Doin' the Moonwalk

Flippin' crazy week! Monday was long day at work and then another night-photoshoot. Several new flickr folks joined in, and then when we got to the bridge/walkway there was another large group of photographers from the college and after chatting and handing out my moo cards I got several of them join up. Fun!

Home late, up EARLY for work. We had an intern arriving and someone needed to be sure the doors were open. I was cranky at the office and snapped at one of the boys. Note to self: call doc and get referred to chiropractor asap.

After work on Tuesday I returned my bookclub selection to the library and then dashed across the street to pick up a few grocery items before heading back home. I hadn't had lunch, barely even a breather for a up of coffee, we were so busy at work so you know what an empty stomach will make you buy when you shop while hungry? Cake. I bought fucking cake. Sure, it was carrot cake but I'm not so far into denial that I can fool myself into thinking "carrots" mean it's a healthy choice. I took a look into my basket, grabbed the carrot sticks (and chocolate covered raisins), and left the shopping for another night. After all that I didn't feel like waiting for the bus, so I decided to just walk down the road and catch the next connection over by the museum.

It felt really good to get some exercise, although my back really would prefer I not do that whilst wearing my high-heeled boots. Considering I signed up for the Moonwalk Edinburgh 2008 it might be a good idea for me to keep a change of footwear at the office.

Tango40 and I had been discussing doing the 26.2 mile overnight walk to benefit breast cancer charities. Some of our other friends expressed an interest, but we were afraid that if we waited for everyone to get their shit together we'd miss out and not make the enrollment. We decided to go for it, created a "team name" (Bosom Buddies), and submitted our application and fee online.
Visualcandy followed suit and enrolled that evening, and bettyboopek has also agreed to signup. We've since received confirmation that we are officially enrolled and plan to meet this weekend to map out a training schedule, brainstorm fundraising ideas, and decide how we want to decorate our walk-bras [yes, everyone does the walk in their bra]. I've got an idea for our logo, and it it pans out I'll post it here.

Holy shit. For someone who absolutely HATES having her picture taken under 'normal' circumstances, I can't believe I just committed to walking 26.2 miles in public in my gawdamn bra!

*If anybody wants to sponsor me, drop me an email and we'll figure out how to get the money across. I think I can do it with my paypal account...?


Last night ember and I went to the new Springburn Mall and yowza, this puppy really is just like an American mall. Best part, the damn thing was open until 10pm at which point we walked over to the 24 hour grocery store and picked up items there too. Moving over here I got used to a lot of changes. Smaller (everything)- especially refrigerators, no car, sharing living accomodations, slang differences, etc. but the hardest thing was getting used to all the shops closing around 5:30pm. So being able to faff about the mall until 10 was a definite privilege. Now, if there'd been stuff to fit my huge tits and I'd been able to afford to buy any of that imaginary stuff, it would have been fucking HEAVEN.

For the past 24 hours we've been going thru some seriously nasty storms, leaving me cold and wet and already droopy eyed by 8pm, so I'm going to post up a couple photos and call it night. Tomorrow I'm going to see Before the Devil Knows You're Dead with Lorna, so once again there won't be an entry. Monday, though, there'll most certainly be an entry on Monday...

No Fat Camp for You

Today was blessedly lower-key at the office, plus I got to wear jeans and my walking shoes, plus PLUS I got to leave the office earlier than normal so all-in-all it was a happy day pour moi. I had a rather long wait in the chilly wind, but hardly noticed as I was snuggled inside my warm fuzzy winter coat and listening to a fun audiobook. All week I've been listening to War and Peace, and after 20 hours (the book is something like 55 hours in total) figured that having someone else read it to me hasn't made it any less boring-- except every time he says 'Boris & Natasha' I giggle a little.

A few years ago I purchased Leo Tolstoy's book Anna Karenina, and with great enthusiasm I tucked into "one of the greatest books of our time".

Snore.
Bore!

I didn't (and still don't) get it.

After reading, and enjoying, so many books from my Classics List, I thought I'd give him another go and downloaded W&P from the library. Apparently Tolstoy is like a Russian Altman, flooding his work with eleventy billion main characters that you need to keep track of because somehow they will all connect up with each other.

