Tag Archives: Blog

hey, where'd the site go?

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I’ve decided that as good as my old nuttyxander.com look was there’s no merit to my site other than the blog for updated content at the moment. Most of my real content that would have come here is currently elsewhere until leveraged back in by funky programming using APIs and the like to crowbar it in. Therefore my photography is over at flickr but will someday soon make it to nuttyphoto.com in another form.

Otherwise, it’s time to go off and enjoy the sunshine, it’s rather hot but having aclimatised to the summer I’m not minding this little heatwave, it reminds me a lot of holidays spent in the French heat at this time of year. So it’s not hot until it reaches 34 degrees, by which time I should have headed far up north.

Life On Mars

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As good as the reborn Doctor Who has been (and it’s been rather good lately) it’s Life On Mars that has stolen my televisual heart most recently. It may have only had eight episodes but the DVD comes out next week and some random surfing has brought me to this gem of a site which has scripts complete with a colour key to show just what kinds of unreality are going on.

fairground attraction

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At some point last year, having taken the train up and down the country for the umpteenth time[1] I realised that every single time I got the train there was always a girl usually half a carriage away wearing a t-shirt in a marvellous shade of green that I would then find very attractive. Of course, it was always a different girl, so it led me to wonder about the way in which attraction works.

So, over time I’ve evolved the theory and come to realise that there are three colours what make girls attractive to my eyes and they are pretty much any vibrant shade of green, blue or pink. Though rule breakers (wearing different colours to these) are naturally even more attractive until I figure it out what draws me to them.

Now, vibrant shades I thought: “where would I get obsessed with bright colours from?”
Then as I was sat on the tube yesterday I looked up at the tube map and it all made sense.

I now also know why I live in Hammersmith.

[1] something I’m doing a little less lately having been home only once so far this year.

elephant of london

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A giant elephant roaming through the centre of London counts as “good art” in my book. I wandered in for a couple of hours today to see said creature with some friends and somehow conrtived to arrive at Piccadilly just as it was going past. Click on the giant elephant to see the rest at flickr though I have more to upload later, just as soon as I convince my sd card reader to play ball.

500 shots and counting

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I got a nice shiny new DSLR for Christmas (Pentax *ist DL), which I’ve taken a few shots on. I don’t yet feel fully up to speed yet, but here’s a few shots I though I should show you to make me feel I’m not just shooting in the dark.





Still not yet got the hang of this digital darkroom/lightroom nonsense or whatever it’s called so these are pretty raw off the camera.

2006 – a year of creation

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2005 was a strange year.
It’s the first full year I’ve had down here in London, and it is still down here as I’m only just getting used to it being my home rather than Edinburgh. Of the many things I’ve done in 2005, the most rewarding has been the baking.

gingercake mix

So it was only proper that I made a cake today, a further variation on the ginger cake in Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries with mixed peel in the place of sultanas on the grounds that I don’t have any sultanas in the cupboard and that mixed peel is the best baking ingredient in the world.

gingercake oven

I don’t think I’ve ever blogged so little as the past few months, and while the fanzine idea is great and is happening – it didn’t really catch fire in 2005. There’s all manner of longer pieces up my sleeves and I feel in the mood for writing more, not least because I now have a nice clean new keyboard to write them on.

baked ginger cake

So, as ever, the proof will be in the eating but the aim of the year is to bake and cook more. Take some photographs with the new camera (a digital SLR at last – now that’s a good Christmas and Birthday present). I would be offering you some delightful photos of London today were it not for the fact that the January sales were far too tempting, and also the light was the greyer than grey.

May 2006 bring all of you dear (dimishing no doubt) readers all that you wish. I’ll be raving over the next few days on the Music, TV, and even Books that made staying in during 2005 worthwhile. The Theatre, Films and exhibitions that made 2005 worthwhile have almost all gone in one way or another (though if you are in London see Ibsen’s Pillars of the Community at the National Theatre – it’s ace).

Me no have migraine now

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…well, not so much.

My month long course of beta blockers seem to have been most effective, and now I’m down to the odd migraine every now and then. I’ve switched my painkiller from ibuprofen to the paracetamol/codeine I was given an emergency prescription for at the start of all this and found it to be incredibly effective, even in the reduced dose Boots sell over the counter.

So now, I’ve had the odd tingle once a week or so, but I can get rid of it within a good hour or so.

It’s quite liberating, I feel awake, inteligent, alive and dare I say it, happy!

Happier still for my sister, who got married somewhere in the middle of my month of sleepy days.

my sister\'s wedding

Ouch

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me migraine

I’ve suffered from migraine for a long time, since my teenage years. Over that time the attacks have ebbed and flowed, in a pretty natural manner – I had some really bad ones during my final couple of years in high school which culminated in a temporary loss of sight after going to see Star Wars in the cinema. So like a lot of other people I have issues with George Lucas.

During my university years I was able to live around the attacks much easier, the flexible timetable and loose long deadlines were helpful, so I managed to stay low stress and avoid all the risk factors. Somehow I was forunate enough never to get many at all during my exam periods.

However, rather suddenly after I returned from a very relaxing and pleasurable week back up north with my family and friends about a month ago it all came back, and much worse than ever before. It’s not been fun, I’ve only just had a series of days without any pain, but I’m still knackered.

The first few days all I noticed was that by a certain point in the day a migraine would develop, over the first fortnight this time got earlier in the day and then visual disturbances got worse. Ultimately I lost the ability to keep my eyes focused to read and got sent home from work a couple of times. At this point I opted to head for the NHS walk in centre. After a bit of a wait and a lot of understanding from medics (it would appear that suffering from migraines is pretty much ubiquitous in the medical professsion), I was given an emergency prescription for some Co-codamol to treat the pain, and additionally Sumatriptan to try and knock out the headaches.

This combination worked pretty well, and while I continued to have a series of very painful and disruptive migraines I could at least watch Dr Who. However, the series of migraine did not stop so I finally sorted out a local GP and got an appointment. In relation to the ongoing controversy I’d say that for me the real bugbear was getting registered, it would appear that whilst surgeries do have borders in their catchment they have no knowledge of geography or even a map perhaps that indicates which addresses the serve. Also, they seemed amazingly reluctant to give me the forms to sign up with, which meant that I had to delay my first appointment for 20 minutes as I took a while to fill in all the paperwork.

Anyway, after all that the doctor was great. After a quick discussion of symptoms and methods of treatment he concluded with a little help from his BNF that a regular dose of beta blockers was the best thing to try and stop the series of migraine. Thus far (5 doses later) it seems to be working, although I still seem to be amazingly short on energy. Also, if anyone would like to take me on at pool or snooker I’d be delighted to attempt a scientific experiment to test my nerves during the treatment.

Alex of the Clan Hay

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hay modern

With my sister’s wedding now only seven weeks away, it’s a good thing I finally got around to getting measured for and ordering my kilt last week. I had deliberated (or more honestly dithered) on the choice between kilt and suit but such a rare family occaision is probably best celebrated by harking back to old times.

The tartan I have chosen is Hay Modern, which not only has a nice design but also is one I am realted to via the Gifford’s on my mother’s side.

Clan Hay Website

This also means that I will have a proper kilt before I have a proper suit, but I’ll get around to that one sometime soon.