each, peach, pear, plum.

Each peach pear plum, I spy Tom Thumb.

Tom Thumb in the cupboard, I spy Mother Hubbard.

Mother Hubbard in the cellar, I spy Cinderella.

Cinderella on the stairs, I spy the Three Bears.

Three Bears out hunting, I spy Baby Bunting.

Baby Bunting fast asleep, I spy Bo-Peep.

Bo-Peep up the hill, I spy Jack and Jill.

Jack and Jill in the ditch, I spy the Wicked Witch.

Wicked Witch over the wood, I spy Robin Hood.

Robin Hood in his den, I spy the Three Bears again.

Three Bears still hunting, they spy Baby Bunting.

Baby Bunting safe and dry, I spy Plum Pie.

Plum Pie in the sun, I spy...


Everyone!



J+A Ahlberg.

Niki: too much

I went to the movies with Ben and saw Kick Ass. It was funny. Much more dramatic and violent that I had anticipated. I did jump a few times, but at least there were no knee-jerk reaction "It's a big shark!" exclamatories...




Niki-

you write too much on your blog entires.
(Though, you do have an amazing ability to speak a lot normally anyway. True Lomax styleee)

Dear Friends

Dear Friends.
I miss you.
But I am happy.
Very.
Kiss you in la facé soon.
Llegs 11, baby. x

Geometric shapes on the Clyde + swan on floaty thing.


Tough as fuck.


Babe. Dag. Slag.


Talent + talent.

transitions and glasgow

WEATHER. Glasgow is CHANGING! Make no mistake! Weather has officially gone from sombre to joyous. Not suddenly, but still relatively quickly. Like if you take too long in the shower one morning you might miss the tipping point and your in your PJs in dark/cold then in your clean undies in summer.

EXCHANGIES. Only two of my friends I've met who are also on exchange are staying for more than the single semester. So one by one they're all leaving. I'll be seeing Niki and Jess soon enough in Barcelona, but it's still sad to see them go. Please note I am wearing Ben's german football stripe because my only other option of clothing to farewell the lasses was the Mirrorball Suit which went out to the house party the night before. Trond has also left for Norway, but I am bunking at his house with Ben in Bergen around the end of July. With Deb and Arttu gone as well, and Phil in Paris, it's only Gowri, Victor, Cliff, Rohan (where is Rohan?) and I left. But they'll all be gone soon too. Transitions. I will sorely miss all the beautiful friends I have made here on exchange. But I feel we'll surely meet again- if not in Melbourne when they all come good on promises to visit, then in some other place on some other adventure... yes!

OLD PALS. Today Lyall and I am clearing out the flat. Keys will be handed in tomorrow and That is That. End of the Partick Palace. It was good while it lasted, I think I was incredibly lucky to meet Lyall. He is such a legend and I could not have predicted my time in Glasgow would have been this fun. What a dude. Can't wait til he comes to Australia and I can show him off. Tonight will be The Last Supper for us. He's on the boat back to Shetland where he'll scoop the guts out of salmon with a spoon for 3 months. Bye bye Lyall. You're the best!

transitions and endinburgh

I seem to be involved in a perpetual state of transition at the moment.
People coming, people going; milestones; seasons turning...

It's a funny feeling because my entire time here in Glasgow has been held at ransom by the countdown of my return. I have always felt my time here to be a surreal reality- some kind of hiccup in my normal life. Some kind of mistake- how the hell is it legit' that I get to come to the other side of the world, make such amazing new friends, see such beautiful and interesting scenes and get 'credit' for 'attending' university? I know I am returning to normal/usual life and that makes everything here seem strange/unusual. But things are definitely changing. Which means there has been some kind of pattern of living that I have slipped into that makes the strange and unusual quite normal... Talking in circles... I'm happy here and now this transition is going on all around me I feel a bit uneasy...