I haven't given up on War, or Peace either (hee), but I'm giving my brain a rest and listening to C is for Corpse. Its funny, with a great narrator, and I don't miss a lot when I fall asleep on the bus for half an hour.

Naps are good.

Yesterday I phoned the Weight Loss / Fat Camp thingy and told them that Yes, I wanted to do this. They said, GREAT. Would you like to be in a group close to home or in a group close to work? Since the group meetings are during the day (wtf?) I opted for the one near the office. And lucky me, the group starts a new rotation with meetings beginning in.... April.

Nope, I don't get to see the nutritionist or any of the other specialists until the group starts. So I let everyone know at work they've been given a slight reprieve before my crankiness starts [hmm, how is that any different than normal? I'm really only a bitch here, in real life I'm quite pleasant].

I think this is going to be the same kind of situation from when I stopped smoking. I have a quit date (for sugar this time), and will slowly wean myself off the stuff until that date so the actual stopping won't be so traumatic.

At least this means I can still have some drinks with the Sistahs when we are in SPAIN...

Photos from last night:

This and That

Here's another example of our rapidly varying Scottish weather:

I shot this video at 10:30 this morning--

and this is the same view just a mere half hour later--

Work was just one big old suck-fest yesterday and all I wanted was to come home, get online and type out a major rant. Of course, by the time I actually made it home I was just so happy to be here that I opted to have a cookie and then climb into bed to finish reading my bookclub book. Weird book; part crime novel, part chick lit-- but I liked it. Once done I shut off the light and got a decent night sleep.

Today the suck-fest was downgraded to so-busy-you-don't-get-to-pee, but it is all over and tomorrow is not only another day it is FRIDAY and even better yet it is the last Friday of the month which means we quit at 4pm. Hooyah.

Tonight I got home, threw the chicken into the oven , changed clothes, took the chicken out of the oven, grabbed the camera and dashed out the door to meet Alison in front of the Abbey. She had to complete an assignment for her photography class and so we braved the elements (and the neds) to get shots all the way around the Abbey and Town Hall. I played about, more to break in the new memory card than in any attempt to get a good shot, but it was fun to experiment with different angles and settings trying for something decent despite the wind.

Suprised myself, and got a couple good ones which I'll try to upload tomorrow.

No plans for the weekend, just gonna play it by ear - might be snoozeville, or might be a trip to funkytown...

Swooney for Sweeney

Lawdy, all those movie links I posted yesterday and I forgot to mention the best one! Saturday afternoon I met Lorna in town and we went to see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I got us settled into our seats, leaned over and casually asked her if she knew anything about the play this movie was based on, and discovered she was riding the thrill of the unknown.

Well, if you like theatre and you like to be entertained, then this is a movie for you. The singing, the dancing (only kidding, no dancing in this) drew you right into the story.

The blood was over-the-top, similarly to Sleepy Hollow, and while I may have covered my eyes for a couple of the neck slicings, the sound effects made sure I didn't miss a thing.

I think this review gets it right: "Burton creates a maleficent world swathed in gothic gloss and cruel beauty. In his clever hands, Sondheim’s quick, syncopated music, acerbic wit and adult humor become an intimate, expository medium used to 'explain' character motivation—without compromising the power of Sondheim’s discordant notes and dissonant musical beauty.

Depp’s voice may not be suited for the stage but, on the silver screen, his full-bodied baritone makes Sweeney Todd’s unfortunate fate and vitriolic craving for vengeance throb with life and terror."

Today was a long one as I had to leave the house early to take the train to the Edinburgh office, travel back to Glasgow in the afternoon, and then fuck about with IT until I wanted to wrap my hand around the cables and yank out the entire system. I had a nice bus ride home, getting to enjoy a seat all to myself and become freely immersed in the latest bookclub selection.

So I started the day with this:
and ended it with this:
Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday...

Gathering at Garnethill

Right now I'm watching Driving Lessons, a sort of British Harold and Maude, and I really do like this Rupert Grint kid. Then again, maybe I'm just a sucker for a geeky ginger boy.

