Si, grazie, prego

Which is just about the sum total of Italian language that I took with me to Firrenze (ooh, there's another one) over the weekend. It's been quite a long time since I went abroad and I'd forgotten how incredibly frustrating it can be not to know the lingo. But, that was the only bad thing about my weekend. I shall absolutely definitely positively be going back to Italy at some point soon, but I'm damn sure learning some of the language first.

I do love 'prego'. It's pretty much Italian for 'nae bother'.

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The art and architecture was amazing. I took 275 photographs over the weekend and about four of those have either me, Mum or Dad in them, so it's pretty much stunning building followed by jaw-dropping sculpture followed by nice knockers (door knockers, obviously). Here are my top two or three. I'll see if I can sort out a Flickr or something for the rest. Or maybe a zip file you can download if you're interested...








This was one corner of one room in the Pitti Palace - all of which, right down to the skirting boards, was like this. Opulence doesn't come into it. Personally, I loved the (life sized!) fauns above all the cornicing.






















View of the Duomo from the Campanile - tower type thing with 421 steps. Cracking views from all sides and heights. The Duomo really dominates the centre of town - peaks round alleyways and over the top of building. The uniform height for buildings in city centre is at least four or five storeys, but one never feels hemmed in. Lots of light and air.



















View over the city from a wee village we got the bus up to. I'm sure I'll remember the name of the village any second. Leipisi? Something like that. Maybe.








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Food. And drink. *drooling*

(All vegetarians should look away now)

I'm never ordering a steak again - as there's just No Way that any other piece of beef could ever measure up to the lovely bistecca I got on Saturday night. It was HUGE and so perfectly cooked. And tasty. All things good.

(Vegetarians seem to have gotten lucky - blogger will not accept picture of steak - and yes, I took a picture. It was That Good.)

The food, in general, was great. Coffee was super fine (you can keep your Starbucks) everywhere we went.

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Hotel was lovely, as was shopping. And I caved and bought myself a bag. It's beautiful. *happy smiles*

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Have a good one,

C

Temptation...

...comes to us all.

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But friendly advice is always available.

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I'm going to Florence tomorrow, I am! Woop!

Haven't managed to learn any Italian, which I'm a little disappointed in, but there's the flight and the bus and I've got 'teach yourself Italian by listening' or some other malarkey on my phone, so I can listen to that while I travel. I was told how to say 'where's the toilet?' last night, but there was booze and I have forgotten.

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Today's pretty pictures. (Still playing with negative 'effect')








Miss Patsy (elle est ma chat - just to prove I'm not your typical 'shout louder and they'll understand' Brit)











This lady lives round the corner from Scary Chap. Scary Chap, I regret to announce, has been painted over. So, aren't y'all lucky that I took his photograph earlier?

Again, Madam here take with negative effect on the camera. Turned out well, dinnit? 'Specially when I tell you it was all dark when I took photo.




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Evil booze. I am ever-so-slightly rough today. How, we do not know as I was drinking 'girly-girly' booze. Hardly seems fair, does it?

And the girly-girly bit is Patrick's appelation. Myself, I object to the second 'girly'. You'd think one would do! I would also like to object to the fact that by the time the evening was through I'd given in and stopped arguing, referring to my own drink as 'girly-girly'. This is wrong. It was a very manly...fruit beer.

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My grand words of wisdom seem to be failing me at the moment. Must be contentment. Brain quite happy to sit back and be pleased with itself, let the id drive for a while. So, I thought I'd stand on the shoulders of giants today (all taken from quotegarden.com):

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's in walking distance. ~Author Unknown

A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish. ~W.H. Auden

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Have a good one,

C

It just hit me

That I have a new job, I do. I mean, we knew this. I'd mentioned. But the reality of it hit last night. In a nice way. It's a good job, well paid, on my career path. Woop! 15 days in the office left in this job. Mentioned that to my boss today. She told me to shut up. *laughter*

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Everybody's senses tingle at some point.

