I'm Sure I Have Better Things To DoI'm Sure I Have Better Things To DoHumour, Kind Acts, Writing, Musings from Glasgow, Say Yes! to the World, be happy, a daily diary of an obsessional blogger, information about practical magic theatre company Articles
Entry for 4th May, 2008
2008-05-16 00:26:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 15 Leigh O mentioned the other day that he was a big fan of Robert Mugabe. My significant other (who did not major in political science at Oxford) has just asked me who Robert Mugabe is. Except she pronounced it as if Robert was committing a petty assault on an unfortunate insect (Mug a bee). She then asked why anyone would want to mug a bee, since it would sting you and then die. Bees are not known for having a great deal of money, and are thus a rather pointless thing to mug (except ones that are wearing new Air Nikes since you get three pairs per mugging, although there is a limited market for Size 0.0008 trainers, unless you are Willie Wonka, or a high ranking member of the Church of Scientology). Having said ... More About: 2008 , Entry
Entry for 3rd May, 2008
2008-05-15 01:33:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 15 Elderly barrow boy Sir Alan Sugar has failed to notice my talents again this year on The Apprentice. Just because I am not actually on the programme does not mean that I should have been overlooked. Having said that, I am not sure that I would have accepted his SIX FIGURE SALARY since I am already receiving a salary of that nature (OK OK - in my case two of the figures come just after the decimal point). I do love The Apprentice. It gives the lie to New Labour. Maybe on the surface we are smiling social democrats, but scratch us and our blood is blue. As the credits of The Apprentice roll across the shining aluminium and glass of the City of London, you cannot help but feel a strange Thatcherite stirring; a ce... More About: 2008 , Entry
Entry for May 13, 2008
2008-05-13 21:01:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 15 Another QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea). This one is a co-op red label brew which I am enjoying with my Significant Other (we are nothing if not thrifty). She is camera shy, and believes that if her picture is posted on the net, it is likely to be stolen by a Nigerian Syndicate who print her image on fraudulent bank notes, which will be used to purchase enriched uranium from shady men with Russian accents. She then believes that she will be hunted down like a dog by the CIA, and incarcerated in Guantanemo Bay. You will note that these are risks that I eschew. Pirates of the Internet, the Good Ship Alan B refuses to bow down to your threats. I choose to sail fearlessly across the waves of the web, armed with nothing... More About: 2008 , Entry
Entry for 1st May, 2008
2008-05-13 20:50:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 I got eight hours glorious, undisturbed and blissful sleep last night, for what must be the first time in a year! I feel full of the joys of spring as a result. Much as I love the Small Round Faced people, there are times when I would happily leave them in the care of a passing rag and bone man for a few hours if it meant I could have a bit of a kip and then read the Sunday papers. However, thanks to the good auspices of my Significant Other, who crept from the bedroom at 6am with the Round Faced Boy to let me have a couple of extra hours, I feel like a Tour de France cyclist does after a transfusion of blood from a Himalayan Mountain Yak. I am ready for anything! I must go now. I am off to run up and down the ... More About: 2008 , Entry
Entry for 30th April, 2008
2008-05-12 22:56:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!! Fish Face has just pointed out that my QCT (Qualifying Cups of Tea) Quest is now so far behind schedule that I need to notch up a cup of tea just about every other day if I am to make my target. This is very concerning. I have just looked through my Rolodex and it only contains four more names, and two of them are Eastern European plumbers. The chances of rattling up enough QCTs to avoid abject failure and the derision of all and sundry is looking fairly remote. I am feeling depressed; friendless; unfulfilled, I am an empty teapot - a flask without a refreshing brew to keep piping hot. Put me back in the cupboard of failure along with the unwanted breadmaker and the u... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 29th April, 2008
2008-05-12 22:48:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 My legs are aching from yesterday's run/hobble. However, the very fact that I have been for a run has allowed me to complain loudly to family members and colleagues about "how sore my legs are BECAUSE OF MY RUN." Thus, I have been able to extract sympathy whilst making them all feel inferior. I am truly a superman of the first order. Self-righteousness thy name is Alan B. I have also tidied my home office and can thus crow self-righteously about this too. I am sitting typing this from a pristine desk which boasts an empty in-tray. I hope you are now glancing guiltily around your own room and thinking: "I wish I was a paragon of organisation, like Alan B. He is amazing. He goes running too. How inferior I feel.... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 28th April, 2008
