:: Snow pix

Here are some photos from the weekend:

First a "white hell" shot of Bertie in a slight blizzard. It was quite dark, but I turned the flash off after discovering I'd taken a photo of lots of bright white lumps. 

And a few from Cramond: 

 

Bright and sunny, but snow right to the water's edge.

Brrr. On the left, across the River Almond, the little Cramond ferryboat is tied up ... you can't see it, it's too dark. It's closed until further notice - ie forever - which is a shame. It was lovely being rowed across the river for 50p. 

The goose in the foreground and the swan just off to the side are obviously King Pins of Cramond. They had followed a couple with a small, nervous dog all the way from the boat sheds, quite a distance, walking quite slowly because of the slippery snow, but menacingly in a Jaws "dum da dum da dum da" kind of way. Bertie was terrified when the swan hissed at him, amusing considering he'd been excitedly chasing swans just the day before.

:: winter wonderland

Well I got my wish -- I was walking Bertie in the Braid Hills park when it started snowing seriously, on Sunday that was. There's still snow in my back yard, but only because it doesn't get much sun in winter. We had some good walks over the weekend. Saturday I drove out to Gullane and walked along the Bents past the golf links. Then on the way home we stopped off at Holyrood Park. Sunday was Braid Hills, and Monday Cramond -- where snow was lying on the sand, right down to the water's edge.

Saturday's visit to Holyrood Park resulted in me booking a holiday to Greece. I was just loading Bertie into the car (wet and in disgrace after dashing into the pond in pursuit of swans and nearly catching them) when a young woman came up and asked for a lift. She'd climbed Arthur's Seat from the other side of the park and had gotten lost coming down. It was almost sunset and she wasn't wearing a jacket, poor thing. So I gave her a lift, and it turned out she was Greek! I said I was thinking of visiting Greece, blah blah, and when I said Halki, she nearly leapt out of her seat with excitement. "Oh that would be perfect! You'd love it!" etc. So I've booked! I'm going! It'll be May 7, for a week. The flight (to Rhodes, the nearest airport) leaves from Gatwick, so I'm also going to spend some time in London catching up with friends and seeing the sights.

I'll post some photos tomorrow, of snow and swans.

:: brr

It's fuh-reeeezing. Last week it was so balmy it was actually warmer here than on the Mediterranean. And now it's positively arctic. They're having blizzards further north, and in England too, but here it's just plain cold -- icy and clear. I like it -- sunshine is good, dry is good -- but it would have been nice to have some snow. I never used to bother much about the weather, but now I'm out walking three times a day it's become a real issue. A rain and wind combo makes me want to train Bertie to use a flush toilet, but a violent storm is thrilling. Fog is mysterious and great for photography, but a wet mist is just ... wet.

Depending on the weather I'm going on a hillwalking expedition this weekend, probably the Pentlands again. I need to get my fitness back up after a slackish few months.

I'm still dithering about Greece. I picked out the perfect place, but it's almost £500 once the single supplement is added. For a week that seems an awful lot ... but it is really lovely. I can't decide.

ASK-A-SCIENTIST

ASK-A-SCIENTIST Archive - Veterinary

This is a US government department thing; I've earmarked the veterinary section (everything you need to know about Fruit Bat Histoplasmosis) but there are stacks of categories: weather, molecular biology, chemistry.

Pepys' Diary

Pepys' Diary

The original blog! This is such a great idea ... there was a series recently on Radio 4 about Pepys, I used to sometimes catch it when I was driving home, if I managed to get out early. I think it was readings from his biography. Anyway, I've never read the diaries, so I was delighted to find this.

:: friends reunited

I just signed up at the Friends Reunited site, but it was a bit dull -- I'm the one and only ex-pupil registered for Port Chalmers primary, and didn't recognise any names from the Girls' High list. Another anti-climax.

My home email is working again.

:: worm

I haven't been able to get on to my isp's net-based email program tonight, and I'm wondering if this is to blame. I suspect it is.

In other news, the armed drama is over; it was a "domestic disturbance" and the police don't seem to have found a gun. No biggie, then.

