Happy Blogday!

A year today since we started the blog.  In terms of entry material, it’s more like two, since we started the blog as an alternative to Christmas letters.

Dan pointed out that most of the entries have been a) in the first month or two (rapid posting to emulate the year in full look of the Christmas letter) and b) in the last couple of months, since getting the laptop.  So it’s maybe not so true to the time periods themselves, but hey, it’s there.

I know there are plenty of people out there who hate Christmas round robins.  There are even books of assorted excerpts from (we trust) genuine letters, designed to bring out anyone’s inner humbug.  So on one hand, you’re let off lightly by not having them from us any more.  And on the other hand…much more to read!

The difficulty with overviews is that they can’t help being a bit blow by blow, a bit exhausting, even just to contemplate writing, let alone to read.  A couple of years back, I attempted a CV for my own purposes, just to see what I’d been up to, as I’d been in the same job for a while.  I was tempted to have a lie down after…because however you write it, en masse, all those activities, those opportunities, become overwhelming.

A blog, with luck, is a bit more like a telegram.  Or a social column.  Or a shaggy dog story you can relate to someone else.  Maybe even akin to a poem, if the writer’s really going for it.  Certainly potential for a Speaker’s Corner type rant – we can’t all get to London for that kind of opportunity every time we want to let off steam.

Maybe a blog is also like a soap opera.  Bite sized, but addictive.  Designed to make you come back to see what’s new, whether any new characters have been introduced.  With the big advantage that the writer is not limited to the environs of Albert Square, the Woolpack, or any of the other soap locations.

More like a series of postcards from different locations, akin to the (very well) organised interrailer who’s determined to gain as many different postmarks as possible on their cards back home.

Perhaps the real challenge is to go back and see how much I’ve written about particular topics already, so as to avoid them in the future…or not.  Like the soap opera, the postcard, there’s a certain comfort in familiarity.

I promise not to include a Christmas shopping guide, a la magazines with their regularly revolving seasonal focuses.  But sometimes, given that writing in cyberspace tends to make me muse about transitory and changing things, a bit of repetition, a bit of grounding in real life is no bad thing.

After all, a blog is an ideal opportunity to “stand and stare“, in words, stepping back from a “world…full of care”.  Whether it’s a blink, a double take…now read on.

It is enough…

Bit lazy today – big lie in, but some activity later.  We worked together to clear leaves from the lawn, put in a couple more bulbs, that kind of thing.

Quite a nice afternoon, even at the end of November.  Made me think how rarely we are doing just physical stuff.  Our jobs are so much about what our heads can do – with a spot of hand-eye coordination thrown in.  Good at times to do something like stuffing leaves in a bin liner, so they can rot down.

Haven’t got much done with the garden since coming here.  Sometimes that’s hard.  Much of what’s in the garden has to fend for itself really.  But one thing I’ve managed to do is clear leaves each autumn to make leaf mould.  Today I was able to use some from two years ago, which was definitely nicely rotted down.  I could even mulch a couple of things!  How good is that?

“It is enough // to crumble the dark earth, While the robin sings over // Sad songs of autumn mirth.”  [Edward Thomas]

As much as anything, I’m grateful for days where doing something simple…is enough.

Four wheels good, two feet bad

Time for an outing, and a return to flat-pack world, aka IKEA.  Today’s mission: to secure thin shelves and cupboards for our bathroom, so we can order a mirror for the remaining space, and allow O to finish things off.

For those without a car, trips to IKEA take on…well, certainly not mythical status, but there’s a certain amount of planning that goes on.  Today’s version was also to work out what we could feasibly carry back on the bus and still come out with enough items to make the trip worthwhile.

What struck me was just how tricky these big retail parks make things for pedestrians.  We started off in an electricals shop nearby to suss out some kitchen appliances.

To make our way across from that to IKEA involved cutting across corporatised planting at the edge of one scheme, heading up a slope, and trying to avoid the cars boiling out of the IKEA carpark in order to get across that to the front door…

Mind you, this seemed easier than the pedestrian crush on Princes Street, where a certain section of scaffolding was resulting in people having to go off pavement, and into the bus lane…

I understand that out of town shopping expects you to have a car.  I am properly grateful for any bus stops located near these areas.  But at least big supermarkets have pedestrian walkways, or equivalent, in order to cross their car parks.

Lest I suggest that having four wheels makes it easier to buy more than you need, I too rely on others with cars when we have need of a bigger load from furniture places and the like.  I twist arms here and there to have things collected from our place that we can’t get to the tip on our own.  I respond well to the local council collecting recycling from my door step.  And so on.

