The spammers who have been trying in vain over the years to entice me into enhancing my manhood have changed tack. Their spies have been out and realised that I am an ageing gentleman and may well be suffering from droopy manboobs. Hence their latest offering:
"BareLifts - The Invisible Solution For A Naturally Perky Look
BareLifts are completely strapless and will help lift your breasts while ensuring a naturally perky look in virtually ANY outfit. With BareLifts, you can lift your breast and realign your nipple to a higher position...."
I'm tempted.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
What the world in general, and my little bit of the world in particular, does not need is another branch of Tesco. But I have learnt that some of their three billion profit is being spent on buying up the Co-op at the bottom of Easter Road.
Shame on them and more shame on the sell-out by Scot Mid. This is a blow to consumer choice and a wound in the side of the co-operative movement, imbued as it is with camaraderie and solidarity, not to mention its superior selection of wine.
To paraphrase a famous king whose name I have forgotten - "Who will rid me of this troublesome supermarket?"
Shame on them and more shame on the sell-out by Scot Mid. This is a blow to consumer choice and a wound in the side of the co-operative movement, imbued as it is with camaraderie and solidarity, not to mention its superior selection of wine.
To paraphrase a famous king whose name I have forgotten - "Who will rid me of this troublesome supermarket?"
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Volcanic ash didn't keep me away from St Andrews this morning. The prospect of an hour and a half on a rainy beach did. So I have missed out on seeing what sounded like an interesting production of The Tempest.
But I may be affected by the ash all the same. My saxophone teacher is in Amsterdam and may still be there when it's time for my lesson on Tuesday. Siobhan's dinner chez moi will get cold if she's still in Portugal on Wednesday. And in the slightly longer term what about my flight to Barcelona in ten days time?
But I may be affected by the ash all the same. My saxophone teacher is in Amsterdam and may still be there when it's time for my lesson on Tuesday. Siobhan's dinner chez moi will get cold if she's still in Portugal on Wednesday. And in the slightly longer term what about my flight to Barcelona in ten days time?
Friday, April 16, 2010
The great British public have decided that, last night at least and for the time being, the fairest of them all was the man with the manifesto packed with fair phrases.
So is the wind set fair for Downing Street for Mr Clegg? I doubt it but I suppose his party's vote may increase to give him some influence over whichever of the other two parties comes out on top. He'd be wise to hammer on about voting reform to give him some chance of forming a government in his own right next time around. Brown has promised reform but I doubt that he would give it any priority. There's always the excuse of having to save us from ruin first. I mean further ruin of course.
But Clegg had an easy job. Don't scratch your bum, look human, just allow Brown and Cameron to slag each other off and appear as the relaxed voice of reason. And since you have to be a bit of a political nerd to have seen him before he was for most people the new kid on the block. How many hopefuls have appeared who were gloriously exciting or at least not an immediate turn-off on day 1 but revealed a few defects in the longer term?
So I fear it will be with Nick and his uncle Vince, but let's give them a chance to bask for a bit before we turn and bite.
So is the wind set fair for Downing Street for Mr Clegg? I doubt it but I suppose his party's vote may increase to give him some influence over whichever of the other two parties comes out on top. He'd be wise to hammer on about voting reform to give him some chance of forming a government in his own right next time around. Brown has promised reform but I doubt that he would give it any priority. There's always the excuse of having to save us from ruin first. I mean further ruin of course.
But Clegg had an easy job. Don't scratch your bum, look human, just allow Brown and Cameron to slag each other off and appear as the relaxed voice of reason. And since you have to be a bit of a political nerd to have seen him before he was for most people the new kid on the block. How many hopefuls have appeared who were gloriously exciting or at least not an immediate turn-off on day 1 but revealed a few defects in the longer term?
So I fear it will be with Nick and his uncle Vince, but let's give them a chance to bask for a bit before we turn and bite.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Now that the main parties' manifestos are out I've been trying to pick a winner.
An animated cartoon video in black and white slightly redeems the dullness of Labour's document. Its risible cover that looks like a Chinese communist propaganda poster (before the introduction of the one child policy clearly) at least spares us another thousand words. The HTML or downloadable pdf versions that are the only options for getting at the content are densely printed, only relieved now and then by coloured text and by coloured pages that separate the sections and bear logos in a style akin to lavatory signs.
