Time in Basel

Long time no see. Yet again! I need to start making time again. Anyway, recently I've been away at the Basel tattoo. (Ok, I've been home about a week now, but I've been catching up on sleep and other essential stuff at home) Anyway, despite everyone getting ill at some point, being pushed to our limits in the heat of a foreign country, and myself just more generally feeling down (for reasons I would prefer not to disclose lest people I know read this blog), it was a brilliant trip. The first two days were spent rehearsing on home soil, and travelling, then the second three were rehearsals in the city of Basel. There were two dress rehearsals, with an audience before we launched into our 2-shows-a-day routine.
The night after the first show was as good as expected. A live band played every night, and sometimes 2 or three played. The band on the first night seemed very good, and with the help of a "happy hour" of free beer and wine, the night passed very quickly and very well. It was a great night, for many reasons.
Other nights varied, depending on the plan for the next day, the quality of the bands playing, and the mood or tiredness of the members of the band population. I would guess I went out  maybe every second night or so, whilst others barely had a sober moment, and others still barely stayed out with the exception of the first and last night (when I don't think there was a sober person in the whole place).
I think I've met some decently good friends. Those from near home I'm glad to have met, and will likely see some of them again at some point, as is the nature of the pipe band world. Those from abroad, I was more sad to see go, and hope that someday, some of us will meet again. Perhaps if we ever end up at another tattoo, or concert, or competition or something. I'm hopeful - the band world seem decently well connected. Until then, there's just Facebook.
One band that was there was the Transvaal Scottish Pipes and Drums. If only I had had one of our spare Atholl Highlanders badges. With their connections, I'm sure one of them would have appreciated it. Perhaps I could post one to the band In either case, I acquired a collar-dog and cap badge from one of them (in exchange for a piece or two of my own, of course).


Anyway, as tired as we were and glad that it was finished, it was such great fun, that at the same time we were sad to go, and leave behind all that we had seen and met there.


Tomorrow, I'm off to a wedding party, though I don't currently have a place to stay, so might need to leave early (unless I can stay on a friends couch, but the vast majority of them are in the process of moving in or out of flats at the moment - well it is that time of year, when people have just graduated/changed years/moved out of halls, etc.).
Then its a week of tidying and packing up myself, before a week in Glasgow for piping live, then Dads retirement 'do, then its move-in time for my own new flat. Jeez time flies. We'll see how much time I have to update here, but as you can imaging with moving out, I'm going to guess it will likely be quite busy

It's been a while!

I believe it's been over a month since my last post, and a lot has happened in that time. I got through all my exams and passed them all with As all round. I've been to annual camp with the OTC in a sort of battle against Glasgow, although I hurt my ankle and had to miss out some parts of the exercise. It's been a couple of weeks since the injury, and it's still niggling me, so I think I need to make a visit to the doctor. I was only discharged from the orthotic clinic a year or two ago, as well. It will have to wait though, because I'm off to Switzerland soon with the band. I know - another dip in my posts probably, because I won't be using the Internet unless I can find wifi somewhere. Unlikely as it is, we will just have to wait and see. Looking forward to getting paid too. Both for camp, so that I have money to take to Switzerland, and for playing with the band in Switzerland itself, especially as my savings took a bit of a hit while I was away at camp. That's what happens when you're away for a full two weeks with the OTC. Too many bar-nights and McDonalds lunches.
Anyway, I have a few post drafts in the works now, but I find myself running out of words halfway through. I'll try and get some finished up and give you something decent to read for a change. If I get some wifi in the airport or something, I'll chuck something up if I can.
Happy summer holidays to everyone who is on them, happy summer to everyone still working, and good day to anyone reading this on the other side of the globe.
Song of the day: Walking on Sunshine, by Katrina and the Waves

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Argh! Exams!

I hate exams. Sure, as far as revising goes they're probably one of the better sets of exams I've had, maybe something to do with only having 3, rather than the 8 we had in standard grade, or the 5 at higher. Sure it's harder content, but more of it is related. I have less unrelated subjects flying around my head all at once. Biomed crosses over into chemistry so much, and psychology crosses over too, especially in the anatomy and chemical workings of the brain.
Still, I'm freaking out slightly (who doesn't on exam week), although much less so now my first exam is over. I think I did better than I expected.
What I am not enjoying, however, is being stuck inside on these glorious days of sun. I have been revising outside when I can, but my exams are all in the middle of the day, so we miss the best sunshine, when its warm enough to ignore the east coast wind off the ocean.
Perhaps it's also a good thing though, to keep me out of the sun. The main problem is that wind off the water means you don't notice the bright sun as much. It's really easy to get sunburnt if you're not careful. Having been burnt 4 times in as many months in Scotland, I'm trying to keep covered up. I don't know what I'm going to do at summer camp or our Switzerland trip, though. I think the SPF 50, UVA/UVB protection sun cream will be coming out, and it, along with my aloe vera might just stay with me the whole time.
Anyway, two more days and exams, and first year are over. Then I just have to get down to packing, washing the place up in readiness to move out, and bulling my brogues for next week.

See you all when this stress is all over.


