Park on this, bawbags

Well that's ruined things slightly.

I went out to jump in the car which was parked just outside my house in its usual spot, to discover I've been given a bloody parking ticket.

The parking bay is just long enough for four cars to fit in, with angled ends, but recently the council decided to reduce the size of the usable space by painting double yellow lines over the angled parts. I can see why they did this, to stop people parking side-on to these bits, thus having their rear end causing an obstruction on the road.

But my car wasn't causing any obstruction to anyone. I went as far back as possible to allow space for other cars to get in. The rear wheels where barely touching the yellow lines. Had I been four inches further forward they couldn't have touched me. But some over-zealous parking warden comes along and decides that I have made the following parking contravention:

Parking or loading/unloading in a restricted street where waiting and loading/unloading restrictions are in force.

Decide for yourself, I'd be interested to hear what you think. But it looks to me like I'm not doing too much wrong.


This just seems like a money making exercise to me. There's no way I'm going to line the council coffers for something as trifling as this. As Naldo said to me, I'd rather pay a bit more in a fair and equitable tax than get hit for ridiculous so-called infringements like this.

I'm gonna dispute this and take it all the way if I have to.

Half day to paradise

Innit great when you take a half day?

Walking out your work a few minutes after 12 when your colleagues still have a good four or five hours of toil at the coalface. "See ye laters, I'm on a Colonel Gadaffi!" you trill whilst skipping out the door.

"Bastard!" they say, as escape just in time to avoid the pens, elastic bands and staplers which hit the back of the door.

It's even better when it is followed by a long weekend with both Friday and Monday off.

Yes, no work til Tuesday for me, and I'm going to enjoy it. Apart from maybe Saturday afternoon, but more on that later...

The road is long

...With many a winding turn.

That's true, but I'm getting closer to my destination.

I wrote a while ago about my training for a half marathon that me, my bird and oor pal Laura are running. Well, I'm still training, and it's still going OK. With 5 and a half weeks to go, I'm slowly getting up to speed, if that isn't an oxymoron.

I have set myself an unofficial target of 2 hours to complete the 13.1 mile route. That means I have to run at an average speed of a mile every 9 minutes 9 seconds. That would be fine if I was running 6 miles, or even 8, but at this stage I'm not yet able to keep that pace up for 2 hours.

On Saturday I went out for a 6 mile run and completed it in 53 minutes which I was fairly happy with. But then I was kinda knackered for the rest of the day and felt a bit shabby, even when I was through in Glasgow watching Scotland win at fitba, as described beautifully by Naldo here. I managed to pull myself together and get dressed up for Biff's big 30th Birthday Bash along with Jonny Nipflick as Bros.

A lot of people had made a good effort and there were some cracking outfits. Me and Jonny were getting a lot of photos taken of us though and playing up to it terribly. I've seen some of the photos but I reckon there's more slightly embarrassing shots to show up yet.


After a couple of days off training to let the legs recover, I went out this evening and did a quick four mile run which I managed to complete in a smidgen over 33 minutes which is a new personal best for the route I took.

I'll have a day off the running tomorrow, though I might cycle to work, I'll do a bit of a run on Thursday and then head out and try and do 8 miles on Saturday morning before going to James and Lisa's wedding in the afternoon. That will be a full-on party and no mistake so I'll try not to be too done-in so I can properly enjoy it.

I still get a few aches and pains now and then, especially last week cos I foolishly played a game of football again, but overall I'm happy my fitness is getting better. I discovered I've been losing weight, about 12 pounds in the last three months, and the running is definitely getting easier.

I decided to try and raise a bit of money for the official charity of the half marathon, the Speyside Trust. As such, if you feel and generous and want to make an online contribution, however small, please feel free to do so. Any donation would be appreciated but I understand there's a lot of these things on the go all the time and nobody can give to them all.

I'll be back with another progress update before the big day.

Festival fun

I am at the end of a week off from work. I took a week of holiday to see some of the Edinburgh Festival, get out on my bike a bit, hopefully catch some decent weather, and just to chill as it's been ages since I had some decent time off.

I feel I've managed to fit a decent amount of Festival things in so far.

A few of us went to see the Tom Tom Crew at the Udderbelly on Friday night. That was brilliant. A live drummer, DJ, beatboxer and a troupe of acrobats/gymnasts/breakdancers. It was a really high energy show that at points had me just laughing in admiration at some of the stuff the guys were doing, and all with a funky hip hop soundtrack. I would definitely recommend checking the show if you are in Edinburgh or it comes to anywhere near you.

Went to the Mela on Saturday afternoon, which is a celebration of Asian culture, mainly Indian but also including other nationalities. Lots of nice food, music, family atmosphere and we were lucky and got sunshine as well. Checked out the Rough Cut Nation exhibition at the portrait gallery which is pretty impressive and worth checking out and features some work by our old chum Elph. At night I put on the festival Headspin where we had our regular DJ crew and percussionist plus Elph doing some live painting in the club and with video projections mixed and looped live. It was a good night but I think folks perhaps weren't used to the extended opening hours yet as it started to empty out a bit before the end.

