Last night's ramblings

It’s freezing outside. Completely Baltic. On the way through the forest, I could barely see, not because of the dark, although it was dark, but because my breath was dispersing the light from my torch. My own private fog has finally escaped the confines of my mind and become real, now inhabiting my actual physical existence. Were it more humid here, we’d be in a constant “Silent Hill” type atmos. :o)
Before leaving for the lab this morning, I found a classical music channel on the radio. Seeing as most popular stations play utter bilge, turns out the song I REALLY hate is by Shikira or whatever the overly soulful bint’s name is. I found this out after I failed to suppress my scream of angst when someone played it in the lab. Oops…
So, I have Mozart just now, which is nice. And it is having this that makes me realise that if it wasn’t for the logistical support of the food parcels, I would have declined into an almost cave dwelling like existence by now. What I do have is at very least like a very long camping holiday, with regular helicopter drops, and a bakers; and an off sales. I’m sure you get the picture.
Tonight I have chicken soup served with garlic croutons , followed by pasta a finale of carrot cake with custard for dessert, served I should add in the same bowl that the pasta came in, but such is life. If it wasn’t for Mozart and the fact I am writing this on my laptop, my existence would be quite wretched. Equally, given that I have custard, if I wasn’t separated by such a distance from those that I love, it’d probably be ok too.

Afterwards I shall have a bath.
Given that the shower head doesn’t actually reach the bracket mounted on the wall, I have had to start taking baths in order to remain socially viable. This is annoying as apart from one lapse of judgement last year which caused me endless torment and grief, I could previously proudly claim that I had not had a bath in five years.
I’ve been here just three weeks and even averaging over the previous five years of abstinence, the amount of bathing in which I have partaken would seem boastful in some areas of my home town.

Big shoes and prat falls

Having a terrible day. That whole disempowered thing. Not actual, just percieved. It's enough though. Trying to get work done here, but it's not always so easy. I guess humour for me is a very personal taste and Big shoes, cats chasing the spot of light from a laser pen and dogs licking their testicles don't really count so well with teh humour stakes. Squeaky voice overs and sproing noises are indeed the daily bread of the likes of Jeremy Beadle, and it would seem lots of people find it funny, but it just makes me look at people and wonder about garden sacks, freezers and alternative uses for wood chippers. I know I'm grumpy today, but really.

try this:



See what I mean? Just not funny. I found the image on the web and they were described as "wacky". M'lud, need I say more? the prosecution rests.

Bright side, I got a nice parcel fom the old country containing a tonne of cup a soups in various varieties, some lovely crispy croutons, two new scientists, some Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, some fruit bars from Jordan and a DVD of Alan Davis :o)
Actually, looking at that lot, what am I whining about. Thanks Badger!

Malnutrition, Scurvey - Avast Ye!!!

So, yesterday, I was in a café absently fiddling with my ring (try not to burst a gut here, there is more opportunity coming) and I realised that it was a bit loose (there’s more). Imagine the embarrassment of having to tell someone that since you started staying in the seminary your ring has loosened off to quite an alarming level. There would be the obvious suggestions that maybe I could wear a nappy, oh har har, but obviously I am not eating properly. I mean not enough of the right things.



so, I went foraging in a supermarket for things which will go with the packet of instant custard that stuffed badger sent me, and found some carrot cake type things. I also found some little cartons of apple juice called “Fresky” which I am deliberately misreading as “Frisky” for my own sad juvenile amusement. Makes it sound like a drink supplement for cats. Right, I have work to finish and lists to make.

And on the seventh day he did some washing...

Did I mention the cold?
You honestly would not believe how cold it is here at night, I say night, but it’s light outside and cloudy and I’m in the lab with a convection and a fan heater. Not perfect. I have that sick of being an imposition to people feeling today and it was that and the need to do a washing that made me turn down an invite to go do some hill walking. The warm boots I have here are these insane platform “Bunker” boots which used to only get the occasional viewing when going out. Since Torino they have been used a lot, but not really suitable for a human/mountain goat transmogrification. So looking online for some walking boots. I had a loan of a pair of Lowa boots which were fantastic, so I’m trying to find a pair of those somewhere.

