Building Demolition in Dundee

Today Joni and I went to see some flats be blown up in Dundee. It was pretty awesome. We stayed on the Fife side of the bridge. Parked up on a grass verge and walked down the central reservation to join the small crowds gathered watch.

 One moment there were 4 high rise flats

 Next there was a missive dust cloud. It was so sudden we almost missed it! And about 20 seconds after the buildings came down we heard the rumble.

 And the dust cloud just get bigger! Its going to be window cleaners out in force in dundee tomorrow!

Joni and some dust. 

An ode to a day off.

Now don't get me wrong, i love having people to visit, i really do. And i love visiting my family. Reports I don't enjoy so much, but I do love my job. But today was my first day off since (and i will check my calendar here...) the 26th of June and it has been amazing!!

I watched 2 hours of crap TV in bed after Joni went to work. Then i gardened with Tay. I watched more crap TV with lunch, baked a cake and then watched Sex and the City 2 while I waited for Joni to come home. Pure awesome (not the film, that was complete trash). 

I need more days off. The draft of my report i handed in to Paul was total rubbish. I am dreading having to sit down with him on Monday so he can give me "corrections". And the reason for this uncharacteristic rubbish-ness was the fact that I was sick to the teeth of staring at that stupid report. Its been driving me mad! But, now that i have had a day off, i feel ready to face it again. 

And do you know whats even better? Tomorrow I get another one!! 

A post from a few days ago

Wrote this a couple of days ago when i was in a place with no internet. Forgot to post it until now.

24/07/11 22:50

Been for an emotional trip to see The Stanelys this weekend. It might be the last time we see them before Jenny’s wedding, which is very sad. Just as we thought we had moved closer, its time for them to head off again. M&D were around too, which was very sad. Its defiantly the last time they will see them for a while. I couldn’t watch them say goodbye, I’m not really good at goodbyes. I tend to make inappropriate jokes.

It was wonderful to see them. I particularly enjoyed going for a “wild Scottish Adventure” with Freya (14) and Charis (11). I remember them being born, and now there we were chatting about what they want to do with their lives and what options they have picked at school. It was pretty amazing. Got them all set up with Facebook now so we can keep in touch. Charis has taken to it like a duck to water, so she can keep us all in touch. Freya (the typical teenager) is a little more reluctant, but she will get there. Soon as she sees the pictures of Emma (little sis) in Chavos etc Im sure she will be filled with ideas! Even Aunt Kate has Facebook now which should be funny to watch at least. It a bit like my Dad getting Facebook, although he seemed to get the hang of it.

Back to work tomorrow afternoon, after lunch with M&D. I have got to stop avoiding writing this report. I promised myself I would have a full final draft ready for my supervisor, Paul, on Friday, which as its Jonis day off Thursday actually means Wednesday night. I just have not done enough work on it this last week. Its terrible, but I’m just sick of it. Iv barely been in the lab in weeks because of it. And I had the most ridiculous phone-conference-call thing with 2 of my industrial sponsors last Wednesday. I wish Paul  had been around for that – he could have helped me explain to them what im doing for the 4^th time. They just seem to have no idea whats going on. On the plus side I did manage to completely blind-side them with science, which is always fun. Say stuff they don’t understand and they will trust you to know what you are doing, regardless if you are just making it up! “Oh yes, I trying to alter the reaction kinetics so encourage growth in the (100) plane whist halting growth in the (001) plane.” (Just to make you feel worse btw, yes I do know what that means and it is what im trying to do… sort of :-P).

An Update

****WARNING This blog post includes some ramblings about the new HP film. 

These may class as spoilers even if you have read the book. 

Read at your own risk****

So i don't blog much. This is mostly because I think my life is pretty repetative so i don't know if would be interesting for the rest of the world to write about or not. As it happens i am on full report-writting-avoidence mode right now so i thought i might do a little blogging. 

July has been full of people visiting. I won;t bore you with the tales, if you care you know all about it already because you were probably there.  Surfice to say Jonis parents came and Jenny (sister) and Ben came for about a week each. Both were great fun, although i do sort of wish they hadn't followed straight on from one another. Particular highlights include Edinburgh Castle with Jonis parents and seeing HP7II with Jenny and Ben. 

Speaking of which, i feel a small review is in order. First up want to say i loved it. The Harry Potter books were exactly my generation - I was the same age as Harry each year when i read the books and i have loved them ever since my Granny bought us a box set of the first two when i was 12 years old. My Harry Potter life has spanned reading them in the sunshine after exams, walking to Asda at midnight to buy one the moment it came out (i think it was the 6th) and enjoying every one of the films (even when the acting was a little ropey to start with!) 

