Not feeling too well these days. I've been coughing since the weekend.


But that does give me time to feed my addiction.


I know, I know.


Hope you all have a great week. I'll be busy for a while still, but know that I would rather be here than there.

What a stupid busy week.


And I've had no time to visit the people here.


But as soon as I have time I'll be reviewing everyones news and lend my smart ass wit to it.


Miss ya.

I applied for a new job this week.


My bosses job has opened up due to my bosses boss getting his bosses job.


I have no idea whether or not I have a shot, but it does no harm to let them know I want to take over the world.


Otherwise, life has been peaceful and .... not exactly restfull.


I'm almost through telling all the Scotland tales to my friends and family. I'm begining to feel like a guest lecturer whenever I see someone I have seen since the trip.


Wish Me Luck and have a great day!

LIAR!


I'm still stupid sleepy from the trip.
Several well meaning bone heads have told me I should expect it to take a month for me to fully bounce back.


The hell with that.


I have the cure.


I'll be posting more pics from the trip soon, so check the folder.


According the folks in Scotland. This is my family Tartan.


Now, a lot of people make a big fuss about their tartan. Especially descendants of Scots trying to cling to a borrowed identity.
I heard a funny story while I was there.

Following the last Jacobite rebellion, in an effort to put down the Highlanders several goofy laws were passed by the English King.
No one shall speak Gaelic.
No one shall carry weapons in the highlands.
No one shall wear tartan.

If you were caught in violation of these laws you would be hung. Not surprisingly this didn't really prevent the Highlanders from going on existing as a culture. It took bribing the land owners to finally put the Highlanders down.
The Lords were offered a sheep for every Highlander they produced for deportation. As a result there are 20 million decendants of Scots living in Canada, Australia and South Africa: 4 times as many people than live in Scotland today.



It took 40 years for these laws to be lifted and it was because of Sir Walter Scott that this was so.
He managed to arrange for Scotlands first Royal visit in 120 years by inviting the newly crowned King George to visit his subjects up north.

He persuaded the King to appear in full Highland dress, which effectively lifted the restriction.

Sir Walter visited all the Highland clan leaders and told them to get their tartans and come to the capital to see the king.

Most of them, of course didn't have tartans to wear, so they went to the only mill left in Scotland, Wilson and Wilson, were they were legal to make.

Wilson and Wilson were brothers, immigrated from Poland. They changed their name to sound more like the locals.
They had the contract with the army to make the Highland Regimental Tartan, which was the only one permited by the crown.



Suddenly they are besieged by great hairy redheads, running out of the hills, shouting, "I need MacDonald Tartan! I'm going to see the King!"

However, after 40 years, no one really knew what the tartans looked like anymore. The Wilsons, not to overlook an opportunity to make shit loads of money said, "Sure, no problem. Got some right here. Just like you remember it, isn't it?"

The highlanders, unable to correct them, bought up tonnes of tartan of 100's of varieties, so they could be dressed appropriately to see the king.

There are 4000 registered tartans today. Only 1000 are what are known as the ancient tartans. Those that survived the ban and could be copied.
The other 3000 are the invention of 2 resourceful Poles.



The easiest way to tell the age of a tartan is the colours. The ancient Highlanders only had 4 dyes. Brown, blue, green and orange.

Anything containing any other colour is a modern tartan.
Nothing to be ashamed of, but not quite authentic.



Hope you all have a grand week!

Scotland was Brilliant!!!


I am way to wasted (tired/jet lagged) to tell the whole tale right now but I will throw this out there.

We went on a haunted walk of the vaults under the North Bridge. Typical tourist crap. You go. They tell you scary stories. It's fun. I went just to see how people lived 400 years back. I do not believe in ghosts.

However..... I did take the picture below.




You will note that the background of the image is static (ie not blurry or distorted). Besides if I had moved the camera as wildly as I would have had to to create the big swoop, nothing would be in focus.

I'm sure there is a normal reason for this pic, and if you know it please share, but it is kinda creepy when you consider it was taken in the "Most Haunted Place in Britain".



I will tell more tales as I have more time.

Missed ya !!

This will be my last post until probably the 14th or so. At which time I'll have lots of stories and pictures to bore you all with.

Everybody have a great week.

5 More Days!!!!


Yay!!


Next comes the packing.


Then, getting past these guys.


Then 6.5 hours in one of these.



So, what' shakin' for you?

Yay Saturday!

Two weeks from Thursday I'll be leaving for Scotland!


The very idea of it is mind boggling. I've never been out of North America. While I've seen alot of Canada, I've only been to 4 or 5 places in the US. I've never been overseas. I've never been to Europe.


This is totally outside my experience. I'm not even excited 'cuz I have no frame of reference.


I'm still understaffed at work. I'm desperately searching for a descent chef.


They're not easy to find.
Especially someone who can do fine dinning with little supervision and creative control.
(To me that's a dream job, but I've already got one)


I finally had to write my boss a very detailed account of what's going on in my world over the next 4 weeks.
Seems everytime I tell him I'm understaffed and going on vacation soon, he only pays attention to one of these points at a time. He either assures me that they are huslting up resumes or dismisses my leave as unremarkable.


I'm hoping he clues in that these things are happening at the same time and helps me solve the damed problem.

(Ya see, I work for a huge ass company that runs all the food services on a large university, and while I have near total autonomy in my part of the operation, I remain beholden to one almighty HR department that does everything for all of us.)


Whatever happens, I'll be leaving on the 4th of October for TO and flying non-stop to Edinburgh on the 5th. The tickets are paid for and the appartment is rented. It would cost me more than a grand to cancel now.


So, if anyone has any cool ideas of stuff to do in the land of the Scotts, please let me know.
Have a grand day all!

I saw this movie yesterday. It's my first Bollywood flick and it's as funny and touching as hell! If it's playing in your town and you can groove with subtitles, see it!


In addition, I went bowling for the first time in more years than I can remember. I think I scored a 70-some odd.


So far the highlight of my week has been these wonderful pieces of fried dough. The Tim Horton's Timbit.
I have a lecture series booked into my restaurant at the univesity every night next week. I finally tracked down the organizers to talk about the menu and all they want is coffee and Timbits. Saves me a huge amount of work!


And I finally found a waiter who doesn't suck! I just hope he doesn't leave anytime soon. I've had a bitch of a time finding staff this year. I can't complain much though, I'm missing 3 people for an optimum schedule. Other joints on campus are missing 8 or more!


A pretty strange launch for a new school year. Everythings going along pretty smoothly.


I better not jinx it though.


So.... How YOU doin'?