I've added a new album to the photo page, this one is from the first half of our trip around New Zealand in May. Click 'photos' on the right!

Arresting behaviour

So, London was a blast, but then it always is. I didn't actually do a great deal, I was trying to watch my money and hanging out with Callum is free anyway (despite his protests!). But now I'm back it's time to get down to the serious business of finding somewhere to live and somewhere to work. The work part should be easy - I just ring up Tesco and tell them I want to come back and they find me a position. It may take a wee while but my cash situation is okay at the moment. Finding somewhere to live might be a bit harder though - there seems to be a dearth of places that meet our requirements in Dundee. But we've got a viewing arranged for Friday so I'm optimistic about that, even if it would have been nice to have maybe two or three places to choose from.

Well, I have nothing else of interest to say, so here's a story my Mum told me this evening.

Last week sometime my Grandma was arriving home from the shops or something and was parking her car in her garage when she was aware of four young guys walking down the hill from the school that she lives near. She felt a little apprehensive - as any older person would - but tried to think nothing of it when she noticed two of the guys had disappeared. Before she had time to think about it, she realised they've just reappeared from the garage just down from hers, and one of them is riding a bike. She knows whose garage it is and decides to go up and tell her neighbour that someone has just stolen a bike from them. Her neighbour, Felicity, is outraged and wants to chase after them but doesn't have her car - her husband has it for work. "Don't worry though" says my Grandma, "I'll drive you - they can't have gone far..."


Now, my Grandma is pretty healthy and fit for someone in her mid-seventies, but the thought of her and her next door neighbour playing Starsky and Hutch is still ridiculously funny. Apparently they caught up with the boys at the end of the road whereby Felicity jumps out of the car (with my Grandma close behind "for backup") remonstrates with the youths, retrieves the bike and returns home happy.
"You should have seen them though" my Grandma complained. "They weren't the least bit shame faced about being caught..."
No, but I bet they were a bit shocked to see my Grandma steaming down the road after them in her car. Just goes to show that you can lose alot of things as you get older but pluck isn't necessarily one of them.

Weekend in London

Well, I'm off to London for the weekend tomorrow, and I'm very excited about it, for several reasons. Mainly it's because that's where my girlfriend is and we haven't seen each other in six weeks or so. But I'm also excited because I love London. In the time I spent there I was amazed by how many Londoners hadn't been to or done any of the excellent things London has to offer.

My old colleague Glenn had never been to the museums at South Kensington, never been to a West End show or caught a gig at the Comedy Store. People that have lived in London their whole life would ask me things like "So what's Greenwich like?" and "Isn't the theater expensive?". Well, Greenwich is lovely, and yes the theater is expensive but it's not like you go every week. Once a year will do fine.

It's underappreciated by the people that live there, partly because it's so full of tourists and tacky gift shops that people are maybe scared to venture out, but also because it has the worst public transport system in the world. And I'm including warzones in this. The tube is underfunded and overcrowded and buses are so random that at times you'd be forgiven for thinking they were part of a Monty Python sketch. There's also far too many cars, and it's about time they pedestrianised Regent and Oxford Streets - shopping for new shoes or a computer game should not be a risky activity, but it is in London.

But I'd implore Londoners to look beyond this - because there's always something going on. Whether it's a gig or a club or a bar or a museum you can't fail to find somewhere that you like in London, and if you're still having trouble, well, you should probably just move.

Weekend at Jimmy's

I never fail to have a good time when I visit my brother, mainly to do with the fact that I enjoy my brothers company a great deal, but also because Aberdeen has a wonderful concentration of different pubs and clubs all relatively close together in the city center. It makes pub crawls varied but easy at the same time. And as we staggered back to his flat at 3.30am on Friday night I was grateful that the alcohol coursing through my blood stream was protecting me from Aberdeen's trademark breeze.