Friday I finished work at 5 and because my photoshoot was scheduled for just around the corner from the office, I decided to stay in and watch a movie at my desk until until the meetup at half 7. That was a fun way to pass the time, and even better it was dry. I met several new flickr folk at the coffee shop before taking them across the walkway to practice our long-exposure shots. The motorway passes next to the St. George's Mansions (in Charing Cross) and you get some really cool light streaks from the overpass-- at least you do if you are using a tripod. I didn't, since I don't own one, and as it was much too windy to manage much handheld I did manage to shoot a couple nice ones with the wee camera (minus the light streaks though).
Across the bridge and up the pathway is Garnethill, an area which hosts a terrific view of the West End. Personally, I like the view better during the day, but the night wasn't all that bad. Here you can see the St. George's Mansions (in front), the spire from University of Glasgow poking up on the far right, in the middle you can barely make out the newly renovated Park Parish Church (aka White Church), and on the left you have the former Trinity College.As there were a lot of newbies in this group, I suggested we walk down to the Mitchell Library. I myself have numerous (numerous!) photos of this fantabulous building, but they hadn't had the chance to get night shots before. Of course, I took another one. Or seven. Thought I'd try something a little different and go for one in sepia:
It didn't take long before the new folks were pretty cold (ah, poor newbies weren't quite prepared for the weather) and talked us old hands into quitting and stopping into the nearby pub for a warm up. Half an hour later I looked at Tango40 and said, "I cannae believe we're in a pub, and on Friday night!"

Woohoo.

We chatted until I was ready to drop, and then I stood outside facing both the elements and excrement passing as humans on a Friday night. Never have I been so glad to see a bus. Once home I downloaded my memory cards and had a quick look thru before giving up the ghost and heading to bed.

Sunday I spent primarily in a horizontal position, snuggled under a blanket, finishing up paperwork, reading through forms and watching videos:

• Mildred Pierce (1945)
  
• Chess Fever (1925) [aka Shakhmatnaya goryachka]
  
• The Golden Chance (1915)
  
• Bed and Sofa (1927) [aka Tretya meshchanskaya]
  
• Don't Change Your Husband (1919)

I love lazy days like that! After a while I got bored with the computer and pulled out the camera again with the intention of trying out the step-up lenses, which basically converts my lens into a macro. This little metal guy I call "The Reader", is the cool souvenir Kim & John brought back from South Africa for me.
Today was ho-hum work, work, work. Tomorrow I go to the Edinburgh office for a morning meeting and then back to the Glasgow grind. Weather permitting, I have another photoshoot after work but this one in Paisley...

beats two pair

beats two pair
Originally uploaded by Gertie_DU

This is a shot I took in George Square back in November; and if you are ever going to manage a non-blurry shot of birds in flight whilst using manual focus, this would be the place to do it. LOTS of birds. Only time I saw a larger congregation of "rats with wings" was near the Spanish Steps in Rome.

I'M GOING TO SPAIN!

I saw Closing the Ring on Wed night and it was a really sweet movie, up until the scene where that bastard Christopher Plummer tugged on my heart strings. Hmph. Jimmy the Irish bloke was a hoot, providing most of the comic relief, and it was nice to hear the audience interact like that.

Tonight I am going on a photoshoot, or at the very least I am meeting the other Togs at the coffee house up the road. The wind has been blowing so hard that the window blind is MOVING and the window is 'closed'-- as in there is a gap so it rattles like hell and lets all that cold wind blow in. Glad this is the office and not home! I'm not prepared to attempt any photos in this weather, but I'm not in the position to call off the hunt, so to speak. Enh, it'll be nice to chat for awhile with folks who share my photography lurv.

Tomorrow I have to dash to the post office because I apparently sent my memory cards to the house and not the office and of course they need a signature. I had to get it rerouted back to my local branch because I just don't have time to venture down to the service station tomorrow. After I grab my parcel I need to hustle to town to meet Lorna for the sneak-preview of Sweeney Todd. Yay. And then I get to go back to the office and work on the surprise proposal that was requested today, due on Tuesday. Well, really Monday because the other person writing this with me-- she and I both have to attend company meetings in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Busy, busy-- it does make the time fly by.

I'M GOING TO SEE MY SISTERS! IN SPAIN!

