The Magic of Christmas

This week marks a year of me being involved with the Round Table. I'm really glad that I joined Livingston Round Table, and this is just one of the many reasons why...

To provide a bit of background each year Livingston Round Table go round the streets to collect money, and then over the coming year we donate the money we've collected. Last year we raised £2,418, but this year we have raised a total of £4,400!!! It was a lot of effort from a lot of people over a lot of nights, but this really makes it worth it. For the past year and for the foreseeable future we have been focussing on local charities and good causes in and around Livingston, and so this money will go straight back into the community.

This year, however, I got a shot at being Santa. It is FUN! One of the guys who has also appeared as Santa hit the nail on the head by saying "they don't just see a man in the mask, you are Santa". I really was Santa! Seeing the look of awe on the childrens' faces has always been the part of the Santa Sleigh which makes it rewarding as a collector, but through the eyes of Santa it really is something special.

Anyway I'd love to spend a bit more time on this blog post, but there are presents to play with! This wonderful experience made my Christmas special, and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas too.

Why I didn't buy a T in the Park 2011 Ticket

I believe that 'early bird' tickets for T in the Park 2011 went on sale for next year recently. I did not buy a ticket, and this is why. (Feel free to substitue 'T in the Park' for your music festival of choice throughout this post.)

I've been to T in the Park 2009 and 2010, and both times I had an absolute blast of a weekend. Not only is it first class entertainment with some seriously fantastic musicians and a good bunch of mates, but the atmosphere is fantastic. Actually it's not just fantastic, that doesn't cover it. It's electric. To illustrate: it wasn't until I got into the campsite this year that I remembered about the spontaneous cheers which run through the site like a mexican wave of sound. If you want a buzz forget drugs, you should start a mexican cheer with a bunch of mates. It feels so good to hear tens of thousands of people cheering because of you. Well ok I'll admit that it's mostly because they're in a great mood, but if it weren't for me they wouldn't have been cheering at that exact moment.

The thing is, there are quite a few reasons not to go to T in the Park. Piss is probably first and foremost on the list. It's everywhere. You can try and avoid it, but it is inevitable that you will fail. Put tens of thousands of people in one place where toilets are more than a minute's walk away, and the results are not great. Not just against a fence or on the floor either, flying through the air! And if the toilets overflow then you'll end up squelching through it (just as well I had my wellies on eh?).

Also; if we're honest portaloos aren't really that great, are they? No-one can hold their breath for the entire time it takes to do a shit, I tried that and it's just not physically possible. They did try to get around this by releasing tickets you could buy to flushing chemical toilets this year; let me just say that if I were to create a list of the best things I've ever spent a fiver on, 'posh shits' at T will be on it.

Another reason is other people. Other people are what makes T such an interesting place to be. The little encounters are part of the T experience. Problem is that for every good encounter - say a random woman taking a photo of me sitting on the grass with an inflatable guitar sticking out of the top of my jacket "for the memories" there at least one 'bad' encounter. The bastards who steal from tents (and sometimes, I kid you not, even entire tents themselves), push in to queues etc etc. I try to avoid people like that.

I thought that rain might be on this list, it really did rain a LOT this year. But the rain didn't actually make a difference at all. The general attitude was "yeah it's raining, but there's an awesome band gie'in it laldy (to use the colloquial term) up there on the stage".

Anyway to summarise, I've loved every second of both T in the Parks I've been to but I've been there and got the T-shirt (well, two t-shirts and a hoody). If you're reading this and have never been to a music festival I couldn't recommend it enough as a truly awesome weekend, but make sure you take the next Monday off work! Maybe I'll get a day ticket to T 2012... that should be enough for me next time.

(Still) Snowed in

There's around 17.5 inches of snow here. Whenever some melts, more falls. So I'm cooped up in the house working from home, and it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere anytime soon. There are however quite a few good points about working at home:

• I have a hifi in my 'office' (well, bedroom).
• There are minimal distractions so I'm getting lots done. The fact that I'm not at my desk seems to be dissuading non-essential 'ooh andrew, can you help with this?' requests.
• I can use my own laptop, with windows 7 & office 2010
• I can (and did) sleep until about 8.40am.
• I don't have to rely on travelling anywhere.
• If I wasn't able to do any work at all I would be going mad with boredom.
• Lunch today was a fry up.
• I can watch an episode of Scrubs at lunchtime.

Then, the negatives:

• I like people chatting to me at work. Even if they don't really need anything, it's nice to break up the day.
• After several hours of intense concentration I've had enough of work by about 3pm. 
• VPN connection to the office is (by it's very nature) slow.

Well anyway I know there are a lot more good points than bad, but I've had enough of the snow. Anyone up for the task of making it stop?

Hope you're safe and warm wherever you are.

Snowed in

No matter how much I tried not to rant, this post evolved into a big rant at First ScotRail.

I appear to be snowed in. We have over a foot of snow, and it's still snowing. I have lost count of the number of times I have cleared our driveway of snow, only for several more inches to fall. Don't get me wrong, I like snow when I'm looking through my canon, but it's starting to get a little boring.

