http://frydman.co.uk Dan and Alison on the couch of life Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:30:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I grew up in the school of "if it's a good joke, it's worth repeating".  I suspect that, separate from this, I am genetically predisposed to like puns, which are a form of repetition in a way, causing you to think about what you're already familiar with. But the upshot is, ... http://frydman.co.uk/deja-vu-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/ It's a serious question when you're eight, going on nine.  Things are not just out there.  You need to know whether you like them or not. Rachel and David's eldest is keen on space.  She and Dan had fun setting up her telescope while we were there, and while you or ... http://frydman.co.uk/which-planet-do-you-like-best/ Friends that is.  Big and small.  We're just back from visiting Rachel and David, and their four wee ones (some not so wee now), in Italy.  As well as restocking the supplies of risotto rice, grana, and a certain small pasta that goes well in sausage casserole. It's now nearly 8 ... http://frydman.co.uk/six-of-the-best/ Public transport.  It's a marvellous thing for writing inspiration, or even just a little entertainment at the end of a working day.  Sights from today's bus ride home: A Goth at a bus stop with black gloves with a skeleton pattern on the backs of the hands.  As I tend to ... http://frydman.co.uk/scenes-from-a-bus/ Not quite the ton (that really would have been scary), but I reached national speed limit type velocity today on the A1.  What's more, both I and other drivers lived to tell the tale.  (Mind you, you would hope so, with the driving instructor next to me.) Driving lessons continue, and ... http://frydman.co.uk/tons-of-fun/ I am trying to remind myself that learning is incremental, and that you don't always move forwards.  (Especially when you've tried reversing into parking bays for the first time.)  Interest rates can go down as well as up, as well we know.  But it's frustrating when you've a limited chunk ... http://frydman.co.uk/two-revs-forward-one-rev/ But can you name the tune the words come from? I am having refresher driving lessons.  Fifteen and a half years on from stunning my mother with my ability to pass my driving test (she took me out to lunch on the strength of it), I am actually behind the wheel ... http://frydman.co.uk/its-a-gas-gas-gas/ Honest, it started as a book review, it is in no way intended to comment on any cabinet reshuffle... Spent some pleasant time with Graeme and Shona over yesterday afternoon/evening and this morning, and discovered that one of the books in Shona's recent acquisitions for her girls is Milly Molly Mandy. For ... http://frydman.co.uk/milly-molly-mandy-strikes-back/ I've come to realise that the way to get people's attention online (or at least on Facebook) is to write about food.  Mention your latest eating experience - or even, your anticipation of that - and you get lots of virtual joining in. Is it the dark days of recession affecting ... http://frydman.co.uk/fantasy-online-dinners/ Yesterday I did some half-hearted moaning about life in one's thirties; today there's another phenomenon that seems to creep up with age. It's well known (or well alleged) that women end up becoming like their mothers; I think the process is accelerated if you become a mum yourself.  Facing tiredness or shock, whatever ... http://frydman.co.uk/in-the-wars/ It's not something I want to promote about myself.  But a little bit of virtual aggro, via the Heroes application on Facebook, does seem to help when winding down for the day.  (I can at this point blame David Wilson, who invited me to try this application.  It all started ... http://frydman.co.uk/hitting-people-and-running-away/ Off to Peebles last weekend to see my parents - and go to part of Peebles' second ever autumn food fair.  Not quite the highlight of the social calendar that the spring book fair is, but a good enough excuse to go and support a local event. What I hadn't quite ... http://frydman.co.uk/food-miles/ Sometimes it seems I'm at my happiest when heading from A to B, with space to think up titles for blog posts, or the like.  After much deliberation for this one, I settled on black gold. Would it be a hard-hitting commentary on oil over-dependence?  Not really.  An oblique Asterix book ... http://frydman.co.uk/black-gold/ ...Post-it note? But of course there is.  A free pen.  A free cotton bag.  A free jute carbon neutral bag.  In fact, a free policy booklet that you hadn't planned on reading in the first place. Despite Scotland's happy insistence on state schooling for the majority of its pupils, there's clearly no ... http://frydman.co.uk/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free/ Shock and amazement - sunshine two days running!  Pretty much sun all day today!  Any time now someone'll suggest it's a Scottish summer (apart from the normal three-days-in-May kind of summer we come to hope for). At any rate, it allowed for a bit of gardening yesterday, aided by my parents.  ... http://frydman.co.uk/all-things-bright-and-beautiful/ Not yet out and about, but the plan is to be out and about, as I've finally bitten the bullet and booked refresher driving lessons.  Been looking at driving school websites, and for all that they say about refresher lessons, most of them don't seem to be thinking of someone ... http://frydman.co.uk/they-call-me-baby-driver/ Off to Dunfermline today, to give a hand to Alison W and her kids.  