On Tuesday me and Stevie D went up to catch some festival vibes and maybe a show or two, hopefully for free. Some gadge stopped us in the street and offered us to see a comedian from New York for free. We thought "yeah, why not?". We went in to this little place and there were two other members of the audience, our mate Midge and his pal. The audience eventually numbered 6 people, the show wasn't great but the guy did about as well as could be expected to such a small crowd. I can't remember the fella's name unfortunately.

The four of us headed to the Pleasance which is a busy courtyard in the middle of loads of little venues with mainly comedy shows, it has a bar, lots of people hang out and it has a nice atmosphere. We had a couple of bevoirs and were having a laugh with the people handing out the flyers for shows and we were given free tickets for some 'comedy-play' about a competition that happens in the States where people have to touch a van for as long as they can. We were going to go along to that but then we got last minute freebies for a comedian called Geoff Norcott who turned out to be pretty funny with his observations about the differences between the sexes. Not groundbreaking stuff but entertaining enough. Quite a successful day all in all which we rounded off by going for a curry.

On Thursday it was a lovely sunny day so Stevie and I decided to get ootnaboot and try and see a few more things. We already had arranged to go and see something at 7pm so we had all afternoon to fill any way we wanted. Unsurprisingly, what we wanted first and foremost was a pint of lager. We had a couple of those then headed for a comedy sketch show called Superclump which was pretty decent. A group of about 8 young comedians doing various quick-fire sketches with very little props or costumes. Not bad considering it was only a fiver to get in. We then nashed to the Voodoo Rooms for another free stand-up show, accompanied by the obligatory pint of premium lager style beer.

After a decent show featuring short sets from three different stand-ups it was off to the Henderson Gallery for the main event of the day, something I personally was looking forward to hugely since Naldo brought it to my attention last week. Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it due to having gone fishing, but he had kindly sorted out tickets for the rest of us. It was Archie MacPherson In Conversation. If you don't know of Archie, he was the voice of football coverage when I was a kid and was reknowned for his effussive use of language, punctuated by emphatic interjections such as "Woof!" when the ball rockets goalward off the boot of the attacking player.


It was billed 'In Conversation' but the presenter asked one question and then Archie was off, talking for the best part of an hour about his career, his experiences and his family. He asnswered a few questions from the audience at the end, including a question from me about the recent Scotland defeat by Norway, and that was it. An entertaining and interesting evening in the company of a broadcasting legend - I do not use the word lightly. Gaunyersel Archie.

I'm starting to show the early signs of Festival Fatigue now though. When you find it takes ten minutes to walk 200 metres along the street and you feel the stress levels rising as someone thrusts a flyer in your face for their 'comedy' musical version of The Roswell Incident or some such horseshit, it's maybe time to give the festival a wider berth.

But I'm not quite there yet. I'm hoping me and my bird can go to see some bits and pieces this weekend and I'm looking forward to a gig during the week when one of my favourite new bands play. I have mentioned The Phantom Band before as I played their album pretty much constantly for a few weeks and I will get to see them play for the first time on Wednesday at the Electric Circus.

So my week off has flown by at double-quick time but at least I've managed to do what I set out to do with the days away from work.

Keep on runnin'

A strange thing has happened recently.

I have always been quite active and - I would like to think - quite fit; but football was always my sport. I liked watching it and loved playing it. I would play two or sometimes three times a week.

A couple of years ago I started getting a lot of niggly injuries while playing footy. I went over on my ankle and did it in pretty bad, it took about 4 months before I was ready to play again. A bit after that I picked up a groin strain. I took a few weeks off to try and rest it before going back but 5 minutes into my first game I pulled it again, this time I was out for a couple of months.

A couple of weeks after coming back to playing I did my ankle again. I've pulled my hamstring a couple of times. My groin still gives my gyp so I can't run at full pace these days and I recently had a bit of tendinitis in my achilles.

Some of these injuries are things that just happen sometimes. Others may be due to failing to warm up and stretch properly or rushing back too soon after injury. Some of them I think are happening because I'm getting a bit older - 34 last month - and all of them are now taking longer to heal.

While I've not been able to play I've tried to keep in shape, initially by doing push ups, sit ups and a little work with dumbbells as well as some swimming and cycling. Then I was able to start jogging. I got myself some decent running shoes and hit the roads.

At first the jogging was pretty hard going, I would get shin splints, sore knees and my groin would nip. I'm quite heavy for my size, 5ft 10 and 13 stone, though not fat, I would say of medium build. The weight was part of the problem, but after a while my legs started getting used to it and I would be in less discomfort.

It's got to the stage now that I'm really enjoying going out for runs. I still can't go all that fast due to the not-quite-healed groin thing and my continued love affair with food and beer which mean I haven't yet shifted any of the 182 pounds. But I'm usually out three or four times a week and noticing improvement by the week.

When my bird, Laura, Ronnie and Mary were running a relay in the Edinburgh Marathon a couple of months ago me, Don, Pablo and Wanless decided to do the same thing in next year's event. Having something to aim for has really helped, even though it is quite far away. My bird has started talking about doing the Aviemore Half Marathon in October. My progress has been good so I think I'm going to aim for that as well.