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We all know I love the coos, but lookit! I have my very own one! (courtesty of the altogether lovely Gregor and Caroline)

Pa-KOW! Pa-KOW!

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I've mentioned before the power that writing things down has, for me.

So.

This year - before my next birthday - I am going to write a book. Might not be a good book, but it will be a book. Money where mouth is. Put up or shut up. That kind of thing.

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Have a good one,

C

Sweet Mother of Crap

I have got SO ludicrously much to do. Never take time off, people - it's a baaad mistake. You end up with 98 emails to deal with on your return. And why am I blogging, then? Well, because if I don't take a moment to get my head off work, it might explode. My head, that is. Not work. Work exploding would be fine. So long as I was out the building. Oh, and everyone else too, I suppose.

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As I said yesterday, birthday party was awesome. Most enjoyable. I've only got a couple of pics, but that's because I was too busy having a nice time to bother with such nonsense. A few other folks were snapping away, though, so I'll hopefully get copies of those. Should be some record of the fun and games at my 30th birthday party, after all.




The lovely Alexis, bestest buddy and one of the on-time people. (Those who showed up on time and thus reassuring me that I wasn't going to be the only person at my party!)










Steve and James, also on-time, bless them. Well, Steve was mostly on-time. A lot more on-time than most, anyway. *laughter*















Steve-O and Caroline. Is Steve-O's scarf not fetching? *smirk*















Me & Hamish. I was quite drunk by this point. Mmmm. Lovely rum. Hamish was not - he'd had all of three pints. Don't think he's quite grasped Scottish Drinking yet. *laughter*





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I hate missing days on the blog, I've decided. I can never decide what to put in from the days that I've missed. Wouldn't want to bore you all with an excess of blether. Aaaand, I suppose I should get back to that mountainous in-tray.

All right, normal service resumes tomorrow.

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Have a good one,

C

Well,

...it's been a big weekend. And I'm still not back at work! Woop! Brilliant time (hopefully had by all) at party and out for breakfast on my actual birthing-day and I have to say I am The Most Incredibly Spoiled Boy. Anyway, I'll probably babble a bit on the lovely booze at Dragonfly and the lazy-ass-ness of me lying in bed until noon (I'm on holiday, aren't I?!) but for now...

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If friends are the measure of a man, then I am mighty. Proud and tall.

If I ever have any problems with self-esteem (not that anyone sees that happening I'm sure) then I need only look around me. If they all love me, special as they are, then I must be pretty special, too!

I don't think I could begin to be grateful enough for that.

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Have a good one,

C

Outside In / Inside Out

Hamish and I had a bit of a debate about this, post lecture last night. Well, can't really call it a debate as neither one of us was for being convinced in the other direction. Let's say we both expressed our opinions. We're talking about acting here. Method vrs ...well, Acting, as Noel Coward would say.

Method, as I'm sure you all know, is that style of acting in which one psyches oneself into the role entirely, so that one is not truly acting any more, but rather being. Myself, I think that's all too much like hard work and can get too dreadfully upsetting. So I pretend instead.

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Just to keep Sue happy, I went back to yon close on the Royal Mile and took photos with all the different effects my lovely camera can do. Now, hopefully, she'll shut up. At least about that. I have no hopes of her ever shutting up completely.






BLACK AND WHITE















SOLARISE

Sounds like a cool super power, dunnit?

"We're being attacked! Solarise the fuckers, SolarisingMan!"













SEPIA

Sounds a bit less like a super power. More like a super villain. You know - he'd seep on people. *shudders*



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Nothing more today - MUCH to get done as this is last day at work until next Wednesday. Woop! But also - Erk!

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Have a good one,

C

Two people...

...RSVP'd on the back of my bitching yesterday. Cheers, chaps. Once again - I wasn't aiming that at any one. I did the Big Ring Round yesterday and, stunningly, even after however many emails and prior phone calls, people were still asking, "So, where is it again?" I thought the events I organised professionally were full of muppets. Honestly!