:: more

The early PA report:

POLICE SURROUND PARLIAMENT OVER GUNMAN REPORT
By Gordon Darroch, PA News
Armed police tonight surrounded a building near the site of the new Scottish Parliament building following reports of a firearms incident.
Police cordoned off a section of Holyrood Road in Edinburgh after receiving reports that a man had been seen carrying a gun at about 3.30pm.
Eight police vehicles, including six vans and an armed response unit, rushed to an address between Holyrood Road and the Pleasance, about 300 yards from where the Parliament is being built.
A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: “We are responding to an incident involving and individual. Armed response officers have been deployed because we have reason to believe a firearm may have been involved.
“As the situation is changing all the time, we cannot comment any further at the moment.”
mfl

"an address between Holyrood Road and the Pleasance" is an odd thing to say, because they are at right angles to each other, they intersect. If they mean on the corner of Holyrood Road and the Pleasance, then it's possibly the homeless hostel, which is near the corner -- the building nearest the corner is a business premises. There's also a pub across the road from the hostel. Then there are university buildings and the Dumbiedykes housing estate, then us. Across the road from us is the parliament site and a lot of other new buildings -- flats, a hotel, coffee bar etc.

:: under siege

It's all excitement here tonight. It took me half an hour longer than usual to get to work, because the street was cordoned off by police. The road through the park (which has a turnoff just behind our building) is always closed on Sundays, so getting here involved a long detour -- and in the end I had to drive round the barrier on the park road and talk my way past another police barricade.

Apparently someone saw a man with a gun just before 4pm, and now, two hours later, there are still police everywhere. The BBC has a brief report on it, but there doesn't seem much information around at all. And yes, it is amusing that it's a news organisation and none of us know what's going on.

:: picture post

I spent an hour -- one whole hour -- this afternoon rescanning two photos. It didn't take me that long to just scan them, it took me that long to find the originals, then to browse through the rest of the photos in the three albums and two shoe boxes I found them in, and to roughly sort out another two piles of photos and postcards lying around loose. I have mountains and mountains of photographs and I really need to do something about them -- I do like looking through them and I don't want to throw them out. The ideal would be to scan them all in I guess, but that would take forever.

Thank goodness for my digital camera. A bulging hard drive is much less messy than shoe boxes.

Some sad news: one of Chad and Leslie's huskies, Cheena, has cancer. She's over 12, so I guess she's had a good innings, but it's still awful for them to contemplate losing a dog they've had so long.

:: net work

I've had a good go at my website, converting it all to use cascading style sheets so it'll be all lean and mean. But while doing that I couldn't help but notice that a lot of my photos are badly scanned and need to be redone (my current scanner is much better than my old one); plus the general style is inconsistent; though I've tidied that up a lot. I should be able to upload the new site by the end of the week. The look won't be that different, it's just a technical upgrade.

I really enjoyed doing it, finally actually using the stuff I learned on the last computer course.

:: progress report

Cleaned the house - tick (well, you know, to my standards; it wouldn't pass the white glove test)
Cleaned the car - tick (cheated by going to the car wash; it's dirty again now)
Tidied the garden - no
Walked the dog - tick! He's had a good weekend & is exhausted. Today we went to one of my favourites, Elie. En route I decided to stop off at Wemyss, to check out some caves there I was told about. Turned out not to be a great idea. First of all, there was a giant sign by the path leading to the caves saying NO DOGS. Then there was the beach; no keep off signs, but they hardly needed them:


Yes, all this and the North Sea too! The wall is brand new, and the rocks looked brand new as well -- nice and sharp. I guess they thought red and grey would look nice together.


Very inviting, especially on a winter's afternoon. I can only assume there's some sand down there at low tide. Or maybe it's a shortcut in case you want to commit suicide.

So we pushed on to Elie, which is much nicer.


It's so bracing!


Bertie loves it at Elie. The second time we went there he jumped a fence and went frolicking around a field. I was furious and worried, but Anthea, who was with us, was doubled up with laughter -- he was pronking like a springbok, he was so delighted. It was pretty funny, in retrospect. But to get him out of the field (because of course he couldn't jump out -- what was the point?), I had to climb in and walk round the boundary looking for a gate. Couldn't find one, but eventually found a gap under the fence that was just big enough to squeeze a large, struggling greyhound through, with me pushing and Anthea pulling. He hasn't jumped the fence again.

I took a whole lot more photos but took them on my ye-olde SLR camera, with film and everything -- have to wait until I've had them developed. The film dates from before I got the digital camera, shows you how much I use the old one.