It looks like they are appealing to the low-end computer user.
The Tories are definitely going for the high-end. Their document can be read on-screen in black and white text only but the downloadable pdf is packed with propaganda posters in an agit-prop style, with diagrams and with photographs, though the text is pretty dense and black. Some photos like those telling you that Glasgow and Brighton are great places for one reason or another don't seem terribly relevant but hey. You can even download a high definition version presumably so that you can print it with the photos in their full glory. But you don't have to print your own because they offer you a means of buying a printed version for a fiver. And they have large print for the poorly sighted, braille for the blind and easy-read for those with learning difficulties. If being on-line is your thing though there is a Flash version that's very well presented and you can listen to an audio version. When you have get on your bike or take the bus the audio version can go with you on your mp3 player. If you can't be bothered with the whole thing there are various little related videos.
No reason not to get the Tory message then.
The Libdems' manifesto offering gives you more or less the same options as the Tories; without braille but with a better Flash version and with a pick and mix video iphone app. Their webpage looks better and where they score heavily is on the presentation of the document itself. Labour's pages of dense text and the Tories' strident posters are banished in favour of well laid out pages with a good balance between text and pictures and well thought out, clear highlighting.
For me it's the winner.
But what about the content? I conducted a little experiment. Labour's document is entitled "A future fair for all" so I said to myself, as I often do, "mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all?" and searched the documents for instances of "fair", "fairer", "fairest" and "fairness".
Here the Libdems are streets ahead with 94 occurrences. Labour come second with 61 and the Tories a poor third with only 9. Draw your own conclusions.
An animated cartoon video in black and white slightly redeems the dullness of Labour's document. Its risible cover that looks like a Chinese communist propaganda poster (before the introduction of the one child policy clearly) at least spares us another thousand words. The HTML or downloadable pdf versions that are the only options for getting at the content are densely printed, only relieved now and then by coloured text and by coloured pages that separate the sections and bear logos in a style akin to lavatory signs.
It looks like they are appealing to the low-end computer user.
The Tories are definitely going for the high-end. Their document can be read on-screen in black and white text only but the downloadable pdf is packed with propaganda posters in an agit-prop style, with diagrams and with photographs, though the text is pretty dense and black. Some photos like those telling you that Glasgow and Brighton are great places for one reason or another don't seem terribly relevant but hey. You can even download a high definition version presumably so that you can print it with the photos in their full glory. But you don't have to print your own because they offer you a means of buying a printed version for a fiver. And they have large print for the poorly sighted, braille for the blind and easy-read for those with learning difficulties. If being on-line is your thing though there is a Flash version that's very well presented and you can listen to an audio version. When you have get on your bike or take the bus the audio version can go with you on your mp3 player. If you can't be bothered with the whole thing there are various little related videos.
No reason not to get the Tory message then.
The Libdems' manifesto offering gives you more or less the same options as the Tories; without braille but with a better Flash version and with a pick and mix video iphone app. Their webpage looks better and where they score heavily is on the presentation of the document itself. Labour's pages of dense text and the Tories' strident posters are banished in favour of well laid out pages with a good balance between text and pictures and well thought out, clear highlighting.
For me it's the winner.
But what about the content? I conducted a little experiment. Labour's document is entitled "A future fair for all" so I said to myself, as I often do, "mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all?" and searched the documents for instances of "fair", "fairer", "fairest" and "fairness".
Here the Libdems are streets ahead with 94 occurrences. Labour come second with 61 and the Tories a poor third with only 9. Draw your own conclusions.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The experts came, saw, were defeated. A superior expert arrived on April Fool's Day, made a diagnosis and retired declaring that the necessary parts should not be long in arriving.
A week may well be a long time in politics but it's even longer in a house with broken central heating. Fortunately I have some alternatives to fall back on but I am still boiling kettles to provide hot water for cleaning pots and pans, dishwashers being notoriously ineffective in that respect.
