Edinburgh Hogmanay festivities Dec 06

The other day I told you I went uptown for the Up Helly Aa well last night I went up again for a few hours. This time it was for the "Night Afore International Festival" - I arrived at George Street at about 7:30pm - nothing happening so went for a pint then outside for a bit of ceilidhing .
Later on still - nearer 10pm the main event finally got to the stage at the West end of the street and I have posted a couple of videos of this unusual street entertainment. I enjoyed it a lot but I would be lying if I said that I had understood it !.
Perhaps you can tell me your opinions.

Video 1, Video 2

Paragliding at Cairn Liath 26 Dec 06, Scotland

I have posted a video on Google basically showing the flight down.

Here is the link :- http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-6881593969542909178&q=paragliding

Edinburgh Up Helly Aa

Ping, Richard and I met this evening and joined the Torchlight Procession going up Calton Hill. This was the start of the New Year festivities.

Up Helly aa - a Viking celebration dating back to about 900 a.d where a boat was burnt after invading somewhere! This stops the vikings returning of course. I didnt notice any viking invasion although I may have missed it.
The procession and the Up Helly Aa is based on the original held in Shetland every year.

This was followed by some fireworks and then a couple of beers at The Guildford Arms. Ping and I then walked round the fair and then home.
A few of the photos I took Are here

Paragliding Broughton 17th Dec

It has been some time since I last posted here so :-

Last Sunday the 17th December, after doing some shopping I eventually drove down to Broughton .
I arrived at about 2pm - and then walked up to the very top - only to see everyone else flying past and homeward!.
I also met Cliff who was taking the quad bike down and had also had a bad day having written off his car on route to the hill on black ice earlier in the day - he was OK though.
I then filmed Brian Steele and 2 other pilots fly past me before setting up myself. The 12Mb video should be available here. Right click and save as to your computer.
My flight was mega smooth and just a slightly extended ttb of a few minutes. I reverse launched and landed near the end of the track -nice but my first flight for too long.

Other news - at Clare Florist - work seems to be going well and yesterday my role was increased along with the number of hours I work starting in January.

Christmas - for me it really starts 23rd Dec with dinner with all the family at Susans and then again when I cook on Monday at Mum and Dads. I am looking forward to it immensely.

Have a lovely Christmas.

Some nice paragliding links

Speed paragliding close to ground at Seleve near Geneva - video.
More swooping videos . Pleasantly suprised to see Alan Hill as background picture - he was my as previously mentioned my excellent paragliding tutor in NZ. Long video of speed gliding by Alan at Pukemore in NZ which is where I had my qualification flight but it was nothing like this!.
Speed gliding on The Eiger - video

New Job

Those of you reading this will probably already know that I have been "between" jobs for some time.
Basically since Brand-Rex had a large scale downsizing in August 05 till last week this has been the case.
I am pleased to inform you that I now have a (very enjoyable and interesting) job working for Clare Florist working as a Web and IT Assistant.
Clare Florist deliver flowers throughout the UK and also have an excellent Affiliate program paying 10% commission on sales.

I don`t believe that I could ever have got this job without having completed 6 months of IT training funded by The Scottish Exceutive through Netresources. It is this training that has directly allowed me to change my career path from Manufacturing Engineering.
(Stef, Roan, Sara, Peter and Ian - if you are reading this then - Thankyou)

Bob Veitch finally gets a job and Pings birthday ...

Hello,

Short note with 2 good things:-

Today is Pings birthday and we started celebrating this on Sunday evening by attending Richards firework party and dooking event which was very good. Today I shall cook a nice meal in the evening and make a cake for Ping.

Also today the agency called me up and it looks like I am starting work on Monday the 13th Nov. This will be my first actual work since Brand-Rex laid me and loads of others off at the end of July last year. Obviously I hadnt expected it to be such a long time and I am very glad that I shall now be able to hopefully stop depleting my savings.

Paragliding - new photos

Hello,

I have finally added photos of Paragliding at :-
Myreton near Menstrie on 14th October,
Ben Lawers on the 15th October both of which are part of The Scottish Nationals Paragliding Series and finally on Sunday 29th October at Broughton.

All comments gratefully received.

Paragliding at Broughton today

Hi,

Just a quick note to say that I and about 13 others were flying paragliders today at Broughton, accessed from Lochurd Farm near Broughton, Scotland.



I woke this morning to see the clouds whizzing by so hadnt thought of flying today, later I looked and conditions were getting weaker - so I drove down and arrived at about 1.30pm.
I then walked up - the usual 45 minute slog, with sweat dripping off to arrive at the top with some people saying that that was the end of the good conditions!!

