generation slack

ok i have been doing plenty for the last month and a bit but just didn't write a damn thing. Will post a big update after my exam this Tuesday...

ben nevis

Just back from a big weekend hiking with the hill-walking club. Four hours in the car out to Fort William on Friday night then up at 6am on Saturday for 9hrs "on the hill". Ably guided by Thomas we walked from the Glen Nevis distillery up Carn Mor Dearg (1220m) then along an amazing ridge to the back face of Ben Nevis (1344m), the tallest peak in the British Isles. Scrambling up that we found a bunch of other tourists/kids/dogs who had come up the main easier trail! However with the sunshine, views and occasional scare next to a sheer cliff face we were glad to have done it the interesting route. That night the pleasure of watching england go down in the rugby then 2 more good sized peaks on the Sunday in the Mamores, a region full of Munros next to Ben Nevis. No photos from Sunday but another nice walk if a *little* gusty (read: blow you off your feet).


Full photo set here

PS What's a Munro you ask? Good question. Some guy arbitrarily decided to name everything over 3000ft after himself and now it is a big deal to go and tick off munros as you walk them. Four down, 280 to go....

a few more ringlight shots

ringlight

Last night had a bit of a tinker with a Ringlight you make on your laptop screen. A cake cooler sits my camera in the middle of the circle and you can take these great photos with little halos in the subject's eyes, easier to see in the bigger versions if you click below. I'll take some more and lose the white floral shirt ;)

you know this boogie is for real

So the first 2 days of the week were a right-off. Had a bloomin assignment to do didn't I! But having handed that in on Wednesday and having watched Swingers on the weekend, a few of us took some inspiration to go take swing dance lessons. It's a bit harder than Jon Favreau (btw, where did he go?? biggest thing he did since was Deep Impact?!) makes it look but think we'll persist. Thursday was a typical pub acoustic gig then last night another massive Ceilidh (read the first post if you've forgotten already what this is). Fair bit more technical this time round with all sorts of moments requiring you to spin the ladies around, feet off the ground, trying not to clash like two ceilidh helicopters. These are monthly and it seems like we've got a big group of us keen for more.

This morning something more manly with a 2-1 win in the soccer. These guys had proper matching kit and all so we must be good. Plus a chance to practice my scottish. The ump asked me, "Can yeh geh n teel Chris Thomas, yeh ken Chris Thomas? so geh n teel Chris tha Tommy hanna turnd [insert lots of scottish]... Arthur's feet" This i dutifully relayed, "the ump says something about arthur's feet??". This was sufficient for Chris and everything was fine, but it made me realise i need to spend more time in suburban pubs at the bottom of a pint glass, listening to locals and refining my accent.

procrastination

Currently sloping around my house and trying to get excited about analysing Scottish energy policy but at least I have wheels now. Up unexpectedly early this morning to see a (polish) man about a bike, *my* bike it turns out! It is sleek, quick and fitted with impractically thin tyres with no mudguards, but i can sleep in an extra 10 min each day now, cycle home from the pub and paint big wet stripes up my backside in the rain. Good work me.

Working backwards, yesterday was the first interfaculty football/soccer match which was played with a particularly fine hangover. The other team arrived only 2min before kickoff with no subs, so they were going to either be casually brilliant or simply casual. Turns out the latter and we whupped them 8-1, those mugs. Last night a brief (and never to be repeated) glance into the themed Frankensteins pub in the city. A whole 3 floors senselessly devoted to Mary Shelley's monster with a climax at midnight where an animatronic frankenstein in a coffin is suspended near the ceiling and he sits up and says something spooky, or maybe tells you all to buy more drinks. I'm not sure cause we didn't last that long, but the subsequent house party we semi-crashed was much better.

Friday night was a french feast for a group of us, cooked at my place by a mate. Lots of dub, lots of tasty food, lots of wine and one goodbye for a friend who's heading overseas for 3 months, wish you well Nell!

Now a dreary 3 days of assignments as the magic elves must have missed my place over the weekend and they're still undone... those little bastards...


PS pic is me on arthur's seat on my birthday last tues

Go Lockie it's your birthday, gonna party like it's your birthday...

Busy times since last update, Sunday was indoor frisbee (tiny court, five-a-side and knee pads required), then an afternoon of rock climbing and hanging upside down, then dinner and beers at the restaurant where a mate works. I sampled the award winning haggis there and I can only guess it won an Oscar because it sure didn't *taste* too flash. First and last haggis of Scotland.

