it's just coincidence that this happens after my birthday (which again this year has been a real source of joy) but it feels like the beginning of an adventure... and I like that

25 baby!

2009-09-17T08:56:00.004+01:00

Happy birthday to me!

Today I am 32, which is a fun number.

Feeling very loved this morning - I've already had lots of texts and emails from around the world, even a (brief) phone call from Australia, all wishing me a happy birthday. The sun is shining too and I have a big grin on my face. There's even a big stack of parcels and envelopes at home which have been arriving over the past few days and which I'm giddily looking forward to sitting down with and opening this evening.

Yep. Happy is the word.

edit just noticed that the RSS feed (and presumably the LJ feed too) doesn't see formatting in the title so it looks like 25 not 2⁵ - serves me right for trying to be all clever

Conflicted

2009-09-16T17:45:00.001+01:00

At home I'm all environmentally responsible with my detergents, largely I'll admit because I like the smell of the ecover stuff most. There is also that warm fuzzy feeling you get from making a small change that might help slow the damage we're doing to the world around us though. Anyway on the side of the washing up liquid bottle is this little drawing:

...and it bothers me. At work we have standard Fairy for washing up and (because I'm still 5 on some levels) it pleases me when I put the bottle down, accidentally-on-purpose squeezing it and a little cloud of bubbles fill the tiny office kitchen. I restrain myself from giggling but I will stand and watch them for a moment and it makes me happy. So I have a hard time reconciling this simple joy with the evil little cartoons on the side of my washing up bottle at home. How can bubbles ever be bad?

Japan 3

2009-09-13T21:10:00.004+01:00

I know I said I wasn't going to announce each album, but I'm announcing this one. Partly that's because Dad mentioned he mostly only checks my blog and doesn't often look at the rest of the site (which is probably true for several people). Mostly though I'm announcing it because I took what I think were some of the best photos of the whole trip on the two days covered by this album, and because I took lots of multiple photo panorama shots which I've spent a sizeable chunk of today merging (easier than it used to be but still takes work)

...

In truth one particular merge (the front of the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima) took most of the time, for some reason the top right corner just wouldn't behave itself. Anyway it's done now and I'm really happy with it. Let me know what you think?

That's what it was!

2009-09-07T08:55:00.001+01:00

Saturday lunchtime I thought a plane was going to crash on my house. We're nowhere near the flight path for Edinburgh airport, but the sound of a jet engine roar filled the house at around half one and grew steadily until eventually I hopped up onto the sofa to peer out of the velux... right into the undercarriage of this!

At the time I thought it must be a smaller aircraft, just implausibly low (Edinburgh doesn't get many long haul landings) but asking at the office over my morning coffee (it turns out I wasn't the only one spooked by it) I find out it was an "approach and go" fly past of Edinburgh by one of the first of these behemoths to enter service. Knowing that, I was able to turn up all kinds of coverage, but none of it quite captures the mix of fascination and mild terror I felt watching it out of the window on Saturday afternoon.

Don't get me wrong: Big machines are cool! I like them. I'm not sure I want them unexpectedly visiting my house though...

Japan pics

2009-09-06T19:42:00.003+01:00

OK. It only took me a little under four months, but I've finally started posting photos from my visit to Japan earlier this year. I'm not going to announce every update I make to the [tiny fanfare] newly revamped pictures section, you can check in periodically yourselves and see when I upload albums. if they're related to current blog posts I might mention them but otherwise just occasionally looking at the grid will tell you if there's anything new to see. However since I've been being nagged (quite justifiably) to post these for months (and since it's the last noteworthy stage of the "grand version 4 overhaul") I figured a post was in order.

So. Japan Album 1. There you go. :)

*For anyone who's interested, I'm still troubleshooting a minor bug in the iPhoto plug-in that builds the smart bit of the albums, it's breaking on certain descriptions which took me ages to work out (it doesn't tell you that's what happening, it just fails to write the code) but new albums should be a relatively quick (and therefore more regular) process once I get that licked.

splateagle.com v4.0.1

2009-09-06T14:00:00.003+01:00

Right. Everything except the new photos section is now up. Yes I realise the photos section is the one you've all been patiently waiting for me to update since May, but it's not ready yet so there. The new links page is up though so when my attention drifts again* you'll all be able to find other things to go and look at - isn't that lovely?

There are still some jumpy page-width issues happening between the different sections which bothers me... but otherwise I'm happy with how smoothly things have gone considering I rebuilt every page using a totally different (and new to me) markup. Of course now one of you Windows users will email and tell me you can't see the site at all anymore or some such...

OK. Lunch. Then, lightbox album time! woo yeah!