But the weather is brightening up and life in the stair will also brighten up if the underpants tastelessly draped on a flat's door handle last week constitute the lift lunatic's dying flourish. Not that he's any closer to death than the rest of us as far as I know but I spotted a note on the dashboard of a parked car declaring the driver to be a new resident of the flat that I suspect to be the litter lunatic's lair. The note begged indulgence for not yet having a parking permit but failed to melt the heart of officialdom (what does?) for a ticket had been clapped onto the windscreen. Normally I would be sympathetic but it seems that having lost a lift lunatic (I fervently hope) we have gained a car park lunatic for he was straddled across three spaces at a little less than 90 degrees to the normal direction of parking.
But people do the strangest things. How to explain for example why a man in black tights and a wig standing facing a group of people should declare "Sunbeds Regulations Act 2010" to be followed by a similarly clad chap who had his back to the audience spinning round to face them with the words "La reine le veult".
Easy you say; all part of the prorogation ceremony that took place in the Lords the other day. Now I've seen the state opening of Parliament with Black Rod having the door symbolically slammed in his face before being admitted to the Commons to summon the lower orders to the house of peers to listen to the Queen's insipid delivery of a string of miracles the government is going to achieve in the next session but I didn't realise that there was an equivalent at the end.
Black Rod did the business as before but this time no Queen. Another of those chaps in wigs, this one wearing a cloak instead of tights, read a letter from HM saying how sorry she was that she was detained by pressing business back at base and had entrusted the assenting to divers acts and the proroguing of Parliament in this the 57th year of her reign to some loyal and well beloved chaps and chapesses who she was sure would make a good job of it.
The five said chaps and chapesses sat below the woolsack dressed in red robes and comic hats and one of them read out a speech in identically insipid tones to HM listing the miracles that the government had achieved during the session. I expect a number of the audience might not have counted all these achievements as miracles, or even as achievements but there was no heckling.
This was followed by the two man GB wigtight team reading out the names of acts and assuring us that the Queen veulted them. There was a speciality turn from the veulter at the start when in a long stream of Norman French the Queen remercied her loyaux and ben aimed sujets for having provided her with enough pocket money.
The whole thing was awfully polite and at various points the two red-robed chaps did some synchronised doffing. The ladies did not participate. Their funny hats were a different shape not well adapted to doffing but I expect that in time feminist pressure will succeed in opening up synchronised funny hat doffing to female competitors.
The final event in the Lords was the naming of the day that they should all meet again. Now we all know that there is going to be an election on May 6th and that the new parliament will assemble on May 18th but because this ceremony is taking place a couple of days before parliament is officially dissolved HM, in the person of her red-robed well beloveds chose April 20th as their next date. Let's hope they all understood this mad fiction.
After that the commoners trooped back to their little chamber and the Speaker read out the whole list of bills to which we had heard the Queen's proxy graciously assenting not fifteen minutes earlier. This presumably for the benefit of those members who had not been able to squeeze into a space within hearing distance in the Lords since they don't actually get to sit down on the red benches or even get very far into the chamber. Emails no doubt will go out to the several hundred MPs who, like the PM, weren't there at all.
How reassuring to see democracy in action. Had Sadaam seen it he would no doubt have declared this to be the mother of all parliaments.
A week may well be a long time in politics but it's even longer in a house with broken central heating. Fortunately I have some alternatives to fall back on but I am still boiling kettles to provide hot water for cleaning pots and pans, dishwashers being notoriously ineffective in that respect.
But the weather is brightening up and life in the stair will also brighten up if the underpants tastelessly draped on a flat's door handle last week constitute the lift lunatic's dying flourish. Not that he's any closer to death than the rest of us as far as I know but I spotted a note on the dashboard of a parked car declaring the driver to be a new resident of the flat that I suspect to be the litter lunatic's lair. The note begged indulgence for not yet having a parking permit but failed to melt the heart of officialdom (what does?) for a ticket had been clapped onto the windscreen. Normally I would be sympathetic but it seems that having lost a lift lunatic (I fervently hope) we have gained a car park lunatic for he was straddled across three spaces at a little less than 90 degrees to the normal direction of parking.