2008-05-11 22:06:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 I am just back from a run. Well, to be more accurate, I am back from a light jog interspersed with quite a lot of long pauses where I stood gasping at the side of the road, hands on my knees wheezing the words "Sweet Jesus, make the pain go away." Some children stopped and pointed at me and said "Look at the big fat man. Is he dying?" I used to be fit. I used to go to the gym regularly. I played sport. I ran. I even successfully competed a half marathon. However, those days have gone, and I am now in the athletic condition of a bedridden octogenarian recovering from open heart surgery. In fact, in a race I suspect that the octogenarian would stand a fighting chance of beating me. I appreciate that I will never ... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 27th April, 2008
2008-05-11 21:58:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 I still have a bit of a headache following last night's read through of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". I have become sadly lightweight in my alcohol tolerance since the onset of fatherhood. Once six cans of lager would have been a light aperetif in preparation for some proper drinking later on. However, nowadays it leaves me sleeping in the corner of parties by midnight, and the following day it feels as if my brain is being wrung out by an elderly washerwoman with very strong hands. All that aside, it was a very good night. None of the cast came to blows, which I feel is a solid enough start. Having said that I did notice at one point Lanarkshire's Leading Actress talking to The Big Indian. She was show... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 26th April, 2008
2008-05-10 17:37:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 The arrival of the Small Round Faced People has brought many wonders into my life. The sight of them arriving all new and blinking in the world. The utter joy and surprise of their first giggle. The little look of terror then delight upon their first mouthful of ice cream. But there is one wonder above all others that you learn about when you have children. It is a marvel. One of mankinds crowning achievements. An invention that makes the wheel, the telephone and penicillin pale into insignificance. I speak of the baby wipe. Yes - the baby wipe. A little rectangle of strange contradictions. Ii seems to be fashioned from some strange substance that is neither fabric nor paper. It is deliciously moist, yet endles... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 25th April, 2008
2008-05-10 13:58:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 It's the first meet up of the cast for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" tonight. Not everyone can make it, but I still expect to have twelve actors in the one room at the same time. I expect that they will all start to elbow one another out of the way in an effort to secure the best position under the kitchen lamps. My job will be to ensure that I move enough furniture out of the way to allow them to stride heroically around my house. Also, I find that both the number and the improbability of theatrical anecdotes increases exponentially with the number of actors in any given space. I expect to be regaled this evening with tales of trousers falling down at inopportune moments; ill timed flatulence during Shak... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 24th April, 2008
2008-05-10 11:06:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 I have been a poor and faithless blogger to you my reader. I have strayed. I have been putting in long hours at work. I know it seems like I have been avoiding you, but the truth is, you have always been in my thoughts. I promise to make it up to you. I will write you little love notes and post them here for you. I will buy you flowers (good ones too - the ones that come from florists - and not just some tatty, fading carnations from the Esso). I will be attentive too. If you look in here for me over the next week, you will find that I've come on twice, maybe three times a day, just to let you know that I care. I am passionate about you my readers. My ardour has not dulled. I still find you - well - deeply att... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 23rd April, 2008
2008-05-06 20:28:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 14 I had a pretty much perfect picnic at Bothwell Castle today. The sun was in the heavens, and me, my Significant Other, kids and grandparents all lay in the shade of a big tree and let an afternoon idly drift by. We did all the things I vaguely remember doing when I was tiny and went on picnics with my parents - we kicked a plastic football around; we played roly poly down a hill, and we ate Scotch eggs. As if all of that wasn't fun enough, I bagged my fourteenth QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea). Here you can see me and Flame Haired Writing Genius supping an outdoor brew from aluminium mugs plucked pristine from my picnic hamper. You can see that she is camera shy, which is odd given that she's been a working actor... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 22nd April, 2008
2008-05-04 22:01:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 13 I've had a busy weekend running about Central Scotland getting organised for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". I've carried out three auditions, which has been very positive, so I'm gradually filling up the vacancies in the large cast (16 actors). Everybody so far is looking really strong, and I think if I can work hard and be patient for the next two or three weeks, we'll have a first class cast. Today, I took a trip through to Edinburgh to see the venue we'll be performing in. It's at the Edinburgh College of Arts, which is a rather grand old sandstone builing near Fountainbridge. Our performance area is not very grand. In the brochure it is described as "Sweet Studio 1". This does not do the space ju... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 21st April, 2008
