12 things I've learned today......

30/05/2011

Life should always be a learning experience, education broadens your mind, things acquired through learning will empower you for future challenges that you may encounter on life's journey......blah blah blah.

1 I can't write psycho babble.

2 According to the flight crew lady this morning there is a word "electronical" as she requested that we now ensure that "all our electronical equipment be turned off".

3 I can live (despite what some may say) and even function without my iPhone that is as I write sitting a few hundred miles away perhaps in a huff that he did not travel on a plane today.

4 According to number 3 iPhones can be huffy.

5 citizens in a certain part of the UK speak, speak , speak and speak as if there is no tomorrow and without it seems pausing for breath. In order to maintain world peace I will not name this part of the UK.

6 A bowl of wagamama noodle soupy stuff is not the ideal meal to eat when one is wearing a White shirt.

7 The users and workers in Belfast City airport have a hearing impairment, (oops that's the cat out of the bag for number 5!) why else is everything so loud.

7a perhaps why the citizenry speak so well and loud they are trying to compensate the hearing impairment.

8 the people in this part of the world are really welcoming and friendly

9 I am a sook!

10 Sitting out of the sight of your flight gate, thinking that the queue forming is for your plane and being lulled into a false sense of time safety when it does not move, is not a good idea when you are due to be boarding through the gate 12b beyond the formed queue for 12a.

11 I do not have a hearing impediment as I heard the very quiet, (none of that in Belfast, I've heard all the no shows names this evening) call for me to attend gate 12b urgently or you're not going!

What have you learned today?

Sent from my iPad

Over the fence

Taken with picplz.

Repeating chickens

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30/05/2011
Hello
I'm editing a few things on the blog and have realised this video doesn't play do here goes again.

A bunch of Chives

Taken with picplz.

Heavens Gate?

Taken with picplz.

Sky's the limit

Taken with picplz.

Life is an Adventure

27/05/2011
A film that I've wanted to watch for long while now has been "UP".

Missed it in the cinema, forgot to rent it as a DVD until tonight.

It was goood, a little sad, a little happy and a lot of goooood!

If you've not seen it I'll not spoil it but a theme is that life is an adventure, a concept I certainly agree with.

You can spend all your life trapped in your chair without any adventures taking place. So with renewed vigour the next adventure is being formed in my head.

Do you have one in the making?

What fence?

Taken with picplz.

Busy day

26/05/2011
Busy day time for bed and nothing else
Night!

Wind in my hair

25/05/2011

Having dogs is a great excuse to get out and about. When the weather is poor be it rain, hail or gale and one might think sitting inside warm and snug is the best option. It's not. Getting out to face the elements makes you feel alive and it connects you with nature.

Last night the wind was strong and blowing hard, in between rain storms the dogs got me out. We went down the way to walk through the crops by now dog high.

Normally that is not a behaviour I would encourage but thankfully the farmer drives up the same track, season after season to enable me and the dogs, (who politely never strayed into the corn), the opportunity to meander.

It's also great to have the wind blow through my hair, the consequential tangles not so good.

I'm out and about

Over or under?

24/05/2011
Hello,
Are you a Go over type of person?

Or a

Go under type of person?

When it comes to life choices? I think I'm a go over type although I'm ashamed to say sometimes a straight through never mind the damage type!

So what are you?

I'm out and about

Greta Garbo?

23/05/2011
Evening,
Most of the time the dogs will spend their days between walking, eating and sniffing lying on their beds.

These occupy a space in the corner of the main family room and from this vantage point they can keep and ear, eye and nose on their humans activities.

Occasionally they will follow you from room to room. It's not usual to turn around in the shower to find a dog guarding the bathroom door. Today I found Misha slumped on the bedroom rug whilst got ready for work, perhaps with a mind to offer sartorial advice.

"Not that tie with that shirt, surely?"

Boris the more excitable beast on four legs would probably shout "give me a tie I'll wear any colour!"