With the eldest now in school, a visitor to the house allows Donn, no. 2, to up the vehicular ante, and fit as many transport books as he can. Donn's specialist subject is tractors, for which he ... http://frydman.co.uk/cars-and-trucks-and-things-that-go/ Overwhelmed as I am with five comments on one post, I know that what you really wanted to read about was Cremola Foam. I have a Useful Notebook that gets carried around, partly so I can work out which children's book to buy for which new arrival and that kind of ... http://frydman.co.uk/taste-of-summer/ I'm sure you don't need me to apologise to you - and indeed, why am I apologising to an audience I think I may have?  Or am I apologising to the laptop, which is perhaps a little over familiar with hitting other people on Facebook (Heroes application) and wants to ... http://frydman.co.uk/making-up-for-it/ It seems that blogs could be seasonal.  A bit like soup.  It gets a little darker, the need for stodgy food reappears on the shopping list...and for words, that familiar comfort, to make an appearance. Or maybe they're seasonal creatures, like birds.  Come the spring, blog words need to go to warmer climes ... http://frydman.co.uk/back-to-blog-school/ Haven't been able to file a report from abroad before.  I'm sure it ought to be very exciting, full of drama and tension. Except I'm in Bonn, the town where it was said, by one of the diplomats in residence at the time, that 'every day was a little like Sunday'. It's certainly ... http://frydman.co.uk/and-now-from-our-reporter-in/ Same again folks.  Back to the Isle of Jura.  For all that it's good to see new places, it's also great to have ones that stay in your mind - and that you are part of. We had been away three years.  I couldn't quite believe it was that long, but ... http://frydman.co.uk/revisiting-childhood-haunts/ About time I put another post out there, keen to extol blogging as I am yet not doing much of it just now... Blame spring cleaning, early summer cleaning, oh there's another cold snap cleaning and general furniture shifting.  But, for a change, blame holiday...where we deliberately kept off-line.  Actually, this gets ... http://frydman.co.uk/travel-in-the-real-world/ On a recent business trip to London I had the chance to sample lots of ways of working and meeting.  Not all of them great, but all interesting.  I thought I'd share my experiences here.  I'm tempted to mark them out of ten, but some of the people involved may ... http://frydman.co.uk/club-cafe-train/ It's how we're built.  Danger, uncertainty, you name it, humans are driven to one of two choices quickly.  We're familiar with the phrase 'fight or flight' to describe how our bodies make these choices very rapidly, even where our brain is not quite tuned into what we're doing. When it's a ... http://frydman.co.uk/fight-or-flight/ I'm a little concerned by health warnings.  Always drink responsibly...sounds like you shouldn't consider stepping out of the door without a bottle in your hand. The next issue to focus on is gambling, as mentioned by the coin machine shop by my bus stop.  Hanging about, waiting for the bus home, I ... http://frydman.co.uk/always-gamble-responsible/ That's Valentine's Day to you.  I just fancied writing it.  "Valentinky" has quite a nice ring to it too. Why Walentynki?  I don't really subscribe to the common concept of what Valentine's Day is about in the UK.  As a teenager, you just kind of sulk about it (though there are so ... http://frydman.co.uk/walentynki/ The home improvements continue...well, not apace, but at least they continue.  Part of the grand plan is to get more storage inside our wardrobes, and thankfully, the powers that be at IKEA foresaw that people would want to shift things around at different times, and created lots of nice holes to ... http://frydman.co.uk/kit-form/ Honest, ossifer, not even once.  But I couldn't resist the title. Little by little, the Frydman decorating project moves on, and the next stage is to get some rooms replastered.  This gives us the opportunity to move furniture from room to room in order to clear the rooms that need plastered...Thank ... http://frydman.co.uk/getting-plastered/ The music collection is building up.  Rather later than much of the rest of the population, I have also now tried acquiring some more songs via iTunes. Recently I read a music journalist talking about converting his prized collection into digital format.  Having it all neatly amassed, and no longer vinyl, ... http://frydman.co.uk/collecting/ The tide has been stemmed.  I no longer have to walk into a branch of, say, Accessorize, and feel like I'm back in my first school disco just because they're playing Aha. Nor have I been frequenting 80s revival discos to get a fix of high energy pop.  Truth be told, ... http://frydman.co.uk/80s-revival-moment/ The wintry onslaught continues across Britain.  Alison considers a writing career for the weather section of the Beeb...but wait!  There are signs of an alternative weather front looming... Never mind fog (although many do, of course, particularly those driving).  What we want at the weekend is fug. Fug is one of those ... http://frydman.co.uk/fug/ Maybe it's another birthday.  Or maybe it's just Facebook.  Here are all the ways to try out new cars, pose, acquire a car that suggests there's a crisis of some kind, or just enjoy beating other people... It probably doesn't sound terribly healthy.  