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Location:Bedford Rd,Aberdeen,United Kingdom

So it's getting stressful here..

With exams around the corner, it's difficult to relax much. I don't believe you've had a poem from me for a good few months now. I read through the Hunger Games book in 5 hours flat, barely setting it down (reading is one of my "wind down" hobbies) and decided that perhaps reading should wait until after exams when I can read all the fiction I like without the prospect of textbooks on the shelf making me feel guilty. (BTW, in case you don't know already, the Hunger Games is brilliant - need to see the movie now, but that will also wait)
My brother was barely out of hospital a full day when he was readmitted, and now he's discharged again, with daily checks at the warfarin clinic, and an increase on his meds. We'll see how he is in the morning. I relaxed by making another batch of tablet, which I must remember to share out at the OTC on tuesday.
I don't have much other news I'm afraid. My mind is whizzing too much to remember the vaguely interesting stuff from the boring guff.
I have the Scottish Pipe Band Championships in a weeks time, so I'll hopefully remember to update you on that, if I don't update before. I'll try though. Blogging is almost a stress relief in itself, really.


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Location:Burrelton, United Kingdom

Ramblings: I can't deal with scientific inaccuracies...

Really, I can't. It's on a par with my inner spelling- and grammar-nazi. I can not copy out lecture notes without correcting all the spelling mistakes and incorrect grammar I notice. Neither can I write lecture notes without adding asterisks and arrows with references and inconsistencies between different subjects.
I remember getting the distinct impression my music teacher at school hated me when we came to the Scottish section, because I had grown up surrounded in the music and was adamant she was teaching us wrong, when in fact it was just being vastly oversimplified. I remember fuming at being told that a march was a jig, because it was in a 6/8 time signature, and jigs were 6/8s. (except the problem with the analogy is that jigs can be in any compound-time, and marches can be 6/8s too)

I'm not vain. Really I'm not. I know I'm not right all the time. In fact very little of the time. There is a great deal I don't know. I make mistakes here, on my own blog. I only change my own lecture notes, I only fume silently in my own head (and now, apparently, here), and I try to avoid conflict about it. But I'm not sure where the line starts or ends. I like people pointing out my mistakes, because I can fix it and there's one less on the page, but other people may take offence if I were to tell them.

Anyway, this particular reference happened to occur just a few hours ago. It was in reference to "ketones" or rather, as it was meant to be, " ketone bodies". Basically the problem with mixing them up is that they are different things. Ketones are derived from oxidation of a secondary alcohol. Ketone bodies are triglycerides. Well it was in reference to a "carb free diet" so I was hesitant to say anything, also knowing full well that both ketones and ketone bodies are, technically, carbohydrates.
Really, had the tone of the article not been rather derogatory, I probably wouldn't ordinarily have become so annoyed. After all, it is a widely accepted phrase. Usually it's easy to brush it off without a thought.

I'm going straight to sleep when I get back. I likely will have forgotten in the morning and more than likely hating myself for some silly mistake in my essay. As much as I'm ranting, I do make mistakes too.

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Location:Meston Walk,Aberdeen,United Kingdom

Sorry Y'all

I know I've been away. It's been a bit of a busy time lately. My brother went into hospital last week and I wasn't exactly in the mood to be posting here. Anyway, he appears to slowly be getting better which is good.
So, in other news, I was at the sports club dinner on Thursday. I had been feeling ill all day, so it was hard to eat much. It was a very good night though.
I have one last week of lectures left, then it's exam time.
I got a ball gown in a charity for £20 and with a little bit of work on my sewing machine it's turned out perfect.
Other than that I have very little news.
See you all again soon :)

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My blog has a new look!

Yes, I'm making use of Bloggers new design system, and giving my blog a new coat of paint. Like or not? Let me know what you think.

Ramblings: Collecting instruments

So the other day, my friend told me she was buying a cheap violin she found on eBay. (How cheap, or worth it, it is, is as yet unknown to me. You never know with eBay auctions. It could be an undiscovered gem, or totally useless) Upon a whim the decision was made that she would learn to play on this instrument, having never picked one up in her life before. Each to their own...
One of my other friends (who rather has a perfectly good excuse, being at university to study music) has found herself gaining more and more instruments in her little room at the halls. From what I gather, she currently has all her percussion stuff, a stand-up electric piano (her 18th birthday present), a bugle, an oboe, and various other bits and bobs.
Mind you, I can't talk either. I currently have a clarinet, a violin, a bugle, tenor sticks, and bass sticks in my little room. I can only be glad that singing requires no instrument, and that other people look after the drums. I have four that I play spread across the country, mostly staying with other band members/in a store where we practice. Dad also gave me a bagpipe chanter. It seems to be a common trait among musicians to constantly attempt to play, and own, more and more instruments. You would think I would know by now, especially as it is hard enough to keep a regular practice schedule with my main 3. Yeesh. I guess inside I just hope to one day be able to pick up pretty much anything and play something, anything, at a decent standard. Ah well, I'll never understand it myself, so I don't know how to explain. For now, my friends and I will plod on and share our musical silliness with each other.
Maybe someday I will share some musicians silliness, but it might take a bit of editing to make it publishable ;) certainly most of our songs are far from tame, and even some of the most well taught comrades can never quite out-sing the band. To quote a friend of mine with similar roots and band-times: Many's a time I have sat on a train or bus listening to a bunch of men singing football songs, with a wry smile on my face, knowing that, if I could be @r$ed, I could totally out-coorse them with some of the songs I know.
And really, that is the truth of the matter. We're slowly encapsulating our comrades in arms on nights out too, so things are just getting more-so like that. With more people singing drunkenly in the bar, it can get interesting very quickly, especially with some of the made-up verses.
Anyway, I'm totally off topic now. Doesnt matter. See you soon.

