Best Birthday Ever!

OK, so it was technically a fortnight ago but I'm only just back home*/in internet-connection-land, and besides the whole two week long holiday to celebrate my 30th felt like a gigantic extended birthday to me. I'll post something about it properly once I've caught my breath a bit (and read some of my Friends page which is sitting at skip=80 - eek!) but I just wanted to say thanks (again) to everyone who came along, sent things, text messaged, (and in one spectacular case) called to sing happy birthday onto my voicemail! You've all contributed to making this year my best ever birthday.

*got home last night, just waved off the last of visiting friends and am still unpacking

Finished!

Anyone who's been to my house in the past few months is likely at some point to have tripped over three part finished canvasses that have been lying around* waiting for me to get round to completing them so they could go up in the living room and cover some of the very bare walls in there. Well this weekend I finished 'em and I'm quite pleased with the result: an impressionistic window on Sutherland in autumn.

For far flung and/or impatient people I've uploaded a photo here but if you're likely to pop by any time soon you might want to wait as I think they work better in person.

*update: or perhaps not, Keith for one had no idea I had a work in progress on the go, and he's been round plenty since I started them. They've obviously been less obvious than I thought... I'll admit their unfinished-ness probably kept them more prominently in my mind than they're likely to have been in anyone else's

The spider who loved me

The last two nights going to bed I've found a spider in it, the same one I think... this is a little disturbing but makes for an excellent blog post title.

Holiday in a week! can't wait!

seems "cryptic" is in vogue

The thing about being a human being is that one's inherent falibility results in the need for so much self development that there's barely any time for the serious business of living... assuming one is doing it right.

:)

By the way, for anyone who was worried: I'm fine, and for anyone who's been wonderful lately (which is many of you) thanks!

Order is restored!

Anyone who's been to visit lately will probably have noticed what a state our garden has gotten into. What with the alternately wet and bright summer we've had so far and with me being quite busy it had become pretty overgrown. Anyway lately it's been getting on my nerves so tonight when I got home from work with nothing to do for a couple of hours, it was all sunny and lovely so I decided to tackle it head on. Mum & Dad probably remember a similar approach to me cleaning my bedroom as a child - I'd spend weeks and weeks letting it get totally out of control, and then eventually blitz it back into shape much the way I did with the garden just now... only with a little less digging.

Lookit! oooh!



Not a great picture because it's getting late and the sun's gone off to play elsewhere now but "ooh"s and "ah"s are in order for the tidyness I think. Sadly almost all the bedding plants I bought in the spring have copped it, first from evil cats stomping on them, and then from getting overgrown by weeds and shrubs. Next time I have time spare I shall potter over to Homebase and buy some new ones.

This time I intend to thwart the cats and their evil schemes by dousing the surrounds of the flower beds with citrus smells - I recently learned from Chris that cats hate citrus smells. Invaluable bit of information I think, since I'm really not fond of felines. Hame thinks we* should plant a lemon tree but I'm not sure it would survive - anyone know for sure either way?

*by "we" he means me, which is cool - I love gardening but dislike mowing the lawn and he quite enjoys mowing the lawn but is baffled by the rest of the garden so it's all mine to play with!

can they play both at once?

This week and last week I've spent Sunday evening at a bar called Boda down on Leith Walk watching my friend Lara's husband Tim be a genius on the fiddle/guitar. It feels like the sort of evening one should be having somewhere like the Forge but I think we'd have got a lot wetter trying to walk there*, besides which it'd have been harder to get home in time to be up for work in the morning...

Anyway it feels like the beginning of a good Sunday ritual, a chilled out space to spend the evening in and something to do on Sunday night to kind of mark the end of the weekend. I like it. I also really like Tim's song about being a drunken Scot but he didn't play that this week... maybe next time.

*as it was we had to drop in on Anita and blag the use of some towels on the way over. Bless her for putting up with me and Hamish dripping on the hall carpet!

Hell, It's about time.

Hello my name is Patrick and I'm a geek. Just in case you didn't already know. The specific geek-ness I'm talking about today is concerning this about which I have been giddy since the 19th of May when I stumbled accross Blizzard's announcement that they were (after almost a decade) making a sequel to my favourite strategy game ever.

Why am I blogging about it today then? well because today's post had this:



which (aptly enough for the slogan) I ordered two weeks ago but I'm still very happy it's finally here... if only the wait for the game was likely to be as short as the wait for the tee shirt was...