Exciting things sometimes happen up here in the middle of nowhere

On Wednesday I was a one day Production Assistant for a film shoot!

Well for a perfume ad shoot, and ‘production assistant’ is the fancy word for the guys that carry the heavy stuff but it was a fun day all the same.

And best of all I got paid for it
The guys I was with were a nice example of local folks, one from Spain, another was Danish and then me and the last of our team are English lol so a nice local Scottish group well we do all live locally so it still counts.

The shoot was loooooong and wet and I really was impressed by the patience and lack of complaint from the male actor/model who had to stand about jacket less while looking dramatic and quite literally windswept if not snow swept at times :S

We began at 6am and only finished at 8pm -_- and despite the vast majority of that time being standing about doing nothing time it was still enough to knacker me for most of today, plus camera equipment is heavy.

Anyway should I find it online at some point there will be a Yohji Yamamoto ad that I know a LOT about to post

Well I started this year with the hopes that my life would change, one way or another I wanted and need something new different and progressive to occur and at newyears I decided this year is the year for that to happen.

Turns out I was right

A few things of note have popped up in my existence but i’ll start with the most important one:

I have in a delightfully random and unexpected way started a relationship with someone ^_^ this has so far not been a big feature of my life so it’s pretty cool and new and generally exciting. I discovered a lot about myself in only a few short weeks and I have a feeling there is more to come.

The second new thing is also pretty life changing and rather important, and that is the discovery that having spent most of my life aimless and undecided on what the future may hold, I have finally settled on the idea of becoming a Teacher. To this end I have actually sent out applications to a few colleges to get the required degrees to start my progression. This will mean, to begin with at least, a year away from home while I study, if I get selected. Not to mention i’d need to find the money but still at least I have a target that is further off than next week

Third far less exciting but still important is i’ve really stepped up my aims to get a job that doesn’t involve working for myself. I still need to pursue my freelance endevours, but for now I just need a job…any job. As yet i’ve had a couple rejection letters and one rather promising potential thing at a bank, but still no gainful employment. I am however pretty sure it is only a matter of time and not much time at that *fingers crossed*

Last but for a nerd such as myself not exactly least, I have also really been getting hooked on Xbox games lol even after a life time of looking down on them and only playing PC, my standards have slipped and my snobbishness has vanished. Xbox’s are awesome

So far DOA, Bayonetta, Rage and Mortal Kombat are my star choices, but i’m sure more will come

Been a bit of a delay on these, and on all other posting. Sorry about that.

My recent music tastes have veered towards the modern and all a bit dancy or even cluby :S but then this type of thing does have its moments and plus i’ve always had a soft spot for electronic music thanks to games, so here is:

MGMT – Kids

Long time coming to the end but here is the last leg of my trip down south.

After a really lovely time in Edinburgh I finally was ready to come home and bought some very reasonable coach tickets that went from Edinburgh to Inverness for £5 and then from Inverness to home for another £5

Only issue was that there was a longish delay in Inverness and then a REALLY long delay of almost 4 hours in a tiny little place called Invergarry. The time in Inverness was quick I just wandered about shops and almost bought a really nice sort of goth bracelet lol i think next time i’m there i’m going for it

But the Invergarry time was by far the best. At first since it was cold and empty I though ‘oh dear this will be dull’ but there is a hotel there so I though I may aswell head into the warm if they’ll let me hang out in their bar.

The reception and the bar was manned by a pair of lovely polish folks, (i’m guessing polish) the reception girl told me I could get a coffee in the bar so I laid down my heavy pack settled in the corner and had a rather nice coffee while reading To Kill a Mocking Bird, a very fine book recommended to me by a fellow Xangan and very good friend.

After a bit I’d finished my coffe and thought, ‘hmm I think i’m going to achieve a life long goal today’ So I ordered a Martini

I’ve never had one and I actually really enjoyed it while knocking a couple more chapters on the head. Also in the bar were some other folks, who by the sounds of it were in somewhat involved with the shooting of The Game of Thrones, perhaps one of them was crew on the shoot or something so that was quite cool.

After my Martini I headed out into the cold for a wander, went along the river a bit, poked around a spooky looking hotel and then headed back to the bar with only one more hour to kill. This time I ordered an ale which was also excellent! and read a few more chapters while sitting in the comfy sofa bit of the hotel hehe

All in all I had a great time in Invergarry and despite my drinks upping the price of my tickest a bit I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I finished the night dancing to Elvis Presly while waiting for my bus in the dark and cold outside of the hotel lol The ale and martini help loosen me up a bit, but I was mainly doing it for warmth

The coach went for a few more hours and I arrived home to be picked up my my mum, was nice to be be back in my own bed for a change and a fine end to a long but fun trip.