Mum came and went. It was a 30 year gap between visits but she made it back to Scotland and I think she really enjoyed herself. It was a shame about the Ireland trip not working out but we had a lovely trip to Arran (mum took the photos home with her so have no pics to share) and to Edinburgh. We did a tour of the Real Mary King Close in EddieB which was really good. Edinburgh was built UP rather than OUT. When they built the new Royal Exchange building they just cut off 4 stories of houses and closed off the streets and built above it. The old houses and streets are sitting abandoned under the Royal Mile. Amazing. They used to make wall plaster from horse hair (to keep it all together and stick to the wooden walls), water and ash from cremated humans (steady ash supply thanks to The Black Plague). We walked up to Calton Hill, which is on the 'new' side of town and looks out over the Firth of Forth to the north, and the city and Arthur's Seat to the south.
We saw big fluffy bumble bees, Italian tourists (Scuzi!) and a film crew doing a film where the protagonist plays violin. Here is mum explaining the world and all it's appendages to moi. Mum made it back home safe but apparently is badly jet lagged. I am not looking forward to that one.

Ben's little sister Emma turned 21 on Thursday. She is such a gorgeous girl, really nice. I felt very lucky to be involved in her special bday celebrations. There was mother and father and brother Davis, and boyfriend Godron, and Grandma and Grandpa Davis came up from southern England. And me. We went to a Michellin starred restaurant in Edinburgh and were all put up for the night in a hotel. Pretty amazing! And I have never, ever, ever come across food like it.
The restaurant is Kitchin, run by Tom Kitchin (judge on British Master Chef finale if that helps anyone?). The flavours were like nothing I've ever had before. Look at the menu via the link: I had crab for starter, red mullet with garlic gnocci and seared squid for main, and then pistachio soufflé with pistachio ice cream for dessert. Crickey!
So happy 21st to Emma :)

Icelandic Ash

Couldn't get to Ireland today. Ash cloud, closed airport, etc. Bummer. And damn Ryanair will only refund the leg of the journey cancelled from ash, i.e. we can't get to Ireland, but we'll have to pay for the flight home, even though the trip was booked as a return flight and they won't drop us in Derry... I really hope this doesn't become a common problem. I think I'll take mum to Arran Island tomorrow for the day. One holiday for another. Last time I was there there was still snow on the ground so I reckon it'll be beaut now it's Spring.
Arran in January:

Gone to Ireland

Some things you may not know about Ireland:

The horses have moustaches.

The Giant's Causeway is sick. And the whole rock complex is much bigger than I assumed. Lots of rock. For big giant feet, I guess.

The Irish like muff, but not always each other.
It's always Guinness time, everywhere!

Clockwork Orange

The underground subway in Glasgow is orange. And it goes in a loop. There are 15 stops. Last night we went on an infamous Clockwork Orange: a subway pubcrawl. The objective is to get out at every subway stop, head to the pub that is closest to the station, have a pint, then on you hop and get out at the next station 2 min down the line and repeat. I have a video of the shenanigans, but can't upload it here for some sad reason. If you're mind friend look on my FB page to share in the havock. The vid is from about 9 hrs in to the crawl. Involves drunken slurring from me, the train driving closing the window and refusing to acknowledge us, Lyall and Ben doing gymnastics between the hand rails on the carriage, and some free style rapping from a wicked Glaswegian who witnessed our ridiculous behaviour. Mum joined us for two stops (then managed to get lost on her way home, after 2 pints. Oh mother!). Top work Phil for being one of the main organisers, to Ben for knowing what the hell was happening most of the time, to Arttu and his European friends for doing the whole slog, but definitely not to the man at St Georges Cross who wouldn't let me through the turn style at the station.

mum's here

Shetland Folk Fest, du kens.

Boarded the 'Hjaltland' Northlink ferry at Aberdeen on the Wednesday night, but didn't leave the harbour for 3 hours because we were waiting for the tide to rise.Ben and I met a rad old timer named Sandy from Inverness who was a fan of Orkney and was mates with some of the members of one of the bands playing at the festival. We stayed up chatting with Sandy for a while. He used to work for Tourism Scotland so he shared stories about all the wonderful places in Scotland to visit (which I did with mum this week just gone!) We had a few beers at the front bar (as opposed to the back bar where more of the action takes place) and listened in on a lots of fiddle sessions and impromptu jams with double basses, accordians, fiddles, drums, mandolins, etc.

