Feeling Hot Hot Hot

So yesterday was the hottest October 27 in the UK since records began 125 years ago. Apparently it reached 22.4C in some remote part of Scotland. On such a rarity, who could pass up the oppertunity to spend it like this?



Well actually, I didn't, because if you looked carefully you will have noticed that actually, that isn't a scottish beach. But this is...




Anyway, what I actually did was meet lots of people and rather than having to run from the rain and dive into the closest coffee shop or pub available, we had meetings in the park. How nice.
Other interesting happenings this week included winning our local pub quiz for the 3rd tim in a row (keeps us in beers for the rest of the week at least). And gaining a respectable position in the latest event of the Edinburgh Poker League.

And now it's time to head off to the annual Edinburgh CU houseparty, and a weekend away in the middle of nowhere with no phone reception, forfeit darts and strange sunsets. Adios my friends (oh and if you get a chance, watch Layer Cake, it's very good)

Why, Why, Why, Delilah?

Weddings are lots of fun, aren't they? Friday was my old flatmate Tim's wedding to AnnaLauren and was an awesome day. Even lots of rain didn't really dampen anything, seeing as the reception was only a couple of minutes walk from the church and the only thing we couldn't do was step out onto the balcony looking out to the castle. So yeah, God is great, bringing two people from the other sides of the world together, and giving us a great day to celebrate it. The ceilidh was awesome - the band had more energy and originality than most bands i've seen and played Tom Jones' "Delilah" for the Dashing White Sargeant and a Proclaimer's song. Super. As I side note, somehow I managed to get slated in the best man's speech more than Tim himself. Surely thats not right.

And almost as exciting, Friday was also the day Pro Evolution Soccer 5 was released! This game is incredible. It is in serious danger of taking over my world and removing any chance of a girlfriend or meaningful relationship from my life. But I dont care. It's THAT good. And more importantly, on current form, I'm kicking my flatmate's arse at it.

And if you've managed to read this far, go and spend 4 and a half minutes at this link. I PROMISE you won't regret it. Thanks to Brittney for providing me with several minutes of joviality. Nintendo Choir

Also, go and see Wallace and Gromit, and The Corpse Bride at the cinema. My word, they rock.


Photos......Wedding, and view from the window at the reception (I LOVE Edinburgh!)

Apparently rude stuff will bring in the googlers!

Firstly, apologies to those I promised I would update by Tuesday. That didn't happen beacuse I am lazy. It's an inherent disease. Sorry.

So, the weekend. Bit mental really, 8 Americans were visiting, a friend had a birthday, I had to play football, go to a wedding and my flatmate from Newcastle, Graham was visiting. On the Friday night I went out for dinner with the yankydoodles (sorry guys) at an Italian restaurant. Never before have I been in a place like it, or am likely to again. After flirting with the girls, the restauranteer noticed one of them dancing a little in her seat to a tune, and promptly turned the place into a night club. Not only did he turn the lights down and turn the music up, but he moved the tables out of the way to create a dance floor and even had a lfashyl light spinny ball thingy! It was phenomenal. It was like one of those shops in Discworld novels that never stay in one place but pop up all over the world. Right now, our friend Joe is probably entertaining purveyours of italian cuisine in Dubai, or Phildelphia, or Cape Town.

The wedding was also lots of fun. The kilt came out and we ceilidhed away into the wee small hours (or at least 10pm). And we won our football match by virtue of a spectacular own goal by their sweeper, who played for us last season. Oh how we laughed.

In other exciting developments, I now have a hit counter for this site. It's so sophisticated that I can tell where you're logging in from and what browser you're using. So to increase the diversity of viewers I plan on surrupticiously insert words that might generate hits on google. For example, did I ever tell you how I got the nickname, Naked Al? Lets see if that increases the traffic....

And now, the photos...Notice in particular Danny and Brittney getting their groove on in the restuarant (it's called Rialtos, by the way, if anyone in Edinburgh wants to check it out...). And apparently my hair's getting too long. Any opinions?

Interestingly, I still like Happy Hardcore

Its been a week since I posted, so I feel an obligation to write something, but I really have nothing of interested to write about, so don't bother reading any more, cos it'll be really boring.

However, I would like to say thankyou to all of you who asked how I was feeling. I'm not feeling much better - still snotty, but enjoying the fact that I have managed to get rid of the nastiness that has since afflicted my flatmates this week.