So there he was lying on the room behind his humans bed not offering advice with a snout and paw poking out and perhaps thinking

"I want to be alone"

I'm out and about

Today is a day

22/05/2011

A good day today, the kind of day that whether it rained or shined, it would still be a good day. It actually did both today, our weather displaying a bit of a dual personality thing. The sort we have often in these parts. So it was good.

Things came together, the family got together, minds came together and chat and laughter flowed.

It's days like today that all the hard work that you put into the preparing, sowing and growing, comes to bloom.

A field of gold, indeed.

The road

Taken with picplz.

Meccano?

I'm out and about

Religion?

19/05/2011
I was stomping around London today and I passed a building that I've not passed everyday but often enough to occasionally stand to appreciate its splendour.

The building is Westminster Cathedral and to be honest it never looks busy with either tourists or parishioners. Maybe I've just passed at the wrong times? Probably no seats to spare on a Sunday.

Across the street is another large imposing building, cathedral like in it's statement, thrusting skywards in all its steel and glass grandeur. This place always seems busy but again I'm not here all the time so perhaps there is less of a throng on a Sunday.

Both buildings serve a purpose, both service a need, both are open to the public.

I can't help feeling that the older building, the traditional cathedral of worship is gradually losing out, with it's values diminishing over time. Whilst the new construction, in all it's shiny glory seems to be providing a newer place to worship.

For some shopping is definitely the new religion as they offer their cards to make their donation. The entity who receives their contribution just as ethereal as the one across the road.

I wonder which building has staying power? If times become hard which building will empty at a greater rate?
Which building will still be standing in 100 years?

The Underpass

17/05/2011

A recent survey has shown that underpasses are the least loved traffic avoidance structures.

In the survey published by "Pedestrian Management & Safety Gazette" the underpass received a lowly 6% amongst pedestrians who were asked to rate their favourite available traffic avoidance modes.

The most popular was the pedestrian crossing although several respondents cared little for the beeping noise employed by these. The talking warnings received support especially from the lonely.

Others ranked included bridges especially favoured by the young and more able. The less common cable car was liked by all who had experienced such avoidance measure except by those who suffer from vertigo.

In the quantitative part of the survey the reasons behind the underpasses fall from grace included the smell, lighting, their use in numerous scary films and the feeling from a particular Mr C Licken that they might collapse on his head.

The tunnel

Taken with picplz.

Rain coming?

Taken with picplz.

Back to their roots?

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15/05/2011
Hello
The week end is the time to clean out the chook house, replenish their supplies and give them a closer check.

As they have been a bit camera shy recently I thought I would let them meet their public once again.

Crossed wires

Taken with picplz.

At what age?

13/05/2011
Hello,

Yesterday a survey of women was released to the media. This questionnaire asked a group of women at what age they thought women should stop wearing an item or clothing or having a particular hair style.

You may not agree with the results I personally find some of them bizarre. You can have long hair until you are 53 but have to have it free and untamed after your 51st year. The age when ponytails should be discontinued.

The sponsor of the survey is a diet company and I did wonder if they asked the same types of questions of men. It's not as if we are immune to putting on weight or dressing in the same way we did when we had less candles on the cake.

What would the questions be?

Age to stop wearing

Speedos
Or socks with sandals
Or a balaclava
Or shell suits
Or espadrilles
Or to have a mullet

What do you think?

Weights and Watts

Taken with picplz.

Path to power?

11/04/2011

Hello,

This is a picture taken today as I made my way to a meeting within this building, Victoria Quay. This is the administrative and civil service centre for the Scottish Government. It's in Leith where I was born and bred following in the Fegrig's long connections. It sits on the edge of Leith Docks my family have had a few "dockers" in it's family tree. Other family members have been employed within it's environs. My Granda' Fegrig during the second world war worked in the ship builders Henry Robb as a riveters mate.

Behind this modern, purpose built building is a dry dock my Nana Fegrig used to play in it with her brothers, Frankie and Johnny. When I say play in, I mean just that. Imagine a dry dock, at times filled with water to float the ships in and out pre and post repair. At the time cranes sat on the dock side. Those very cranes served as perfect diving platforms for my Nana and her brothers as they used the dock as an impromptu lido.