I then as usual dithered around for a while before eventually taking of in lightening conditions.(probably missed the best conditions) - result a nice 10 minute top to bottom - reverse launch.

I repacked glider and walked back up the hill and just had another ttb this time to the landing field. This was quite late on and as such I was the last pilot off the hill. Everyone then went to The Crown in Biggar - Nice day.




To see all the photos in larger format and a short video using Picasa please click here.

Bicycle repair - Charity

Last night I finally got round to repairing my bike and I went to the recently re-located Bike Station.

This is a great thing - they are a charity and on a Wednesday evening a few people can go along and use their facilities, obtain their advice and for a nominal fee per hour help you to repair your own bike.

I removed my bottom bearing - which was completely worn out, changed the rear gear set, added a new chain and a new cone on the rear wheel.
It is a new bike in comparison to before (certainly doubled its overall value!!)
I did make a mistake just before having to leave - in that I shortened the chain too much so couldnt use the large chain ring but I have corrected that this morning.

New sealed bottom braket bearing - the one that the pedals drive through, new chain, bearings and gear set plus all the time only £35. Excellent.

On the cycle back I popped into the Cask and Barrel at the bottom of Broughton Street and met Tony, Andy and Keith - but I just satyed for a short time and had only one - excellent as usual - pint before returning to Ping.

Life is fickle ....

Well life is slightly fickle ....

I had a short interview on Saturday (7th October) with Richard at Off Beat Clothing and it went very well - with talk about seeing you Monday to start work as a website operator. He had said that he would then discuss this with his brother and call me on Sunday.
I didn't receive a call but naturally assumed it was just an omission so went to work for them this morning only to get a very cold shoulder along the lines of who are you!!.
They had received many more applications after mine and as such they naturally want to review them all and call me later - perhaps.
Such is life.
Clearly my celebrations during the weekend were a little early.

Yesterday - Sunday - 8th October Ping and I went to Richards and I helped with the balustrading - design of the attachment of the hand rail to the top half newel post is rubbish - so we basically did the work twice - but it looks good so far. Richard still has on order all the spindles and I expect that the fitting of all of these wont take that long at all.
After the balustrading Ping prepared dinner - Prawns in Tom Yum soup - yummy, followed by chicken and noodles which was also excellent with the addition of some Chilli sauce. Sweet - prepared by Richard was banana, ice cream and Chocolate sauce - allays a winner.

Saturday evening Ping and I went to Susan and Allan`s and had a carry out curry and a few beers / wine - which was excellent as well.

SHPF website updated

Hello,

Today I have spent a significant amount of time updating the Scottish Hang-gliding and Paragliding Federation (SHPF) website.

I have added a blog facility, amended the template so that it blends in with the rest of the site, added a few blog items, updated the Scottish Nationals Paragliding series webpage, added a page about the round held recently at Ben Lawers and hosted by the SMPC and finally corrected and added a few links and details about paragliding and Hang-gliding.

Enjoy.

Tutti-Frutti - Kings Theatre 4th Oct 06 - my short review

I went yesterday with Dad to this show - which is a stage reworking by John Byrne of his 1980s hit tv series of the same name.

Did I remember the story from all those years ago - no - not really ! therefore I was watching the show as pure entertainment.

The basic story is that of a second tier band about to have their 25th anniversary gig and then how all the stories of the characters intertwine to produce an excellent little play.

The musical pieces are all very well done - the piece with the 3 leading ladies soloing being the best - the highlight of the show in my opinion.

The acting is all excellent - as one would expect - although at times it was a little difficult to clearly understand "Miss Toner".
(There is quite a lot of patois - for example Quoins and Loons - which perhaps doesnt allways make understanding easy for the whole audience!)

The show totals about 3 hours but this passes very quickly and therefor I recommend you see it if you can.

Other comments:-
Dad and I were up in the Gods and as such seat space is tight
The music is from the 80s so the audience tends to be mature.

Programme for The Kings Theatre - Edinburgh

My new Blog

Hello,
Well as you can see it is Mid August and I have finally got round to getting a blog going on here.

My news since last I blogged :-
The main news is of course that my girlfriend Ping has finally arrived in Edinburgh.
Ping commenced studying English, she is now half way through the 2 months of this course and then she commences an Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics Msc at Heriot Watt University in October.

Actually today is our 1 month anniversary of her arrival and all is very well.

Paragliding - not a lot of flying - feeling a bit rusty but had a nice if short flight at The Moorfoots last Monday.

Still looking for a job - soon desperation will kick in and I shall probably end up working in a bar or a chip shop or something.

Websites - have been playing around with the SHPF website (added on the option to use the shpf.org.uk address ) and today a bit on simulations-4-u

Thats it for the moment.

Bob.