Several of my loyal readers have also expressed an interessed in the thought processes that go into creating titles for each of these posts. Well, I confirm that absolutely no thought is necessary, and I write the first thing that pops into my head. Todays title was inspired by a track called Together Forever" which was on a CD entitled Bonkers 3 that I bought approximately 8 years ago. Hearing it harkened my mind back to those heady days, and reminded me that at times, I still do enjoy the pumping beats of a stonking happy hardcore track (it must be noted, however, that whilst Together Forever is indeed a standout track on the album, it cannot compare with Return to Toytown, or my personal favourite, Fly Away). So next time you read my blog, play a little game and see if you can guess what I was thinking at the time. I know you want to

In other news, yesterday I went to St Andrews to lead some training and it rained a lot. Fortunately it had stopped before we attempted to do surveys, and everyone had a great time. Slightly more bizarre than the weather (cos everyone expects rain in Scotland) was the dinner party I somehow ended up at. My friend, Mikaela had said she would cook me dinner, and instead of the beans on toast, or similar, i was expecting, she was having a full on dinner party, which was lovely. However, despite there being 8 guests, I was somehow the only British person in the room, with others hailing from South Africa, America and Lithouania. A strange day.

I was also thinking my blog was getting a little dull, so here's some pretty pictures I took at some point to brighten it up....







How pretty.

Free wife beaters? I'm there

Things that annoy me (First in a potentially very long series).

Walking past a shop, on the SECOND OF OCTOBER (!), and seeing Christmas decorations already up. unfortunately I was not in posession of my camera at the time, so proof of my rage is not available, but I'm sure my word is enough.

Anyway, I was strolling past the American eatery TGI Fridays after church on Sunday night, and a twinkle caught my eye. Glancing round, my eyes were bombarded with a feast of silver tinsel, sparkley lights and crackers. I can kinda understand department stores stocking decorations, so people can plan early, but a restaurant flaunting itself like a 16 year old girl trying to get into a club....it's disgraceful.

In other news, I'm ill. Sort of. I feel like I've swallowed a tennis ball and its become lodged in my throat. Yucky.

Your hair is rubbish.

One of the most satisfying things in the world is saving a penalty your flatmate took and then having video evidence to play over and over back to him.

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.

It's raining again.

Not really much time to post anythign meaningful, but I wanted to write something before I go away to nottingham for 12 fun-filled days of conferences. Ah, back to work, i suppose.

I love the festival again. Its MUCH more funbeing a apart of it, and after the initial frenzy, all the people involved seem to have got down into a routine of working hard promoting stuff, and not being insanely stupid the whole time. The Dirty Rascals show I'm in has been amazing so far - loads of people turing up, and we're starting to sound really good. I can breath a sigh of releif as the disaster I was expecting having not played my sax for a year hasn't happened and it's been suprisingly easy to fall back into.

The other perk of playing is that I get to see any show in the same group of venues as ours for free, so I've been to see some amazing bass player called Steve Lawson and a couple of really good plays and musicals.

Another great thing about the fring is not feeling guilty about staying up late. Its been several days since I was in bed before 3, and on Monday I was at a party until 5, when the police turned up and complained about the noise. Oh, I feel like such a rebel.

Anyway, tonight is my last night and cos of this conrference I unfortunately miss out on the huge last night on Friday. But I've fallen in love with the whole experience - I've even had awesome conversations about God with people every single night - and can't wait for next year to come around again!!

£95 for a blue hoodie?

Well, this made me chuckle. And I had fun on wikipedia looking up who the theologians were.

Nothing else interesting is happening. I have been writing newsletters and buying office stationary.

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79% Emergent/Postmodern 75% Reformed Evangelical 68% Neo orthodox 61% Fundamentalist 54% Roman Catholic 39% Modern Liberal 25% Classical Liberal 25% Charismatic/Pentecostal 25% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Have you seen them cakes?

I'm already bored by the festival. It's only been on for 4 or 5 days, but I'm fed up of it. Don't get me wrong, I've had fun - I went to a show on Sunday (Sawdust Circle if you're interested - its great), and I've spent time watching the street performers set light to their pubic hairs or whatever they do to get more attention than the bloke before - but I've had my fun, and now I want things to get back to normal. I want to be able to walk into town and not have three squillion flyers shoved down my throat by posh students trying to get me see their incest/nudity/violence/sex/gay kissing filled play, that is of course full of laughs and makes stong 'polotical statement'. Does everything really have to be controversial to make it worth seeing?

