Gordfolio

My idea for this year is to walk along the canal from Edinburgh to Glasgow on the longest day of the year (or the Saturday closest to it). I haven’t completely done my research yet, or even decided on a charity, but I’m also mooting the possibility that if I’ve raised £500 (not including gift-aid) by two days before, I will rollerblade to Glasgow on the Saturday and walk back on the Sunday. I’ll also do lots of live-blogging and flickring and what not. Think of me as a very lazy version of Eddie Izzard.

What do you all think?

Any other suggestions?

G

I just remembered riding the bus to France for our Geography Field-trip aged about 14.

We were sitting behind the world’s coolest English teacher (I never had him, but everybody was acquainted with him), known for his collection of Early Manics bootlegs and taking the kids for English lessons on the school playing fields.

My schoolmate and I were discussing all the idiots in the class. He woke up, and I said “been sleeping?” and he replied “no, just listening to your character assassinations of all the people on the bus.” He also disagreed with me for thinking the new Oasis single (D’You Know What I Mean?) was any good.

He since committed suicide in a fit of depression.

It’s called The Blether Report

It’s Liz Ely and me.

It features:

Intro

(Nick) Griffo

A little bit of swearing and bonus tracks and a whole lot of apologising.

Also we don’t know what we’re doing with the microphone.

Read more about it here:
http://www.thebletherreport.com/?p=15

Download just the MP3:
CLICK HERE!

And here is the link to our podcast RSS feed (not yet aproved for iTunes):
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheBletherReport

There is a twitter feed too:
http://twitter.com/BletherReport

And here’s the little bio I wrote for it:

We are @twirlingmynci and @GoHod podcasting left-wing politics, feminism, anti-fascism, ad-libbed satire, comedy and indiepop. With (some) swearing.

“Everything is important, but nothing is as important as ‘all that’ ”

I’m taking some time out from Green National Politics (in England and Wales)…

I’ve been a little bit too distracted by the Edinburgh Fringe. Unless this is my parents reading this (or my sister feeding it back to them). In that case, I have been very ‘motivated’ by the Edinburgh Fringe.

Also, I had an amazing dream about David Mitchell having a three-headed mother, but dream stories are dull so I’ll spare you the details.

I also woke up in the middle of the night, and had an amazing idea for new words to some pop song or other, but forgot all the details in the morning.

Write things down!

I’m not feeling super creative (most of my energy today has gone into making my flat live-ably tidy), but I have been thinking a lot about Edinburgh for more than one reason.

I’ve just got back from a month in Toronto (and right after that, a week in London) and I can say with some certainty that at this time in my life, Edinburgh has achieved ‘favourite city’ status.

The weather’s not amazingly hot (although it beats memories of sweltering in both London and Toronto), but there’s been some sun these last few days (well, a bit) and lots of scope for wandering around.

London was a lot busier than I remembered it being, and not a little alienating. I felt some relief on the train (as I have noticed before), both realising I was back in Scotland, and on arriving in our nation’s capital.

There may be something to say, also, for not being overwhelmed by choice and geography, as in London and Toronto. It’s nice to be near the sea, and have a smell of beer in the air.

Anyway, I am glad to be back in Edinburgh. I think I’ll stay.

Ooh, also, if you live in Edinburgh have a look at the hoarding on the side of the National Museum of Scotland. There are people photoshopped into artists’ depictions of what the renovated museum will look like. See how many people you can see in different pictures in exactly the same poses. It amused me, anyway.

Since I’ve just arrived back from Canada, where I’ve been for a month, and need to establish some sort of life-schedule (both generally and in detail), I think I’ll get back into blogging things, and even timetabling some blog time in to make it at least once a week. This blog will be more random ideas/funny things I have seen or done, and the other blog (Currently called ‘(a) Green Diplomat?‘) will be for political stuff, which may make me slightly more likely to go off on one. Anyway, at least two people have said I should get into blogging to try to focus my thoughts a little, so, lets give it another go.

This all sounds terribly earnest, doesn’t it? I think I may need a little earnestness for a change. It beats aimless cynicism.

Because I like posting pictures to make things a bit more colourful, here is one that is doing the rounds, and is obviously not photo-shopped.

p.s. remember that Arthur’s seat challenge?

Total raised online: £460.10
+
Gift Aid plus supplement:£87.75

Not bad going, I think… Thanks to everyone who supported me, sorry my reporting got a little flaky near the end. I’m going to come up with another challenge soon…