I spoke with Sallie Mae about my student loans today, and they were kind enough to take me out of the queue for collections, add four months forbearance to my loans, ramming my arsehole with plenty of additional fees and penalties, and start my monthly payments again in February. Ooh-- I better put that on the calendar because the payment date occurs while I AM IN SPAIN.

Heh.

Last night I felt like decompressing with a little tele, so I grabbed my blanket and snuggled onto the sofa and giggled through a Family Guy episode I hadn't seen and... and I can't remember what else was on. I do know that I was struggling with having to go to bed because the BBC started showing "The Song Remains the Same" and humina humina Robert Plant really was a golden god. I answered a few emails and then watched until a good cut-off point on the hopes that since it was the last thought/image in my head it would lead to fantastical dreams. Alas, I think I dreamt about organizing my closet.

Well, looks like time to shuffle off. Hope y'all have a good weekend and I hope I get some new photos for ya...

I am the Errand Queen

Hello Deer!
Originally uploaded by gms

Funny how the more things I have to do the more things I manage to get done. I rocked the errand running yesterday and today I finished off even more so now my TO DO list is sporting rather trendy looking stripes. Most excellent.

Today's photo is brought to you by GMS, one of my flickr contacts who takes such incredible photographs that I find myself practically seething with jealousy at each new posting. I don't think I can write html in this entry, so here is the link to his website: http://www.gmsphotography.com/

We had gorgeous weather today, and when I popped out to grab a bite for lunch I felt compelled to stand facing the sun with my arms outstretched to fully absorb the rays. Not that I was going to absorb much through my thick furry jacket, but the act itself was a pleasant exercise in optimism.

Tomorrow will be an early start, which means I get to clock out early so hopefully I can avoid the huge crowd at the supermarket and get home in time to do my weekly chores and still get a full nights rest. Or I can skip all that and go visit with a friend. Eenie Meenie Minie Moe.

Och, back to work now...

The Mitchell. Again.

The Mitchell. Again.
Originally uploaded by Gertie_DU

Lawdy, I just got home 5 minutes ago and I think I'm gonna call it an early night because seven hours of sleep over two days is about 9 hours too short, or at the very least 5 hours too short.

I'm having fun though!

I got more work done last night staying at the office then I would have over two full days of working. It is so much easier to concentrate without the constant interruptions. The Board Room looks fantastic, as does the other office. I took the cheap maple wood frames that were sitting in the closet, painted them high-gloss black (last friday) and then last night I put in photos from work projects and hung those in my co-workers office [I'll be putting my own photos in my office, of course]. For the board room I re-arranged and finished out the large framed projects and I'm so excited for the boss to see it.

I got home just after 11 last night and then worked on some of my own projects, only realizing the time when my eyelids started to rub like sandpaper. Quick nap and back into the office early because I had to leave in the middle of the day for the fat clinic appointment. Hard to believe it's just Tuesday.

I took a risk and decided to try the bus instead of forking over cash for a taxi, and thanks to the quick driving and helpful assistance from the bus driver I managed to get to my appointment on time. There I spoke with a very skinny woman about how committed I was to taking on this weight loss program.

She sort of ignored me, or didn't believe me (maybe both) and it irked me but I'm gonna suck it up. I have to wait 7 more business days before I can call to opt into the program (wtf?), and then it is a commitment for a minimum of 4 months with an option to continue to stage 2 after that. On the off-chance that I am wrong, I am going to do everything single she tells me to do, for those 4 months. If there isn't any improvement THEN I will go on my own, but at least I can say "hey, look, I really did try everything".

After the meeting I hopped one bus, one subway ride and was at the library lickity split to pick up my bookclub selection before going across the street to pick up the food items needed for the presentation attendees on Thursday. I was pleased to have accomplished so much in such a short time, although I paid for it later with my back giving me nauseating & painful spasms that were only quieted with a handful of ibuprofen and a shot of vodka.

Whaddya know, the old time method of pain relief still works.

I met up with Tango40 and we've been chatting until she dropped me at home. The pain has subsided enough that I'm finally hungry and the microwave has just beeped to tell me my supper is warm.

I've got movie plans, photoshoot plans, reading plans, website plans. Now if I would just stop planning and start DOING...

