Do ya, do ya really wanna

Continuing an occaisional series on strange things I see in Edinburgh....

A few days ago I walked out of my flat, and the first thing to greet my eyes was an old chap, riding a bicycle, smoking a pipe. Now I realise that a description in words does not do this visual fest justice, but please imagine for a moment an elderly gentleman, leaisurely sitting on his bike, waiting for lights to change whilst puffing on his pipe. And then add this - he wasn't just riding any old bike, he was riding a Powabike! This really is a techniological gem of a machine - its a bike, but if you can't be arsed pedalling, don't bother, beacuse the bike will do all the work for you, travelling "at a top speed of 15mph, with a generous range of 20 miles per charge". So after my initial amazment, it seems the gentleman in question could afford to rot his lungs with tobacco, beacuse the only energy expenditure required was managing to avoid falling off. Maybe he could share notes with the penny farthing rider.


Possibly more amazing was the sight I witnessed on Thursday. A family group out for a walk up the street, apparently taking their pets for a walk. This was indeed what they were up to, and you'd be forgiven for assuming that they were walking their dogs, or at a push (if they were particularly eccentric) their cats, but NO! They were walking ferrets. Yes, those things that look like rats that have been streched out on some medieval torture device and get shoved down holes to terroise badgers and such like. So there they were, walking up the street with two ferrets on leads, looking like mad people, as I and I'm sure everyone else thought they were.

And before any of you, amazed by the phenominal stories just related to you, start to claim that I'm lying, I'm not.

I'm the Urban Spaceman , baby; I've got speed

Words cannot describe the pain
So I let pictures do it instead

Elephant water polo?

Yesterday, driving to the airport to pick someone up I didn't know, I saw the most amazing thing - an old man riding a penny farthing. For those of you who are moderately uneducated, this is probably the first ever type of bicycle to be made and frankly, looks ridiculous. I emerged from this experience with two questions.

1. The man was not wearing a helmet, only a traditional Scottish bunnet. Why? Surely he had much further to fall than a regular bike user, and therefore the speed with which his head hit the ground would be much harder, making the utilisation of an appropriate helmet a rather sensible idea.

2. How on earth do they avoid toppling over when they have to stop at traffic lights? The distance from saddle to ground is greater than the length of the riders legs, and unless the rider is Inspector Gadget, their legs wont reach without serious crotch damage.


In other news, yesterday I went to see the film Crash and cried more than I ever have in recent times. Its funny, coming out of these films that make you feel exhausting, you can say it was a great film, but never really say you enjoyed it. Do I enjyo crying and being put through an emotional whirlwind? No. BUt will I do that to myself again? Of course. Why? I don't really know. I suck at emotional psychology.

And for Brittneys benefit, yesteray I picked some crap off my floor. I'm getting there...

When you're near, it all makes sense

Sunday was the last night in the festival, which culminates in classical concert and fireworks display, which half the town turns out for. Being the highly organised person that I am, I duly forgot my camera and then had to rely on my dogy memory to record what was easily the best fireworks display I have ever seen (including the couple of July 4th shows i've seen in America). It was flippin awesome. However, thanks to the genius of google images, I have managed to borrow a couple of pics of what it would have looked like (seeing as these pictures are from previous years, but apparently they don't change the show much). And I don't think these images are copyright!

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you have a Royal Bank of Scotland account, this is where your bacnk charges and interest (probably) goes! (And yes, it does look like the castle was on fire, which it did for most the night, but I'm reliably assured that it's ok).

Ikea's cocktail shakers form part of the 'Groggy' range

I'm back. And excited. Currently Scotland are beating Italy 1-0, although no doubt by the time I've finished writing this we'll be losing.

So, 13 days of conferences was long long long. I got some serious seminar fatigue by the end, but I learnt stuff at both, got excited by the new year, and got to see lots of friends, so it was well worth being there. But if you really want to have fun, try going to nearly 2 weeks non stop of work related conferences, take a 5 hourdrive home, and then immediately try to clean and pack up your flat to move out the next morning. Actually it's not too fun at all, especially when you start to realise how much serious junk you own. Anyway, I'm in the new flat now and things are slowly starting to look organised.

Italy have just equalised. I should be a prophet.

What was really fun, was the festival, as mentioned earlier. This week I found out we got a 5 star review in the main Festival paper, 3 weeks, which is pretty cool (even if my 8 year old cousin could write a better reseachered and scripted review than whoever did ours). Blogspot doesn't yet let me post videos, but I can treat you to a couple of pictures.














In other riveting news, today I used a new website to search for a car insurance quote, and amongst the 20 odd quotes I got, there was one £90 cheaper than my renewal quote. Back of the net!!

Scotland have managed to hold on for a draw. Best scrap that full time prophet application I was filling out.