2008-05-03 09:46:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 13 Real coffee! How I love real coffee in the morning. I think that I can handle just about anything when I have a sensuous dark Colombian first thing in the morning. And if I can have a cup of coffee afterwards that?s a nice bonus too. (Source ? ?The Bob Monkhouse Jokebook ? 1975?) I do like it though. It makes me feel that, instead of living in an estate on the fringes of Glasgow, I am actually taking breakfast in a French farmhouse before retiring to an attic room to write the great European novel. It is an idle fantasy, but a harmless one to muse on before guiltily burning some carbon on the morning commute. Breakfast in a French farmhouse! Has anyone else noticed how their fantasies in middle-age are far ... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 20th April, 2008
2008-05-03 09:45:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 13 The Roundfaced boy is cutting teeth just now. As a result I am writing this from the laptop at some godforsaken hour that should only be seen by ruddy farmers and young revellers returning from all night raves. It is not yet 7am and already I have listened to an entertaining radio programme about the price of organic beef; built a small tower of cardboard blocks; and caught up on the latest news about the elections for the London mayor. It is peculiar to see Boris Johnston being elected as London mayor. As far as I can tell, his only qualification for handling a 10 billion pound annual budget is an entertaining performance on ?Have I Got News For You.? But of course, celebrity of any type means that you are a... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 19th April, 2008
2008-05-03 09:43:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 13 While we were on holiday in Nairn, we would usually go along to the holiday camp entertainment centre - Drifters - because they laid on entertainment for the kids in the early evening. The oddest thing that happened there was finding one evening a complete family dressed in cowboy gear at the next table. Nobody else was dressed up, and there didn?t seem to be any explanation for their Stetsons and chaps. As far as I could tell, they did not appear to be from Texas. Judging by their pasty faces and penchant for cheese and onion crisps, I suspect that they were native Scots. The odd thing was, you would have thought that, as they had made such an effort to dress up, that they would be having a whale of a time,... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 18th April, 2008
2008-05-03 00:45:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 13 Thirteen. A dark and worrying number. A number of bad fortune. A number of black magic and evil deeds. But not for me! For I have bagged my thirteenth QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea). Here is me in my kitchen with The Webmaster. I know that most of you are following only the grand overview of my quest, but nevertheless for those of you who revel in the detail - for you proto-trainspotters and pedants - I am enjoying a cup of Tetley (milk, no sugar - but you know that by now don't you?) whilst The Webmaster is supping a raspberry fruit tea. I know. I know. A raspberry fruit tea barely qualifies as tea at all. It is actually closer to warm fragrant dishwasher than the bitter, yet strangely reviving brew from the subc... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 17th April, 2008
2008-05-02 01:20:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 12 I am still casting for Cuckoo's Nest. This weekend will see me driving the length and breadth of Central Scotland in search of actors for my latest project. I am a bit like guppy-faced impressario Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, except rather than searching for Oliver, I am engaged in a hunt for eight thespians who can passibly impersonate the inhabitants of a 1950s East coast assylum. I am trying to pitch the idea to Chanel 4. "How Do you Solve a Problem Like McMurphy?" seems a reasonable title. Every week, the contestants require to carry out in-depth research of a particular facet of mental illness; visiting psychiatric nurses; discussing case notes with eminent psychiatrists; engaging with patients during exhausti... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 16th April, 2008
2008-05-01 00:35:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 12 I am accelerating my search for QCTs (Qualifying Cups of tea). Failure is not an option. here is my friend The Bongo and me enjoying the first outdoor QCT of the season. Can there be a happier beverage than the al fresco cuppa in the first fresh days of Spring? The revitalising brew spreading warmth through your bones; a fresh breeze on skin that positively cries out for fresh air and hearty outdoor pursuits. It make my spirits sing just to tell you about it. I still have 28 QCTs to go, and I have nearly crossed off every name in my address book already. I will need to make friends soon. Perhaps I need to join a social networking site where I can meet sad people who spend all their time making on-line friends, a... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 15th April, 2008