Whole Lotta Nuthin'

1/4 Moon
Originally uploaded by Gertie_DU

I didn't do jack this weekend. After I posted my entry on Friday I have a hazy recollection of surfing around on the internet. I'm pretty sure I didn't accomplish anything of importance, but the zoning out was quite welcomed so in the end it was all good.

Yesterday I ventured outside the flat for about an hour, picking up a couple things I was going to need for work and a bag of wine gums. I have my fat clinic appointment tomorrow so I might as well give them something to shout at me about :-D

I chatted with Sally, always a great thing to do, watched The Painted Veil (I'll add the link later), de-squeaked the lazy susan, aaaand ate the bag of wine gums. Whew, that was a full day.

Today was mad busy at work, in fact I'm still at the office having just now finished my tasks. I've got to split partway thru the morning to take care of the fat clinic crap (which is at a totally different address than I originally thought-- yes, this makes the 3rd place I thought it was located) and then I'm meeting Tango40 after work and on Wednesday I'm leaving work a bit early to meet Lorna so we can see Closing the Ring (again, linkage later). Somehow amidst all this fun I have to find time to get to the grocery store to pick up the items we need for a hootinany at the office on Thursday.

No rest for the wicked-- and oh how I want to be wicked!

Short entry today, but I leave you with that purdy photo taken from my office window on Friday...

Cloister Arches

Today was another slammin' busy day at work, which I absolutely love because it just makes the time fly and the next thing you know it's quittin' time and yer dashin' out the door to your highly anticipated haircut appointment!

My flatmate suggested a salon close to the office so I rang them up, managed to not have a stroke when they told me the price, and then inquired if they had an appointment this evening and booked that sucker quick-like. As far as I can tell, she did a good job. She spent eight hundred hours drying it straight in order to check the cut and then put some goop in it to scrunch it back up and really, outside weather was rather poo so her efforts were a bit wasted. I stood on the corner tossing text messages back and forth between folks before it was confirmed that yes indeedy my ass was heading home, and then I began my mile journey down Sauchiehall Street to my bus stop. Once onboard I repeated the event from the past two nights of snuggling down into my coat with the fluffy hood pulled over my head and taking a nap. Ah, bliss.

Hence why I cannae confirm with any great accuracy the quality of the haircut. I do like that I can still pull it up off my face and even into a ponytail without needing a bunch of clips, and love that she took off a lot of the weight (length). It will be a great pleasure to not roll over on my hair tonight.

I'm going to S P A I N!

(It bore repeating.)

Had a nice chat with Kim & John, ate a healthy salad with chicken, made myself a cup of coffee and have come back into my room to write this entry and check out what's happening on flickr. If I can manage it, I'd like to stay awake tonight until at least ten o'clock otherwise I'll be up at four and there really isn't a lot to do in Paisley at that hour. Unless I want to work on my website. Argh-- is there anybody out there who'd like to design my photography website for me, perhaps in exchange for some photos?

Last week we had a new group of people doing a flickr night wandr and we went to the cloisters of the University of Glasgow to photograph the arches. This first shot I took with my wee Powershot.
This one was taken with my Rebel. The clarity is nice, so I'm not completely blind, but it was sitting on a table since I (still) didn't have a tripod (the one you see on the left belongs to one of the other togs). Cool place, eh? Just a few short months and I'll be getting a new body. Camera body, that is. Although my body might also be quite new in a few months. And that would be awesome too.

Working for the Weekend

Last night I was shocked to find the bus arriving on-time, yet grateful enough to get out of the cold that I bit off any snarky thoughts that popped into my head and quickly climbed aboard. Still shaking from the chill I decided to leave my coat on until I got to the grocery store, figuring I'd take it off while shopping and be fine again when I was ready to head out to catch the bus home.

My coat, though, is a very soft and fluffy coat and as I hunched down and leaned my head back into the snuggly hood I made the mistake of closing my eyes-- and proceeded to sleep clear past the grocery store stop. Oops. Thankfully I was neither snoring nor sleeping with a gaping maw and I also awoke before my home stop.

