Reflections on Edinburgh

We’ve been out of Edinburgh for 3 months now. Returning every day for work has kept some continuity but there’s no doubt that it’s been quite a change for us. To provide a memory aid and combat rose-tintedness, I thought I would make a list of things I miss and don’t miss about living in Edinburgh, now that I have a better perspective on it.

Things I miss:

• The immediacy of things. Cinema right around the corner. Shop right across the road. 3 pubs on my doorstep. 10 minute walk to work.
• The older lady in the Odeon who looks a bit like Mrs Doubtfire and says “thank you dear” when you give her your ticket.
• The guy in the shop across the road. Over 10 years we barely exchanged more than a handful of sentences, yet he still knew to buy in boxes of Space Raiders to feed my addiction! And his wife who always tried to short-change me.
• Ricebox – the greatest Chinese delivery service ever, with the most surly telephone operator you could imagine.
• Cable TV and in particular Cable broadband!!!
• The Real Foods shop. A wonderful selection of vegan food at extortionate prices, some sorry looking vegetables and oats. Lots and lots of oats. Staffed by our friendy Spanish neighbour, Nervous Boy and Weird Hairstyle Aussie Girl.

Things I don’t miss:

• The street cleaning machine that would travel down my street at 4am.
• Drunken idiots screaming at/fighting with each other at 2am.
• Junkies in my stairwell.
• The cold rattling windows in winter (all 9 months of it).
• The regular vandalism of my car.
• The constant noise and light, 24 hours a day.
• Having no friends living nearby.
• Carrying shopping up 3 flights of stairs.

So in summary, it is now quieter, with less local stuff. Which is fine by me. Instead I’ll drive to the cinema, binge drink in the house and bore friends and family with tales of how good cable broadband was.

My Days of Rice and Salt

Today I successfully finished reading “The Years of Rice and Salt” by Kim Stanley Robinson. All 772 pages of it. Off and on it took me about a year to get through it.

It is an alternate history, assuming that the entire population of Europe (with a few small exceptions, go Orkney!) was wiped out by the bubonic plague around the year 1200-1400. The story is told through the reincarnations of a small group of souls, and covers the period from the plague up to modern times.

Reading it was a real labour at first, as the first 100 pages or so were pretty dry and a bit confusing. However once I got past that the story really got going and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Robinson is an expert at characterisation and brings each of the dozens of characters and locations vividly to life.

It was interesting to see a world without Christianity, and in particular it’s effect on the North and South American people. All in all it came across quite realistically, albeit perhaps a little idealistic in places – a criticism that could also be levelled at his Mars trilogy of books.

Now I need to find something else to read. Iain M Banks “Use of Weapons” awaits me, but I think I’ll try something a bit lighter next.

Any suggestions?

On travelling North

This past weekend Janet and I took a day trip up to Aberdeen. We arrived at lunchtime and spent the entire day in pubs/beer gardens, followed by a nice Chinese meal. It was great to meet up again with Craig, Tosh, Steve and his girlfriend Kerry. The conversation flowed like the beer and it was just like our student days again, though with less Monty Python quotes.

A trip to Aberdeen always produces a mixture of emotions. On the one hand it is always nice to get back to familiar territory and meet up with old friends that I don’t see enough of. On the other hand the territory becomes less familiar each time as bars and shops are replaced with new ones that don’t have links to important times in my life.

However, if life has hammered one thing into my head repeatedly over the past few months, it is that change is inevitable. After many years where little changed other than my employer and (less often) my clothing style, 2008-09 has seen a massive amount of change. Firstly there were the kind souls who burgled our flat last June, enabling us to change all our electrical goods. Then there was the renovation of our flat in preparation for its sale. Just as that sale was being completed our beloved family cat Pyewacket died after contracting cancer. Finally the move out of the old homestead came in late June and with it a complete change to our daily lives and routines (mostly for the better!).

Change is something that should be embraced and despite my sentimental nature I am really enjoying the opportunities these changes have provided to break out of old routines and start anew. Soon enough we will be doing it all again and the cycle will repeat. I will aim to take the positive aspects from each cycle and apply them to the next in some sort of lifestyle samsara.

Aberdeen’s changes have been for the best. Old haunts have gone, but they were for the old me. The new ones will do fine for me now. And as with all things Aberdeen’s face may change, but the heart stays the same.

All hail the quiz kings!

After a seven week hiatus, our quiz team reconvened at the Chanter last night for a stab at the £50 bar tab prize. Going by the name “Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal” we performed well, finishing with a storming movie/movie quotes double round to take the prize!

We beat regular quiz winners The Slackers much to Quizmaster Jules’ delight, Bagpuss were surprisingly crap and as usual the giant team of 12+ students failed miserably. (Can’t use your iPhone on the audio rounds guys ;) )

I think we knew we were onto a good thing when the first round was on Heavy Metal, and the first question “Which of the following band’s lead singer is homosexual?” was answered before Jules even gave the options. The answer was Judas Priest – I was wearing my Judas Priest t-shirt. All team members performed heroic question answering feats, we were like a well oiled machine!

The only downside to attending the quiz now is the hour drive home, meaning we only got home at 12.15AM. 6 hours sleep later it was time to get ready for work again, bah!

First Steps

So I have finally decided to start a blog! As yet I'm not sure of the direction this is going to take, so we'll see how it goes.

I've called it Statistical Anomaly mainly for the reason that I enjoy (yes, enjoy) mathematics and statistical analysis. The name came to me during half-sleep in the middle of last night so hopefully I'll find it as pleasing in the coming weeks, months, etc as I do now.

I've never been one for diaries, so I'll probably post on a variety of topics with a bit of the everyday stuff thrown in. Hopefully it'll be interesting enough to hold your (and my) attention!

To finish off my first blog I'll share a comment from the latest Answer Me This! podcast on the topic of emotions that made me laugh:

"But if we didn't have emotions what would we do? We'd
probably just sit around all day doing maths."