*laughter*

I'm really looking forward to it - should be a blinder!


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Cooooooooooool!

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This is almost definitely jumping the gun, as I've no formal offer yet (contingent on references) but I've got a new job! Woop! Working as a Careers Information Officers at Edinburgh University. Sounds right posh, dunnit? I'll be sad to leave the current post as it's been a really good job, developmentally, for me. I've learned a shitload and it's the first real chance I've had to get my teeth into stuff, have my own projects, get a chance to prove (mostly to myself) that I actually can work at the higher levels.

Thing of it is, I don't exactly get paid at the higher levels. Hence - new job, new job, new job!

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Making up stories.

Take Heed All Ye Lost Fanatics
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I'm being very grown-up this evening. Going out to a lecture at the Art College.
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I'm all for fun on a budget.

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This (and the one above) is more fun with the negative setting on my camera. This one turned out rather well, don't you think?

I've found it works a lot better...well, maybe differently rather than better at night rather than daytime.













Here we have Arthur's Seat (yes, I get up there a lot.) It's no Munro, as it's only 822 ft tall, but it is quite steep. Exercise enough for me on a Sunday morning, anyway. OK, yes, Sunday afternoon.

God you lot are picky.

Anyway, this one was taken in the day time. Clouds looks great, but I think the definition on hills etc is a bit...purple.


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We are not the only crazies. Other people climb mushrooms, too!

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Have a good one,

C

RIP RSVP

Seriously - does no-one reply to invites any more? It's my birthday party on Friday (yes, I know, what a surprise, Chris, you've never mentioned that before! Sue me. I like my birthday.) and I've invited a whoooooole bunch of people, about four of whom have written back to say, "Yes, I'm coming."

I neither blame nor bitch at any one as it's clearly endemic to sociable society of the moment, but still. I could pout, you know. I really could. If I wasn't so damn sure of myself, I'd worry about having no pals...

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Weekend was very nice. Went through to Glasgow to the Scottish Ballet at their new home in the Tramway. Hadn't been to the Tramway since I was about fourteen - I'd forgotten how cool a space it is. There are many stairways leading up to the seating banks and the whole space has been kept cavernous but doesn't seem echoing or too big.

The ballet itself was awesome. (And, please - everyone else over-uses that word. When I use it I mean my jaw was on the floor.) They kep the wings open, which always really opens the playing space up, but it really suited this as dancer were going off one side and coming back on from the other, mixing and matching, making different pairs and groups. And only £12 a seat. That's less than half what you'd pay for something comparable at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh. (Unless you're on the artsworkers mailing list and get cheap tickets that is. *smug.)

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Caught the Callum Innes exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery with Alexis on Saturday. Good stuff. Putting paint on and then taking it off with turpentine. Some very nice pieces. Intricately done, but you can see why he's so prolific. It's not exactly a technically challenging way of working. Got me thinking about intent and the role of such in creating art as opposed to accident.

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Awwwww.

*laughter*

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Brought my data cable today. I've been playing with the 'negative' function on my camera. S'cool. Blogger is being pissy about photos again, so this seems to be all you're getting for today!

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Have a good one,

C

Damn and blast!

I forgot to bring the data cable for my phone into work. Which means I can't transfer the photos I took last night, some of which I thought looked rather good. (I was playing with the 'negative' effect) Ach, well. Another day. I'm sure you can wait. *laughter*

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There seems to be an optimum time for me having ideas. I've notice that, if I'm walking back from Steve's, listening to tunes and letting my mind wander, I'm always standing opposite Mary Queen of Scot's Bath House when I think, "Here, that's a good idea." And there's a handy bench just up on the left where I can sit down if I need to write lovely idea down Right Then. Because I carry my notebook with me at all times these days. Yes. Yes, I do.







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... ... ... .. ... ...see this is why I wanted to upload those photos. Drawing a blank on the witty repartee today.