Sorry, just noticed it is now really bloody freezing in here. The only explanation is that they pump all of the heat from the building, just in case you are a burglar and they want to make your burgling experience as unpleasant as possible.
This is a picture of where I am sitting.



I have a heater to the left and a fan heater underneath. One advantage is that the department has a textile engineering aspect, and of course, where you have textiles, you need washing machines. So I might just be sneakily using the machine and tumble dryer. Although I’m sure that little symbol of a square with a cross through it is there to tell me not to tumble dry those items. Unfortunately, it happens to be on practically everything I have. So I look like I am wearing children’s size clothing, how much worse would it be if all my clothes were damp?

Here is a pic of a butterfly I saw walking down from the seminary (see the photos that look like Beirut) Ahhh, look at the pretty :o)

Brrrr

It´s still cold here. Really, really cold. I need a tall, mostly hot water, strong coffee to heat me up. I don´t understand the bars. Many of them have outside parts, which I imagine might be nice when it´s warm. but in the - degrees temps we have just now it seems like a mass enactment of the public information film about the risks of hypothermia. Apparently the population here is in decline. I´m guessing thousands are dropping dead each night simply by going to a bar and having a tiny beer or coffee. I know this is a bit of a whine, and I should have brought more clothing, but I really didn´t expect to have to kit out for an artic existence.

Help! send blankets and rations! actually I have rations, lovely hot things.

So with a cooler than healthy core temperature, I´m off for an Alexi, Chicken and Mushroom. Totally yumcious!

More whiney posts tomorrow.

Friday tum tee tum tum

Bit of a rubbish heading I know, but you come to satisfy your need to know that someone's life is worse than yours, not because you are compelled here by the superior nature of the writing. I awoke this morning to familiar sounds, and for a moment thought I would call D to arrange lunch. I had similar yesterday too. when I opened my eyes and registered my surroundings I almost wept. So much so that I came to the lab and booked some flights back to Glasgow for a weekend. Then, postumously (in respect to paying for teh flights) clearing this decision with the powers that be, my angst was heightened by the suggestion that I should take the whole week. Still :o)

I have packed more meat into my digestive tract (trying desperately not to say colon). Tonight I intend to have lettuce with some grated carrot. I will slowly attempt evolution towards a more herbivorial existence. It surprises me that any animals around here exist at all, and that those I actually see don't look a lot more nervous.

Going shopping for hairspray later.
Watch BBC News 24 later for punk riots in Braga.
Might even startle a dog!

Today's music

I.D. - Kasabian
Heaven's gonna burn your eyes - Thievery Corp.
Tangled up - The Cranes
Time is slipping away - The Temporary Thing
Destroy everything you touch - Ladytron

One thing I forgot to say, and I know this is of limited interest, but teh Sony Ericsson S700i IS unlockable from a network with a code. If you have one of these, and you have checked on the internet, it tells you you need some cable. Utter bollocks! contact the network you got the phone from and tell them what you want. I did this and the whole procedure was concluded within 2 hours. TY Vodafone. Although, it's probablr that they looked at my bills and thought that I was shoring up the company and single handedly responsible for their net growth over the last 6 years.

Ice age vs coffee culture

Today, It is absolutely bloody freezing here! I saw people sitting outside!!! drawn there by a culture which compels you to sit outside attempting to look relaxed when sanity insists you go inside, drink long hot drinks and wear all available clothing. Earlier, I had lunch in a large uncarpeted freezer room which had been rather amusingly mocked up to look like a restaurant. As we sat shivering on metal chairs, chilled drinks were served with average soup and followed with a raw meat thing (cow). The amount of meat sitting in my digestive system now is really starting to impact the quality of the air surrounding me. The room in teh morning is not a nice place to be, unless you are some kind of carrion eating creature, in which case it might actually be attractive. The remains of the cow meal looked like a human ear, and it was this semblance which was the pointy stick pushing me over the edge.



last night I nearly had a re-enactment of the noah arc flood as I forgot I was running a bath and remembered just as the level was held captive by surface tension against the lip of the tub.