But the Facebook option - aka Petrolhead - ... http://frydman.co.uk/sensible-mid-life-crisis/ Eat leftover cake at as many meal times as is decent. Continue enjoying high quality bread made by friend: olive, seed, walnut etc.  Yum! Leave book boxes and toy boxes accessible for a while longer. Enjoy sitting room in new format; lack energy to put things back as they were. Sit at dining table ... http://frydman.co.uk/party-aftermath/ It's that post-Christmas time when you are allowed, nay encouraged, to do some thinning of your possessions.  Spring may feel far off - it certainly did this morning when I was soaked by hail at the bus stop - but it is clearly never too early for spring cleaning. Charity shops ... http://frydman.co.uk/charity-begins-at-home/ Hurrah for a half day on my birthday!  I left early today so that I could fulfil a small ambition of mine, and browse the shops on Broughton Street on the way home. Now Broughton Street may be known for various things, but I'd suggest, increasingly, food.  It has the long-established ... http://frydman.co.uk/foody-street/ For those who have been waiting for their next fix of sci-fi on TV, there is relief.  Even light relief. January saw the return of both "Primeval" and "Torchwood".  As each was new last year, their return is meant to offer both more of the same, and better... Generally, so far, so ... http://frydman.co.uk/the-monsters-are-back/ Starting preparations for a joint party with a friend.  We have birthdays around the same time, and we have seized on the idea of soup and bagels to feed the multitudes.  Jesus had loaves and fishes.  We will hopefully have some loaves too, although the fishes have regretfully been left ... http://frydman.co.uk/soup-er-sized-cooking/ Mid-January appears to be a good time to do many things.  Bump your car (18 Jan being day of most traffic accidents in the UK).  Be depressed (24 January coming up for that one - evidently the day of the year that is most 'difficult' for people).  Do your tax return (for ... http://frydman.co.uk/the-soundtrack-of-my-life/ You know what they say.  Even nostalgia ain't what it used to be.  But when does nostalgia start?  It's been a week where The Times has been including tokens to collect DVDs of children's television.  Mr Benn.  The Flumps.  Even the Wombles.  But what have they called it? Nostalgia children's TV. Is ... http://frydman.co.uk/nostalgia/ A bit of a breakthrough.  Having tried to track down a plain black cardigan for what seems a long period of time, I finally found one today. Now I know this is not exciting reading.  Cardigans.  Socks a couple of days ago.  It's just a good job we don't have thermal vests ... http://frydman.co.uk/nice-cardi/ When it's a snicket? More viewing the Urban Dictionary slang website last night. My normal test for these dialect search things is to put in the word 'ginnel', which is what I grew up with as a way to describe a small path or alleyway. It worked! It ... http://frydman.co.uk/when-is-a-wynd-not-a-ginnel/ I had great hopes of introducing a few of my gentle readers (and even some less gentle ones) to a little Scots this evening.  But a spot of searching of online dictionaries led me to suspect that I had got the word I wanted wrong. Yesterday saw a scene of great ... http://frydman.co.uk/heid-in-ma-hauns/ Strange feeling, giving away work.  Delightful too.  I'd been anticipating for a little while being able to pass on the Ireland programme I work on - today I got to write that 'introducing my new colleague' email. In some ways, you kind of feel you could have written it any time.  ... http://frydman.co.uk/passing-the-baton/ Not the green ones.  Sorry.  Still can't acquire the taste.  But as a way to build myself back up to some gardening, am starting pretty much as basic as I can, and trying sprouting seeds. One of my colleagues is a long way ahead of me in this, and has given ... http://frydman.co.uk/sprout-tastic/ Now that all the Christmas socialising has died down, nice to have a few extra people to see.  Out to lunch today with someone who used to go to the same church in Edinburgh, plus her husband, and a few other joint acquaintances. How do you pick up when you're not ... http://frydman.co.uk/auld-acquaintance-2/ Just when you thought you'd finally done with leaving dos...another one!  Our great PA to the Director and Depute Director is moving on, but her excellent skills meant that she thought to invite some former colleagues to the pub with the rest of us this evening. The one upside of having ... http://frydman.co.uk/auld-acquaintance/ An opportunity to rib one of my colleagues about a misspelling in a recent email.  Trying to indicate a street near our office as our meeting point in case of fire, he alerted everyone to meet at 'Gentile's Entry'. (Edinburgh residents can work out the original version.) For a cultural organisation, ... http://frydman.co.uk/the-princess-and-the-gentile/ Blog writing is a dangerous thing.  Yesterday I learned that one friend reads this blog 'most days'; another met me at a group yesterday and mentioned she'd read the Robin Hood post from the day before.  That's immediate feedback for you! Of course, they could have also posted a comment, and ... http://frydman.co.uk/immediate-feedback/ ...but they killed the leading lady. Being a bit taken aback by the sudden departure of Marion as a character from "Robin Hood", with the series recently finished on the BBC, thought I'd see what others' reactions were. Talk about an outpouring.  I didn't sit and count how many comments(though it ... http://frydman.co.uk/they-didnt-shoot-the-sheriff/