Once home I set some dinner to cooking and began to dismantle the bed in search of my missing book. Oddly enough, it had fallen down between the bed and the wall, which means that somehow in the middle of the night I had shifted enough to move the bed away from the wall and roll over enough to toss the book to that side of the bed, and then shift enough again to move the bed back against the wall. Itsa puzzler.

I got two letters from the Mom, who is in Uganda doing some sort of business thingy, and seeing the postage reminded me how I used to love stamp collecting. I think I loved it so much because it was a way to connect with other worlds and see it in a way unfamiliar to me. Nowadays we have the internet and dvds, plus my own holiday photos. I think travelling is just the bees knees.

Which works as a nice segue to my next piece of news: next month my ass is flying to Spain. Squee. On the 8th I will fly over to Barcelona, stay overnight, and then meetup with Sally & MaryAnn at the airport to fly over to Palma de Mallorca where we will stay for a week. Then we go back to Barcelona for two days before we each fly back home. I am so excited to see them-- I haven't seen MaryAnn since I left Seattle in June and I only got to visit briefly with Sally in July. I cannot remember another time in our lives when we were apart for this long. Big bonus that we'll be catching up in frickin SPAIN.

Oh yeah, you can bet I'll be taking some pictures.

Tonight I finally made it to the grocery store and now I'm doing my weekly chores even though I want to climb back into bed and read some more. I (finally) completed my 100 Classics List and now I feel strangely at odds because I no longer "have" to read. Sure, I've got books sitting in a 'to read' pile, but for the past two years I've felt a certain sort of pressure to read and check the books off my list. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the process thoroughly, and am immensely proud of myself for finishing that goal. I'm just giddy, I guess, with all the reading freedom I have right now.

Rather ironic then that my audiobook this week was Fahrenheit 451. That is one spooky book, second only to The Twilight Zone episode Time Enough at Last which is, to me, the most frightening and haunting story out there. I only saw the episode once as a child and yet I can remember it with the most vivid detail. I had done well to put it out of my mind until the re-enactment done by Peter's last brain cell. That was funny, but in that "ha-ha dear god let this be far-far away from reality" kind of funny.

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, my list. Not counting bookclub and other miscellaneous books, but just this list only, in 2 years I read 100 books totalling 38,632 pages.

Authors with more than one title on the list:

Saul Bellow (4)
William Faulkner (4)
James Joyce (4)
Graham Greene (3)
John Steinbeck (3)
Evelyn Waugh (3)
Willa Cather (2)
Joseph Conrad (2)
Theodore Dreiser (2)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (2)
D.H. Lawrence (2)
Vladimir Nabokov (2)
V.S. Naipaul (2)
Philip Roth (2)
Virginia Woolf (2)

Most Enjoyable:

Something Wicked This Way Comes- by Ray Bradbury
(I felt like a kid again reading this!)

Least Liked:

Lolita
(absolutely hated the subject matter and find it very difficult to be objective about this book)

Most Difficult:

Finnegans Wake- by James Joyce
(I had to buy a reader’s guide to finish this—and I can’t say I understood most/any of it, but I feel the greatest sense of accomplishment with this one.)


okay, now I'm off to scrub the toilet...

Should Old Broads Be Forgot

Hey, remember me? The fluffy lady with issues that used to update on a fairly regular basis? Well, I'm the same lady but have been rather self-absorbed lazy lately and also a bit scatterbrained so I think about all this shit I want to put in my journal and then just kinda, ya know, forget about it.

I've got half an hour until I'm outta here and then I have to make my way thru the storms and storm-induced traffic to the grocery store and then home where I will have talk on the phone and really all I want to do is snuggle under the duvet and finish my book. I started reading The Sound of My Voice, a brilliant novel by Scottish writer Ron Butlin, yesterday on the bus and had planned to read some before bed last night but fell asleep before I got there and in the meantime somehow lost the book somewhere in the bed. I made a quick search this morning but I was going to miss my bus if I didn't leave right then.

I rounded the corner and as Town Hall came into sight I could see my bus pulling up to the stop. And, hold on to your seat for this, I RAN FOR THE BUS. Deliberately! I was so chuffed (and a bit huffed to as I'm still in rotten shape) that I made it. And then, well then we sat in a lot of fucking traffic. Just ten minutes shy of the journey taking a full two hours. And of course this was the one day the boss man came into the office. He is also suffering man-flu, so wasn't too pleased about the situation. Sent out a memo about how imperative it is for someone to be here at 9am etc. Argh.