Thing is, so much of the UK is set up for having your own transport.  While we bemoan traffic getting heavier in Edinburgh, I don’t see much sign of areas out of town being encouraged to work without cars.

I read in the paper yesterday of a new development in the middle of Edinburgh, which was trying to make it mandatory for tenants to do without cars. One of the immediate responses was to be concerned about car owners in neighbouring streets being squeezed out by newcomers agreeing to the ruling but then sneakily a) owning a car after all and b) parking on the side streets.

Nothing like community spirit eh?

Alan goes…

Hurrah for Friday night, and some more QI.  When you’ve reached the final hurdle of the end of the week, it’s nice to sit down and have some reliably (very) funny oddities of the world to learn about, and laugh about.

QI appeals for those moments when you just need a little bit of unusual (or at time, downright incomprehensible) information.  Thing is, I think my need for this is higher than most.

This could be why I continue to like reading columnists whose virtue is spotting things happening in the world, and commenting on them.  It’s a bit of a goldfish mentality, probably, the “ooh what’s that?”  followed by “that’s interesting” followed by “ooh what’s that?” etc.

The thing is, I planned to start this by telling you about a series of options on YouTube, whereby you can see sequences of the different sounds for the buzzers on QI (hence “Alan goes…”, as Alan’s buzzer is usually rigged for laughs).  It’s probably no worse than much of what’s on YouTube, and certainly better than much.  But it certainly fulfils the “ooh what’s that?” objective.

It does tie in to our shorter attention scans, these days.  When Andy Warhol coined the phrase of “fifteen minutes of fame“, he wasn’t far off our current patterns, I suspect.  15 minutes is enough to see a bit of a YouTube post, look for the other variants, think you’ve learned something or seen something in full, and go off after something else.

The thing is, I can be fairly happy with a whole series of short inputs of information.  It’s why I like short stories, newspaper articles, poems even.  But at times, I worry that this butterfly mentality may mean I spend all my time giving you a smorgasbord of enticing, but short lived options, rather than knuckling down and giving some topics some serious attention.  Even some editing eh?

Anyway, you can be sure that a Guiness Book of Records will go down well for Christmas…

Nota bene

I’m ready for next year.

This doesn’t mean I’m doing away with Christmas (although an interesting T2 article on doing without it, and music (it being annual No Music Day today), for a limited period of time, in order to enjoy them more on getting them back).

A few years ago, I started my Useful Notebook option.  Up til now, it’s tended to have been bought in Italy on holiday, while Esselunga had their fun covers with different fruit and veg (John Lemon and all that – lemon in JL shades).  Today I braved the student union shop at Glasgow Uni, and got my notebook for next year.

Hard to choose.  I could have saved rhinos buying one notebook, or used recycled tyres or drinks cartons with another.  I’ve ended up with something called a Pukka Pad, which rather sounds like I’m only allowed to use it for comments relating to Jamie Oliver.  However, it will do the trick for what I need.

This notebook, it’s a place of Lists.  Move over Robert Crampton… I don’t have bike ride stats in (one of his Lists), but it does come in handy for noting what we’ve bought for people’s birthdays and Christmases, measurements of gaps that require furniture or shelves, that kind of thing.

I’ve also used it as a place to write a bit of a diary of what we’ve done on holiday, as it’s quite nice to remember where we were when, what we saw/did, etc.

The notebook also started out as an exercise in perspective.  I started the first one in 2002, having come out of a difficult six months or so before, with the view that if I thought about life differently, it might well mean I felt differently about it.

In the dark days of November, and feeling a little low at the moment, it’s not bad thing to start the new book, with a sense that there will be good things in 2008. In fact, I’m sure of it – it’s one of the Big Birthday seasons that runs in both sides of the family every few years, when there’s various birthdays ending in 5 or even 0, so lots to celebrate.

Lists, notebooks, they are open to interpretation.  You could see it as ‘all that stuff I did’, or ‘all those things I can’t manage, and feel bad about’.

I did have a separate task book, more reminders really, and have stopped using that – felt too bad at all the stuff that wasn’t happening at home, when in fact it was fine, and there was loads going on at work.  At the moment, there’s a certain amount going on in both camps – for which three cheers.

But as the thirties move on, life blurs a little more, separate years are less distinct in the memory. It’s nice to note a few things, be clear where I’ve been at a certain stage in life.

Noting well, and noting the good.  Thankfully the memory takes over, and helps shine up the good, down play the bad.  The notebook helps us remember how it felt – and how much has happened since.