Now, to change the subject completely, I always thought I would die knowing that the worst piece of music I'd ever heard in my life was when Avril Lavigne decided to start rapping on her last single. I almost felt embarrassed for her but the money she's made from being every thirteen year old emo kids wet dream will probably distract her from the bile that she lays down on record. But never being the sort of guys that care about things like originality or creativity, boyband McFly have stolen her crown. Oh dear god. I was watching ITV by mistake on Saturday night when they appeared (straight from a GAP advert, presumably) and filled my ears with the worst nonsense I ever hope to hear. They've taken the turgid Snow-Patrol anthem style of songwriting, digested it and vomited up an omelette of mediocrity. They couldn't look more awkward wearing those guitars if they were covered in honey and standing in a bear pit. No wonder kids aren't buying singles any more when this is the kind of guff they have to choose from.

Anyway, I feel alot better now that that's off my chest. My brother and I went to see Run Fatboy Run at the weekend, it was okay, and you can read my full review here. Click this.

Beam me up, Scotsman!

As a Star Trek fan who is also Scottish, for me the most interesting casting choice for the upcoming movie will be that of Scotty. Encouraging then, that Paramount have actually been casting in the UK, they seem to be keen to get an actual Scot to play the role as opposed to an American with a dodgy accent. The biggest name being mentioned is James McAvoy, he's the right age and his stock is fairly high at the moment. Martin Compston (of Monarch of the Glen) has auditioned, as has Chewin' the Fat's Greg Hemphill, who, at 38 is probably too old. Although he has had practise - remember the 'Taysiders In Space' sketch? "In amongst yis!"

New site!

Well, kind of. Everything is now supported and powered by Blogger as opposed to the feed I was using from LiveJournal. This is still a work in progress so bear with me but there's some photos from my recent Australia trip, click photos on the right there to have a peek.

"That night in Toronto..."

Ah, Toronto. I first fell in love with Canada's largest city about ten years ago on a family holiday, and I was worried that it wouldn't charm me as much this time around, but charm me it did. I won't pretend it's the most attractive city in the world (or even Canada) but it has to be one of the cleanest and friendliest. It has all the trappings of any large multi-cultural city, while retaining that typically Canadian of traits - politeness. From the skyline landmarks of the CN Tower and the Skydome (officially known as the Rogers Center) to the off-beat scruffy haven of Kensington Market, in a surprisingly compact area Toronto effortlessly glides you from one extreme to another on the rails of its streetcars.

I spent most of my first few days in Toronto doing nothing, I was tired from moving around alot and it was nice to be grounded in one place for more than a day or two. On Tuesday I fancied watching the Rangers vs. Red Star Belgrade match and sought out a bar showing the game. After a brief Google I came up with the Madison Pub, home of the Toronto Midtown Rangers Supporters Club. I sauntered on down and was delighted to find a beautiful bar and even better, made several friends amongs my fellow Rangers supporters. I ended up drinking far too much before staggering home and getting lost on the subway. I had sobered up by the time I got back to the hostel - it had taken me all of two hours to get back when it should have taken 20 minutes.

My brother, Nick and Dale arrived the next day rather deflated being as their holiday was ending. They left on Friday and that night I met up with another person I knew from the internet, Genevieve, for a few drinks.

On Saturday, I took the short ferry ride across to the Toronto Islands, which used to be a large sandbar but were broken up in a hurricane in the fifties. The islands are where Torontonians go to escape the buzz of city life and it's easy to see why. What is essentially a large floating park is the perfect place to get away from it all. I took some photos from the island but instantly regretted not having a tripod as my hand isn't as steady as it should be! The photo above is one of the better examples - it wasn't too dark at that point either.

I was sad to leave on Sunday, Toronto is one of the few places I could see myself settling in one day. As it turned out, Toronto was my last proper destination of the whole trip. I flew to San Francisco and jumped straight on a flight out to London. San Francisco is a gorgeous city but Toronto was the perfect place to end my adventure.