Have a good one,

C

What vill you do? When zey come?

My hip was giving me gyp yesterday - it's gone a bit gimp these days. And I'm allowed to call it gimp. Just like I'm allowed to call myself queer - it's my hip. Not that I would call myself queer. I prefer 'bufter', myself.

The hip thing troubles me because deep down, my answer to:

"What vill you do? When zey come - wis ze DOGS?!"

has always been 'run, if all else fails.' Can't really run with a gimp hip, though. Nor can I speed up and overtake idiot tourists. Or nip across roads in front of cars. All in all, it's bloody annoying.

What did the doctor say? See, there you go assuming I've done anything quite so sensible as consult a doctor.

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Always make them think.

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Found a new comic type chap - cool things.

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Pictures from around town.



The underpass from Bristo Square to South College Street.













This is a close (alley) on the Royal Mile. M'afraid I don't remember which one. Something else should be writing down.















Have a good one,

C

I forgot!

To blog! Entirely! Maybe that means the shiny is rubbing off my new toy a bit.

Or perhaps, you never know, it could be that I've been quite focussed on work this morning what with the Incredible Intimidating Inbox, in both electronic and paper form. There's a statistic I picked up somewhere that says the average office worker gets interrupted by an email or a phone call or a colleague every three minutes - I can bloody believe it.

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I love Autumn. Don't know why in particular, but if I were to hazard a guess I'd say it's because my birthday falls in Autumn and because going-back-to-Uni is an Autumnal thing, too. I spent quite some considerable time pissing around in Uni, because I loved it, so maybe I'm just conditioned to cheerful in October. I know that when I left the office yesterday, after a hard day's slog (what? run out of sympathy already?) a big grin appeared on my face for no apparent reason. Edinburgh just smells good at this time of year. Crisp and clean, and the air is fresh. Must get up Arthur's Seat this weekend if the weather's clement.

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Babble, babble, babble - sorry, not exactly philosophy today, is it? I promise I'll have some deep metaphor or other tomorrow...

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Have a good one,

C

I'm not clever

That's not something you thought you'd hear me say, is it? It's not applicable to everything, of course.

The Mueck exhibit was brilliant. The detail on each sculpture was astonishing - right down to the balls of their feet and the little scrunches of skin on their elbows. Dad thoroughly enjoyed it, which was the main thing - even if I thought it sucked beyond the telling of it, as it was his birthday 'thing'. Happily, this was not the case. I was quite stunned by how good the work was.

I went round, as I like to do at art shows, and looked at everything before reading the little plaques on the wall - the ones that tell you the details of the piece, its name, what it is, what it is about, etc. Sometimes I agree with the blurb, sometimes not. For every single one of these, I got exactly what it described from each piece. That doesn't make me clever, though - it makes Mueck clever as he managed to convey exactly what he intended to. God, I'd love to be able to say that about my work!

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Very busy day head. Very busy week ahead, actually. I'll have to figure out what the HELL it is I've got to do, for a start - my desk is in a frightening disarray and deadlines are looming. Calming breaths and a 'to do' list. That's what we need.

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My kind of superhero

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Have a good one,

C

Writing things down

Why is it that writing it down punctures illusions?

When you start to form it, I suppose. Because chat, as Eddie Izzard will tell you, is 90% how you look, 20% how you sound and only 10% what you say. (No, I haven't checked my numbers so please don't correct me). Text is much more stark. You can run into problems with emails, say. You think it's a straightforward statement - the other fella takes it as a declaration of war.

So it's funny. All the small justifications - the little 'wells' and 'you knows'. The cunning laughter and misdirections. They all desert you and arguments that are pretty much excessive overthinking (at least on my part - usually) and an innate capacity to dither start looking a bit lonely when you write them down.

This could be why the women with whom I regularly correspond are such ball breakers.

You know who are you.