The Final city on my long tour (well penultimate city) was Edinburgh, by far my favourite of all

Not only did I get to stay with my cousin and his wife both of which are lovely people and very relaxed and welcoming, but I also got to see many lovely galleries and artworks in the three days I managed to be there.

The National Scottish Gallery was particularly interesting as was the National Portrait gallery, even the building it was housed in was a work of art.

I also got taken out to a pub, well three pubs it turned out to be by them and a few of their friends. Got to be honest pubs and bars are not my forte but it was an interesting experience and the folks were nice so I didn’t freak out too much at the noise and seeming chaos of pubs :S

The final bar was a sports bar since one of our group was an avid Rugby fan, personally I have zero interest in sports and the impact of a rather full sports bar during somesort of important game (scotland may have been playing) was beyond my ability to tolerate for too long. I had to VERY quickly learn lip reading for one thing lol but watching the Rugby fans appreciation of the events on the screen was fun and thankfully my Cousins wife was tired and left earlyish giving me an easy out

But over all Edinburgh was lovely, a nice feel, good people and generally fun experiances.

Only downside was getting on a bus on the wrong direction so it went to the terminus then they swapped drivers and I had to pay twice despite never getting off the bus -_-

Also I have discovered that for the iphone addicted traveller Starbucks is awesome!

Right now for some pics of Edinburgh:

Some sort of building, possibly a hotel lol not sure what it is but it looks pretty.

A rainbow over the hills beyond the city.

Photo from the Museum on the Mound, which is a Banking museum.

The National Scottish Gallery interior, lovely building with two large areas like this in it, if not more.

Some statue dude on the main street in Edinburgh (Princes Street)

The Scott Monument, looks kinda creepy since it is stained black.

Bit of lovely gothicness thanks to gargoyles and nice lighting

Will make a phone pics post later, with more from here and in the galleries.

With luck I might head back to Edinburgh during the Festival time since my cousin invited me down during then will have to see if the finances and free time will get me there. *fingers crossed*

Still no got enough time to really get back into Xanga

But I’d better write down my adventures before it all fades into memory, something I tend not to hold onto for that long :/

After londond it was off to Manchester and Lancashire where another Uncle lives. This time rather than work I was just going up to visit my cousin who i’ve always gotten on well with and since she is having a bit of a rough time at the moment I thought i’d show support.

So I hopped on a bus and made my way up north.

I also planned and bought my other tickets that would take me home, but then got an e-mail from my Aunt in Oldham saying it might be not so good for me to stay too long since they were rushed off their feet and although they’d love to have me it wasn’t really a great time.

I sort of expected this but it was still somewhat annoying that i’d not waited until i knew for sure before ordering the tickets lol

Anyway I arrived in Manchester, and only once i’d arrived discovered i’d gone to the wrong station and my Uncle was waiting for me half way across the city there was a brief tiring wander about the streets of Manchster and I even managed to ask for directions.

But we met up and then having missed our train back to his hung about in a bookshop/coffee shop where he rather nicely insisted I buy a book, so since i had no idea what to buy i got The Chrysalids a John Wyndham Book that i Really like

On a side note, the authors name in full is: John Wyndham Parks Lucas Benyon Harris…:O thats one heck of a name lol

So we eventually got our train and I was glad to sit down again since I still had a LOT of jars of chutney in my backpack >.> the next two days I think it was I spent at theirs, hanging out in the controlled chaos of a house filled with three somewhat stressed adults and two infants o.O it was lovely and the kids were great to see, but I was glad the time had been cut down since I did feel a bit like an imposition given the current situation.

My bus tickets of course were useless but ever the gentleman my Uncle bought me a train ticket to my next destination Edinburgh.

I also wandered round a reservoir with a baby in a pram and went with my cousin to get her other kid injected :S but he actually didn’t complain at all really which was cool.

I didn’t take that many pics in Oldham or Manchester this time, but I’ve got one or two on my phone i might post later on.

The beginning of my trip was to be going down to see my Uncle in Cambridge area, and staying with him for a couple weeks while we sort out an IT job in London over the weekend.

To get us down the 500 miles between home and there my Uncle came up and picked up me and my dad as mostly willing assistants.