*not before I've fixed the photos page, I promise!

takes deep breath, crosses fingers

2009-09-06T02:44:00.002+01:00

I just wiped my entire site and uploaded a shiny sleek new version... the easy bits at least, I'm still grappling with Javascript and CSS for a couple of the sections but I've (hopefully) managed to wrestle the blogger code into the new page template (still a few rough edges but I think it should work.

...

so here goes

Someone else's wise words

2009-09-03T14:34:00.003+01:00

Depending how clued in you are, you may have read this years ago when it was written, but I hadn't until today. The great information stream deposited me in that particular stored eddy of Adams' (sadly lost) consciousness just now while I was (uncharacteristically) lunching at my desk* and it swirled around me in that magical way that something obvious articulated clearly for the first time does.

So I thought I'd share it in case anyone else had missed out too.

*Because it's tipping down and I had stuff to do in town, but still it's an activity that makes me more-than-usually wilful about not doing any work for the hour I'm allocated as my own time each workday

it's what one hippopotamus sings to another hippopotamus

2009-08-16T23:47:00.006+01:00

I have been doing The Festival. 's good.

For some reason all the stuff I've made plans to see so far wound up being within a densely packed six day block (from Thursday to Tuesday) and I'm ~~about half way~~* most of the way through now. So far I have seen (presented for your perusal in hrefs and parentheses) Janeane Garafalo (who was far funnier than that review sounds when I saw her three days later, if just as unfocussed and rambling), The Penny Dreadfuls (surreally hilarious as ever), Castle Rocks Breakdance Championships (link goes to a long-ish youtube-grade video of the final which does not do it justice and which has such dreadful sound I'd recommend muting it, but is the best thing I could find. Not the kind of event that gets reviews it seems... utterly spectacular anyhow), Words with A L Kennedy (link is a pleasing counterpoint to the previous, being Ms Kennedy writing about it herself in the Independent, show was excellent but could have been ten minutes shorter: you spoiled it a little by grafting on a "point" at the end of your engaging musings on language Alison, it didn't need one. I'd still recommend it though), Tom Tom Crew (linked is the same show reviewed when they were warming up earlier this summer down in London. The reviewer's po-faced dismissal of the acrobats makes me think she either doesn't like acrobatics, or wasn't sitting in the front row. I do and was, they're astounding, and it hasn't "all been done before". It's a mind blowing show. I'm going again), and last to date Stephen K Amos: The Feel Good Factor (which I just got home from seeing, and do indeed feel very good after).

So there that's my Festival so far. I'm thoroughly enjoying it - as witnessed by my urge to spend the last hour** scouring up links and writing about it all, rather than going to bed as I should have, what with having work to go to in the morning - and it's only been slightly marred by having a bug of some sort. I'm hoping I haven't either passed that on to anyone, or turned any stomachs with coughs and/or blowings of nose.

No theatre as yet this year which I'd like to rectify. Anyone with a suggestion for that let me know? Monday and Tuesday I have radio recordings to go to (never done that before, quite excited about being in the audience for Just a Minute.) Also several of the shows have engendered desires to either see them again (see above re Tom Tom Crew) or to see other shows that cameoed in them... so there'll be more happening and I might write about that too. Now though I must sleep.

*I started thinking about this post yesterday when that was true, but it isn't now
**I realise that since most of these links take you to articles from the Independent it may not look like I took great pains to find reviews and stuff, but I did, it's just the Indie articles kept being the ones I wanted to link. Even when I disagreed with bits of them.

Picture show

2009-07-28T23:36:00.004+01:00

I'm not often excited about the cinema. I like films a lot, but I'm usually just as happy watching them at home without all those Other People one has to deal with at the cinema. At home I usually get to chose my company and I like that. All the same there's something quite special about seeing a film at the cinema and when I do go I generally enjoy myself.

Tonight I went to meet some friends and see a screening of The Blues Brothers which I was excited about. It's one of those films I've been meaning to see for years and somehow never have. I remember my friend Kris back at school enthusing about it often in classes, at least as far back as 1991 I can distinctly remember listening to him talk about it, and thinking then that I should really see it. He talked about it the way I sometimes talk about The Yellow Submarine and, I suspect, had a similarly verbatim mental recording of it to mine of Submarine*. Somehow 18 years later I still haven't seen it in full, so I was quite excited about seeing it "properly" at the cinema with a good crowd of friends.

When I arrived Anita was already there, and the boards listed the showing we planned to see in the colour that means limited tickets are left. By the time Dave and Doug** arrived it had been sold out so long that they were announcing the fact over the tannoy so that people would stop queuing for it and getting disappointed. A minor difficulty of seeing films with my friends you see is that some of them go to the movies an awful lot, and so they have those unlimited cinema pass thingies, which are great except that you can't book in advance with them.

Happily another of the (rare) films I was actually excited about seeing was (unexpectedly) on, and that wasn't sold out so while everyone else went home to sulk (mostly lightheartedly) Liz and I went to see Moon and it was brilliant.

