xmas is coming, the geese are getting fat

That would be the famous Heathrow injection. If they’re living on the same sort of diet that I am, I’m not surprised they’re getting fat. Lunch for me tends to be some sort of sandwich, usually involving a pig in some way (what’s the difference between involved and committed? To produce the bacon and eggs, the chicken was involved, the pig was committed). Massive slabs of bacon sometimes. So far I’ve had melts and stotties and baps and toasties and barts, as well as less local variants such as paninis and wraps. I’ve even had the odd sandwich.

Here’s Miquel eating a kebab. I kid you not, there was twice as much meat that he had to get through to get to the bread. I should know, this was the second time a night out on the town had ended up here, and I had the same kebab last time.

And at the monument (up the road from the office a little way, the town’s centre), there have been Christmas markets with all sorts of delicacies, so for a little while lunch every day was a giant bratwurst inna bun. This photo is here though as another Newcastle architecture sample of old and new side by side. Nothing at all to do with Dutch pancakes.

Can you believe how close xmas is now? The office tree is up, as was appropriate on the first day of December. Although, there’s something just a little bit, well, engineery about this particular tree!

We had our work Christmas party last night, so I’m writing this from my couch, having just got out of bed at 3pm. The last thing I remember is complaining loudly that this so called party town shut all the pubs at 3am. I’ve run out of reading material, and the best thing on TV is a choice between a very old Star Trek episode and horse racing over hurdles.

Work was very crowded yesterday. We are now so short of space before we move to another floor in the building that we are officially “hot-desking”. Fortunately, someone always seems to be off somewhere interesting. I’ve been sitting in the seat of someone who is in Abu Dhabi, others are in Benin, Togo, Samoa, France – and of course, I’ve already had two trips to Scotland!

The first was just a day trip to sort out some equipment with one of my new colleagues in the East Kilbride office, rather confusing located on the west coast of Scotland (and no, apparently there’s no west or central Kilbride). So it meant a 2.5 hour train ride each way, very scenic. It was another lovely clear day, with a great view of the rugged coastline up the east coast, and the rolling farmland as we passed through the middle.

To be honest, I never even though to try and get photos of the scenery out of the train’s window, or of East Kilbride itself (although that last is understandable), but this just begged for a photo, or else who would believe me? Please all note the beer selection available on the train from Newcastle upon Tyne to Motherwell in west Scotland.... Naturally, I had to have one.

The second trip was to Edinburgh. That’s a very pretty city, and I had a lovely day for it. My meeting was across the road from the castle! I didn’t make it any closer than this though.

One day I’ll go back and go to the Edinburgh Festival and explore a bit further, but this time I just walked along the main street. Now, normally I don’t tend to stop much for buskers, but who could resist this?

I’m told that football is akin to religion in Scotland, and this pub appears to agree…

I haven’t been to a football match here yet, but it’s definitely on the to-do list. Maybe I’ll go watch the “toons” – Newcastle United in their Collingwood colours. Their nickname is from the local pronunciation of town, as in going doontoon. My Geordie’s not coming along very well I’m afraid. I can’t even pronounce “you all reet?” correctly according to those how mock my attempts.

The Scottish may love their football, but luckily for them don’t care much about the cricket. It’s just not fun anymore, it’s all too easy. I usually refrain from mentioning the cricket during the day now, you can’t beat a dog when he’s down!

I went to the local shopping centre last weekend. It claims to be the biggest in Europe, and while I’m in no position to verify that claim, it is pretty big. When the train pulled up to the dedicated station, I thought, well, it’s big but not much bigger than a normal Australian Westfield. Then I realised I was seeing it end on!