At Journey's End
20/08/08 00:27 Filed in: Personal
I was chastised in the office today by a much better blogger than me for not
having updated my blog recently, so here goes.
Since my last proper update, over a month ago,
lots has happened. I crossed Europe by train, then
did it all again to get back, discovered the
Edinburgh Festival, and started a politics blog.
My trip to Greece was like most long trips: there was a lot to enjoy, but most of it was sitting on trains (or rather, lying, as I used sleepers and couchettes for large parts of it), feeling bored. The trip was a little unusual, in that I was travelling with a friend from Brussel for the first few days, then I set off on my own for the remainder. It was interesting to see the different characters of all the cities I passed through. Praha felt like a faded jewel; Ljubljana had the same vibe that Edinburgh has, clearly something to do with being the capital of a small country; Zagreb was the first really 'different' city that I reached. It took a little while to get used to it, but once I had, it grew on me. Sofia was one of the best cities which I visited. I didn't actually spend a lot of time exploring Sofia, instead I settled into the brilliant Hostel Mostel for a break from my holiday. There is only so much walking around cities looking at tourist sights that I can manage. After Sofia, I had one last comfortable sleeper train, before becoming acquainted with ΟΣΕ, the Greek state train operator. I say acquainted, really though, that didn't happen until my return journey. From Thessaloniki to Athens, I had to use a coach thanks to a railway strike. I did get to use rail-based public transport in Athens though, with the Metro to Pireus. A quick overnight ship down to Crete brought me to that little corner of England in Crete that is my grandparent's house. I'm not ashamed to say that the first thing I did when I arrived was to make a proper British cup of tea, and watch BBC World News.
Read More...
My trip to Greece was like most long trips: there was a lot to enjoy, but most of it was sitting on trains (or rather, lying, as I used sleepers and couchettes for large parts of it), feeling bored. The trip was a little unusual, in that I was travelling with a friend from Brussel for the first few days, then I set off on my own for the remainder. It was interesting to see the different characters of all the cities I passed through. Praha felt like a faded jewel; Ljubljana had the same vibe that Edinburgh has, clearly something to do with being the capital of a small country; Zagreb was the first really 'different' city that I reached. It took a little while to get used to it, but once I had, it grew on me. Sofia was one of the best cities which I visited. I didn't actually spend a lot of time exploring Sofia, instead I settled into the brilliant Hostel Mostel for a break from my holiday. There is only so much walking around cities looking at tourist sights that I can manage. After Sofia, I had one last comfortable sleeper train, before becoming acquainted with ΟΣΕ, the Greek state train operator. I say acquainted, really though, that didn't happen until my return journey. From Thessaloniki to Athens, I had to use a coach thanks to a railway strike. I did get to use rail-based public transport in Athens though, with the Metro to Pireus. A quick overnight ship down to Crete brought me to that little corner of England in Crete that is my grandparent's house. I'm not ashamed to say that the first thing I did when I arrived was to make a proper British cup of tea, and watch BBC World News.
Read More...
Rolling On...
28/06/08 01:54 Filed in: Personal
Well I didn't get very far with the "political" post,
so I'll save it for another time. My constant travel
continues, and I'm taking a short pit-stop in
Manchester, before heading for the Netherlands for a
week, and then crossing Central Europe and the Balkans
to get to Greece.
I was in Dublin for the
first Inter-Isles Young Greens get-together, which was
great fun. We managed to achieve the perfect balance
between socialising and serious stuff. Highlights
included going on my first Pride march, and developing
a taste for Guinness. The next event is in Edinburgh,
later in the year, so I'm looking forward to that.
While I was in Ireland, I
managed to squeeze in a trip over to Co. Galway to
visit family. Rural west of Ireland is quite a contrast
to Dublin, shown most clearly in the difference between
a pub in Cong with DJ Eamo (bored looking man in the
corner with a laptop plugged into the speakers), and
pretty much any pub we went to in the capital.
Anyway, 'twas all fun, as, hopefully, the rest of
Europe will be.
Too Many Trains!
12/06/08 00:00 Filed in: Personal
Once again, i've gone far too long without posting
anything here. I'm in a strange period of lots of
travelling at the moment. This weekend there's a family
party, which should be fun, and next week I'm off to
Dublin for a young greens event. So I'm finding myself
on trains rather a lot. Considering my summer holiday
is going to consist of taking the train to Bosnia, it
is a feeling I should get used to.
Anyway, I'm partly writing this to try out a new version of the software that runs my blog, and partly to fill in the gap before I put up my next post, which I'm thinking will be a "political" thing. Read More...
Anyway, I'm partly writing this to try out a new version of the software that runs my blog, and partly to fill in the gap before I put up my next post, which I'm thinking will be a "political" thing. Read More...
A Word Of Explanation On The Herald
16/05/08 10:37 Filed in: Personal
I mentioned in a recent status update on Facebook, that
I boycott The Herald newspaper. This was a mistake. Now
people are asking the perfectly reasonable question of
why I boycott this respectable Scottish broadsheet. To
save writing multiple messages, I'm writing this piece
here to explain it.
Back in 2004, I was in high school and the Scottish Executive wanted to make young people more politically engaged. The result was a glossy magazine with a lot of anti-globalisation text, a picture of a bomb on the cover, and a paragraph urging young people to march in the streets. Looking back, I'm starting to wonder who in the Executive actually approved such a thing! Read More...
Back in 2004, I was in high school and the Scottish Executive wanted to make young people more politically engaged. The result was a glossy magazine with a lot of anti-globalisation text, a picture of a bomb on the cover, and a paragraph urging young people to march in the streets. Looking back, I'm starting to wonder who in the Executive actually approved such a thing! Read More...