Yesterday Bill turned up via Iceland which sounds like a really fun place if a little pricey. It is definately an option if I tick of all the other countries in the next 12 months? So today we could cruise around on my birthday in the incredible sunshine. Easily the warmest and sunniest day since I arrived and I take back all my chat about cold Edinburgh weather (until the next batch). Up Arthur's Seat in the morning, then convinced Bill he needed to eat haggis (sucker) while we sat in the sun and drank whisky. More sun in the park (me, obsessed? no!), dinner and far too much spanish wine at a tapas restaurant, then a surprise birthday cake and bottle of whisky followed by a few quiet ones at a local as I try and shake a cold I must have picked up from the unwashed masses. I am genuinely spoilt to have such a fine day.

PS: thanks to all for the birthday sms and wall posts and emails!

my head hurts

We managed a stompingly good party last night (if i say so myself) for my birthday and our housewarming. You know you've done well when you've had living room dancing, have to kick the last people out ot 4am and the next day the floor makes a gross sticky noise when you walk. photos on facebook rather than here in the public domain ;)

colder than the proverbial

just read that it got down to zero degrees last night and that today we averaged 6. It's only September.... what have I done?

can't win em all

Tuesday night is student comedy night and for the princely sum of 5 quid you get two standups and a rowdy semi-scottish crowd. We were lucky enough to see Craig Campbell, a hugely funny canadian whose schtick largely revolves around taking the mickey out of canadians and telling odd stories. He did well over an hour of stuff and seemed like he could have gone for hours more except that our mouths were tired from the grinning (seriously!). A quick paraphrase on listening to scottish: "part conversation, part puzzle... with a chance of a headbutt". Definately see him if he is melbourne for the comedy fest next year.

Last night, not so lucky. We go see Xavier Rudd (no relation to Kev!) who sounds ok on his albums but in person turns out to be a right knob. He's some tips Xavier, if you don't want to make us hate you then don't:

• start your gig at 8pm
• surround yourself by a million pieces of percussion and 3 three digeridoos then only play only a tiny fraction
• don't 'alter your state of mind' before the gig so that you are blissing out on playing the same riff (sometimes just a sustained note!) for 5 minutes while the crowd sway around confused
• don't play 90% instrumental when your albums are vocal
• don't put a massive aboriginal flag on the stage in Edinburgh when you're a white bottle blonde Aussie from Torquay living in Vancouver. You posted 1 solitary thing on your "indigenous blog" more than a year ago...
• don't stop the instruments to deliver the following lyrics in a heartfelt way "all we need, is love and peace, and what falls from the trees"
• don't put a big buddha statue on a little table next to you and insist on bowing to everyone with your hands clasped after the gig! we don't care that you think you're a buddhist!

ok so i'm spent :) assignments today and my birthday/housewarming party tomorrow

indie rock baby horses

Did i mention I have no lectures on Mondays? Yesterday i bought some jeans and wore said jeans to a gig by Foals (curse their fashionable lack of a 'the'). They were really great in an impractical hair indie rock kind of way, lots of electro mashed in with guitars and a strong drummer, check em out. Didn't have an 8 inch fringe so was glad to have the jeans...

Been a bit slow

So it's been almost a month since i left the (now) sunny shores of melbourne. What has happened? how did i fare? do i still have all my limbs? these and other questions shall be answered here in less than 500 words i hope.

So after a great leaving party (many thanks to all those who could make it!) i spent the next couple of days franticly boxing all my stuff and storing the whole lot at nath's house (special thanks to nath's mum ;) Not much can be said about a 30ish hour flight to the UK, except that i somehow scored a free upgrade to business class the whole way. Oh and don't bother with that Uzbekistan tropical fruit farm you were raising captial for, it is so damn arid over that whole stretch north west of China, we flew via Hong Kong and had great views the whole way.

Straight up to Edinburgh to catch the last 5 days of the Fringe Festival and very lucky to stay with a mate. Chiefly because she was a fun and gracious host, but also because the city swells to double its size with a million people squashed in to a relatively tiny CBD. You haven't got a chance if you've not booked a looong way ahead (start being nice to me now in anticipation of next year's festival eh?). With over 2000 shows it's a bit intimidating to try and apply any logic to one's choices so mostly we just chose based on the title and convenience. At this time i knew a grand total of 3 people in edinburgh but we still managed a fair whack of shows, not a bad effort considering there were about 100 extra bars open in an already drink soaked city. Saw all sorts of stuff, ranging from surreal skit comedy to black drama and poetry readings. The only show that might tour is Feuzabruta, an Argentinian mix of circus, drama, rave and odd/amazing imagery that i can highly recommend.

