Week 1, 2009

I'm going to try and keep up a somewhat weekly diary this year.

Naturally enough I start with the first full week of 2009 (plus the first two days which would otherwise get missed).

Excepting my regular 'bells' date with Jools Holland on BBC Two, the first fixture of the New Year was a steak pie dinner with the family, a week after the somewhat more elaborate Christmas dinner. Unlike the latter I had to get myself there and back on foot, but the upside to that was that I was able to potter about taking pictures in the dazzling frostiness. It made up for the batteries in my digital camera failing me on Christmas Day.

Here are some of those shots I took, in Rex Park, a route I know well as it was also part of my route home to Islay Road from summer 2000 to summer 2005 ...








I took quite a few of the clan menagerie of pets when I got there but I don't want to overpower you.

Come Friday the 2nd an announcement was announced - that we'd find out the name of the 11th Doctor the next day on "Doctor Who Confidential" at tea-time. It was also time to open the Big Brother house again to let in the first celebrity batch since 2007. So with feverish speculation and reaction to both those things, Friday to Sunday congealed into a mess of Digital Spy posting and Diamond White.

Another programme I had a partly positive reaction to was ITV1's "Demons" but I'll cover that in a seperate post for reasons you'll fully understand (already probably).

All that Diamond White, plus the effects of a minor underlying cold, gave me a nasty sore throat just in time to go once more into the breach at 7am in the morning for my return to work. My first day off had been Christmas Eve so 11 days didn't seem a long break. Especially in the conditions of early this week (I've been double-socked all year so far!). Monday morning was bracing but not too bad - by Monday evening though it had turned bitterly cold and I'd committed to two meetings in two different Edinburgh pubs.

First was a positive meet in "The Chanter" in Bread Street with a prospective model. I was very impressed with Robert and a studio session in Glasgow will follow later this month.

For the credit crunched may I also point out that "The Chanter" (a studenty pub I'd recommend anyway) is currently offering Sausages and Mash at £1.99 (usually £5.95!) but only this month.




Robert ran a bit late for the 7pm meet and we got on so well that I was even later (8.40pm) for my next one - my first rendezvous (at the Illicit Still) with the guys of the local Doctor Who group since around September. Given the weekend's news it was inevitable I felt, though mate PJ couldn't attend or put me up for the night.

I'd missed out on talk of "The Next Doctor" and indeed the next Doctor by that time, but a nice time was had, especially seeing Neil again whom I get on best with but hadn't seen since possibly 2007. We were the last two there at past 10pm and I knew I should have been winging it to the bus station. Normally, I'd have strolled to a nearer bus stop in the west end, but I knew from previous experience that standing at a bus stop in freezing weather (even in the bosom of a major European city) is to be avoided and besides I'd at least be moving. Something caught my eye on the pavement just before I turned off the Royal Mile - it was a crisp tenner! Shamelessly, I pocketed it, and then treated myself to a Double Whopper in Burger King as I discovered I had the best part of an hour to wait for the last bus at 11.25 and I was regretting not having the sausage on offer in "The Chanter" ;-)

Note that I felt considerably guilty about the tenner for the rest of the week.

I think the whole yin/yang good luck/bad luck balance is being restored though. The weather might have mildened to just normal January conditions but I've been having a chronic problem with my wi-fi connection from home (works fine everywhere else but wavers between flaky and non-existent here) from Sunday onward. This morning is the best it's been for a while. For those who have a 3 mobile dongle let's just say I need the turquoise light, not just the powder blue one, to ensure anything will happen ... that's IF it connects - sometimes it will only give me flashing green for hours on end! I'm hoping it's the weather.

As well as these technical problems, I have unusually been having a run of nightmares - all have me at constant threat of being maimed or killed which doesn't really give you a restful experience. Only this morning I had two in a row, the first being attacked in a luxury family home, by a pair of shape-changing twin kittens who survived me throwing them in the jacuzzi and convinced everyone else they were only harmless moggies rather than the talking homicidal freaks I knew they were.

Then, after the alarm, and with Mo Dutta in the background, I was abducted in the night from a caravan in France by opportunistic robbers who wanted rid of the witness. This managed to get me in the subconscious between 7 and 7.45am!

I swear I'm not taking anything dodgy, and I really don't usually have such regular nightmares. The worst ones are where you know it's a nightmare but your body feels paralysed and you can't get your eyes to open. Not had one of them yet, thankfully.

Then there was Friday night ...