Summer is Here!
15/05/08 01:00 Filed in: Personal
Woohoo! My exams are over. I'm officially still in term
time, but in reality I'm on holiday until September.
Not that its all going to be resting. I have quite a
lot of projects on the go at the moment, and I should
probably make a start on my dissertation over the
summer.
I spent the weekend in Berlin, at the Federation of Young European Greens General Assembly. It was very interesting. At quite a few points, I was totally lost in the European variant of English that seems to have developed (manifestation is used to mean demo, odd), and a couple of times, I'm shamed to admit, I wasn't completely sure what I was voting for. I didn't get much chance to do touristy things, but I did see the Tiergarten and travel around Berlin on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn a little bit. I've also managed to become the subject of gossip among the DWARS delegation and one of the new executive committee members. Maybe I'll go into that in another post though.
I spent the weekend in Berlin, at the Federation of Young European Greens General Assembly. It was very interesting. At quite a few points, I was totally lost in the European variant of English that seems to have developed (manifestation is used to mean demo, odd), and a couple of times, I'm shamed to admit, I wasn't completely sure what I was voting for. I didn't get much chance to do touristy things, but I did see the Tiergarten and travel around Berlin on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn a little bit. I've also managed to become the subject of gossip among the DWARS delegation and one of the new executive committee members. Maybe I'll go into that in another post though.
Revision, exams, &c.
12/04/08 20:25 Filed in: Personal
In just a couple of weeks, I'm going to be sitting down
to my first exam on Global Governance. Then I have one
exam per week for five weeks, which means that in a few
weeks time, I'm going to be totally exhausted. Of all
the exams I have to do, I'm really not looking forward
to my EU politics exam. If I were really good at the
subject, I would be able to recite all the names of the
10+2 accession states in English, French and German and
give a quick rendition of the Ode to Joy afterwards for
good measure, but sadly it is hard enough the remember
the key dates and details of each treaty.
Extra-curricularly I've had a bit of success, though its down to lots of other hard-working people too. Unfortunately, though I would love to break the news on this blog, I can't say what exactly it is, though it's in the area of international social justice.
If a thunderbolt of inspiration for a political post comes, I may find some time to write it, but until then, I'll leave you with this personal post. Read More...
Extra-curricularly I've had a bit of success, though its down to lots of other hard-working people too. Unfortunately, though I would love to break the news on this blog, I can't say what exactly it is, though it's in the area of international social justice.
If a thunderbolt of inspiration for a political post comes, I may find some time to write it, but until then, I'll leave you with this personal post. Read More...
Lets Talk
22/03/08 11:38 Filed in: Personal
I’m going to put forward a rather unorthodox view for a
Green Party member: that the party should willingly
co-operate and communicate with other political parties
and with companies. I say this is unorthodox because,
from my experience, it seems as if most party members
are very much of the opinion that the Greens are the
alternative to normal politics, and that somehow by
co-operating and communicating in a meaningful manner
with other parties, we are losing something of our
otherness. I don’t know how much this is just something
that occurs in the UK, and I could of course, be
totally wrong, but I was inspired to write this post by
another post
on a blog written by a friend of mine. Read More...
on a blog written by a friend of mine. Read More...
A Busy Time
15/03/08 19:18 Filed in: Personal
The past three weeks have been my busiest of the year
so far. Starting with Fairtrade Fortnight, I was
desperately trying to get all the events and
information stalls in order. It went pretty well in the
first week. There was a debate about Fairtrade, which
was well attended and had some good questions. We also
managed to get a few stalls going on the ground floor
of the Union.
However, week two was slightly less successful. I stood in the Union Executive elections, so instead of being able to supervise the Fairtrade Fortnight events, I had to wear a fluorescent yellow and pink T-shirt and hand out flyers for my campaign. It paid off, I'm Officer Without Portfolio-Elect, and the rest of the people on my slate all got elected as well. What didn't happen were the Fairtrade stalls that were due to take place. I'm a bit miffed that people didn't take the initiative and run the stalls themselves. Anyway, what's done is done.
The only slight problem with spending so much time on elections and the Fortnight was that I, sort of, forgot about my academic work. Hence, week three has been spent hurriedly writing and submitting course-work. I'm not sure its my best work, but it is in, and hopefully will get a decent mark.
So now I get to rest for a week or so, before exam revision takes over. Read More...
However, week two was slightly less successful. I stood in the Union Executive elections, so instead of being able to supervise the Fairtrade Fortnight events, I had to wear a fluorescent yellow and pink T-shirt and hand out flyers for my campaign. It paid off, I'm Officer Without Portfolio-Elect, and the rest of the people on my slate all got elected as well. What didn't happen were the Fairtrade stalls that were due to take place. I'm a bit miffed that people didn't take the initiative and run the stalls themselves. Anyway, what's done is done.
The only slight problem with spending so much time on elections and the Fortnight was that I, sort of, forgot about my academic work. Hence, week three has been spent hurriedly writing and submitting course-work. I'm not sure its my best work, but it is in, and hopefully will get a decent mark.
So now I get to rest for a week or so, before exam revision takes over. Read More...
How to do a Hustings
03/03/08 21:52 Filed in: Personal
Do:
- Be calm, relaxed and confident.
- Know what you're going to say.
- Enjoy it.
Don't:
- Forget manifesto points.
- Tell the returning officer that you've lost it.
- Flee.
Guess which of the two lists I followed.
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- Be calm, relaxed and confident.
- Know what you're going to say.
- Enjoy it.
Don't:
- Forget manifesto points.
- Tell the returning officer that you've lost it.
- Flee.
Guess which of the two lists I followed.
blog comments powered by Disqus
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