It all wound up on the 27th and I was on a plane to Munich for a few days to visit an old friend. Bavaria was my first time in a properly foreign european culture and a chance to practice near forgotten german lessons. Lots of traditional bavarian food (you *must* try weisswurst if you ever have a chance, magic), lots of bavarian beer, lots of walking and some munich clubbing (you haven't lived until you've sung "i want to know what love is" with 2000 german clubbers stuffed in a little room). The photo is of the guys (and sometimes girls) who surf the Isar River that runs right through the centre of town. The flow is regulated by an upstream power station so there is a great standing wave for the brave (it is plenty cold).

On the Sat another mate and his girlfriend drove down from Nuremburg and the four of us headed over the border to Zurich for a night of fondue (over rated... lockie says "fon-don't"), geschnetzeltes (yum) and culture/dancing combined. Once a year they open the main museum/gallery up to the public until 4am while running a huge electro dance club downstairs, when you tire of checking out that Rembrandt you go have a G&T and a boogie, lovely. The next day we said tchuss to Michael who had to be back in Munich and Ben, Jane and I went on to Grindelwald, a relatively small town part way up the Swiss Alps in the Oberland Region. We camped here for 3 nights at the foot of the Eiger, a massive moutain whose north face towers over town. While here we walked each day; day 1 up to First lookout then around to Buchalpsee (a blue glacial lake) then down to the cow herding villiage of Bussalp before catching deathtrap scooters down the rest of the way in the rain on the road with minimal brakes. Day 2 up to Kleine Scheidegg, normally a ski village but also the launching point for walks up to the foot of the Eiger glacier which we did in the snow. Then on the last day I caught the train up to Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in europe and connected to a tall viewing platform called the Sphinx. The lift there takes you to the highest easily accesible spot in all Europe (a glorious 3571m, beaten only by some very technical climbs) and for a brief moment i stood up on the railing making me very likely the tallest person for a few seconds at least.

Growing tired of tents we headed back to Zurich as Ben had work so I stayed there relaxing for two nights with Thibaut and his scratchy cat, then on a train to Geneva. An odd thing to board in a swiss-german speaking city and jump out 2hrs later in a swiss-french speaking one, all in the same country. I had the feeling Geneva was a nice place but with only one arvo and an early flight back to Edinburgh the next day I didn't get to see that much.

The day i got back I moved into a big beautiful flat in the city centre next to some big open parkland called The Meadows. i'm living with a french PHD student and it is all going swimmingly as the previous tennant (and owner) saw fit to leave us with all manner of interesting additional furnishings including a proper coffee machine, hacked xbox and a nice sounding djembe. We've got a reasonable size box room that could double as a guest room and I walk to uni each day and the pubs/bars each night. Have now had the first 4 days of lectures but I shouldn't talk it up too much as there are only 14 contact hours and I have mondays off entirely (for study mind you). I couldn't ask for a better bunch of class mates and we seem to have most everywhere covered in a geographic sense (Mexico, US, Cyprus, Ireland, England, Wales, Italy, Scotland, Spain, Poland, China, Greece and one friendly Aussie). That works really nicely as it means that nearly everyone is new to Edinburgh so we've been heading out every chance we get (so far that means pretty much every night).

Up coming gigs from Xavier Rudd and Mr Scruff and have joined the hillwalking club to see the countryside. Playing frisbee with the uni and interfaculty football plus keen to join in some more Céilidhs as the first one we tried was great fun. Somewhere in amongst all that I'll have to do some assignments I suppose, but even that doesn't feel like to much of a chore yet as the lectures and topics are really interesting thus far and the overall masters seems like it will actually be useful at the end.

Hope you're all keeping well back home and miss seeing you all. Even missing the Melbourne weather a bit and i never thought I'd say that! Be sure to write back to my email with some of your own news and if you're really keen then check out the photos below. They're set to slideshow so they're quick to flick through.

Mar sin leibh

Lockie

Edinburgh pictures

Munich pictures

Swiss pictures

just click the 'i' in the middle of the first photo and it will display the names of the photos with some information. you can go forwards or backwards by clicking the big arrows either side of the picture.