Yesterday, Monday, about 8 inches had fallen overnight. Fast. This kick-started the travel fun. What follows is a list of 'Several things which do not help commuters'. This has been compiled after just two days of rail travel. (I say travel in the loosest sense of the word, as it implies actually going somewhere)

• A website which informs us that there are no problems with the train services, when the trains are quite clearly broken.
• Saying the train is due in 2 minutes. Then moving it back 2 minutes. And again. And again. JUST TELL US THE TRAIN IS CANCELLED SO THAT WE CAN GO HOME!
• After 40 minutes waiting for a train that's apparently 2 minutes away, it does not help to send a train through the station without stopping. I don't care if it's a trans-pennine train, a train is a train; it's going the right way and so I should have been on it. I was not alone in shouting many swear words at said train as it whizzed past. This was the point where I realised that I wasn't getting in to town on Monday.
• "Customer Advisor Representatives" positioned at major train stations. They are not helpful in the slightest if they don't have any answers. "Go to platform 4 and wait on a train" is not a helpful answer.
• Where I live there are two train stations, one to the north of the town and one to the south. It does not help to tell us that the train to the south is cancelled AFTER a train went to the north 3 minutes ago. Then leave us sitting in the cold for an hour and a half before the next one.
• Telling us on a station announcement, and I quote "The trains are running to an, erm, special timetable."

Now I completely understand that the trains suffer as much as everything else, but my plea to ScotRail is TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON! So much hassle could have been avoided if we all knew when to (& not to) turn up at the station. The one part of today's journey which was pleasant was chatting to a lovely woman called Lorna, who shares similar views to myself. Thank you Lorna for making that journey so much more bearable.

One final point, why do so many arseholes drive impossibly close? It's bad enough in dry weather, but when there's a layer of solid ice between the tyres and tarmac? Some people astonish me.

Anyway I was able to requisition a laptop, my employer very cleverly operates a pool of laptops for situations such as this. The only slight problem is that my whole reason for borrowing it was to access network drives, but they don't work from home. Ah well, looks like I'm going to have to make to with what I was able to take a copy of before I dashed from the office to my non-existent train.

Anyway, I'm more than a little pleased that I'll get a lie-in until about 0845 tomorrow. If you're commuting I hope your journey is as painless as possible.

Loitering in Edinburgh Waverley for a Day

About a week ago Livingston Round Table collected at Edinburgh Waverley train station to raise cash for Children in Need. It might have been a long, tough day but what made it worth it was that we managed to collect £1,720. To say I'm pretty chuffed with that is a bit of an understatement.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a large train station is a very interesting place to spend a day. I found watching the different kinds of people who sauntered, walked, jogged, ran and sprinted past utterly fascinating. There were even lovely people who gave us encouragement as they emptied their purses and pockets into our buckets: "I hope you fill that bucket son". Not a boring moment was had.

Our fluorescent jackets with 'Round Table' plastered on them made us targets (we must have looked like we knew everything):

• Where can I hire a car?
• Where can I find an internet cafe?
• Where is the hotel that I've booked into (gesturing at print out)?
• Where is platform x? I was secretly hoping for someone to ask for platform 9 and 3 quarters.
• Where is the nearest taxi rank? 25 metres away... use your eyes!
• And my personal favourite: where can I buy a can opener? Wtf?

I had an short and intriguing discussion with a woman who said to me "I would be collecting for a worthwhile charity if I were you". I was able to tease out of her that she preferred to donate to another charity close to her heart. I have no problem with this at all, it's the reason why so many wonderful charities are able to do so many wonderful things. What I do have a problem with, however, is her telling me who I should be collecting for!

Anyway, thank you. Thank you to all the commuters and people of Edinburgh for being so generous. Thank you to Linlithgow and Corstophine Round Tables for helping us out with some manpower. Finally, a big well done to Round Tables across the nation for the massive Children in Need effort. The total that was presented to Sir Terry on the night was around £62,000, but I know for a fact that the Round Table organisation raised a lot more than that.

Welcome to my cave...

So I have a blog now. I don't know if I'll think of much to say, and I don't know if anyone will be interested in reading my ramblings. However, based on my experiences with twitter I'm going to give it a go.

Who am I? Well I work as a 'data analyst' in the Energy sector (sounds boring, but I assure you it isn't). In my spare time I enjoy kayaking and photography, so much so I founded a photography club at work. I am also a member of Livingston Round Table - www.livingston.roundtable.co.uk - which involves charity stuff and having a few drinks; sometimes with alarming regularity but never usually at the same time. I also enjoy whisky and reading. Lots of reading.

What am I going to blog about? I don't really know. In fact, I don't have a clue. These posts will probably touch upon all of the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Then again, I may just post a couple of times then not bother any more. We'll just have to wait and see!

I know I'm very slow at catching on to this blogging thing, but I've been 'micro-blogging' for ages. Honest.

Catch ya later,

Andy