On the way back I stopped off at a charity book sale in Lundin Links and picked up a few foxed old classics, including Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. As I left I noticed a pile of old maps and travel brochures and picked out a few. They all dated from the 50s and 60s and have gorgeous graphics:



And one showed how far we've come, and why political correctness isn't a bad idea. It's a map of Lakewood, a suburb of Long Beach, California. The map was printed in 1956 by an estate agency flogging development housing, so on the back it has a checklist of "100+ reasons why you should live in beautiful Lakewood".



A lot of it sounds like stuff that would send anyone screaming in the opposite direction -- Patio Club anyone? -- but what really had my jaw dropping was this section:



So when they say "100% American" they mean 100% white. "Good Neighbours" are white neighbours. There are plenty of police to keep anyone else out. And just in case you couldn't add all that up, they drum it home with point 18: "Is Lakewood the 'White Spot' of Long Beach? Yes." Yikes. I'll have to email the city council a copy for their archives.

I haven't been to any films or anything, probably do that tomorrow night. I've been busy clearing out various cupboards, and doing lots of little DIY jobs that have been on my "to-do" list for long enough to make it disproportionately satisfying to get them done at last.

:: time off

Blimey, where did that week go? It's Thursday night already. I had two days where I started work early, to learn the software upgrade they're working on, and an early start always throws me. But now I've got four days off, four in a row!

First thing on the list is cleaning: clean the house, clean the car, tidy the garden. The car is extremely filthy due to many weeks of salted roads and a grand finale circle in a muddy field today. As I drove off down the road, mud was spraying off the wheels, and the windows are spackled with it. Note to self: Peugeot 205 is not an off-road vehicle. Well, at least I didn't get my feet dirty.

I'd like to get on to some of my many DIY projects, but ... we'll see. Cleaning first. And then getting in touch with people I haven't talked to for ages but who sent me cards & letters at Christmas.

Bertie will be taken on at least one major expedition over the weekend. He thought he was going on one today, but to his disgust it was only to the pet supermarket. And even then he wasn't allowed to investigate the huge cage of birds he spotted. He's so badly treated, his life is just hell.

There are computer projects too -- rather a lot to do there -- but they'll be on the back burner I'm afraid. I'd much rather be out and about. There are a few films I'd like to see -- I haven't caught the latest Star Trek yet, and I'd like to go to 8 Mile and also 11'09''01 -September 11.

:: bleuuuugggghhhh!!!!

I've been sick -- as in vomiting. It came on yesterday, all of a sudden, while I was at work. I'd felt a bit nauseous on the way to work, but just ignored it. Then suddenly I had to rush for the toilet. After a couple of trips I decided I'd probably better go home -- I was starting to feel shaky and feverish as well, plus I had diarrhoea. I had to sprint upstairs as soon as I got in, blaaargh, urrrrrgh. Once I was completely emptied out, I took myself off to bed with a hottie and slept a bit, then walked the poor dog and went back to bed with a cup of fennel tea. It was a horrible experience, I can't remember the last time I threw up.

This morning (at 8am, Bertie having decided I'd slept quite long enough) I felt a bit better and risked two slices of dry toast and some black coffee. I kept it down but have felt queasy all day. I had some soup and a roll tonight. Detoxing is de rigeur after Christmas/New Year, but this is a harsh way of going about it! I don't know what set it off, but it could be winter vomiting virus, which I had never heard of before this winter. My next door neighbour, Frances, and her entire family had it, all at once, Mum, Dad and the three kids.

Bertie's foot is totally better, and he's had some good times running around testing it to the max. I took him to Braid Hills as a special treat on Saturday, but didn't let him off the lead much. He went zooming around crazily with some other dogs, slipped on ice and fell on his arse in a defrosted cowpat! He loved every minute of it.

Speaking of ice, it's Bertie's latest craze. During the freezing weather recently, I was regularly dumping the birds' iced-up drinking water and replacing it. Every time, Bertie grabbed the big chunk of ice and gnawed bits off it. Mmm, yum! Crunchy!