Afterward I walked back home through a largely empty and slightly damp city. Light drizzle happened just enough to be refreshing and picturesque without ever reaching the point where it made me irritated about getting wet. Instead it just added a sheen to everything so that lights and colours reflected in very engaging ways. I startled a small shrew or vole or something on the corner of Canning Street and slowed to watch the tiny shape bounce off ahead of me in springy leaps along the edge of a building for a few meters before it found a hole to dive into. I like that the nights are getting properly dark again...

I love walking through the city on nights like that when everything looks like the set of a really well shot car commercial: reflective and moody and suggestive of adventure in a way that feels like there should perhaps be a saxophone involved, certainly a well scored soundtrack (I was borrowing Solaris' this evening because it was that sort of night and because, unsurprisingly, it fit well with my post-Moon mood.)

I'm not sure if it's the being intensely visually stimulated for two hours and then tipped out into the night but I often find I'm more-than-usually aware of my surroundings after a good film, and to be fair, I'm pretty aware of them most of the time while I'm walking around***, I think that's one of the reasons Edinburgh's home: it's just so damned pretty all the time.

Bed time for happy Patricks.

*Lost original edit that is, not the DVD release which unsettles me enormously
**Doug having even dressed up for the occasion!
***Except for the parts that are people I know, which I more often than not miss completely

structure appeals to me

2009-07-09T17:37:00.001+01:00

As does good photography. Which is why this makes me happy. Worth a look through them all, there are some really cool ones.

No fair teasing!

2009-07-06T00:18:00.002+01:00

There keep being offstage thunderstorms. The sort where you can hear the heavy rain outside and occasional thunder but no real theatrics. It's very irritating: I love a good thunderstorm but you need to be able to enjoy them and these glancing edges we keep getting just aren't the thing.

c'mon universe, proper storm please! One I can go outside in and watch big bolts of lightning while I get soaked.

Ta.

weekends

2009-07-05T13:00:00.002+01:00

... are somehow never long enough even when they last all week.

A confession (or a realisation)

2009-06-23T21:26:00.000+01:00

So I've been watching The Wonder Years... For nostalgia's sake (not the intended nostalgia of course, I don't remember the 60s, but the 80s I remember very well and watching The Wonder Years when it was new I also remember... in the 80s)

That's not the confession.

The confession/realisation is that I have a huge crush on Kevin Arnold's Dad.

I know. I should hang my head in shame, but it's true! Not to mention a little bit disturbing.

vile

2009-06-17T18:05:00.003+01:00

(with apologies to one very close friend who is most emphatically the exception proving this rule)

Good grief Oasis fans are an unpleasant bunch!

The mediocre Beatles impersonators are playing a concert at Murrayfield tonight and as a consequence the West End was heaving with loud, loutish, rude and unpleasant oiks as I came home from work. I mean I know I'm a bit of a snob and all but even so...

Happily though where I live is unaffected by the infestation... and speaking of infestations, anyone who's heard me utter the words Fungus Gnat recently (or encountered one of the little nostril-diving, plant-damaging horrors while visiting) might be interested to know that I caved in last week and rained down chemical-ey-death on the little buggers. The insecticide says I need to do a follow up dose 10-14 days on so I'm not counting my chickens yet but they seem to be gone. *crosses fingers*

What? a proper update? OK maybe this weekend.

Cake for Breakfast

2009-06-08T23:54:00.002+01:00

We won at the pub quiz. Again. (3rd week in a row now) Go team! Pleasingly decisive this week too (a nine point lead if memory serves).

I like my new Monday night routine (even if I sometimes forget it's happening until after I leave the office). Since I moved from the west end the regular Thursday nights at the pub have kinda dried up - there are plenty of nice pubs near my new place but most of the people I'd want to go and hang out there with live a bit further away, so a regular night is less feasible than it used to be.

The Judge (where we quiz) is a bit of a hike for me (all uphill! though happily that means home is downhill after) but it's among my favourite of the city's pubs and the quiz is really fun (even when we're not on a winning streak).

Happy!

:)

eek!

2009-06-08T10:38:00.004+01:00

As if this weren't worrying enough, this happens, which is frankly terrifying. I've never been more glad to have left Yorkshire behind for good, and I'm ashamed to think my birth place will now be represented in the European parliament by nazis.

Happily the electorate in my adopted home are much saner it seems... well except for those kooky Western Islanders who refuse to count their votes on the Sabbath, meaning the rest of us have to wait... initial results are heartening though for the (paltry*) six seats which represent Scotland. We're looking set to return Nationalists too but ours are not the crazy bigot variety.

I'm genuinely saddened and bewildered at the English results. Roll on independence if that's the way England is headed.

*For comparison, Denmark and Finland get thirteen each, and yet people use "our voice in Europe" as an argument against independence...