Travelblog

Edinburgh September 2007

2007-11-10T16:44:00.000Z

Aberdeen Feb-2007

2007-02-18T11:38:00.000Z

Is the city of the future a la 1960s. The place is dominated by the airport. Business Estates surround the airport. You could fly into Aberdeen and be in your office within 10 minutes. A random selection of the huge list of flight destinations include: Amsterdam, Stornaway, Belfast, Bergen, Brussels, Copenhagen, Esjberg , Groningen , Kristiansund, Exeter, Leeds Bradford, Norwich , Paris (CDG), Scatsta, Malaga . It would be the only sensible way to commute to work.

Rotterdam 21-Nov-2006

2007-01-11T19:34:00.000Z

Galway 20-Nov-2006

2007-01-11T19:15:00.000Z

The taxi driver told me that a few years ago the whole of the business estate were computer firms. Now they have all gone. Now its Medical Equipment.

Compared to a business estate on the UK mainland it is noticeable how everyone goes off for lunch in big groups OR in cars with at least 4 people in them .You also get cars fulls of girls going off to the sandwich shops.

There is a unit with a fantastic name for an Irish Company - especially if the owners had a rather anarchic attitude to the customers. Crap photo, but what it says is FKM (You have to say it in an Irish accent!)

6/11/2006 Birmingham Airport

2006-11-07T13:36:00.000Z

In the queue I was behind the Ukranian International Arm Wrestling team.

29/10/2006. London. South Bank.

2006-10-31T20:33:00.000Z

28/10/2006. London. Hoxton.

2006-10-31T20:31:00.000Z

9/10/2006 Glasgow

2006-10-31T20:27:00.000Z

Fancy dress shop. A chocolate banana. Buckfast.

24/10/06 Heathrow, Security.

2006-10-31T20:06:00.000Z

The queues for security check at terminal 2:

Apparently the queue was because not all the lanes were open.

As I was going through I heard one of the staff mention he had 5.5 hours overtime up to yet. 8+5.5+ at least 0.5 break makes 14hr day up to that point. The impression was he would be there a lot longer yet.

24/10/06 Heathrow

2006-10-31T19:57:00.000Z

The bus to the Hertz rental cars.
Me, a South African bloke (maybe permanently resident in UK) and the driver.
The driver and the bloke are continuing their conversation.
Story 1. Bus driver relates how his 'daughter in law's fiance' came over from ZA and was refused entry at LHR and had to return on the next flight. Reason: He had already applied for a fiance's visa. Cos of delay he had been told to get a letter from her as an extended visitor. He would have been allowed thru cos of the letter, but because there was already an application in progress he was turned back.

ZA bloke relates out of 20 people on a plane from ZA into LHR, only 1 was allowed entry.

Driver tells a story about another turned back by same woman who turned back the daughter-in-law's fiance.

ZA guy says 'bet she's an exotic.'

31/12/04 Edinburgh

2006-10-31T19:54:00.000Z

Café Nero Morningside
Middle class dressed bloke. Early 50s. Well spoken English accent.
But stands too close to me in the queue. He invades my space. He's muttering to himself loudly. He asks what he can buy for £1.50. Orders coffee.
He shakes as if laughing or sobbing - but no sound. He finds an extra 20p & insists on changing to a chocolate. This means slowing the queue & throwing away his coffee. He drinks quickly & leaves. (Not lingering in the warmth.)

Talking to himself always. He thanks the cup collector politely.

03/01/05 Edinburgh

2006-10-31T19:51:00.000Z

Café in Playfair extension to the National Gallery. Woman breastfeeding. She cowers behind the table glaring at everyone to make them uncomfortable. Perhaps she's had a bad experience?

The Red-Eye

2006-09-30T09:05:00.000Z

The Red-Eye
4am: The birds are out.
- And the early businessmen.
Check-in: We jostle in lines like wind blown suits
Flapping to beat each other at queuing.
Caffeine: A dose I hope will kick me up
Before I meet the client's dream team.
Sunrise: Spreads red light like a sore
And rubs the blood specks in my eyes.
I have a set of documents that I should read
But can't face. Failure presses against my brow
Like a car crash in waiting.
But once, alone in a car park at Heathrow,
A silent 747 strummed the fences like guitar strings
And threw down at me a whirlwind
Like the breath of another world.
Oct 03

September 2006. London

2006-09-29T22:33:00.000Z

I caught a black taxi from the city airport. I was struggling with the stupid seatbelt which kept locking on the reel.
'Get your fingers on the slit and push it in gently. Pretend she's an 18 year old,' said the taxi driver.

Sept 2006 Edinburgh

2006-09-29T22:29:00.000Z

Sept 2006 Edinburgh

2006-09-29T22:24:00.000Z

Good shot.
Bird dropping hits bulls eye of my carpark roundel.

Sept 2006 Claygate

2006-09-29T20:06:00.000Z

June 2006 Edinburgh Dean Gallery

2006-09-29T20:04:00.000Z

Dean Gallery

June 2006 A sighting at Canary Warf.

2006-09-29T19:57:00.000Z

May 06 Cardiff

2006-09-29T19:52:00.000Z

March 2006 Vertigo in Edinburgh

2006-09-29T19:38:00.000Z

Vertigo in Edinburgh

March 2006 Vertigo in Edinburgh

2006-09-29T19:36:00.000Z

Vertigo in Edinburgh

March 2006 Vertigo in Edinburgh

2006-09-29T19:34:00.000Z

Vertigo in Edinburgh

March 2006

2006-09-29T19:32:00.000Z

Vertigo in Edinburgh
March 06

2006-09-29T19:27:00.000Z

James Cathcart of Carbieston and Pitcarlie

Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh. March 2006

2006-04-01T19:41:00.000Z

London City. It looks wealthy. But is richer than it looks. They are Tardis buildings. Not exceptional on the outside, but vast in space on the inside.

2006-04-01T19:37:00.000Z

ZA in Reading
I had reason to catch the free bus from Reading (Berkshire) railway station to TVP (the huge business park) after 5pm. Apart from me, everyone on the bus was black african. The vast majority were women. Only two or three (black african) men. We arrived at the business park and they all set off to the different offices. The cleaning shift.

2006-04-01T19:23:00.000Z

Aggresively Timid
In the airport I try a pay-as-you-go internet terminal. My blog sidebar 'Collateral Damaged' is blocked. Apparently there are too many 'inappropriate phrases'! How fearful we have become. Aggresive timidity making legally obsessed business scared that anything could be a threat to the bottom line. A shame we are worrying about the wrong things. People complain about China's censorship but we are oblivious to our own. Governments should be protecting businesses from this sort of nonesense. Unlikely I realise. It seems we are all delinquents now.

2006-03-25T10:13:00.000Z

I can see why land animals are symetrical left to right by not top to bottom (gravity) but why are fish largely the same?

2006-03-25T10:00:00.000Z

Copenhagen (Kobenhaven)
The inevitable crassness of business trips...
Whenever I'm in a foreign country I always spend the first evening finding out an Indian restaurant.

2006-03-24T22:32:00.000Z

The plus side is:
If your life is in control you're not living enough.