Ben and I didn't have a cabin (too poor) so we pulled cushions off the seats and laid them on the floor. We undid a few light globes and hid under my big coat to sleep. It wasn't too rough so we managed to get a few hours sleep. We arrived Thursday morning and had a snoozie to prepare for the rest of the festival.

Lerwick is the main town on the main island of Shetland. It's a pretty town, quite small, all stone in the old part, based around the harbour.
Met a local with an amazingly thick accent on a cliff atop the ocean. He told us we'd just missed sighting some seals. Shem shem. He was building a dry stone dyke wall. I want one of these when I grow up:
I didn't get any pics from the festival gigs. I thought about it but couldn't be bothered. You'll just have to get yourself a ticket for next year!

The gigs started the same night we got off the ferry. Ben's mum and dad have been going to the festival for ever and know the protocol well of ensuring you get good seats. Basically you arrive bloody early and get the front spot in the line until doors open, then you head straight for the front table. Easy. On the Thursday night we saw 5 bands.

Friday night was our 'night off', which we spent with Ben's old Shetland friends drinking and playing guitar and singing and speaking French and just being silly. That was lots of fun. Ben took me to the Sooth End for some puffin spotting. Success!

Ben and his dad lined up 2 hours before doors opened on Saturday. My, did we have good seats! It was a much bigger concert than the small town hall venue on Thurs- there were about +400 seats. After the gig Ben and I went to the 'Festival Club'. The Festival Club is at a big town-hall kind of place in Lerwick where all the musos go to after their gigs. There's a bar there open til 1am. There are 2 main stages on 2 levels and bands just jump up and play a set. Then there are half a dozen rooms off to the side that are 'session' rooms. Musicians just wander in with their instruments and start jamming. We were in a Jazzy Charleston room for a while with some honky tonk piano and some clarinets and fiddles. We watched Fiddler's Bid for a bit (Shetland heroes) and talked to one of the members from The Wiyos for ages about New York and music. Big night! Home before 5am, and the sun was well and truely up by that time. Only about 3 hours of proper darkness this time of year. In mid summer the sun only just dips below the horizon. It's call 'simmer dim'.

Sunday was a another epic stake out by Ben's dad. Almost 3 hours this time. The last night of the festival is the Foy. All the visiting bands come round to the venues and play a short set of about 20 min. Snuck in whisky and wine so got very merry.

I was fed very well by Ben's folks. Shetland hospitality is great! We saw a new born Shetland pony, which was weird. And the sun coming out at 3am was also very odd.

My festival faves were:
The Unwanted
Irish/American south blues and traditional music. The mouth organ man was dressed old school like the chemist from a Spaghetti Western, and the woman was in a red satin corset with black lace.
Bodega
Young kids, all did a folk music course at uni. Really talented and very energetic, they've won a shite load of awards. Good mix of old and new style music, with some Gaelic and some English songs. Ben went to school with the fiddler Ross, who was mostly pissed every time we saw him.
Swedish band Vasen where great. They had an old traditional Swedish instrument called a Nicelharpa (spelling?) which is like gnarly fiddle held at the hip with keys rather than toughing the fret board. Very funny and happy guys who've been playing together for over 20 years!
The Wiyos. Rad. Spoke to the guitarist on the ferry up and festival club at about 3am, and he managed to remember mine and Ben's names on the ferry back! The singer was so charismatic and had a strong voice for a little bloke. He'd put on this little black hat and push it down his face and take on this swaggering bluesy character. Cajun, blusey music. Foot stompin'. Can someone please help me get them to Australia?
The New Rope String Band were a comdey/folk act that where extremely clever and entertaining. Check their website of Youtube or something. Have a giggle.