*cackles shamelessly*

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The ballet was good - very smooth, very oceanic in its imagery, I thought. We'll see how the Scottish Ballet does next week. Going bowling tonight - hurray (s'been ages) - and hopefully managing to introduce old friends to new friends. Could be a logistical nightmare, but we should all be in the same area at the same time.

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Have a good one,

C

Thursday already?!

Damn, this has been a quick week so far.

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Going to the ballet tonight. I loooove the ballet. And not just for the shockingly fit men with their incredibly pert backsides in nice, tight...tights. No, there are Legitimate Reasons. I studied theatre, as some of you may know. That half-a-degree at QMUC. Now, when I was a small person (note I do not say short person - this is still true) I loved the theatre. It was like magic. I remember, one Christmas, Mum and Dad taking me to see Shinda the Magic Ape at the Lyceum. I was about twelve and my 'I'm too cool for this' was at war with 'This is way cool' when it came to shouting out and encouraing the good guys. Needless to say, 'I'm too cool for this' lost. I could always claim irony later.

Point being, that theatre was entirely transporting. Off in another world, mouth hanging open. Thing is, once you start studying an art, it loses something of its mystique. I still enjoy the theatre, but I notice the mistakes. My brain clicks through on, "Well, I would have lighted that differently," or, "Damn, you guys really aren't comfortable with your props are you."

Which is why I love the ballet. Don't know one damn thing about it, so I can enjoy it without fear of understanding it. Which, sometimes, is a whole load better.

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I got my first comment yesterday - thank you, Patrick - y'all should feel free, you know. There's a button at the bottom of each post. Not that you must, if you don't want to. (But it would be cool).

You know, something like, "Of course, you're so right, you incredibly perceptive person you!"

Or, you know, "You are such a muppet. How can you say such a thing. Honestly, the stupidity of some people!"

Either one is fine, but obviously there's a preference. *grins*
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Got some photos of small niece yesterday. Lookit!

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Have a good one,

C

Beginning with...

...fun photos as my head has gone empty. I knew it was a mistake to miss days. I was quite ticked about missing out both Friday and Monday. Monday wasn't my fault - I was going to use the internet cafe near the flat, only that's now shut. Poop. OK, yes, I could have come back into town and used Easy Internet or whatever the Hell it's called, but it was raining.

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I like these. Pics of lights what have been written on on the underpass between Bristo Square and South College Street. Darkening the pic enough to catch the writing gave this lovely floating effect...

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S'my fault the weather's turned crappy. I was flicking through the Times Style magazine on Sunday and reiterated an opinion (in my own head - but Karma's always listening) that I was bored with the summer styles and where was Autumn so I could wear pretty scarves? Well, here Autum comes...

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Busy Boy this week. Work's kicking off - got to get the new E-Bulletin (writer - yours truly) out today. BIG audience. Thousands of GP trainees all reading my words. Well, maybe reading is a bit strong. Glancing over, deciding to read later and then filing somewhere to forget about it. It is an information resource, after all, and that's the fate of all information resources. File, forget about.

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My Da's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Pops! I'm being the Golden Child and taking himself and my mother along to the Mueck exhibition on Saturday. Mueck till midnight - art and cocktails, what more could you want?

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Better mosey - get all that work I just mentioned done.

Have a good one,

C

Moving Offices

We did this yesterday, the Boss Jenny and I. Well, actually, movers did the actual moving, Jenny and I buggered off home. She to work and me to...nap, mostly. And finish the New Terry Pratchett - Wintersmith. It's a new Tiffany Aching. Go read. And, no, you may not borrow mine. I've 'lost' far too many of Mr P's oeuvre thanks to ungrateful no-returners so his books, along with whatever's out of print, is firmly on my 'NOT FOR LOAN' shelf.

Anyway, moving yesterday, unloading boxes and arranging furniture today. Hence the lack of internet access and the lack of Blog. I know how y'all pine without your daily dose of my mithering. *laughter*

Still busy with sorting things out - I promise I'll witter properly tomorrow.

Have a good one,

C