Of course, my viewpoint will change next week when I start playing in a show, and I will maybe even join the ranks of flyer pushers, just to see what it's like from the other side.

In other news, I've finally managed to get someone to rent the flat. Through a series of random God-ordained coincidences, I bumped into a student friend whilst playing golf on the Links. He just so happened to be with his 2 mates looking at flats, and it just so happened that I had 3 bedroom flat available to rent. Job done. Takes a big load of stress away - there's 5 extra folk staying in the flat during our show, and their stay would have coincided with prospective renters looking around, which wouldn't have been easy.

Oh and Christy said something about meeting famous people - well I was in the Speigeltent on Sunday night having a beer and saw Simon Taylor (the Lions rugby player, if you're American)

Whoring yourself to the Edinburgh tourists

Soooo.........Once again I have rejected xanga, and dumped her by the proverbial text message. Since blogspot managed to creat their own photo-uploader, this site has started to have the attractiveness of Scarlett Johannson, whilst xanga is coming across much more Jade Goody-like (If any Americans don't know who she is, there's a picture just below). I was only using xanga cos people used to look at the site, and who's gonna look if you've got Jade Goody on your arm (except maybe to laugh)?

So here's to the new relationship. With my wit and charm, and Blogspot's sexiness, how can it go wrong? I'll have an army of avid readers in no time. Or not. Most likely I'll just get too lazy to write and my readers will be seduced away by a new, fresher Lindsay-Lohan type blog.

Anyway, enough of the famous actress allusions (and yes, I know Jade Goody isn't a famous actress, but did you see her fitness video?), they're crap. Suffice to say, I'll be writing sproadically here from now on, and it would be nice if you commented every now and then just so I can feel liked.

Edinburgh is starting to go cray-zee right now. Its teetering on the edge of full blown festival madness. Here and there are pockets of public-school educated university theatre societies, crouching on street corners and trying to seduce you into seeing their pointless ego-trip which a barrage of euphanisms and women (or occaisionally men) running up and down the Royal Mile wearing not very much at all. No doubt there will be some very very good things showing this year, its just that there really is so much tosh on, its hard to identify the good stuff. However, it must be noted that this year, I'm playing in a band for a few nights, and of course, that will be amazing (Search for the Dirty Rascals if you're interested - only £8.50 a ticket!!)

If you've managed to read this far, I applaud you, and reward you with a little gift. I stole this link of another blog (isn't that what the whole ideas about anyway), and don't know whether to laugh or cry. Its a serious issue I guess, but its done soooo badly. Anyway, judge for yourself. "People I Don't Know Are Trying To Kill Me"

I know a man Bojangles

YES!! Blogspot is soooooooooooo much easier to post pictures with. Enjoy my tigers, and sunsets and canals and stuff (well, they're not really mine, but the pictures i took of them are). And apologies for gettin a little carried away with the number i posted.

i love the smell of neoprene in the morning

too lazy to write new stuff, but theres some info and pretty pictures at www.xanga.com/a_lindop

Enjoy!

Fringe benefits

The news this week is so exciting I'm gonna post it here AND in xanga! Basically, in the space of two days, i got two phonecalls - one inviting me to play with my old band from Newcastle in the Edinburgh Fringe festival this August, and the other inviting me to teach scuba diving with a company in Edinburgh, pending an informal interview!!

So, if anyone's around Edinburgh 14th-19th August, come and see us!! It could be the best 45 minutes of your day :)

And in keeping with my attempted theme of interesting websites... Can you spot a fake smile??
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml

I got 15 out of 20 right. Not bad, even if I do say so myself!

Ian McKellen is WHAT??

I found possibly the second funniest video ever recently (after baby got book). No idea how i found it, but find it I did. If you're offended by Lord of the Rings characters being portrayed as gay (and nobody can deny that the last few scenes in Return Of the King are somewhat border line), don't watch it:

http://www.funfry.com/showphoto.php/photo/6183/cat/654/page/1

In other news, nothing interesting is happening.

Sacre bleu

Snowboarding kicks ass. Despite the ludicrous expenses of france (£4.67 for a pint of coke), the week was awesome. Mt and Tim met a couple other boarders in the chalet who's dad had been to Tignes 15 times before and we instantly had our own personal guide for the week! The highlight was 2 feet of snow falling on the last night - slopes that had been icy moguls the day before became soft trampolines, you could just chuck yourself down. Roll on next year....