I completely agreee that when you make a novel into a film things have to change. They are two compleatley different mediums of entertainment and as such you can never just turn a book into a film word for word. Books have way more time to say what they are going to say, but can also rely on a persons imagination, where as films have to fit into a short space of time but are really visual. Saying that, there have been changes over the Harry Potter films a didn't agree with (Hello - what happened to Padfoot, Wormtail, Moony and Prongs??) and there was one in the final film i didn't like. And that was the HP v Voldy fight. 

Let me explain...

In a face to face fight (like in the film) Voldamort would have kicked Harrys butt. That (i felt) was the whole point. He was more powerful than Harry, a more experience dualer. Harry had other things on his side - friends, love, cunning, bravery bla bla. I loved the way JK wrote the ending - A packed room, everyone watching, Harry finally gets his chance to talk, to show Voldamort just how badly its about to go, and to give him chance to redeem himself. Than just one spell each, done. Simple yet incredibly powerful, it had the hairs on the back of my neck all tingly. The films version, yes i understand it more visually pleasing, but it just doesn't fit with the characters. (it also doesn't fit with the whole premise of the Elder Wond but thats another story). 

But never mind. Over all it was amazing - and i did love the inclusion of the epilogue from the book - there is nothing like a fantastic series all tide up with a neat bow at the end. I hate a series that doesn't end properly. Cliff-hanger endings are all well and good mid series but when you have reached the end have the guts to finish it properly.

And that was a brief update of what I'v been thinking out. Next up a visit to see The Stanleys and Granny up north. Could be the last time a see The Stanleys for a while. 

Beth & Sam go North, and other things.

After the trip to London it was a fairly uneventful few weeks, apart from the whole buying of a car. Here he is:

Being all black and shiny we decided it was defiantly a boy, and have named him Vox. To say it has made a bit of a difference would be the understatement of the century! Even buying food has suddenly become massively better. We go  so carried away in the big supermarket last weekend the bill nearly hit three figures, opps!

Something else the car allowed us to do was go on a trip to Glasgow. Now i know one or two Scottish people read this blog so i apologise for what is about to come but.... Glasgow is a horrible place! The people were miserable and mean, and the town is scummy - even the bank was scummy! How anyone can even think its can compete with Edinburgh is beyond me. The only good thing about it was contemporary arts gallery in town, which was pretty interesting. Me and Joni being sad arty types we enjoyed looking at the British Art Show there, which we had already seen in Nottingham. It was interesting to see is curated in a different place - to see which pieces looked better, and which didn't work as well.

So it was sitting in an art gallery in Glasgow that i finally got the call from Argos about the bed being delivered (yes, the one i ordered 25 days previously!) and i missed it! But i called them back straight away only to be informed that the reason they were calling was to tell me that a part was missing from the bed and it wouldn't be delivered until the 7th August. To which i replied in a calm and straightforward manner, no it won't. I bought it under the agreement it would be delivered by wednesday so it would be delivered by wednesday. Unsurprisingly the guy got quite confused. So i yelled at him. A Lot. Lucky he was quite nice and passed me over to a manager, who also lucky was very helpful. She informed me that the only missing parts were the lights and so consequently i was sent the rest of the bed on wednesday, as originally promised. Still waiting on the lights... (in reference to the previous argument with Argos, i sent them another letter, telling them to dam well not fob me off. Im awaiting a reply).

So bed arrived and flat scrubbed to the cleanest its ever been Joni and I played delighted hosts to our first ever non-family guests! Beth is one of my best (and most riotest) friends from uni. It was amazing to have her and Sam stay - one of the best weekends we've had since we moved here. Helped in no small part by the glorious weather. I am sunburnt! Sunburnt from a weekend is Scotland! Amazing!

We did lots of fun and exciting things - wondered for hours around Edinburgh, and St Andrews, and Tentsmur beach. And we discovered a new place - Loch Leven, which has the coolest little castle on an island in the middle of it. Very awesome. I was super sad to say goodbye to them both. I hope that Sam enjoys his amazing trip in Mexico. Im not sure I have the heart to tell Beth that this is exactly what happened to my Dad - Offered a summer placement in Africa and 4 years later he was still there, digging up rocks. Hope she enjoys Mexican food!!