Tash and the Mountains.

Tash posted some pics on her facebook page. I hope she doesn't mind but I decided to take her travel ones of these incredible mountains and turn them into a panoramic.

Copyright violation?

Malaysian Food

Isla took me to THIS tiny restaurant last night for Malaysian food. Simply put it was ace.

The first clue to that was that there was that it was full. The second was the fact that it was full with Malaysians. The third was that it was BYOB. The forth was that the menu was extensive. The fifth and most important was that the food was incredible! I don't know if it was as good as some of the places we ate in Oz but certainly it was the best meal I've had since we got back to the UK.

Isla had some tofu veggie weirdness which she claimed was good but my Red Curry King Prawns with coconut rice was gastronomic. I loved every mouthful and I didn't want my portion to come to an end... and for the longest time it didn't. I counted 10 MASSIVE king prawns in my dish and for £8 I was very impressed.

Highly recommended and we'll definitely be back.

The Canal

So if your not already aware of this... I love Edinburgh.

One of the other things that I'm liking is the canal. OK, so it's a bit scummy in areas but the bit out side our flat is lovely. There's always people out there paddling in canoes or running along the path. Also there is always loads of ducks and swans there which provide lots of photo opportunities. It's great and when "I feed the pigeons I sometimes feed the sparrows too. It brings me an enormous sense of well-being."

Over the course of the next few months I'm going to try and get some really decent shots but in the mean time here are some feathers for you to look at.

Enjoy.

The Infamous Grey

These wee scamps are always hanging around our neck of the woods. I've been trying to get a picture of the one that sits in the apple tree in the back garden but it's always been too quick. However, one of his buddies sat still for long enough today in a tree up the street for me to snap this number.

I'm hating the auto focus though as it always preferentially fixes on the foreground. Need to figure that one out.

The Lich King is a drug dealer!

I quit. That's right. About November time last year I managed to chuck my addiction that was World of War Craft. However, thanks to a personalised email from Blizzard, extensive recent radio coverage and a work colleague who goes on about it incesantly I have succumed to purchasing both expansion kits for WoW.

I guess that means I'm going to be a WoW junkie again. Oh well, with Isla studying all the time I'll at least have plenty of time to play. Yay.

Isla's 30th Birthday Bash

Just a wee note to everyone to say thanks for coming to the party. The costumes were ace and I think Isla had a pretty good time. Here's some pics below...

Arran Zain

Hi guys. Here's some pics of the lastest addition to Sophie and Iain's clan... Click on the pictures below to go directly to the main, full-size pics.

Goldfrap - total crap!

So it was Isla's birthday yesterday and as part of her present we went to see Alison Goldfrapp play at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. I'd heard that she was supposed to be a "good performer" and Isla is a bit of a fan so I hoped that it would be a decent show.

Is wasn't.

Firstly the stage set was rubbish. It was done up a bit like an old Henry the 8th jousting tournament - but a crap one. More like an 15th century village festival than something royalty would attend.

The next thing was that it was so "start-stoppy". There seemed to be big gaps of silence between the songs and although her singing was impressive there was very little in the way of a "performance".

I hate to say it but I was totally bored. They just didn't entertain. It was a bit like watching a school band and the fact that there was zero interaction with the crowd made things even worse. Actually that's not entirely true - there was one bit where one of the guitars wasn't working and a new one had to be fetched from back stage. At this point Alison said, "Move on... We're professionals... Shit happens" and that was the extent of her chat.

Luckily (for me) Isla started feeling unwell and we ended up leaving early. I was a bit pissed off - not because we didn't see the whole show but that music artists can charge so much money for a concert like that and then put on such a lack-lustre performance.

When I think that the last show I saw at the Corn Exchange was the Prodigy it makes Goldfrapp's show even more of a let down.

Incidently, has anyone ever got money back for tickets because they didn't like the show? Seems to me that you should be able to get a refund if the concert was as pump as Alison Goldfrapp's.

I've been rubbish - but my socks aren't!

I'm sure that I'll look back over this site in years to come and wonder what the hell I was up to during this period.

The fact is that I've been really quite lazy. In all honesty there too much to remember in retrospect with all the moving and wedding stuff. So appologies. Anyway, here is a picture of some socks that I've just bought. They're great although a little bit camp. Hope you like them - I do. Promise to be better at this blogging malarky.