But people do the strangest things. How to explain for example why a man in black tights and a wig standing facing a group of people should declare "Sunbeds Regulations Act 2010" to be followed by a similarly clad chap who had his back to the audience spinning round to face them with the words "La reine le veult".
Easy you say; all part of the prorogation ceremony that took place in the Lords the other day. Now I've seen the state opening of Parliament with Black Rod having the door symbolically slammed in his face before being admitted to the Commons to summon the lower orders to the house of peers to listen to the Queen's insipid delivery of a string of miracles the government is going to achieve in the next session but I didn't realise that there was an equivalent at the end.
Black Rod did the business as before but this time no Queen. Another of those chaps in wigs, this one wearing a cloak instead of tights, read a letter from HM saying how sorry she was that she was detained by pressing business back at base and had entrusted the assenting to divers acts and the proroguing of Parliament in this the 57th year of her reign to some loyal and well beloved chaps and chapesses who she was sure would make a good job of it.
The five said chaps and chapesses sat below the woolsack dressed in red robes and comic hats and one of them read out a speech in identically insipid tones to HM listing the miracles that the government had achieved during the session. I expect a number of the audience might not have counted all these achievements as miracles, or even as achievements but there was no heckling.
This was followed by the two man GB wigtight team reading out the names of acts and assuring us that the Queen veulted them. There was a speciality turn from the veulter at the start when in a long stream of Norman French the Queen remercied her loyaux and ben aimed sujets for having provided her with enough pocket money.
The whole thing was awfully polite and at various points the two red-robed chaps did some synchronised doffing. The ladies did not participate. Their funny hats were a different shape not well adapted to doffing but I expect that in time feminist pressure will succeed in opening up synchronised funny hat doffing to female competitors.
The final event in the Lords was the naming of the day that they should all meet again. Now we all know that there is going to be an election on May 6th and that the new parliament will assemble on May 18th but because this ceremony is taking place a couple of days before parliament is officially dissolved HM, in the person of her red-robed well beloveds chose April 20th as their next date. Let's hope they all understood this mad fiction.
After that the commoners trooped back to their little chamber and the Speaker read out the whole list of bills to which we had heard the Queen's proxy graciously assenting not fifteen minutes earlier. This presumably for the benefit of those members who had not been able to squeeze into a space within hearing distance in the Lords since they don't actually get to sit down on the red benches or even get very far into the chamber. Emails no doubt will go out to the several hundred MPs who, like the PM, weren't there at all.
How reassuring to see democracy in action. Had Sadaam seen it he would no doubt have declared this to be the mother of all parliaments.
Monday, March 29, 2010
I was being facetious when I conflated the arrival of summer time with the arrival of summer itself but the central heating system has taken me at my word and stopped. With snow forecast over the next few days this is not good news.
Applying my limited understanding of these things and consulting the manual I increased the water pressure, which had certainly fallen below the recommended level, and bled all the radiators but to no avail.
I'll give it twenty-four hours to come to its senses then I'll call out the experts.
I called for expert help recently by emailing a BT support service with a query. The reply was from one Garry Watson who had clearly not devoted much time to reading my question. The advice was to ring a helpline.
A few days later I had worked the thing out for myself and in a spirit of goodwill towards men I sent an email saying "I don't need your help any more thanks". I got a reply from this same Garry Watson saying "We understand you are having problems with BT Vision. If this persists please ring ......".
Calling a computer Hal led to all sorts of trouble. Calling one Garry Watson seems at least to do no harm even if it does no good.
I called my central heating system all sorts of names this morning but I shall just call it Garry Watson in future.
Applying my limited understanding of these things and consulting the manual I increased the water pressure, which had certainly fallen below the recommended level, and bled all the radiators but to no avail.
I'll give it twenty-four hours to come to its senses then I'll call out the experts.
I called for expert help recently by emailing a BT support service with a query. The reply was from one Garry Watson who had clearly not devoted much time to reading my question. The advice was to ring a helpline.
A few days later I had worked the thing out for myself and in a spirit of goodwill towards men I sent an email saying "I don't need your help any more thanks". I got a reply from this same Garry Watson saying "We understand you are having problems with BT Vision. If this persists please ring ......".
