I'm I selling you out?

Today I was walking up one of the Closes that lead from the mound to the Royal Mile and in a hidden courtyard spied two men fighting with broadswords. The ceased before I thought of whiping out my camera, but it brightened my day.

In other news, I watched part of some program, the name of which escapes me, but it was about a load of teenagers from different backgrounds who went off to live together to prove to their parents that they were mature enough to be independant and should be treated as an adult. My emotional response to this reminded why I should never be a youth worker, and if I do, the police should be warned first.

Yeah, I'm More Than Fine.

They say a picture says a thousand words. This was taken on Friday Oct 13.




A full 18 days before Halloween and an even fuller 73 before Christmas. And I have no idea how long these had been up before I took the picture. A thousand words would probably not be enough to express my ire. I understand the marketability of Christmas, but is there a single benefit of putting this up so ludicrously early. It almost makes arson worthwhile.

The place in question , incidentally, is the club Why Not? (which lends itself to the huge numbers of obvious jokes, including, why not just keep the christmas decorations in a box for another 6 weeks?) which is in Edinburgh.

Incidentally, this is the first note I've written on the new Mac. It rocks. Bye bye Mr PC. Forever.

Proud Edward's Army

Corporate joy is a strange thing. Pack yourself into a pub full of smelly guys, where there is so little space you don't stand a chance of getting to the bar and the unwshed hair of the bloke in front of you infringes on your breathing space and continually threatens to fill your mouth; add a few small girls who have no chance of seeing any of the tvs but have no idea what's going on; throw in a few indiviuals who support the wrong team, and attempt to watch a high tension sporting event.

Twice in the last 6 months have I engaged in serious in such activity - The Calcutta Cup match (Scotland v England) in the Six Nations (which is rugby, for those of you who are Americans) and yesterday, when Scotland played France (at football this time). Both times Scotland we're expected to be hammered and both times Scotland squeezed out a (debatably) deserved win. Which brings me to my point about coporate joy.

Whenever Scotland scored decorum was allowed to go out the window. AFter spending 60 minutes trying not to let your head get in the way of the view of the big hairy guy behind you and subtley trying to elbow the guy in front to keep him from stepping to close to you, as soon as the ball goes in the net, you're allowed to leap, holler and yell. The big guy behind you gives a bear hug while you give the bloke in front of you a big kiss, all the while directing sneers at the french/english around you. It's a strange thing that can manage to strip away British reservation, but it's a good thing. Is it something to do wtih Scotland's underdog mentality? Possibly. People will celebrate goals at any game, but the extent to whcih a win over England, or a goal against the World Cup runners up is celebrated may only be matched south of the border by a win over Germany (rare) or getting somewhere close to the winning the world cup (rarer in football, not quite so rare in rugby - I confess I allowed myself a little loss of dignity when England beat Australia in 2003).

Anyway, a largely pointless thing to write about, but I realised how much fun (and fleeting) these times can be and wan't to savour them just a little longer...
Images after the Scotland v England match watched in sunny Oban...



And if any of you are questioning my nationality, send me a note at the relevant address. P.O. Box I-Don't-Care