well this is wierd - I forgot both my laptop and my phone when I was leaving for work this morning, so I'm without both. For the first time in months there's only one computer on my desk and I'm cut-off from most of my lines of communication... very very strange sensation.
Of course I'm used to voluntarily cutting myself off like this, (more so actually, I mean I am blogging after all and there is a computer here, it's just not mine...) Going out into the wilds of Scotland I really enjoy switching everything off and leaving my digital; self behind for a while... but to have it happen accidentally, and then to otherwise still be in the same environment as usual, all feels very strange.
The random musings and happenings of a young-ish professional-ish man who lives in Scotland, thinks in Mandelbrot shapes and frequently feels too much
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
sadness
It's hard sometimes to put a sense of loss into words, I think the Scotsman's obituary writer says it best:
"Scotland's musical landscape is a sadder, less colourful and vastly poorer place following the death on Sunday night of Martyn Bennett"
It's rare to stumble into something genuinely original, but that's exactly what happened the night my friend Justin animatedly popped a tatty copied D90 cassette into my car stereo as he, Lara and I drove up the coast from Aberdeen to look for the Northern Lights. "You've got to hear this" are words I'm used to hearing from Justin, but that and the background engine noise of my old Panda were all that sounded familiar for the next hour or so.
It's possible that the magical atmosphere of that evening has coloured my feelings toward Bennett's music ever since - it was quite a night all round, though the three of us never did see the Aurora - I think though that I could have encountered that music any where or when and still have been moved in the same way... Something about that unexpected fusion of sounds and textures captures Scotland perfectly for me and over the years its become indellibly linked with my sense of this land as home.
Sad that such a powerfully original voice is silenced so young.
:(
"Scotland's musical landscape is a sadder, less colourful and vastly poorer place following the death on Sunday night of Martyn Bennett"
It's rare to stumble into something genuinely original, but that's exactly what happened the night my friend Justin animatedly popped a tatty copied D90 cassette into my car stereo as he, Lara and I drove up the coast from Aberdeen to look for the Northern Lights. "You've got to hear this" are words I'm used to hearing from Justin, but that and the background engine noise of my old Panda were all that sounded familiar for the next hour or so.
It's possible that the magical atmosphere of that evening has coloured my feelings toward Bennett's music ever since - it was quite a night all round, though the three of us never did see the Aurora - I think though that I could have encountered that music any where or when and still have been moved in the same way... Something about that unexpected fusion of sounds and textures captures Scotland perfectly for me and over the years its become indellibly linked with my sense of this land as home.
Sad that such a powerfully original voice is silenced so young.
:(
Sunday, January 30, 2005
coughing up time
OK everything seems to work as advertised, no hitches and my house is still snug and cosy (even though the floor coverings upstairs are mostly ripped up) so I've just written a really big cheque. This means the heating system is now officially in and mine. Everything's under warranty (lifetime for the giant hot water cylinder, 5 years for the radiators and 2 years for everything else) and Super-Plumber said not to hesitate to call him if I have any concerns, questions... or explosions.
Yay for home improvements. It might have cost me an arm and a leg and an extraordinarily stressful week but it feels good: I can get out of bed in the mornings into a room which is room temperature, come upstairs and wake up under the best shower I've ever experienced, and just generally enjoy living in my house that bit more. Plus when the time comes it'll sell... well it will when I get this carpet in...
Yay for home improvements. It might have cost me an arm and a leg and an extraordinarily stressful week but it feels good: I can get out of bed in the mornings into a room which is room temperature, come upstairs and wake up under the best shower I've ever experienced, and just generally enjoy living in my house that bit more. Plus when the time comes it'll sell... well it will when I get this carpet in...
Saturday, January 29, 2005
cautiously cosy
The new boiler's in (as of yesterday afternoon actually - but I was too busy Friday-ing to blog.) so far so good - the last one failed after about a day's use though so I'll reserve judgement until it's well and truly settled in - just now though all appears well, my house is warm again, hot water is something we just have rather than having to think about, and once the sealant all seals (this afternoon) I'll be able to really enjoy that with the shower... mmmm shower.
keep your collective fingers crossed a while yet though...
keep your collective fingers crossed a while yet though...