Calling a computer Hal led to all sorts of trouble. Calling one Garry Watson seems at least to do no harm even if it does no good.
I called my central heating system all sorts of names this morning but I shall just call it Garry Watson in future.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
It's astonishing how many things needed to be moved on an hour today in celebration of the arrival of summer:
These ones sorted themselves out automatically:
Bedroom clock
Wristwatch
Mobile phone
Central heating
Lounge clock
Telephone
Kitchen clock
Oven
Microwave
Car
Camera
Wristwatch
Mobile phone
Central heating
Lounge clock
Telephone
Kitchen clock
Oven
Microwave
Car
Camera
These ones sorted themselves out automatically:
Laptop
Set-top box
Kitchen radio
Hi-fi radio
Bedroom radio
Mondo wi-fi radio
Set-top box
Kitchen radio
Hi-fi radio
Bedroom radio
Mondo wi-fi radio
Monday, March 22, 2010
I have watched the bids mounting on the pasta machines that I picked out on Ebay.
If you buy one of these in the shops you can pay up to forty quid or so but you can get the same model brand new on Amazon for £33 including postage. So it strikes me as strange, not to say perverse that anyone should pay £35 for a second-hand one on Ebay. But that's what two of those machines went for. The others fetched a slightly more reasonable £27 and £25 but I'd be looking for a better discount on the new price than that.
If you buy one of these in the shops you can pay up to forty quid or so but you can get the same model brand new on Amazon for £33 including postage. So it strikes me as strange, not to say perverse that anyone should pay £35 for a second-hand one on Ebay. But that's what two of those machines went for. The others fetched a slightly more reasonable £27 and £25 but I'd be looking for a better discount on the new price than that.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
My good spirits on returning this evening from the RSA where I had not only enjoyed the art and a glass of wine but bumped into some old friends were dissipated on discovering that the lift lunatic is back at work.
The severe talking to he got from the fire brigade at New Year (for I am sure it is the same jerk) must have worn off. What to do?
The severe talking to he got from the fire brigade at New Year (for I am sure it is the same jerk) must have worn off. What to do?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The items I put up for sale on Ebay attracted exactly one bid each. No cut throat competition there then.
When I went to post the ink cartridges the cost was about 40p more than when I'd taken the package in to price it (the added weight of the address?) and I forgot to include the padded envelope in my p&p charge, so what with that and Ebay's cut I suspect it cost me more to sell them than to throw them away.
I saw a couple of one-act plays at the weekend that were entries to the English equivalent of the SCDA festival. They were quite good but what impressed me most was that they were performed in a little theatre (100 odd seats and a bar) that belonged to the amateur group doing the shows. Oh that the Grads had had that sort of vision rather than hanging onto the coat-tails of the university for the last fifty-six years.
I also saw a professional production in Harrogate's Victorian theatre where the ornate decoration has been delightfully restored and the entire building refreshed. The show was Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends. It's one of his superb dark comedies and I enjoyed it very much. I played in it once myself but could remember only that my character got a jug of cream poured over his head and that he had to smoke a cigar so the play unrolled before me like something entirely new.
Had the production been in Scotland the actor could not have had a cigar but English legislation allows smoking on stage. A notice in the foyer warned us that "..... this play contains instances of profanity and that due to artistic integrity there will be smoking on-stage." At least we can still enjoy the profanity up here.
I was staying with friends I had made in Italy and Ron was extolling the joys of making your own pasta having recently bought a machine in a deli's closing down sale. I don't know about the joy of making it but I enjoyed watching Brunella do it many years ago and I certainly enjoyed the fruits of her labour.
So I must try it and am now on Ebay again in the more familiar role of buyer keeping an eye on four pasta machines, ready to strike at the last minute and reel in a bargain.
When I went to post the ink cartridges the cost was about 40p more than when I'd taken the package in to price it (the added weight of the address?) and I forgot to include the padded envelope in my p&p charge, so what with that and Ebay's cut I suspect it cost me more to sell them than to throw them away.
I saw a couple of one-act plays at the weekend that were entries to the English equivalent of the SCDA festival. They were quite good but what impressed me most was that they were performed in a little theatre (100 odd seats and a bar) that belonged to the amateur group doing the shows. Oh that the Grads had had that sort of vision rather than hanging onto the coat-tails of the university for the last fifty-six years.