2008-04-30 01:08:00 We have Sky Plus. A man from Sky came and installed it. I say "installed". Of course, I know that such a miracle as the Sky Plus Box is not really "installed" at all. No-one so prosaic as an engineer could simply plug in a device that lets you pause and rewind live TV. It lets you reverse time, my friends. Such work is not the job of a technician. For that, some darker art is required. In a word: witches. Witches are employed by Sky to create and power the Sky TV box. They pour dark infusions into their cauldrons at Sky HQ to create the unholy magick required to freeze Jonathan Ross mid-sentence, or to let you watch Paul Scholes slot one in the onion bag (la sac des oignons for my French and Quebecoise readers) over and over and over again. Withes of Sky I salute you. More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 14th April, 2008
2008-04-28 21:44:00 This is one of the publicity shots for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - The Charming Thespian and Lanarkshire's Leading Actress are at their sultry best. In the background we have cunningly disguised an Edinburgh car park as a 1950s San Francisco mental institution. It is barely possible to tell the difference. After we took the pictures I spent a terribly adult hour, sitting at an outdoor cafe sipping espresso. I watched with awe as people actually sat and read the Sunday papers. The Sunday papers are a thing of the past since the arrival of the Small Round Faced People. The most extensive reading I get to do nowadays is the back of the cereal box over a hurried breakfast: I'm starting to think Riboflavin and Thiacin are actually characters from a Dostoevsky novel. I felt a bit out of place at the cafe. As far as I could see I was the only one wearing clothes stained with yoghurt, pureed apples and at least three different types of bodily fluid. The joys of parenthood were as ... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 13th April, 2008
2008-04-27 22:30:00 Welcome to the Blog of the Kindly Cuppa 40 Cups of Tea With 40 Friends is my goal in life. And it must be done before 10th July. Click here to find out why. If you would like to be my friend and earn a QCT (Qualifying Cup of Tea) then let me know. No. of QCTs to date: 11 I have been neglecting my hunt for QCTs (Qualifying Cups of Tea), and time is running out. To help remedy things, here is a picture of me with The Charming Thespian, who will be playing Randall P McMurphy in my forthcoming production of "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest". We are snapped having a rather refreshing brew up in his Edinburgh flat. We were in the middle of a photo shot, and just out of shot Lanarkshire's Leading Actress is struggling into a 1950s nurse's outfit. It is a tough job, being a little-known director of amateur plays, but rewarding in its own way. The funniest moment of the day was when the three of us ran into 3 drunk Polish men. Somehow they had managed to get rolling drunk by noon. One ... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 12th April, 2008
2008-04-27 10:06:00 I am sorry that the postings have been a little bit erratic of late. I have been on holiday in Nairn and haven?t had any internet access: The World Wide Web has yet to penetrate the Lochloy Caravan Park. I saw Bill Gates prowling behind a camper van on Tuesday evening though, so I suspect it won?t be long. However, in the meantime, I?ll do my best to catch up and update you over the next few days. I appreciate how empty your lives must have been without me. I can?t say that it has been the most relaxing holiday I?ve ever had: this was my first trip away with two kids, and it makes me appreciate just how busy my Significant Other and her parents (who take on the childcare duties when she is working) must be every day of the year. It makes work feel like a doddle. On the other hand, it also makes me painfully aware of how much I?ve been missing when I?m at work. The Roundfaced Boy has got so big while I have been toiling at the coalface. I feel a little sad when I think of what I ... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 11th April, 2008
2008-04-12 02:25:00 Hurrah! Our Fringe programme copy form has been submitted. This year we have even managed to send it in a whole 4 days before the deadline, which is a record for us. The first year we did the Fringe, the producer had to drive through to Edinburgh to submit the form by hand delivery, so this year feels like luxury. It is good to know the copy is all now safely with the Fringe Office - it kind of feels that my Summer is now set out more concretely. So, while the rest of you are out in the garden sipping an iced cocktail in the Summer sunshine, I shall be spending my evenings in damp and dark public halls rehearsing scenes for our week in Edinburgh. I will delvelop rickets because of lack of exposure to the sun, but it will be worth it for my audience. After all, someone must suffer to bring great art in to the world. In many ways my summer rehearsals can be seen like labour pains - necessary agony in order to give birth to productions of insightful genius. I may copnduct this year's ... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 10th April, 2008
