July Morning

Okay, Uriah Heep's 'July Morning' wasn't a catchy hot single but I was struggling!

Highlight of the month was Darren Clarke's victory in the Open - particularly as I has a small investment at the rewarding odds of 150-1! While young upstarts like Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy found themselves flailing around hopelessly in awful conditions, the serene Clarke was a picture of good-humoured calm throughout the four day ordeal and left the others in his considerable wake.Just proves that us portly, more mature chaps can still cut the mustard!

Don't think for a second that the month was spent sitting on a sofa munching Golden Wonder, drinking coffee and watching TV though - on no, there was lots to do!
With few opportunities to top up the tan (weather very unpredictable - see above), I was a very very busy man indeed. As well as tending to the garden and keeping on top of washing and ironing, I found the time to carefully clean my nice blue cooncil paper refuse bags - they were looking a bit tatty and I didn't want the neighbours complaining. Looking very smart and shiny now though - sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day!

June is Busting Out All Over

You'll notice I have started trying to use song titles as blog post titles recently, and it's so far so good. July, August and September are looking trickier though so I may abandon this project.

June was holiday month - Tuscany, Elba and Corsica made a pleasant change from dreary old Drylaw!

Returned from holiday to host North Edinburgh Social History Group's 'Never Give Up', a book and video recording the area's long and proud history of community activism. I was very proud to be asked to compere the evening and, much to my relief, it proved to be a great success. 'Never Give Up' was a tremendous achievement and a real labour of love for all of those involved over the life of two year project. The launch was accompanied by a photographic exhibition which brought back some great memories of past campaigns and of some activists who are no longer with us. Great stuff!

'May each day ...

... Of Your Life be a Good Day' sang Andy Williams. Nice song, that. And I'll wager that Ooor Supreme Leader Alex Salmond has had few better days than that momentous May Day when the SNP were swept back into power in the Holyrood elections. Most people predicted an SNP win - Labour never really got the hang of opposition and their campaign was lacklustre to say the least, and the SNP government has done very little wrong over the last four years, introducing a number of popular (or populist, depending on your point of view) policies and steering clear of controversy in the main (with the exception perhaps of the Al Magrahi release). The Liberals are at rock bottom following the Westminster coalition deal, the Scottish Socialists/Solidarity remain the two bald men fighting over a comb and the Tories - well, they're the Tories! So the scene was set for SNP to continue in government.

But while the SNP victory was predictable, the sheer scale of the success was stunning - an overall majority must have surely exceeded the SNP's wildest dreams. A raft of familiar faces departed the Holyrood stage - quite a few never to return, I hope - replaced with enthusiastic new Members all eager to show their talents. Among them will be many who just didn't expect to be there, and there could be some fun an games as the new intake finds it's feet. The electorate will be expecting more of this new administration, however - particularly one with an outright majority - and we could be in for interesting times.

Back in the wee world of Dave, I spent this month creating a giant Creme Egg sculpture. I worked tirelessly on this unique installation and I have applied to Creative Scotland for funding to take my exhibition on the road. No response yet but I remain hopeful.

With so much time spent on the sculpture there was little leisure time but I did manage to get some gardening done and fitted in a wee drive to Glen Etive (pictures above).

April Showers

I've been lucky enough to have been in constant employment since I left school in December 1974 - and over all those 37 years I only had two employers - The Scotsman Publications and then, from 1999, North Edinburgh News.

So unemployment is a new experience for me and I intend to take some time out to see what options are available and work out what, exactly, I plan to do for the rest of my working life.

Short term, a wee acting role came up in a short film called Rabbit Punch, and that took up a couple of weeks. I also had some unfinished work from the NEN - sorting out and trying to catalogue old photographs for the Social History Group's project. That took a lot longer than it should have, as old photographs have a habit of bringing back memories happy and sad. Frustrated at my lack of progress, Caroline decided to lend a hand and ruthlessly accelerated the process (no room for sentiment here!) Job done, eventually ...

Attention turns to all those neglected gardening jobs - no shortage of tasks there. And just to keep my hand in, I wrote up the annual Tierney Award presentation for our community council, and my article was used in a number of publications both in print and on-line - the old magic's still there! Over the hill? Past it? Never!

I also got some really nice shots of a herd of horses as dawn broke over Cardrona one misty morning - it's always worth keeping a camera handy.

Beware the Ides of March ...

Well, it was a long time coming but the last issue of the NEN - in it's current format at least - was produced this month. No last minute reprieve - not that that was ever likely - for the NEN, and we closed the doors of our wee office for the last time at the end of the month. For the time being at least, the final chapter of a thirty year history.

The last issue came out early in the month, so the final days were spent clearing the office and covering jobs for our new Wordpress blog (including the successful launch of the 'It's Yummy Mummy' cookbook, pictured above) - all with an air of slight unreality. It was all to real, though ...

Not too many highlights this month for obvious reasons, but Gail and Chris held their engagement party in Silverknowes Golf Club - a shaft of sunlight in an otherwise gloomy month.