I left work late at 7 (really trying to get more wi-fi time as the dongle worked great in the office) intending to get the no55 bus from the Cramond Brig stop. Now, in the timetable, there isn't a time given for that stop but it usually arrives around 5 minutes later than the time stipulated for the previous stop (Barnton Drum Brae, wherever that is). I got to the other side of the busy A90 dual carriageway at 7.15 only to see 'my' 55 speeding past the stop. Now that's what I'd call 5 minutes early.

Anyway, the night was not as cold as we'd had and, partly due to the earlier tenner, I had money to spare and was standing by the Cramond Brig pub. Naturally, I went in for a pint of Strongbow plus another quick wi-fi strum for half an hour.

I was out and across the road in good time for the next 55. Needless to say, the next one was not running early. But I don't know why - when the bus came into sight it was already bolting and weaving in the traffic. It didn't stop at the previous stop to me, and when it started trying to overtake again after that I got a bad feeling. Yes indeed, he ignored me gesticulating wildly at him from my legitimate lit-up bus stop. I was fucking furious. Not only for me, but this guy looked like a dangerous driver who appeared to believe he was in a sports car.

Message to Stagecoach Fife - check out who was driving the 1925 departure from Edinburgh Bus Station. He needs sacking, and I think I might send him my receipts for remuneration.

You see the 55s are hourly from then and I wasn't waiting for 'third time lucky'at quarter to 9. The other option I learned last month when the Forth Road Bridge was briefly closed to everything but cars, was to take the FirstBus 43 to Dalmeny train station and get the train from there. However it's more expensive - even a direct train to Dunfermline - and I didn't have a note of the timetable.

But it was the best option as the 43 came at 8. And it did. However, though I was in time for the next train, it only went as far as Inverkeithing for me (the next Dunfermline one was at 9). But there's a bus stop at Inverkeithing station, complete with an electronic display of forthcoming buses, so that seemed OK.

I get off at Inverkeithing and make for the stop (it's just before 8.30 now) clocking that the wee station shop there has the 'barricades' up so no nibbles ahoy if I have to wait. I check the electronic display - it shows buses coming at 1853 and 1905! They might as well be the years for all the use that is. Yes, they're fucked too.

I check the posters inside the stop - next bus I can get is 9! Much against my better judgement I give up and jump in one of the many predatory taxis waiting.

I had at least a tenner left now - it felt like this was the pay-off for Monday night. Mentally said a goodbye to the much needed haircut I was going to get on Saturday. As we pulled up in the taxi at the Stagecoach Bus Depot and I got the receipt for £8.50 worth of extra expense, I glanced across at the "Wee Asda" southbound stop opposite and thought "you couldn't make this up". Two buses were stopped there at the stop nearest my flat. Both were 55s. The ones that are an hour apart, allegedly.

There began a further bit of weirdness that I haven't decided about yet. Could be welcome. Could be threatening.

You might remember my 'indiscreet' post just before New Year. You might specifically remember the shout out to "the foxy red-haired guy who looked at me funny today" amongst my group admire for the wee Asda boys. Well last night while I was consumed with the red mist about my travel home problems, and mere minutes after the taxi drop-off as I passed the Asda storefront, I spotted the guy in question just ahead of me on the path, going in the same direction. He was in the green and black uniform and I assumed he was on duty doing something in the environs or knocking off home.

Partly with the indiscreet post in mind, partly because I was still coming down from the 55 letdown, and partly because I was trying to get back in time for the live "Celebrity Big Brother' live eviction show (which I erroneously thought was at 8.30) I decided to overtake him, but was aware he could see where I was going and would have an idea I lived close by.

When I got in I looked out the window to the car park we'd both been crossing, but he was gone. I assumed he had indeed gone home.

During one of the breaks in CBB I realised I needed more booze before Asda shut at 10, so I ventured back out with the exact change. I hadn't been in long when I encountered THAT guy, looking me pretty straight in the eye with a look I still can't fathom - it may mean nothing. He hadn't gone home.

Anyway, slightly spooked but slightly excited I carried on with my purchase at the till. He had disappeared from sight again.

So I left Asda again passing by the storefront and following the path as I had an hour or so earlier. And again I spotted the guy in question just ahead of me on the path, going in the same direction.

I didn't know whether to be embarrassed or alarmed, but I'm aware of the technique of 'following from in front' so I again decided to overtake, albeit more slowly so that he wasn't left so far behind.

This time, when I got in and looked out the window, he WAS there, doubling back empty-handed back towards Asda.

I should say this is a handsome young guy and I really find it hard to believe he's interested in me, especially while I have the post Christmas jowls and lack a haircut. Unless he's interested in giving this queer a good kicking?

Am I being neurotic or not seizing the opportunity here? If I've set things in motion with that indiscreet post I feel responsible, though this particular guy's 'look' predates that. I'm torn.