02.29.08
…aaand… CHILL-LAX!
It has been a trivial week.
There were aspects that were fairly cheery and pleasant – like my day off on Tuesday just for fun. (Oh, and a confidence-boosting long chat with Sarah last night. 
Thankyou!)
But mostly it has been characterised by stress. Not ‘real’ stress, just minor-frustration-I-can’t-be-bothered-with stress.
So, just to get it off my chest, here’s my top five:
- Getting blown off my feet on Tuesday. Totally the wrong day to be visiting a hairdresser…
- Being told
by a phone salesman that it was “user incompetence” and not bad design that made me dislike the phone he was trying to sell me. ( no, of course I didn’t feel smug when he couldn’t do the simple select-operation I used to illustrate…) - Spending two days trying to fix the java installation on my work PC. I failed.
Grr… and I was *so* trying! - Waiting 45mins (instead of 2mins) for a train after planning my journey based on Scotrails “live updates” site.
- And today I get to sport a totally cringeable red slit on my hand after a little incident with the breakfast avocado and a knife. (Be glad I don’t have my camera cable handy right now
)
Ps: My justification for blogging from work? Foolproof (for a change) 
02.16.08
Spittal of Glenshee
As one of my friends so aptly put it, “It feels wierd hiking on snow wearing a tshirt!” [Hiking?! - Only an American could say that and get away with it ]
So… well… munro-bagging++ 
For extra +, the scones at the hotel were pretty decent too!
*has no complaints*
During the post-walk counselling (from my good friend M) I was told “That’s what hillwalking is *meant* to be like.” All in all, a wonderful day… even if it wasn’t as photogenic as it was pretending to be!
I’m just glad it was nowhere near as adrenalin-taxing as the last one. I can even cope with not-having a story to blog about!
02.14.08
advert
Despite the Superbowl attempts, I’ve got to admit I’d rather stick with my trusty favourite. (Over Christmas it came 3rd in “The 100-greatest-adverts of the past 50 years”, and also top of the three ‘users favourites’ I can’t be so entirely on my own about this one after all!)
02.11.08
123 meme
The afore-promised… and, as you can see, entirely unoriginal, offering of words. But it seems that that is the name of the game.
So, the book is by Dr. Frank Luntz¹. To give its fully expounded title: “Words that Work: It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear”.
The point Goldwater thought he was making, a strong unwavering declaration for freedom, was far too rarified for the context of a presidential campaign. By appearing to describe himself as an extremist – actually using that highly charged word – Goldwater’s own language reinforced the image his opponents had created for him as a finger-on-the-nuclear-button extremist.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Hehe, quite an amusing exercise, actually! The only liberty I took was to chose whether or not the first half-sentence ‘counted’. So of course I had to encourage you all to read the book…
¹(Yes, I know, I’ve talked about it before… but it was closest, and it is precisely because it has more than 123 pages that I am *still* not finished reading it.)
02.09.08
‘copter capturing
Today in Aberdour we got the priveledge of spotting a big yellow bird.
Our curiosity was first aroused when the second police car passed us. Seemed a tad unusual for such a sleepy little village!
A voice was coming from across the airwaves in an empty ambulance.
Then further down, we came across a coastguard truck, and a few folks standing watching the circles being drawn above them. The lifeboat took care to get out of the way of the ripples caused by the helicopter.
At first, I was quite convinced it was a training exercise on such a pretty day, but apparently not. It was all remarkably orderly, and all the “official people” were calm and collected.
Tho’ I’d been cheerily snapping away without any indication of the seriousness at the time, now I’m just hoping and praying the poor guy is ok.
02.06.08
The one that flipped
Despite being un-Roman-Catholic, Pancake Day has some appealing characteristics.
Besides the pancake-ness, there was also: bacon, apple and canadian maple syrup. (Beat that, little bro ) Oh, and a tin of some strange Citrus tango I got from my Somerfield that’s closing down at the end of the week.
I was totally chuffed at the prospect of using my new measuring spoons only to find, on checking my pancake recipe, that it used grams after all. Ah well, conversion-website to the rescue again!
02.02.08
eight elephants
Tonight I carried eight elephants home.
I’m hoping they’re going to be satisfied marching along past my corner sofa.
S’long as they don’t start playing on my new mini djembe… ‘cos I’m worried that may upset the neighbours.
