Anything that I feel like saying.
There are two things I can’t quite believe about this, one that I’ve purchased a book by Carol Vorderman, and two that I’ve bought the first “how to do a puzzle book” since that paperback I had on the Rubik cube.
My mum was surprised that I hadn’t yet got in to these logic / number puzzles so I thought I would give it a go.
One thing I neglected to include in my post about travels to the Midlands were the culinary aspects. Anyone who has family in different parts of the country can usually think of one or two local delicacies that aren’t available nationally. And when you are reacquainted with these foods, you can conjour up the fond memories associated with them.
In this case it is Staffordshire Oatcakes, thankfully stocked by the local Morrisons in Newcastle Under Lyme. For those of you unacquainted with them, they are about 25 cm in diameter, round soft pancake like things. And yes, for those familiar with the Scottish Oatcake, they are nothing like them. They do, however, have oatmeal as an ingredient.
I eat them at home tonight, bringing back memories of my late Grandfather, and childhood holidays in Cheadle, Staffs.
Other local delicacies I could recommend to the reader are Aberdeen Butteries, and Carlton Bakeries Fudge Doughnuts, yum.
The family and I are just back from a family wedding, congratulations to my cousin Joseph and to Carly.
My mum’s side of the family are originally from Staffordshire, and with families growing up and moving around, I now have relatives in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire.
We spent the weekend staying at a hotel in Newcastle Under Lyme, and being as I needed the car to get around on the weekend, drove there on Friday. The run down the M6 was fine, and I ran a one-stop strategy, stopping at the Westmorland services on the way down, with a very brief stop to buy new maps when we got to Newcastle.
The wedding itself was in the Leicester area, in a place called Blaby. Call me untravelled, but I find it fascinating to go places that I have never heard of that have councils and everything! The drive there was also pretty straightforward, passing such esteemed landmarks as Castle Donington and East Midlands Airport. And the wedding was nice, small and informal.
The rest of the weekend was spent chilling out, using the pool at the hotel, and doing nothing much really. Popped in to see my Gran before we headed North, and had a visit to DK Motorcycles. Both good visits, my Gran’s new place is really nice, and DK has a massive stock of used bikes and has a resident Parrot.
The chap we spoke to at DK was friendly, talking about the bikes we liked and mentioning some of their stats. They sell over a 100 bikes a week, 5 the previous week going in their van to Scotland. He’d just sold a new bike to a chap in Aberdeen, and it was going up in the van next week. Their stock must run to a hundreds of bikes, so plenty to choose from. And the parrot was friendly too, it kept shouting hello at us from its vantage point above one of the offices, a local too going by its accent! They had a really nice BMW R1100RS in red, so I’m going to keep saving up.
We then headed North, with a brief detour to pick up my Brother’s new size 13 Doc Martin boots that he’d left at the hotel he was staying in.
Watching the various episodes of American Chopper and A Bike is Born got me back to the olden days when I used to fart about under the bonnet of my MK1 Fiesta.
A project at work a few years ago brought me into contact with Learn Direct Scotland, and I ran a search on motorcycle stuff. This brought up a few courses ranging from training for a licence (already done that) to varying levels of motorcycle maintenance courses.
And there it was, a Leisure course in Motorcycle Maintenance at Motherwell College, the nearest to where I live, though still a 40 minute drive away. Basic repair and maintenance of the main components, nothing about Zen philosophy. Looked good to me. So I send off an email and waited for the reply. No course in September, not enough interest.
Drat, I now have to wait till October with the new prospectus to see if they attempt the course again in January.
The frequency of my blog posting tends to follow the ebbs and flows of my life. I certainly find it harder to notice the topics that fascinate me enough to blog them when I am under stress or a bit down.
I’ve also had a couple of weeks holiday during August, and I deliberately tried to chill out and read books and go out instead of random surfing on the PC, and to an extend I succeeded. We only managed to get away for a couple of days, not really enough for me to detach my brain from the daily issues. I really enjoyed aspects of our break though. Taking the family with me (of course!) I drove to Aviemore to try out the Cairngorm Railway. The view from the car park there was excellent, unfortunately low cloud meant that I couldn’t say the same about the view from the top!
The drive up the A9 is an excellent illustration of the range of scenery that is accessible from most of Scotland. Within two hours or so from our start in the Central Belt, we had everything from the farmland of Fife around Kinross, to the valley round Strathearn. Perth is nice in its own right, then the beatiful scenery leading up to and beyond Pitlochry with the tree cover and hills. Then the bleak moorland on the lead up to Aviemore. A bit tricky to record when driving the car, but a delight to see.
We rode the funicular railway, had something to eat the cafe, and headed down. The plan then took us for an overnight stay in Aberdeen. Unfortunately I took a wrong turning and the route was lengthened somewhat by including Inverness.
Playing my old trick of making familiar places interesting, we discovered the beach at Aberdeen, which was a delight (and we ignored the minor threats of wildlife and radiation). Travelling down the east coast took us to Stonehaven, where we’ve been before but this time treated ourselves to a Fish Tea at the Bervie Chipper. Very nice, if you can get over the coach party feeling – those senior citizens know a good thing when they find it.
The rest of the two weeks was spent chilling out, growing my beard and fixing one or two things.
The return to work has been really stressful, but also really excellent in other ways. Sometimes making certain that things get sorted out can feel quite painful at the time, but in the light of day are the best thing to do. I’m still smarting a bit from that one, though, and the stress took its usual toll on my health.
Oh dear, someone has written a song about old computers.
Har har. 🙂
Ah, the days when the languages I used had line numbers.
Went to see The Odd Couple yesterday, mainly because Bill Bailey and Alan Davies were in it, and I’m off work on my holidays at the moment.
And it was good, a production based on the original Broadway script, and being shown at the Scottish Assembly Hall on the mound. Bill Bailey’s american accent was better than Davies, but I think Alan Davies has that kind of voice. And it was a laugh, Oscar (Bill Bailey) has all the good oneliners, that are as funny and fresh as they were originally.
And I spotted Dylan Moran buying tickets and going to the show too, I’d forgotten than fun part of the Edinburgh scene at that time of year, spotting the various people in crowds and queues.
Bill Bailey is also doing a punk tribute band thing called Beergut 100, somewhere in Bristo square.
Being in a house with teenagers resident, we have the joys of exam results winging their way from the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
I found their recently technological advancement quite ironic. A few weeks back, they quantified the number of students likely to fail as a result of being caught with their mobiles during exams.Mobile phones should not be in the exam room, fair point.
Then later we have press coverage on their technology pilot to text exam results to pupils.
Young people being what they are these days have their mobiles with them all the time, which means they are a great way of receiving information quickly. Which I guess is why the SQA, with their open government initiatives and accessible efforts will want to pursue this at a greater scope than a pilot.
Take the two stories together and I draw a little amusement from the apparent contradiction. I applaud the idea, I just hope they haven’t failed any of the volunteers on the pilot for having their mobiles with them.
They sit with their feet on the seats, drinking Buckfast or Tennents, sending texts and listening to their cd players.
My fellow travellers on the bus. Alcohol tends to be the exception, feet on the seats isn’t. I don’t particularly care about texts, or music because the buses tend to be so noisy you can’t hear.
But my car is a lot more comfortable, has better ventilation, and I control the sounds. I’m trying hard to stick to the bus.
Alistair Laing 