The meeting rooms in this building look out onto the very dock where this took place many decades before and although she died over a decade ago I still feel a special connection that far extends beyond any importance of the meeting I'm there to take part in.

 

 

 

 

Taken with picplz.

Breath deep, inner peace....

10/05/2011
Hello,
How do you react to turbulence?

I generally gulp and try to adopt an inner peace. At my age it's a bit more dignified than ignoring the overhead warning light, unbuckling the seat belt and running up and down the aisle screaming.

Getting on the plane yesterday and when there was no escape, funny that. The pilot announces winds probable on landing, bit bumpy and possible rain. Thankfully the wet stuff stayed away. This was especially thankful as later that day blanket rain, forked lightning and general can't see anything weather prevailed.

As we approached the airport it felt like the plane was on strings being played by an uncoordinated puppet master. One wing up, one wing down, nose nudged that way then the next.

Breath deep, inner peace....

Gratefully none of the one moment you are at one altitude then plummet to another appeared. Your innards arriving on the next flight. I find that this breaks the silence and the screamers soon make themselves known.

We are off the approach to the runway!,
we don't usually fly so close to those houses!, (I fly the route quite often).

The thoughts fly around my brain as if I know what I'm talking about!

Closer, closer, closer we move towards the concrete the houses now safely behind us, although Ikea is still to be avoided.

We land not as softly as one would prefer but we bump and with diminishing bounces taxi along. The need for me to adopt a semi formed brace position was in the end super precautious and unnecessary.

So off I troop with the other sky corks terra firma much more desirable than bobbing about in the sky currents.

Return in less than 24 hours

Breath deep, inner peace.....

Dusk

No entry!

Taken with picplz.

Telephone line

Taken with picplz.

Dogs and food

07/04/2011

Hello

Its not often I trawl around you tube, but occasionally I find a link somewhere and I watch the relevant clip. This link here is a great example and although you have probably seen it, it's a new one to me and captures perfectly

Dogs and food

Enjoy and credit to the maker, well done.

Did you vote? sp11

06/04/2011

Evening,

Scottish election 2011,

the leaders have debated

the pavements pounded and the doors have been knocked

the boards have gone up

the polling stations opened

the votes cast, once, twice, thrice

with a long list of those seeking your cross

and into the wee small hours the votes are counted

and all done within a spirit of good will and fair play.

The winners receive the plaudits, the losers accept defeat, congratulate those who received more crosses and regroup for the next time.

Democracy, precious for those who don't have it, taken for granted by those who do?

Democracy

Num num num

See the full gallery on Posterous

04/04/2011
Evening
Occasionally we all need brain food, a fibrous dose of glucose, something to complement a cup of tea.

Here is my suggestion for this evening.

1- take plain biscuit, digestives will do but tonight I have added a rustic twist by having an oat based biscuit as my base.

2 - take a schmeer of cream cheese and apply to biscuit.

3 - take a spoonful of jam in tonight's examples we offered the audience raspberry & pomegranate, parsnip (yes parsnip) and carrot (yes really carrot) and apply atop the cheese.

4 - num, num , num

G'night

Tea bags required

See attached.

New note.pdf Download this file

04/05/2011
Hello
A busy week, little sleep, sofa surfing doesn't really fill the sleep gap.
More bags than Louis Vuitton although perhaps not as desirable.
The choice between the two B's - a blog post or bed.
A picture is worth a thousand words
G'night

Sent from my iPad

Gently rust(ic)?

Gently rust(ic)?

Sunset

2nd row, centre left

[gallery]

Young & Old

30/04/2011
Hello,
I was walking along and noticed this young plant clinging to a crack between the stones of a railway bridge.

The bridge has been there for many years and over time the iron of the bridge has leached, algae and moss have colonised the stonework and the colours are now quite extraordinary.
Cheers

I'm out and about