I also saw a professional production in Harrogate's Victorian theatre where the ornate decoration has been delightfully restored and the entire building refreshed. The show was Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends. It's one of his superb dark comedies and I enjoyed it very much. I played in it once myself but could remember only that my character got a jug of cream poured over his head and that he had to smoke a cigar so the play unrolled before me like something entirely new.
Had the production been in Scotland the actor could not have had a cigar but English legislation allows smoking on stage. A notice in the foyer warned us that "..... this play contains instances of profanity and that due to artistic integrity there will be smoking on-stage." At least we can still enjoy the profanity up here.
I was staying with friends I had made in Italy and Ron was extolling the joys of making your own pasta having recently bought a machine in a deli's closing down sale. I don't know about the joy of making it but I enjoyed watching Brunella do it many years ago and I certainly enjoyed the fruits of her labour.
So I must try it and am now on Ebay again in the more familiar role of buyer keeping an eye on four pasta machines, ready to strike at the last minute and reel in a bargain.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
I switched on my computer with some excitement this morning eager to see how the bidding was going on the items I put up for sale on Ebay yesterday. The results so far are at least better than on the one and only previous occasion on which I tried to sell something on Ebay. Then my ad was found to be in contravention of the railways act and was removed. This time the ads are still there but no-one has bid.
So if you want a barely used beard trimmer or some printer ink the way is clear.
So if you want a barely used beard trimmer or some printer ink the way is clear.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Here are some pictures taken at our technical rehearsal -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11113367@N08/
They give a good idea of costume, a glimpse of the set and a hint of the chaos that is a tech when all you have is an hour. It's a shame we could not have got a full frontal shot in performance of the set in all its glory.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11113367@N08/
They give a good idea of costume, a glimpse of the set and a hint of the chaos that is a tech when all you have is an hour. It's a shame we could not have got a full frontal shot in performance of the set in all its glory.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
So that's the SCDA over for another year. The upside of not being a prizewinner is that we don't have to drag ourselves and the set to Grangemouth next month and I don't have the hassle of trying to find dates that suit everyone for a few rehearsals for the next round. But I do regret not having the opportunity to compete to take the show to Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
I thought the adjudicator's assessment of our production was absolutely fair but I can't say that I agreed with his decisions on the winners. I might have placed Livingston Players' "Womberang" amongst the first three for its energy and entertainment value but neither "Trifle" nor "One Day I Met Myself Coming Home" struck me as particularly good productions and how Trifle merited Best Stage Presentation is beyond me. There were at least two other shows, leaving my own out of contention, that were much more effectively presented than that recycled set last seen in an appalling piece about a paintball experience.
Claire has a nice set of pictures taken in the dressing room and at the after show party on Facebook and one of Umi's friends took some shots at the technical rehearsal which I hope to get hold of.
It's taken me four years to get this play on the stage and despite the lack of success in the competition I'm very pleased to have got there in the end and with a lovely team of players and backstage stars. Apart from the enduring memories of the production I've got this adorable set of cufflinks as a gift from the cast and crew. But I need to invest in a few more shirts with appropriately fashioned cuffs to fully enjoy them.
I thought the adjudicator's assessment of our production was absolutely fair but I can't say that I agreed with his decisions on the winners. I might have placed Livingston Players' "Womberang" amongst the first three for its energy and entertainment value but neither "Trifle" nor "One Day I Met Myself Coming Home" struck me as particularly good productions and how Trifle merited Best Stage Presentation is beyond me. There were at least two other shows, leaving my own out of contention, that were much more effectively presented than that recycled set last seen in an appalling piece about a paintball experience.
Claire has a nice set of pictures taken in the dressing room and at the after show party on Facebook and one of Umi's friends took some shots at the technical rehearsal which I hope to get hold of.