Thursday, January 27, 2005
BOOM!
OK... you know my swanky new boiler? the one that's been making my house all warm, my shower superb and my spare room wet? well... it exploded.
yeah.
Clark (aka Super-Plumber) came out very quickly and took it apart, seems one of the converters (the three bits of cleverness that make the water hot, there are three so that they can scale up or down and use the appropriate amount of electricity to the demands of the house at any given time) literally exploded - there's a big hole in the side of it that looks like someone inside it* shot their way out... followed by lots of water!
Clark is not impressed, he is surprised: this is far from being the first of these systems he's ever installed, it is however the first time one of them has exploded. He's taking it back to the manufacturer tomorrow (I imagine with angry guns blazing) and getting a new one - I feel looked out for which is comforting.
In other news my bathtub has been propperly installed (about ten years after it arrived in the building) and now doesn't flex, squeak or otherwise behave in an unbathtubly fashion. soon it will be water tight but we're at the mercy of chemistry for that part - Super-Plumbers may well work faster-than-a-speeding-bullet speeds, but sealants will still take a while to seal...
so... all isn't exactly well in splatland: I was very unhappy at the start of the evening. That's an understatement - I was miserable. That thing about your space reflecting your state of mind is very true - happily while my space is undergoing some... "upheaval", there's a good and effective force at work making a new order in it.
All will be well. soon.
*this would be really hard since each of these bits of cleverness is about the size of a coke can
yeah.
Clark (aka Super-Plumber) came out very quickly and took it apart, seems one of the converters (the three bits of cleverness that make the water hot, there are three so that they can scale up or down and use the appropriate amount of electricity to the demands of the house at any given time) literally exploded - there's a big hole in the side of it that looks like someone inside it* shot their way out... followed by lots of water!
Clark is not impressed, he is surprised: this is far from being the first of these systems he's ever installed, it is however the first time one of them has exploded. He's taking it back to the manufacturer tomorrow (I imagine with angry guns blazing) and getting a new one - I feel looked out for which is comforting.
In other news my bathtub has been propperly installed (about ten years after it arrived in the building) and now doesn't flex, squeak or otherwise behave in an unbathtubly fashion. soon it will be water tight but we're at the mercy of chemistry for that part - Super-Plumbers may well work faster-than-a-speeding-bullet speeds, but sealants will still take a while to seal...
so... all isn't exactly well in splatland: I was very unhappy at the start of the evening. That's an understatement - I was miserable. That thing about your space reflecting your state of mind is very true - happily while my space is undergoing some... "upheaval", there's a good and effective force at work making a new order in it.
All will be well. soon.
*this would be really hard since each of these bits of cleverness is about the size of a coke can
the Curse of Cruickshank
every time.
the Curse of Cruickshank strikes again: the nice new high pressure shower over his shoddily fitted bathtub means that taking a shower floods the spare room. bugger.
Happily Super-Plumber is coming to the rescue and refitting the bathtub propperly so that it'll hold water (a novel approach, I know) but it'll take time for the sealant to seal so no showers for a while yet... Anita's OK, she christened the new niagra last night (which is how we know it leaks) but I may well need to visit a friend with a functioning bathroom soon.
every time: this sort of knock-on happens with any job in my house, as well as undoing crazy Cruickshank's botched work in order to do whatever improvement you're doing, you also end up undoing a bunch of other related stuff he did wrong once you've sorted whatever it was you actually wanted to change. Case in point this business with the bath but it always happens...
... mind you at the rate I'm going it won't be too long before I've undone and redone everything he ever did in that place.
"Super-Plumber" is (aptly enough) actually called Clark
the Curse of Cruickshank strikes again: the nice new high pressure shower over his shoddily fitted bathtub means that taking a shower floods the spare room. bugger.