I sold a couple rings on ebay and used the paypal money to get a couple dvds, a copy of West Highland Way: Glasgow to Fort William, and also a copy of The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. Have I mentioned that I made the decision in December to run the London Marathon 2009? Well, I still have doc appointments and weight loss shite and other exercising to do before I can begin that training, but I was thrilled when the book arrived and I'm going to dive into it this weekend. My photographer buddy Tango40 said she'd be willing to do the West Highland Way walks, so I'm thinking I'll break the trip into 7 walks and use some of my holidays left to take off one Monday a month to do part of the walk. I'm very excited about this too!

My friend Lorna and I have started a little movie-club thing (just us two, but that counts) and with the matinee and discounts we are getting into flicks for £2 each. So far we have seen Sleuth (with Jude Law as Milo) and Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (Se, jie). Sleuth was entertaining, and despite the fact that not one damn thing surprised me I would have been happy paying full price. It peaked my interest in seeing the 1972 original, also with Michael Caine except in that one HE is Milo. I bought the DVD on ebay, and the seller came back with an email saying "if you didn't guess by the price, it is a DVD-R as the original is out-of-print and going for £30-40". Guessed? There's no guessing in ebay, you fucker. Besides that, it is illegal. I made him return my money and then reported him. Not that anything will be done, but I felt better about it.

Felt better about reporting the weirdo who commented on one of my flickr photos too. He liked a shot of this little boy statue and wanted me to add it to his group. But when I clicked on his group it was 'private' and inaccessible. So I checked out HIS profile and that's where it got ooky. He had a blonde little boy as his icon, told about how he's attracted to naked boy statues and that he believes the Greeks got it right. EW EW EW! There was more, but that's all I'm bothering to put here. I blocked him, reported him, and then dug my eyes out with a spork.

Back to the movies: I decided that "Ang Lee" was Chinese for "Long-Ass Movie", and Lust was no exception coming in at 2H 38M. I didn't notice I was sitting there that long, though, which is really saying something about the movie. Between my bad back and the (usually) crappy cinema seats, I fidget and am ready to bolt as soon as the credits are done rolling. I guess the seats of the GFT are pretty comfortable, but the story kept me engrossed. I love how quiet the theatre gets whenever there is a sex scene. I chat during movies, and thus exhibit great restraint by not talking at public showings, but it took every ounce of my self-control to not lean over to Lorna and loudly fake-whisper "ohmygawd, I've been doing it WRONG".

I haven't gone on many shoots and haven't finished my website (yet) and I dropped my camera but I think the lens is okay. I had trouble manual focusing inside the University of Glasgow Arches, but I think that's most likely because it was really dark in there. And I had trouble on Sunday, in Luss, but I think (hope) that it was more the lingering haze than my camera.

So, onwards to some recent photos:

I think this is part of the Arrochar Alps [possibly Ben Arthur aka The Cobbler], taken on the shores of Loch Lomond in Luss.
This view shows the loch and dock in the foreground (duh), and Ben Lomond (which I climbed 2 years ago) in the background.
This is local artist Stephen Conroy's 2005 self-portrait oil painting, hanging inside the Kelvingrove Museum. There was other crap on the wall (like a vent, and fire alarm) to the right, but I photoshopped that away.
This was my dessert at the Company Christmas Dinner/Party. There's a fabulous shot taken by my co-worker that shows me shoveling this into my face. I could not have been more mortified if it was a shot of me squatting and taking a poo. Self-esteem issues aside, don't think of poo cos this cake was really really good.
Wee Lilo giving a high-5 to the New Year. She's such a cuddle monkey.
Inside the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT), taken well before the start of the movie and well out of sight of the usher.
Part of the Conflict and Consequence exhibit at the Kelvingrove Museum
(photoshopped to create upper and lower white borders).
This is (another) mannequin, in a shop window for Laura Ashley on George Street. Her face was weird, she looked like on of those porno dolls, but I thought this shot turned out well.