I'm obsessing over Greece at the moment, I've wanted to go there for years and I'm probably going in June. I had been thinking of going earlier, but everything is shut until May, and the two colleagues I'm working with are taking their holidays in May, so June it is. I have to decide whether to go on a package holiday or just arrive and take a ferry somewhere; and I have to decide where that somewhere might be. I've got loads of brochures and a guidebook, and so far quite fancy Ikaria, Corfu, and Crete, all for different reasons. There are so many islands to choose from though! They all look gorgeous, but I'd prefer somewhere quiet. Or somewhere with interesting ruins to explore (Crete for example). The old backpacker in me wants to go footloose and fancy-free, following the breeze; the 50-year-old in me wants someone to collect her from the airport and deliver her to a nice clean studio apartment next to the beach. Who will win?

:: early cut

I was going to post something but I'm being allowed home early as a reward for working long hours the rest of the week, hurrah! So I'll just be brief.

Bertie's injury is healing up well, so of course didn't he go and cut another foot last night? Tsk. I blame myself -- we saw a fox, and Bertie was keen to snuffle around in the undergrowth where it had disappeared. Next thing he was holding up a front foot in a pathetic manner. Ow! Luckily it's not serious, more a scrape than a cut, so I should be able to deal with it without yet another trip to the vet.

Today we went on quite a long walk, given that it was raining and windy and cold. At the halfway point, his boot came off. It and the two socks inside it were sodden through and there didn't seem much point in struggling to get them back on, so I kept him on a short lead and hoped for the best. Seem to have gotten away with it, phew. I dread anything more happening to that foot, it's been such a nuisance. And the poor dog is dying for a fun run, he sick of mooching along on the lead.

:: HAPPY 2003!!!

I'm at work right now, feeling hungover even though all I had to drink last night was half a plastic cup of warm champagne while I watched the Hogmanay fireworks from the balcony outside the staff canteen with the lads from IT. Faye's already gone back south, so I gave away her pass to a lucky soul who got out of work early. I was going to go up and see the fireworks from Princes St, but it was cold and no-one else wanted to go, so ... boo hoo!

Poor Bertie meanwhile was home alone. I'd pulled all the curtains I could and shut the doors of the rooms that had no curtains, and I left the radio on, but he was still pretty jittery when I got home. Rockets were still going off as I took him for his walk, but he was brave and managed to keep his head.

This morning I slept in, missed the Loony Dook and thus missed the possibility of meeting up with Richard and family, who are up from England for a few days. Sigh. I've never managed to get up in time to see the Loony Dook yet. Maybe next year ....

This New Year week is heavy-duty work-wise. On Monday, for example, I started at noon and finished at 9pm, working right through without a break. I was doing the New Year Honours List - the bloke who normally does them is in Jamaica, the lucky swine! I've been enjoying doing some of the other parts of his job, but not that one, it was sheer tedium. I'll get a day off on Saturday -- a million things to do, but I imagine I'll be concentrating on a) sleeping b) loafing and c) walking the dog.

Bertie is allowed out without his boot next Monday, hurrah! However, he's only allowed to walk -- not run -- and only on grass. For another week. He should get the all-clear by the end of the month, and I'll take him to one of his top spots for a sprint.

:: ho ho ho

Well it warmed up after the big frost and Christmas Day it was positively balmy. In fact, as Faye remarked, it was warmer than some Dunedin Christmases.

So here are a few festive snaps for you to look at:


On Christmas Eve we had dinner at the Rail Bridge cafe, and amused ourselves taking snaps of the bridge.


Afterwards we went in to the midnight carol service at the High Kirk of St Giles. It was lovely - the minister did a great anti-war sermon.


You can just about make out the banners in this shot - they have angels on them, done in applique.


My little Poundstretcher tree is still going strong - not as fab as the St Giles tree.


Bertie had an appointment at the vet's on Christmas Eve, and ended up with a new dressing. Sigh. He hates it. He's wearing one of my socks on it -- when he goes out he has the sock, then a plastic bag, then his lace-up boot, which is covered in three layers of gaffer tape. And sometimes the bandage still gets wet. Sigh.


We all got lovely presents. Faye gave Bertie a Marks & Spencer dog treat stocking, and he scoffed the lot! We were disappointed to discover that the pudding in the toe was a squeaky toy. He's scaredof squeaky toys.


Faye got a beautiful shawl.


My best pressie was the flame-thrower. It was meant to be a birthday present, but Faye couldn't send it through the mail because it includes a gas bottle. Way to go!


