Wednesday 22 November, 2005

The travels continue apace.

I've spent this past weekend in Aberdeen, catching up with friends and also going to my sabbatical reunion, which was all very nice. Us four ex-sabbs went to a Turkish restaurant, and it was absolutely lovely, not least for the novelty of eating a kebab at a table, before 1am, and with a knife and fork.

It was beautiful weather – freezing cold in Aberdeen and surprisingly mild in Shetland, where I was for Monday and yesterday for work – and I have a couple of good photos to share but I will have to post them next week when I get five minutes.

I had one day back in the office (today), then am on travels again for the rest of the week in Perth and elsewhere, and after a Saturday of catching my breath and Christmas shopping, I am off on Sunday until Wednesday of next week to Liverpool for a conference.

Then the week after… well, I honestly haven't thought that far ahead. Some time to myself would be nice!

Wednesday 16 November, 2005

I'm not long back from my church homegroup. I was leading it for the first time, which was a bit daunting.

I probably didn't get off to the most auspicious start by using the words "fucked" and "piss-bomb" in my introduction, but then it was from one of Gareth Saunders' blog entries which I was reading out, so that kind of justifies it… or at least shifts the blame! However, later, going on to describe Jesus in John 13, verses 31-32 as "a bit Donald Rumsfeld" wasn't the best of moves either. I survived the evening without a stoning, though, and it was the usual great evening of encouragement and thought-provoking discussion. And copious amounts of biscuits.

I really do enjoy Hilton. Not just for the biscuits, of course. I missed it last weekend due to being in Skye and will miss it again this weekend as I am off to Aberdeen to catch up with the usual ex-university gang, including a mini-reunion of the three other sabbaticals I served with at AUSA, which should be fun. Then the Monday and Tuesday after that, I'm off to Shetland for two days for work. Which reminds me, I really must remember to find out about air miles…

Monday 14 November, 2005

Tonight is my first night at home since Wednesday, because I was in Skye for the weekend and Edinburgh on Thursday.Skye was fun – if you call uprighting gale-battered caravans and repairing caravan-battered fences fun – although I nearly didn't get there. Friday night was a very powerful storm out west, and the Skye bridge was closed, so I didn't get out until Saturday.

Before that was a night in Edinburgh, partly work and partly a Sigur Ros concert at the Corn Exchange. This was the third time I had seen the Icelandic band, and it was a great gig.

Their support was Amina, a string quartet who I'd seen when they supported Sigur Ros the first time I saw them. Also Icelanders, these four girls are even more unusual and quirkier than Sigur Ros (if possible), and really make you wonder about life up there in the land of Magnus Magnusson. Although they mostly played strings, the four girls from Amina dotted around a stage that contained a range of other instruments from the sublime to the feintly ridiculous. Alongside pianos and guitars were a row of wine glasses with water in – you know that whole trick when you wet your fingers and run them round the rim? Yes, they were using them as instruments. The most surreal contribution was a thin strip of metal shaped rather like a saw without the teeth – one of the band knocked it with a soft-headed drum stick, then bent it back by varying degrees to change the pitch. An Icelandic wobble-board, if you will. It really needed to be seen to be believed, and while Amina's music is just a little too off-beat for me to think that I'd get into it all that easily, they're certainly the most original band I've ever seen perform.

Sigur Ros themselves were outstanding. Their music contains so much – there are soft, haunting songs with mysterious (well, Icelandic) lyrics and almost achingly beautiful melodies and tones; one or two girls standing near me were practically in tears after some songs. The other extreme contains pounding, gripping, violent, thrashing cataclysms of guitars, strings, drums and the lead singer's amazing voice, which exude so much energy and which boom right through you that you feel shell-shocked at the end.

I'd love to say it's the best gig I've been to for ages, but unfortunately, it's the only gig I've been to for ages.

Whether it's up there with Rolf Harris at Glastonbury in 2001, though, is something I'll have to think about.

Sunday 6 November, 2005

Last night was the fireworks and bonfire down at the Bught Park, next to the river. I wasn't going to go, partly because it is just an excuse for neds to play with fire (ironic, when they wear shellsuits, the most flamable clothing known to man) but also because it is not really a Scottish event. Guy fawked up his attack on Westminster before the union of the parliaments and thus before Scotland and England were politically one. Therefore it was an assault on the English parliament only and quite why Scotland celebrates it is something I'm not sure about.But pedantry was put aside when some friends invited me down. And it was really good – loads of folk were there, and the fireworks display was spectacular. Lots of colour, exciting bangs and whooshes and whizzes, and just generally an extravaganza of onomatopoeia. Then it was on to town for a pint or two.

As a result I didn't make it to church this morning (after five Sunday mornings on the trot!) but I was there this evening, and it was really good. It was our monthly youth service, which besides the mercifully shorter sermon means a focus on what the youth bring to the church. One part of that involves an interview with one of the "volunteers" press-ganged into helping at the youth fellowship, and tonight was me. Chris, our youth worker, managed to wangle mullets into the interview, and when I explained my mission a rather confused silence befell the church as it dawned on everyone that there was a nutter in their midst. I managed to survive the service without everyone laying hands on me, though, and Chris even gave my website a wee plug.

So anyone from church who's reading this… hello!

Thursday 3 November, 2005

I'm really glad I am a member of a 10,000-strong global cult.

Tonight's dilemma involved a pizza, which I spruced up by adding a fried egg before bunging in the oven. Yes, that was as creative as I could be bothered being on a Thursday night.

The problem was, it was a thin base, and I soon realised that the pizza was cooking a lot faster than the egg. It was just sitting there on top of the slices of pepperoni, just being all wibbly and transparent. To cook the egg thoroughly, it was clear the pizza would end up being overcooked; while to take the pizza out at the right moment of cookedness would risk salmonella and doubtless numerous other egg-streme illnesses.

So, I resorted to the Join Me forum, and explained my dilemma. Within three minutes, two fellow joinees had replied, suggesting simply turning the oven off – because the egg would cook at a lower temperature.

Genius. It worked, and the pizza was perfectly-cooked, with not a hint of rawness in the egg.

As you can see, life's pretty full at the moment…