I have a photo of the ear, but I am feeling kind, so have not put it here. If something annoys me later, I might post it, so don't get too relaxed.


Here: Bloody freezing

Wednesday. Happier today

These are a few photographs taken on the route down from the seminary to the university. It's honestly not as seedy as it looks. Although I admit glamour isn't exactly at a premium.


This is the lane I walk down each morning. It's actually quite steep an incline (decline) and is much less fun to walk up in the dark.


This architectural wonder is possibly one of the nastiest concrete structures I have ever seen. functionality the only factor in its construction, with one problem. You see, that is a very busy road running over the top of it, and the other week I was coming back and there were a few car parts and a head light and then the evidence of the impact of the car on the path below. Not sure how much it would help, but I think it should be a hard hat area.


Another classical structure that failed to come into existence. The graffiti starts off obscene but rapidly just becomes surf label name dropping. "O'Neil & BillaBong"? ffs.


The path continues. again, fun in the dark.


Right there in the center is the next path. yes I know it looks like it leads to wasteland....

Tuesday blues

I feel like the blues guy from Kids in the Hall. Tuesday morning I got into work. Had been up all night missing my lady and so I got da blues. Even the chickens wouldn't talk to me last night, so that gave me the blues. I had the blues so bad everywhere just looked like sky, or sea, and as I can't swim, I got the blues even more. Then some administrative cock up demanded that I get forms and give them in IMMEDIATELY!! even though I'd already done this twice, repetition is only really good in a few things, one of them's dancing, one of them ain't filling in forms. so that gave me the blues. I had cake for lunch, and that gave me the blues, even though it was yellow.



Guimaráes today. Now you know what I mean.

Monday poo

It's Monday and I have a vague headache. Not sure why, it might have been last night's chicken cabaret. It was a good one. They had the pluckers quartet, nice noisey and totally, by the quality I'm guessing, unrehearsed. After then they had a Portuguese production of "Flight from foxes", which basically sounds like very loud and panic stricken chickens.

View from lab balcony



Yep it's cloudy.



Just now there is some sun, but it will probably rain like the proverbial in the afternoon.

Happy Birthday!!!

This is just to say a very Happy Birthday to the best and most stripey of land locked mammals. I know I said I wouldn’t go back out, but I needed a bottle of wine anyway.




Sorry I’m so far away right now. Love you and miss you.
XXX

Thursday hurrumph

Had a departmental meeting today which was interestingly dictatorial. At one point, when the protagonist claimed to be a supporter of democracy, a small squeak of mirth escaped after which I fully expected to be permanently excised from the campus.
I am still here. I have a parcel of gifts from my contact in the old world, which caused as much delight as finding a fine bottle of red wine washed ashore on the beach of a desert island. With my polo mints, caramel wafers, salt and vinegar sticks and bacon crispies I am once more in a happy place. But I would be happier with some stripey compant to aid in their consumption.

I have seen the photos of the snow in Glasgow and would post one of here, but it's raining and not dramatic or photogenic.

Can I have my Tuesday back?

I'm not sure what happened to Tuesday. what ever it was it didn't involve sleep or gourmet delights. It rained like buggery all night and even that did nothing to dampen the vocal exercises of the local chickens. someone buy these buggers a watch or a wall clock, cause these things are seriously messed in the head regarding time keeping. So with their help, the traffic, the wind and the rain, I was awake until 6 am. At that point I finally passed out from exhaustion.

In the lab today a new face appeared. She is the answer to my liposome prayers. Now I can stop worrying about teh things I don't know and concentrate on applying stuff that I do.