Happily Super-Plumber is coming to the rescue and refitting the bathtub propperly so that it'll hold water (a novel approach, I know) but it'll take time for the sealant to seal so no showers for a while yet... Anita's OK, she christened the new niagra last night (which is how we know it leaks) but I may well need to visit a friend with a functioning bathroom soon.
every time: this sort of knock-on happens with any job in my house, as well as undoing crazy Cruickshank's botched work in order to do whatever improvement you're doing, you also end up undoing a bunch of other related stuff he did wrong once you've sorted whatever it was you actually wanted to change. Case in point this business with the bath but it always happens...
... mind you at the rate I'm going it won't be too long before I've undone and redone everything he ever did in that place.
"Super-Plumber" is (aptly enough) actually called Clark
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
smoking electrician monkeys
huzzah! my house has heat!
The electrician who usually subcontracts for my Plumber (see, I'm getting all proprietorial* about them, which means they must be doin' good) has vanished into the electrician ether... Plumber In Chief is miffed about this but managed to scare up two replacements for this evening. So at 7ish they all three arrived, Plumber In Chief and his two un-tested new sidekicks... sidekicks stopped outside for a smoke, and returned there for nicotine top-ups at regular intervals over the evening... much to everyone else's mild irritation since none of the other four people in the house smokes and all of us wanted the job done with asap.
Hey ho, they did (it seems) get the job done, albeit in a slightly haphazard way - Hamish, Anita and I retreated downstairs to start putting furniture back together in Anita's room (which has seen the most upheaval of the three bedrooms in order to accommodate a radiator, and needed some re-thinking) "give us a shout when the power's going off" says I as we depart, "yeah, of course" replies Plumber In Chief... an hour or so later we're all plunged into darkness: electrician monkeys seem to have been either unsure or just uncommunicative about exactly when they'd turn the power off and upstairs is in confused darkness too - nobody's torches seem to work except mine so I distribute them and wait patiently for power to return... in between fag breaks *sigh*
but now all is well - the system works, there are some loose ends to be tidied up tomorrow but my house is warm throughout for the first time in the three years I've lived here - that's really something! Anita's scheming to christen the shower too - technically we shouldn't because one of the 'loose ends' is installing a thermostaticly regulated mixer so that we can shower under a safely temperature controlled niagra, but Hamish and I have both promised not to turn on taps while she's in there so she'll be fine...
yay for the new heating system! and yay for my Plumbers! they did good.
*It's all totally appropriate and platonic, anyone who's having tradesman fantasies on my behalf can just quit it - lovely though they all three are, none of them is lovely that way OK? they're just very good at their job
The electrician who usually subcontracts for my Plumber (see, I'm getting all proprietorial* about them, which means they must be doin' good) has vanished into the electrician ether... Plumber In Chief is miffed about this but managed to scare up two replacements for this evening. So at 7ish they all three arrived, Plumber In Chief and his two un-tested new sidekicks... sidekicks stopped outside for a smoke, and returned there for nicotine top-ups at regular intervals over the evening... much to everyone else's mild irritation since none of the other four people in the house smokes and all of us wanted the job done with asap.
Hey ho, they did (it seems) get the job done, albeit in a slightly haphazard way - Hamish, Anita and I retreated downstairs to start putting furniture back together in Anita's room (which has seen the most upheaval of the three bedrooms in order to accommodate a radiator, and needed some re-thinking) "give us a shout when the power's going off" says I as we depart, "yeah, of course" replies Plumber In Chief... an hour or so later we're all plunged into darkness: electrician monkeys seem to have been either unsure or just uncommunicative about exactly when they'd turn the power off and upstairs is in confused darkness too - nobody's torches seem to work except mine so I distribute them and wait patiently for power to return... in between fag breaks *sigh*
but now all is well - the system works, there are some loose ends to be tidied up tomorrow but my house is warm throughout for the first time in the three years I've lived here - that's really something! Anita's scheming to christen the shower too - technically we shouldn't because one of the 'loose ends' is installing a thermostaticly regulated mixer so that we can shower under a safely temperature controlled niagra, but Hamish and I have both promised not to turn on taps while she's in there so she'll be fine...
yay for the new heating system! and yay for my Plumbers! they did good.
*It's all totally appropriate and platonic, anyone who's having tradesman fantasies on my behalf can just quit it - lovely though they all three are, none of them is lovely that way OK? they're just very good at their job
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