Last night I saw the annual Fireworks Concert that marks the end of the Edinburgh Festival. I don’t know if it was something to do with being spoilt by the Olympic fireworks or just because of the idiots around us on Calton Hill but I wasn’t as impressed as last year. Also unlike last year I somehow didn’t step foot in the Spiegeltent all month. That’s not to say that I had a quiet August of it what with leaving parties, birthdays, barbeques and the like.
My plan for the next couple of months is to get back into some semblence of fitness. I’ve not really done much exercise apart from a few short games of Ultimate since March and it’s beginning to show. I felt a very definite wobble around my middle when I was running down the stairs the other day and it didn’t feel good. However, my mum claims that she thinks that I “suit a bit of weight” and will try to stir double cream through my porage whenever I’m visiting.
The weather hasn’t exactly helped me get out and do anything as it feels like it has rained every single day since getting back from my travels. I’ve finally got around to taking my gym membership off hold so I should be able to motivate myself to do something active now that I’m paying fees once again!
While the rest of the country was busy watching Super Saturday and the British “great haul of China“, I joined 167 other scavengers solving cryptic clues, seeking out items and performing tasks all across Edinburgh for the Festival Scavenger Hunt. If you saw people running around the city carrying obscure items like kitchen sinks yesterday then it’s a fair bet that they were also taking part.
Unfortunately we didn’t win but we did have a lot of fun along the way.
People initially asked which charity the hunt was in aid of but were more curious when we explained what was actually going on. I’m looking forward to seeing what has been made of all the submissions for a week-long exhibition at the City Art Centre that starts tomorrow.
I’d like to say a big thank you to the following people and businesses who helped me out during the day: The Dress Fabric Shop, Twigs Florists, The Bruntsfield Hotel, Cockburns Delicatessen, Greggs Bakery, Witchery Tours and the friends I pestered with phone calls and text messages. Twitter proved useless yet again. Obviously thanks also go to the organisers, my team mates and Whitespace for entering the teams and allowing us to use the office as a base of operations.
A full list of the clues and their point value follow.
Continue reading ‘Seek and ye shall find’
It’s Sunday night and I have the mother of all Monday fears. It’ll be my first day back in the office tomorrow after taking three months off. Thanks to keeping this blog updated on my travels, my typing isn’t too bad but I think getting my coding back up to speed may prove to be more of an issue!
I’ve been meaning to sit down and attempt to kick-start my mind a little this weekend but I’ve been otherwise engaged with catch-up drinks, birthday celebrations, leaving parties and soaking up the early Festival atmosphere on the Royal Mile and Spiegeltent. It’s apparent that I have missed the brief respite granted to the denizens of Edinburgh that occurs after most of the students depart and before the tourists arrive en masse.
In between the aforementioned distractions I did manage to get my head around a lookaround-based regular expression that was bugging me before I went on my travels so the weekend wasn’t a complete write-off on the programming front.
I was quite pleased to leave Japan behind. Don’t get me wrong: I quite like it there but, after nigh-on three months of living out of a bag, I was ready to go home. I was also a little fed up with not understanding practically anything that was going on around me. Most places that I’ve traveled to before I spoke a little of the language or could at least make an educated guess at what signs were telling me. Being immersed in a kind of audio/visual white noise for a week was pretty disconcerting.
Continue reading ‘Tokyo - London - Edinburgh (6,622 miles)’
I’m thinking about home more and more as it gets closer and closer to the time to go back to the UK after my round-the-world trip. I guess it’s only natural. It’s been interesting comparing different cities and cultures and how they do things.
I’m wondering what state the tram work in Edinburgh is at. If I’ve ranted about this to you before then I apologise but an experience I had on the tram in Melbourne last week has rekindled my annoyance.
Continue reading ‘Thinking of home’
I’ve just boarded the train that will take me on the first leg of my journey and have realised that I neglected to include my laptop power brick when finishing off my packing this morning.
I stopped off at Waterstones to pick up some books to read while I’m away and then passed the O2 Memory Project to record the start of my trip. I strolled through the East end of Princes Street Gardens, past the Scott Monument, pausing to take a look back at the National Galleries, Edinburgh Castle and the beautiful architecture of The Scotsman and Balmoral Hotels, the Edinburgh HQ of Halifax Bank of Scotland and made my way down to Waverley station.
“For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.”
- Steven Wright
I was out and about in Edinburgh this afternoon to blow away the cobwebs after an epic weekend. It’s fair to say that I wasn’t really paying attention and I just about walked into the huge guys of the French rugby team leaving their hotel on Princes Street on the way to Murrayfield for the 6 Nations match against Scotland. I then saw this item for sale in a shop window and thought I was still not thinking straight.
I know, it’s a crappy Americanism but occasionally as I’m not religious I feel somewhat of a hypocrite celebrating Christmas. I am spiritual (not as in the “I don’t go to church but am scared of dying” crowd) but organised religion just puts me on edge – nowadays more than ever.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas time. I think it’s a magical time of year and a great opportunity for parties with people I’ve not seen for too long. Edinburgh is just fantastic in December: the German Market and Winter Wonderland, the fairy lights on trees along Princess Street and leading up to the Castle, the Salvation Army band playing in the West End.
I wish I had the equipment, time and (let’s face it) skill to take some good photos to share but I’ll leave it to the official site.
Don’t think what is – think of what could be.
“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat”
Lily Tomlin
So my work colleague has entered a team into the Edinburgh Rat Race. All well and good I though until I remember that I’d expressed interest some time in the past after a couple of beers. Sure enough, I was on the team.
I’ve way too much socializing to get done before New Year so I guess training will start in January. I’m not the best of runners so I guess I’ll focus on that first.