It's taken me four years to get this play on the stage and despite the lack of success in the competition I'm very pleased to have got there in the end and with a lovely team of players and backstage stars. Apart from the enduring memories of the production I've got this adorable set of cufflinks as a gift from the cast and crew. But I need to invest in a few more shirts with appropriately fashioned cuffs to fully enjoy them.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I'm trying not to stay up half the night watching the Olympics but it's tempting. Now that I've returned my DVD recorder I have to watch live although there is in fact very good highlights coverage during the following day.
I was glued to the ladies Snowboard Cross this afternoon even though I'd seen it all last night. The leaps and jumps they do are breathtaking and gloriously elegant in slow motion repeats. Having perfected what a friend described as my survival skiing technique which consisted in getting down the run in one piece with no trace of elegance and not necessarily always upright, I never had the motivation to try repeating the process on a board. But watching those girls and the men the day before I wish I had. Mind you I'd have been limited to jumps centimetres high compared to their metre high ones.
One of the things that makes it a better spectator sport compared to most downhill events is that, at least in the later stages, you are watching a race and not one individual competing against the clock.
Britain didn't have a single competitor in the men's event but in the women's Zoe Gilbert finished a very creditable 8th and would have done even better if she had not injured a knee in the later stages. British snowsport athletes have an uphill struggle when it comes to training and preparation and now the funding organization has gone bust.
Drambuie used to sponsor Scottish skiers, maybe one of the off-shore financial outfits that operate out of the Isle of Man where Zoe comes from could spare a few bob from their bonuses. Unless the fact that she was sporting a Poker Stars bunnet was not a personal fashion statement as it is when I wear mine on the golf course but an indication that she's already spoken for.
I was glued to the ladies Snowboard Cross this afternoon even though I'd seen it all last night. The leaps and jumps they do are breathtaking and gloriously elegant in slow motion repeats. Having perfected what a friend described as my survival skiing technique which consisted in getting down the run in one piece with no trace of elegance and not necessarily always upright, I never had the motivation to try repeating the process on a board. But watching those girls and the men the day before I wish I had. Mind you I'd have been limited to jumps centimetres high compared to their metre high ones.
One of the things that makes it a better spectator sport compared to most downhill events is that, at least in the later stages, you are watching a race and not one individual competing against the clock.
Britain didn't have a single competitor in the men's event but in the women's Zoe Gilbert finished a very creditable 8th and would have done even better if she had not injured a knee in the later stages. British snowsport athletes have an uphill struggle when it comes to training and preparation and now the funding organization has gone bust.
Drambuie used to sponsor Scottish skiers, maybe one of the off-shore financial outfits that operate out of the Isle of Man where Zoe comes from could spare a few bob from their bonuses. Unless the fact that she was sporting a Poker Stars bunnet was not a personal fashion statement as it is when I wear mine on the golf course but an indication that she's already spoken for.
Monday, February 15, 2010
We're reaching the crunch point with the play. The set was moved into St Serfs yesterday and we are down there this evening for our technical rehearsal. One hour on the stage trying to make everything hang together for the first time is woefully inadequate but I suppose it's the same for everyone unless they have rehearsal facilities far superior to our own. Like NKAS for example but they are far away in time and distance and have nothing to do with this competition.
Performance is on Friday and fingers crossed I think it will be, if not excellent, then jolly good. I'm pleased with how it will look and sound and with the performances. The whole thing is about as close to the ideas I had in my head as it is reasonable to expect. But I'm not rushing to offer myself as a director again very soon if ever. Unfortunately I have some ideas and may not be able to resist for ever which is what I swear I would prefer to do.
Performance is on Friday and fingers crossed I think it will be, if not excellent, then jolly good. I'm pleased with how it will look and sound and with the performances. The whole thing is about as close to the ideas I had in my head as it is reasonable to expect. But I'm not rushing to offer myself as a director again very soon if ever. Unfortunately I have some ideas and may not be able to resist for ever which is what I swear I would prefer to do.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Friday, February 05, 2010
Tonight may well be the first time that I have been inside the Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline. That seems a shocking admission for someone born and bred not much more than 10 miles away from it. But for we Langtonians Dunfermline was another country. Occasionally we had a family trip to Pittencrieff Park and visited the Abbey. I was bussed over for swimming lessons when I was at primary school and for a year I changed buses there when travelling between home and my Dollar Academy lodgings. But that's the extent of my intimacy with Scotland's ancient capital.