2008-04-12 02:14:00 There was nearly a stand up fight in the bakers today. I often go into the bakers next door to my office late on in the morning to have a coffee. I usually take a few papers in to read, so that my scone-munching isn't entirely unproductive. Today's studies were interrupted by a lot of shouting and swearing from a lady who was being forcibly ejected from the shop by a team of shop assistants. She was taking loud and rather profane exception to her treatment. What was her crime you ask? She had been clandestinely filling her mug with vodka from a bottle she had stashed in her handbag. Initially I thought that the treatment of this lady was a bit harsh. I'm all for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness after all. But then I reflected, and began to realise that there was a certain logic in the expulsion; after all, if you go into the off-licence to buy a bottle of Smirnoff, you are not permitted to have a wee sit down whike you scoff a mutton pie and a cream horn. So, what's s... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 9th April, 2008
2008-04-09 22:40:00 As I mentioned yesterday, I travelled through to Edinburgh to get some documents authenticated at the Spanish Consulate. Whenever, I?m travelling to Edinburgh, I try to take the train. In The M8 motorway is notoriously jammed in the mornings: If I took the car, I would likely arrive at my meetings in Auld Reekie sweaty and hypertensive. Although these are two qualities which I find in abundance amongst my legal colleagues ? I suspect we are secretly screened prior to being granted a place at university - I am trying to buck the trend. So I take the train. Therefore I generally arrive both serene and smelling faintly of apple and camomile shampoo. I am surprised that I have not yet been signed up as the new face of Loreal ? that bird from Four Weddings and a Funeral is beginning to get a bit past her sell-by date. I?m lucky enough to live close to Uddingston station which has a direct train to Edinburgh. It?s one of those suburban services that stops at every lamppost, (?The nex... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 8th April, 2008
2008-04-09 22:39:00 As I mentioned, I was at the Spanish Consulate today. There is something about the word ?consulate? which evokes images of a humid, breathless office in some far off foreign land. Somehow I expected a slow turning ceiling fan, and listless men in panama hats. The Spanish Consulate?s office in Edinburgh is less exotic, but it still seemed strangely thrilling. There was a constant coming and going, as people had Visas authenticated, applied for work permits and had documents notarised. It felt like this was an embarkation point for adventure and the wider world beyond Scotland. It made me feel rather parochial. The Consul himself was exactly what I expected: a big balding Spanish man, tanned and with huge hands, and an immaculate Summer jacket. I imagine he had a baretta under his jacket, and is ready to use it if the Republicans ever try to stage a coup. More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 7th April, 2008
2008-04-09 01:21:00 Hummm. Fifteen minutes after midnight, and I am still in the office. This is the usual ridculous scramble that I have, whenever I try to get away on holiday. I have to get up in less than sx hours to get on a train to Edinburgh for a meeting at the Spanish Consulate - who said the life of a provincial solicitor was less than cosmopolitan. I fear that, once aboard the train, I am likely to fall fast asleep, head against the passenger next to me. If they are lucky I shall only snore loudly in their ear; if they are unlucky, I may drool on their shoulders. I'm off home to bed. If you are still up reading this, then you should do likewise. It is late. Sensible people are in their beds. Go. Now. I mean it. More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 6th April, 2008
2008-04-07 18:24:00 It is of course trite to say it, but the way you view things depends upon your perspective. I try to remember this at work. Being a lawyer means that you are always advancing the interest of your client. This means that you can sometimes forget that there at least two sides to every story. When you overlook this, you can spend most of your day yelling about unreasonable clients and their buffoon solicitors. In fact the reality is that only about 50% of clients are unreasonable, and only 95% of opposing solicitors are buffoons. I was reminded of perspective this morning. I drive a rather battered old Merc, and it has the traditional old bonnet ornament on it. I always gett irritated when this isn't set up straight. Over the past few days, I have got into the car, driven a hundred yards or so, and noticed that the ornament is skewed off at an angle. This has resulted in me turning puce, and muttering about "bloody vandals" and "the youth of today". It has not made for a relaxing sta... More About: April , 2008 , Entry
Entry for 5th April, 2008
More articles from this author:2008-04-06 20:51:00 My Significant Other and I had arranged to go out for dinner last night. We were well organised; we got the kids off to sleep nice and early; we had time for a shower and a change of clothes (I even applied a ;ight splash of High Karate aftershave); the babysitter was here on time. In short, everything was in place for a smooth, and pleasurable night of adult company. We did not figure upon the taxi taking over an hour to arrive. We phoned them back several times to be told lies. The best lie was that the car had been there at 7.56pm. Presumably, the exactitude of the time was designed to give credence to the completely untrue statement. I know it to be untrue because my seething Significant Other was standing outside our front door at 7.56pm murmuring expletives that haven't been heard of in Glasgow since the demise of the shipping industry. We eventually cancelled the cab. I say cancelled. My Significant Other didn't use that exact word, but I suspect that they may have read the... More About: April , 2008 , Entry 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
 |
|
 |