The trip down was surprisingly easy and nice I barely even noticed it to be honest and we were there in the sort of ‘village’ he lives in near Cambridge. South of the border between Scotland and England always feels a little too flat for a Highlander such as myself and the Fens is even worse :O

But it was nice to see everyone and we settled in quite nicely. England currently is quite on the cold side, actually getting worse weather than up north which is very strange, so it was brisk but nice

The job was over the weekend and was a PA test, which basically means take all electrical items out of the wall, test em and plug them back in. Not so hard but time consuming when you consider office desks and the over 100+ items in the office -_-

But working together (not often an easy thing ) we managed to get it done in just one day

Annoyingly I had made plans to meet up with some people in London expecting to be there over at least two days, but our full one day blitz meant I had to return to the big city via train the following day on Sunday.

We actually had to ask the people at the train station how to use the ticket machine lol no such new fangled things where I come from

But if I thought the small village train station was bad I had no idea what I was in for with London. Originally I’d hoped to meet up with some website clients to discuss work but as it turned out they were busy so I ended up meeting with someone I’d met online, making it the very first online friend meet up

Sadly she was not a Xangan, but it was still cool and quite strange.

She directed me to go via tube to a certain station which opened onto Oxford Street, there I waited her arrival and was already feeling a bit over loaded by the throngs of people and the tube journey which was only my second ever :S

Thankfully she was a resident of London and definitely a city girl and with her help once she arrived, I mostly survived my trip to the capital

I got my mind blown by Selfridges, marvelled at the sheer quantity of different accents and peoples from all over the world that can be seen there, and we even got to go to the Saatchi Gallery

She was an art student and her appreciation of the works of art was very interesting to see. I then made the mistake of ordering food in the expensive part of town O.O holy cow I’d not be able to live for more than a week on those prices, if that.

Then it was home time, and I was surprised at just how exhausted a few hours in all that movement and noise had made me.

It is a beautiful city and quite fascinating but not for me I don’t think.

My return to London was the following Wednesday when I caught the bus to Manchester to go visit another Uncle, most of the shots below were taken during my wait for the bus but some are from the Sunday trip.

In The Saatchi. Thats a pool of oil

Outside the Train/Tube Station, one of its exits anyway.

Several Sides of Battersey Power Station, I had to walk all the way around it…well didn’t have to but I did

Random nice bits of my morning jaunt around Battersey waiting for the coach to Manchester.

I’m back! after seeing London, Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh and finally Inverness I am back here in the good old middle of nowhere will update with more detail of my adventures once I get some time to sort the pics and tales into somekind of order, but for now enjoy the Incredible String Band, who quite perfectly encapsulate how the city leaves me feeling lol and also these few images from my trip.

London By the River – I had my VERY early breakfast over there, before walking over a bridge to take this shot

Sneaking through an abandoned office backyard :O

Dawn over London.

A Goat somewhere lol can’t even recall what city this was anymore :S

Cambridge The Fitzwallace Museum – Least I think thats its name, was very nice inside

The North – But not as north as some places this is Manchester, as I was leaving.

Scotland! Edinburgh in all its gothic glory.

And you wonder why I miss home so much :]

Many tales to come, such as why I carried over 20 jars of Chutney up the country, Meeting a stranger in the Capital and the horror of the sports bar :S

New Age and a new Blog layout

Done by the lovely and talented @chainbracelets So thank you very much to her

Just need to update my background collage, change the header and find a new profile pic now :O but apart from that It’s looking good!

Of passing

Been rather busy of late here:

• Got a new iphone
• Been looking for a job.
• The Weather has been nice.
• Cleaned out a lot of junk.
• Been drawn back into Marketing online a bit.
• Been working on a few website projects.
• Actually been out of the house socialising with people :O

All of this of course means I have not been around for Xanga, but i’m not done with this site yet and i’ll be on and off again i’m sure.

Oh also it is my Birthday tomorrow so ya know, shower me with gifts and praise me with great praise for having survived yet another year

What i’d most like this year is income so also check out my Fiverr Just in-case you might want to get some-kind of logo or t-shirt design on the cheap I need the practice too to be honest.

Other than that it’s the same old same old, got myself an Xbox so that’s going to be cool once it arrives :] as busy as I am i’m sure i’ll find time for a few games still

Anyhow my Birthday wish is that you, whoever you are, take the 27th as a day of celebrations! down a glass on my behalf, toast your good fortunes and joys, eat heartily and laugh while spending time with those most loved.

I wish you all well and may you do well to others.