Still Braided After All These Years - Sat 13/12

Office Christmas party yesterday. Quite good fun all told, with lots of free advice (of variable reliability and quality ;) for good measure. Almost got dragged up to dance, but my horror of my physical galoot-ness (for went of a better word) won out. Dancing is like football for me - one of those physical activities I wish I was good at, but when I start to try it, the mental image of this great galumphing eejit clod hopping around is too much to bear. I can get away with football because there are people at least as crap as me playing. But I'm a musician dammit - not a very good one I'll grant you, but a musician all the same - so how does a musician explain being sooooo ungainly and awkward at basically moving around in time ? Answers on a postcard, 'cos it's starting to get me down :(

Made up for not dancing by being an inpromptu hairdressers model though. Still have one of the braids that went in today too, hence the title.

A Good Day - Tue 9/12

So, a whole day of IBM presales, presaged by a 6:30 rise and a long train journey to Edinburgh - sounds like fun, huh? Actually wasn't too bod all things considered. Didn't go roaming for WiFi afterwards though - had much better things to do :)

Went round the German market in Princes Street and got some nice stollen (with money off because of my white stripe!) for me, some wild boar sausage for dad and chocolate for mum.

Sadly the train to Motherwell ran late so had to hang around an extra 30 mins. To add insult to injury, the line problem that made the Edinburgh train late made the next Lanark train late too, so it turned into a 45 minute wait in rather chilly conditions - brrr !

Had some serious Newton love taking notes today. So easy, and so simple to correct errors as I was scribbling away. And noting down blog entries pretty much as things happened... All I need now is pervasive public WiFi and it's a perfect on the spot blogging device !

And Another Thing... Mon 8/12

German markets in town centres are just unfair ! 

So much for losing weight - pigging out on the first decent bockwurst I've had for years, Berlin potato and wurst soup and (today) a huge jam filled warm dumpling is not going to do anything to help in that regard ! And that is just Glasgow - tomorrow I'm in Edinburgh - who knows what delights will be available there !

Anyway, stuff it (or rather, stuff me) - I was going to start the weight loss after New Year anyway ...!

Internet Junkies ! - Mon 8/12

That was the week that was ! Started well enough with a quiz win on Sunday, then a day off on the Monday. 

However, about lunchtime on Monday, our broadband suddenly stopped working. Non functioning broadband was the defining feature of the week until Thursday when a BT engineer called. He fitted a new socket but reckoned that we would need a broadband engineer to fix things. However within 20 minutes it was all working again - hmmmm... Orange customer service didn't cover itself with glory in the course of the problems - didn't get a clear consistent story from any of the customer service types I spoke to.

I don't think any of us realised quite what internet junkies we were until we went cold turkey for a few days - to the point I'm investing in a backup plan. 

Since then I've got the guitar practice back up and running, and am seeing some improvements already which is more than a little gratifying. Still a looooong way to go though, but any improvement is welcome at the moment. 

We got thumped at the quiz on Sunday - this week's big gamble on the Wipeout round didn't pay off this week ! Ho hum. And we'll just draw a thin veil over the Accies performance at the Death Star and Celtic's Hibee humping, shall we... ?

Where Did November Go - Sat 6/12

November - the great lost month! Felt really busy, and had a few very memorable highlights, but it seemed to go by in a bit of a blur !

Highlights: new Bond movie (surprisingly brutal and not really Bond style in some parts), food fair in New Lanark and some excellent sausages!, Chris Date seminar in Edinburgh, Barbara Morgenstern in Stirling, with a chaotic but still good support act called Remember Remember, another fair in Lanark and some excellent sweeties ! And, finally got down to Douglas Park to see the Accies play Kilmarnock in fairly Baltic conditions - at least we won 1-0 to make it worthwhile ! It was pretty cold though - there were some concerned looking brass monkeys clutching paper bags looking for welders after the game !

Took the knees to the doctor - suspect tendon and/or ligament problem. Blood tests ok, still waiting for a physio appointment. Doc did reckon I have to lose between 2.5 and 3.5 stone in weight though :(

Finally got round to replacing the battery in the Mondeo after it died the death.

Started trying to get a regular guitar practice regime going again, and started blogging progress to make it kindof accountable (it's here). Went well, for a while ... but that's December !