PS. For those who don't know, "coorse" is a Scottish word, generally taken to mean, rude or bad. Hence out-coorse, in this sense, means to be worse than they are in terms of singing rude songs. Yeah, things might need heavily edited if I ever get around to giving you the band-banter.

Again, see you soon :)

Location:Meston Walk,,United Kingdom

Ramblings: Lies and Secrets

So here's a little thing to ponder on. We are always led to believe that to tell a lie is bad. And truly, from my childhood, even to now, I feel uncomfortable telling a lie. Sometimes, rather often actually, to the point that I hesitate, deciding whether the lie would really be worth it, then go and tell the truth, by which time the gap in my sentence makes anything I say look like a lie anyway. I don't like lying, and I think many others would likely be in the same position. Lying is inherently seen as bad.
On the other hand, we have good things. Secrets between two people. Generally seen as a bond between two close people, and, more often than not, a good thing.

But the question is; what is the difference between lying and keeping a secret?

Indeed, keeping a secret can often involve lying to someone else. If lying is inherently bad, and keeping secrets inherently good, then where does that moral line stand? And what about white lies and secrets which cause more harm than good. I'm talking blackmailing and such. How do we decide what is good and what is bad, and how can we ever agree? Because everyone from a different standpoint has a different view. If a person keeps a secret, it may seem good to the two people who share that secret, but bad to the one who discovers they're being left out, and might breed distrust - why? Because they likely feel they're being lied to. So we're back to the bad again.
But what about white lies? Telling little lies to make people feel better. But, then, they are still lies. The other person is still likely to be annoyed to find out it was a lie, and it could backfire as easily as any other lie.

Ugh. I should really stay away from philosophical questions. I don't like not getting anywhere.

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Location:High St,Aberdeen,United Kingdom

Update post-spring-camp

So I'm back, recovering from a very intense time at the OTC spring camp. The Friday consisted of organising bags, rifles and such at RSB, and spending the remainder of the 3hours twiddling our thumbs and searching for stuff to do and food to eat. We stopped at McDonalds in Perth for dinner around 9pm. (random fact: the OTC trips are the only time I ever seem to end up in McDonalds) then it was a long road trip in a roundabout manner until we reached camp at around 11pm. Only to discover the pantec with all our gear hadn't arrived yet. Someone complained about being cold, and we all had to do push-ups in a line to "warm us up". At least I can do some now..
Anyway the pantec arrived around midnight and it probably took about an hour to unload everything. Luckily the girls billets was nearby, so once that was all finished, we just laid out our stuff for morning, stuck polish on our boots, set the alarms, and jumped in bed. We were up again at 6.30 am.
Breakfast throughout the week was a pain in the @$$, because we were sharing with both cadets and air cadets, and the queue was so long it was difficult to get breakfast early enough to be ready for morning parade. Somehow we managed, partly because most days we would arrive early to get to the front of the queue.
On Saturday, we learned basic rifle training and green skills. On Sunday it was more of the same, and everyone passed their weapons handling test.
Monday came and we were out in the field, securing the harbour area and learning to do platoon attacks. My section was the assaulting section at the first attack, and indeed most of the attacks over the course of the ex.
We finished around 5pm and struggled to light the hexi-burners to warm up our food, so I ate lukewarm rations and got myself onto Stag duty for the hour. I got back in time to listen to a talk by our SUO, and set up our sleeping area, before going out on patrol, during which we picked up more rations. We finished at around 11pm and I slept until I went on stag again. Now that was interesting. I had barely arrived on stag when we spotted the "enemy" about to attack. Sure enough they fired shots and we shot back. There was another call to stand-to at around 6am, after which everyone just stayed up. It was snowing.
That next day we practiced more platoon attacks, and eventually ran out of ammo. Even the guys bombing up mags ran out of rounds to fill them with. On Wednesday we restocked with ammo, and went out on a platoon attack, in lovely weather, to attack nine enemy. Annoyingly, I twisted my ankle, and was sent out. I met with the defeated "enemy" as they made their way back to the meet-up point. We ate and cleaned our rifles out. That night we had a barbecue at the mess.
On Thursday we spent the day cleaning rifles, on Friday we had a day on the range, and Saturday was the march and shoot race. We left on Sunday. I got off at the Perth stop and went to my parents house for the week, then this weekend went to band in Glasgow. I go home to Aberdeen tonight. :)
It's been busy, but good. Now time to get back to uni work.

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Location:Montrose St,Glasgow,United Kingdom