After opening the presents we went for a walk. Bertie wore his antlers, the ones Faye got him that have flashing lights and play "Silent Night". He was a huge hit, especially with children.

:: more frost

Here's another picture I took the other day, frost crystals on the shed roof. See the slight sunset glow there? It was taken at noon.

:: stitched up

Bertie update: He got his stitches out all right, but still has a bandage, which he has to wear until Christmas Eve. He squealed while the vet took the stitches out and she chastised him - but then realised he was crying because the receptionist was holding his leg too tightly. Ow, ow, ow!

I got some partridges at the butcher's yesterday. I went to a real old-fashioned place in Stockbridge, which has a grand display of pheasants, rabbits etc, all with their clothes on, as it were. The other old-fashioned touch is that the butcher is a compulsive opinionator, like a classic taxi driver. As I went in, he was conversing with another customer.

Customer: Yes, I've always thought guinea pigs would be delicious.
Butcher: Aye, especially the young ones that haven't run around a lot. No reason not to eat them.
Customer: They eat them in South America.

A nice young assistant fetched the partridges out of the display cabinet for me.

Butcher: Those are grey partridges those, they're the best ones.
Customer: Better than French partridges.
Butcher: Aye, they're no good, French partridges. See those over there? [Indicates birds in display.] They're French partridges, don't buy those.
Customer [addressing me]: Do you know why they call them French partridges?
Me: Because they come from France?
Customer: No! It's because they run [makes running motion with fingers].
Butcher: She doesn't know, she's a townie. It's amazing what town folk don' t know. Country people know it all.

The partridges look awfully wee. I got four just in case.

I've got all next week off, hurrah. It's not actually such a bargain - Christmas Day is a non-publishing day, so everyone gets Christmas Eve off. Whereas there are no non-publishing days the following week, so I have to work six days, including New Year's Eve. I'm hoping to get off by 11:30pm that night so Faye and I can see in 2003 in Princes Street, with fireworks and a dram.

There's a lot of grumbling by those working on Christmas Day. Usually it's a very short shift - everyone comes in early, works hard to get the paper finished and are off home by 8pm or so. But this year The Powers That Be have decreed there shall be two editions, with almost normal off-times, 9:30pm and 11pm. Plus it isn't clear whether anyone has arranged for food to be laid on. The canteen is closed and all restaurants, cafes, shops etc are shut. Merry Christmas, wage slaves! You can be sure that none of the Powers will be working that day.

:: update

Well yes, it's been a while since Bertie hurt his foot. Over a fortnight -- he gets the stitches out tomorrow morning.

He was very drunk the day I picked him up way back then. The vet had given him a shot to bring him round as I had to pick him up early (before work), but he wasn't "awake" in the full sense of the word. The lift was stopping about halfway up the building, so to speak. He recovered after a few days and now he's totally stir crazy from being kept on the lead all the time. I've been putting chew deterrent on his bandages, which has worked a treat, and he has a little boot to wear too. He's worn through the stitching on that, so it has to have a plastic bag inside.

I've been busy being organised for Christmas -- I'm doing very well, I have very little left to organise and there are still five days left!

Faye arrived a couple of days ahead of schedule -- her British colleagues had convinced her Scotland was far, far away so she'd planned on taking a couple of days to come up. In the event she did it in one hit! The house was filthy - I was leaving cleaning till the last minute - but she didn't mind. I dragged the tree down out of the attic and we dressed it together. She also brought Christmas decorations and I already had a pine wreath, so the place is looking reasonably festive. (Bertie is also looking very Christmassy -- Faye brought him some more antlers, and these ones not only have flashing lights, they play Away in a Manger as well! Not a happy puppy!)

And at least the windows are clean - I managed to snag one of the local window-cleaners as he was passing and get him to do them. Only a fiver, and he even did the front door! What a bargain. He's going to come regularly from now on.

As you can see from the picture above, it's quite cold at the moment. The back yard hasn't defrosted for days and in some places you'd think it had been snowing, the frost is that thick. Last night a fog came down as well, which is still lingering. That's why the trees are frosted right up to the tops. Jingle Bells!

One wonderful aspect of the weather is that the frost bounces white light into the house, making it much brighter inside than normal in winter. Especially with the windows being so squeaky clean.