On Saturday my bird and I went out for a run. We had worked out a 7.5 mile route around the forests by her ma's house. We took it at a pretty easy pace and were both feeling fine. The track split into two and we weren't sure which way to go. Inevitably we ended up taking the wrong turn and it added and extra mile and a half onto the distance we had to run. But we both completed it and I felt great after it and could have went on. 9 miles in under an hour and a half isn't too bad, especially as I had to stop half way through to run into the woods for a keech.

So that's it, I'm now more into my running than my football. I played footy last night and today I am in some pain with my groin. I tried to go for a nice easy jog earlier and it didn't feel right at all. So I think I am going to have to knock the footy on the head for now. I'll go back to it after the half marathon, but I'm going to concentrate on trying to beat 2 hours for the 13 and a bit miles.

11 weeks and counting. Bring it on!

Paint it multi-coloured

Over the weekend I was doing a spot of home improvements.

I took Friday off work so I could get an extra day under my belt as I knew it was going to take a couple of days graft to do what I needed to do. I also had to put my car into the garage to get a problem fixed.

I got up nice and early, went and bought the paint and other bits and pieces I needed for the day, then dropped them at the flat and drove down to the garage to drop the motor off at 9.30am.

It was a nice morning, the sun was shining and it was warm with a bit of a breeze coming in off the Firth of Forth. I had about three miles to walk back to begin painting but I was quite enjoying the stroll. I took a route I'd never taken before down a small track that runs behind the sewage works alongside the railway tracks that go to the docks.

There was some kind of freight train pulling out and it had a bunch of New York subway style graff work and tags on it. Here's a photo I managed to take on my phone. I tried to send it in a text message to Big Duncs who's into this kind of thing but for some reason it wasn't working out.

I was well chuffed to see that this scene is still alive and well today, it makes stuff a bit more interesting to look at than having everything uniformly dull.

Some may call it vandalism but I think it's as valid an art form as anything else.

I'm hoping to get up to Aberfeldy this weekend or next to see the Urban Art in the Highlands exhibition featuring work by the likes of Banksy and my good friend Elph.

Elph recently taught a graffiti workshop to complement the exhibition; photos here.

I am also happy to say he has agreed to do some live painting at Headspin on the 8th August. He has been the man who has designed our flyers for a long time, and this is something we have talked about for a while, so I'm delighted he is going to get a bit of the limelight that he deserves for his years of service to the cause.

We're going to make it a full-on multimedia extravaganza. The soundtrack will be a mash-up of soul, funk, hip-hop, disco, electro and house, with percussive backing from Bongo Dave. Meanwhile, Elph will be painting a new piece live in the club and this will be filmed and projected onto a screen by video artist Foundlight with visual effects, film clips, live footage and animations mixed in.

So after that sublime subway moment on the last train to trancendental, I got back and started my own painting. Not quite as visually interesting, but after almost three days work I got it finished and am quite happy with the job I did on it, with a lot of help from my bird I must add.

After working on it all weekend I was almost glad to get back to work on Monday for a rest.

I do kind of think that I should really be doing something a bit more physical for a job, where I need to exercise my body as well as my mind. I come home tired after a day at work but it's a different kind of tired when you've been working your muscles than when your brain has been taking the strain.

There's something honest and rewarding about some good, hard yakka as they say in Australia. (Not sure of the spelling so apologies to any Aussies if that's wrong.)

I also want to take a moment to mention my current favourite album, which is by a Glasgow group called The Phantom Band and is entitled Checkmate Savage. It's a great mix of indie, electronica, krautrock and blues influences. The album is out on Chemikal Underground and you can see them live at T in the Park amongst other festivals. I can't remember how I came across these guys but I'm glad I did. Check 'em out.

Nuthin to say?

I'm not very good at this blogging thing.

It's not that I've got nothing to talk about. It's not that I have no opinions, no hopes, concerns, interests or life. It's just that I'm never really that sure anyone else wants to hear my thoughts on the state of the economy, the transport infrastructure of Edinburgh, the beautiful game, whisky, interior design, music, or indeed life.

Truth be told, as I'm going about my day, I'll be pondering some issue or other, and I occasionally think to myself, "Hey, I should write about this on my blog". Then by the time I get round to it, I've either forgotten what I was going to talk about, or it really doesn't seem all that important any more.

The list of topics, above, are all things I have had the intention of writing about but never got round to at the time, and then when I started doing something about it, the moment had passed and I could no longer be bothered.

I'm not so conceited as to think that anyone is really very interested in reading my every move or thought in Twitter stylee, and nor do I feel that need to impart my wisdom to lesser mortals or tell anyone how they should lead their life. But maybe that is what Web 2.0 is all about, perhaps cyberland (cyberia?) demands it!

So, I suppose the secret is, do it quickly and do it often. Too much procrastination leads to postponement and eventually cancellation.

I'm off for a lie down, that took it out of me. I leave you with a funny picture.