The hall doesn't look as though much has been done to it since it was built in the thirties. The interior reminded me strongly of the Adam Smith hall before it was transformed into the swish theatre that it is today though I think the Adam Smith was much more austerely decorated. I was struck by the orange tinted Gents clock above the auditorium right emergency exit. These were ubiquitous in the cinemas and theatres of my youth and one usually passed under one to get to the gents but I don't think the pun was intentional. I have a feeling that the Playhouse still sports one.
Of course I didn't go to the Carnegie Hall to look at the clock or the decor or to raise ancient memories but to a Fife Jazz Festival concert. I wasn't in the event wildly stirred by the Norrbotten Big Band nor by Ulf Wakenius and his quartet but I did very much enjoy the home-grown talents of Brian Kellock and Julian Arguelles to the extent that I succumbed to temptation and bought a CD. Who living in the shadow of the Pentlands could resist an album called The Nine Mile Burn Sessions?
PS You can catch the latter lads at the City Halls in Glasgow on Saturday 6th and at The Lot in Edinburgh on Sunday 7th.
The hall doesn't look as though much has been done to it since it was built in the thirties. The interior reminded me strongly of the Adam Smith hall before it was transformed into the swish theatre that it is today though I think the Adam Smith was much more austerely decorated. I was struck by the orange tinted Gents clock above the auditorium right emergency exit. These were ubiquitous in the cinemas and theatres of my youth and one usually passed under one to get to the gents but I don't think the pun was intentional. I have a feeling that the Playhouse still sports one.
Of course I didn't go to the Carnegie Hall to look at the clock or the decor or to raise ancient memories but to a Fife Jazz Festival concert. I wasn't in the event wildly stirred by the Norrbotten Big Band nor by Ulf Wakenius and his quartet but I did very much enjoy the home-grown talents of Brian Kellock and Julian Arguelles to the extent that I succumbed to temptation and bought a CD. Who living in the shadow of the Pentlands could resist an album called The Nine Mile Burn Sessions?
PS You can catch the latter lads at the City Halls in Glasgow on Saturday 6th and at The Lot in Edinburgh on Sunday 7th.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
I caught the tennis in dribs and drabs over the weekend. I saw the first set and a bit of the final before I went out in the morning and then managed to watch more after I came back from six hours set building. Tantalizingly I had to go out to a rehearsal at 11 points all in the third set tie-break. I had to quickly prevent someone there from revealing the result. But the result came quickly enough when I switched the recording back on - five minutes maybe.
A disappointing result but I'm sure that I can work hard at improving my groundling technique in time for the French Open. Scotland's next sporting disappointment will surely come on Sunday. I'll be set building again otherwise I might have been tempted to fly down to the Dryades for a "journée conviviale". A 9 hole scramble in the morning, lunch and Scotland versus France on the big screen in the afternoon.
The flashy DVD player/recorder that I bought primarily to see the tennis was nearly taken back to the shop on Monday because of a severe defect that caused it not to record as instructed and to scramble up the picture on a number of channels. Mysteriously it seems to have cured itself so I'm hanging on to it for a few more days to put its various functions through their paces and to record Scotland's defeat.
I suffered a little defeat of my own last night when I lost my rag with one of my cast. I had been determined to smile at all adversity throughout this production but alas a lass undid me.
A disappointing result but I'm sure that I can work hard at improving my groundling technique in time for the French Open. Scotland's next sporting disappointment will surely come on Sunday. I'll be set building again otherwise I might have been tempted to fly down to the Dryades for a "journée conviviale". A 9 hole scramble in the morning, lunch and Scotland versus France on the big screen in the afternoon.
The flashy DVD player/recorder that I bought primarily to see the tennis was nearly taken back to the shop on Monday because of a severe defect that caused it not to record as instructed and to scramble up the picture on a number of channels. Mysteriously it seems to have cured itself so I'm hanging on to it for a few more days to put its various functions through their paces and to record Scotland's defeat.
I suffered a little defeat of my own last night when I lost my rag with one of my cast. I had been determined to smile at all adversity throughout this production but alas a lass undid me.
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