I also went shopping for a SIM card for my spare phone and guess what, the vodaphone card here isn't compatible. cheers guys. I am changing to T mobile or whoever the arch enemy of V is when I get back.

right now I am in the canteen having eaten a rather amusing meal. cold lasagne, with colder chips with piping hot soup and a cold baked apple thing that, if served with crumble and custard would be perfect. but is isn't so I have cooked apple mush served in its own skin. It's like hospital food but without MRSA or what ever they lace the food with.

I found this:

Shopping on a knife edge

I had to go and change a pair of trousers which were masquarading as a 30" waist the other day and were in fact made for a 12 year old girl. a bit on the no way are they getting around my waist and fastening side. I managed to get another pair which I am happy with. In teh super market, I was wandering around looking for things, mundane things, razors, cotton buds etc. I also went looking for tea, and I knew I wanted some, but didn't really know how much. When I saw the Twinnings Earl Grey I nearly wept. Sad sad sad.



Earl Grey, an emotional experience

Late posting from this morning

00:14 Jan 15th

So I’ve been sitting here most of the night trying to get some work done whilst listening to music. Imagine a time when music wasn’t freely available to enjoy. Isn’t that a horrifying thought? Personally I have always been enveloped by it as method of emotional introspection. As a child I had Bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple constantly filling my head due to my elder sister. I have to admit Black Sabbath were always closer to my heart. The name, if anyone out there hasn’t actually listened to them, is a bit alarmist. The music is some of the most heart felt honestly expressed rock I have ever heard. And it’s with typing that last sentence I remember that I still have someone’s CDs. If you read this I will return them next time in the UK. Right now I’m listening to Ozzy Ozbourne’s “You can’t kill rock and roll”. Beautiful guitar by the now deceased Randy Rhoads which whilst indulgent, doesn’t sound even vaguely masturbatory. Guitar fans will know what I mean. I went on the prowl for the coffee machine I saw being serviced in the seminary the other day only to find that the basement is not available to the common visitor. As I have complained before, all the inconvenience of a hotel with none of the luxury. I was going to buckle down and stay here for a month or so, but really, how does anyone survive without the provision to make a sandwich or a cup of tea? “Tonight” is playing now…

More work for a bit.

Late posting from Saturday

Saturday the 13th. woooo
This is kinda twisted but I am determined not to a) ask if someone speaks English, or b) readily identify myself as an English speaker. I am obviously not a speaker of Portuguese, but that must improve. If it doesn’t I will starve or die of frustration. So today, despite being armed with more keys than is decent for anyone not a prison warden I still couldn’t get into the department. So I’m now in a café near the centre trying to find a network configured for open access. I am not a natural born hacker, so I’m not that hopeful. I also came out without charging the batter in the laptop so genius that I am, I might as well have brought a rucksack with a couple of house bricks instead.
I found a couple of bars that look hopeful, so I will force myself to come out for a sad and lonely beer tonight. Boo hoo hoo hear me weep across the world…

Guess who found the big shopping mall with lots of stuff in it :o)
Unfortunately I had my massive pack of everything with me so I didn’t buy any big things, like external speakers for my laptop. I did manage to get a power lead for the hard drive, so that frees up an adaptor. Although I do worry that most of these things are not fused…

Cars.
Lots of Rovers around Guimares. Very odd. I don’t think I even see as many as this at home. Also, at home they mostly look a big sorry for themselves, out here they have a different aura. The 200 looks like a feisty little beast sits on the road nicely and is a very appealing looking machine. Bizarre. Maybe I’ll start a Rover of the day section.
saw two minis, including a surfblue Clubman. trying to add image, but...




Seminary.

Nice enough. No cooking facilities as far as I am aware.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

The shower pipe, one of those flexible metal things, does not reach the bracket fix on the wall. So in stead of a shower you get to stand in the bath and hose yourself down, which somehow lacks dignity. It seems like a bit of a weird form of humiliation. So, balls to the environment, I’m having a bath.

The chair at the desk is just at the right height to make typing really uncomfortable. I have sore arms and an ache in my neck.

The bedside lamp must have something like a 150 Watt bulb in it as every time I put it on it takes me about 5 minutes to adjust to the light level. If reading in bed, I wear my sun glasses.

Am I spotting a pattern here? Can you be conscripted into Opus Dei?

Thursday 11th Jan 2007

These buggers to the right were partly responsible for me not sleeping. not just the barking, but the dread fear of the toothless bigger one to the left running into me and breaking every bone in my body. Yic!

Tonight was existed on a bottle of Borba, quite nice, Portuguese, and 13%. Our watching pleasure was derived from Kids in the Hall series 1, disc 3. This had the excellent pyromaniac faux French employee and of course the judiciously delightfully decadent Dr Seuss bible. Music has so far been supplied by Interpol and Sigur Ros. I have to admit, and this is with complete sincerity, there is something amazing about the album Bgutis Byrun, it brings your emotions into stark focus. Sometimes, I have been confused about the really important things, and I have set myself up on paths which, in retrospect, were best left. I mean for the benefit of the path and the walker. Sigur Ros have consistently dragged me from an illusion of happiness to a realisation of what I really need. Sometimes you fool yourself into thinking that that biscuit will make you happy, when you really need to get you ass moving and challenge yourself. Obviously, I’m not referring to biscuits at the moment, but seeing as I am in Portugal right now, and their biscuit, snacking market is heavily under developed, if you later see a similar post, mentioning biscuits, it’s safe to assume that literal interpretation may be applied as, whilst homicide is out of the question, right now I might easily be spurred on to verbal abuse or minor violence, should it furnish me with a Tunnocks caramel wafer. The specific tracks have been: Interpol “C’mere”, “Evil”, “Untitled”, “Obstacle”, “Hands Away” and “The New”; Sigur Ros tracks are Svefngenglar Sleepwalkers and n2 Battery New Batteries. Hey Satan (I don’t know!!!) from Takk; How to Swim, “A Little of Orgasm of Disappointment”.
The wine is good, it’s 23.50 and I am so clock watching. Phone call at 12.05. I have work to do. I’ll get on with that for now.

Nicey nicey zoo zoo
We likes phone calls we does.

Velvet Acid Christ, “We Have to See, We have to Know” I love the way this track starts off like a mournful siren. The implications of this are huge!
VNV “Standing”

No, I REALLY can't speak Portugese...

first post from Portugal.

I wrote some stuff last night so here that is:

It's 3.15 am (of course). I have now been awake since 4.00 am the previous day, before all the travel stuff. I am completely knackered. I have somewhere to lie and wait for sleep at least, a room in the seminary. The room is simple but nice with the main problem that it has a rather busy road in clear view from teh window which is louder when lying on the bed. If at any point I am tempted to drift off with the repetitive hum of the traffic, a truck revs, sounds its horn or drives for 20 metres on the rumble strips at the sides of the road. should I become aclimatised to that, there are two guard dogs which seem to bark at anything.
Then there is the town clock, which I'm sure I can hear ticking, and chickens, somewhere.

I need to sleep. It seems like exhaustion is the only option.


Today

Needed to get some number, like a tax code I think. Managed to find the office about 2 minutes after it closed. How in God's name am I going to be conscious for it opening tomorrow?

Did manage to buy some stuff. Some of this was essential, Glasses and corkscrew (can't find my nice one I thought was in the case, some wine, thank god for self service! and some luxury chip sticky things, which sadly won't be salt and vinegar.

tick tick ticky tick

So New Year has come and gone. A happy 2007 to everyone. Here is Glasgow the weather caused the cancelation of just about everything, then it went on to blow over trees, sometimes onto powerlines, but mostly causing walls and stuff to collapse. I did think the roof was coming off a few times.

So it's Saturday and I guess I'm off to Portugal on Wednesday. I have tried packing but I keep stalling. I think I might be trying to leave enough space for D. Although an air ticket might be a better idea. it gets cold at 30,000 feet. Got new passport which seems to have given me a nice green tinge, but i look slightly less psychotic than I did on my old one.

Right, btter get back to shoving things in the traveling box.

later...