Anyone with any doubts over global warming please leave the room.
I find it incredulous that after the global leaders meeting in Copenhagen that
Scotland is still contemplating new opencast mines. Scarring the landscape and polluting
the atmosphere. I am no eco warrior but when will we learn? 
We have a quarter of all of the European wave and wind energy potential around our
coasts but quarrel about erecting wind turbines. Liste folks we have to be progressive with
our thinking.
Surely the general population can evaluate the difference between erecting wind turbines
and opencast mining. Sometimes us Scots can be so small minded.

We are now just starting to see the floods after 'the big freeze'. Still some councils are 'surprised'. 
A mdeia phrase not mine. We now are part of a society where the media is king are control everything. They dictate when and what information we are about to recieve! It is soo difficult to receive unbiased reporting or to know how much 'news' is true and how much is added on to jazz up the story. The media really are in charge of everything we see hear and read. Daily news items filtered to suit other peoples agendas - political, environmental, racial etc.. Everyone has an 'angle'. How can you be expected to hold the scales of justice with an equal poise when all around are tilted.
And then there is 'celebrity' and combined with the media it creates nonsense.
I truly hope in twenty years people have come out of the other side and have realised what is important in life i.e Jordan v global warming - because children are growing up right now in an environament of absolute garbage. Information is either skewed, blighted or just plain wrong. Lies and damned lies.

Lets hope celebrity fad is just a passing one and that the media take their place in line rather
than controlling the hearts and minds of the majority of the population.

On a personal level i am now homeworking these days. Very environmentally friendly you may think. It has its personal benefits (limited travel hours and costs) but can also feel very claustrophobic at times.
Some would say its halfway to being a casualty of the recession.
but. NewsFlash!!
We / 'UK' have/has officially emerged from of recession today.
Again, the media wouod have us believe that all is rosy and maybe just maybe
even the spin of positivity may make a difference to spending habits and property decisions.

So who knows..i did see some snowdrops at Balbirnie last week.
The green shoots of recovery?? you decide...

ps -  anyway, just back from a nice long weekend staying at Malmaison Edinburgh.
Nice hotel, food average, great little bars in the area - The Shore is a standout hosting live music on Sundays.
If you go to the 'Mal' ensure you get junior suite 322 - best views and very tastefully decorated. Its been a busy January and i hope to be slightly more regular with my blog. Any comments are appreciated.

Autumn 2009 already. A damp squib of a summer.
Things have changed dramatically since the last blog
- all of two years ago. Fighting for my job and the house
hinges on the job so things are tough, Mentally tough.
It calms me to think there are millions just like me.
I remember the recession of 92 but it was nothing like this.
This isnt a cyclical blip  - this is a crisis. Peoples pensions
which they worked 45 years of their lives for have been
decimated. Now that is wrong!
Will blog some happier stories from my 2 year blip and
apologies to anyone who ever read it. I dont think
when i last blogged tweets or twits had been invented! 
I hope the fife free press bring blog bites back but
i havnt seen it for ages.
the langtoun laureate 16.09.09

Another season another set of deflated supporters.

I was gutted that Raith didnt get through their
play off semi final. I had vowed to support them in
the final games should they get there -
and me a Rangers ticket holder for the past 17 years!

I feel the town reacts to the sucess and failure of Raith.
Remember the atmosphere surrounding the cup final triumph.
everyone and their gran were at Ibrox that day
and literally dancing in the high streets afterwards.

I always have a place in my heart for Raith and try to get
along once a season to lend support and see what the current
players are like. 

Do they still let the bairns "over the turnstyle" i.e in for nothing.
It was always the case when i was an under five.
The old stands - railway sleepers, ash covered coo sheds.
Its all coming back now. the stench of the toilets and the little
programme hut where i started my collection.

Seating has ruined football in my humble opinion. the sway,
the rush, the patter, the wet pockets at hampden, ended up
ten feet away from your mates after a goal.
I need to stop this misty eyed stuff as my election anger still
bubbling under!!

but..the names form the past, murray mc - what a keeper,
bobby ford, toe houston, elvis forsyth, smudger
, gordon wallace (where is he now?)and bally too name but a few.
They were happy carefree days, learning to smoke, autographs at
the tunnel and iced doughnuts!!
Best of luck for next season Raith and i promise i will attend
more often but my first team is probably in more need of my
support at the moment!!

Failure or success, promotion or deflation - Kirkcaldy really is
the centre of my universe.

PS Anyone else totally hooked on The Apprentice?? superb

Scotland really is the joke of europe. i cant believe the shambles
aka polling day actually happened. 150,000  - three time the
approximate population of Kirkcaldy's votes were scrapped
i.e not counted for various reasons.
By my very simplistic calculations  -  a 60% turnout from a
national population of approx. 5,000,000 then 150,000 is 5%!
that is criminal.
I know it was only 3% in Fife but it's still nothing to be proud of!

Whose idea was it to hold both local and national elections on the same day?

In this modern age of chip'n'pin and touch screen technology surely we
are beyond the days of the manual hand count?

Between ticks and numbers and preferential listings and first past
the post - something was drastically misjudged.

Thousands of postal ballots were either not sent out in time or unaccounted for?


Apart from the reasons above does this mean that the "lost" 5% were either misinformed
or not literate enough to read, undestand and comply with simple instructions?
are these votes just to be forgotten?
I dont want the "cant understand simple instruction brigade" voting on my
political future anyway but i do live in a democracy where every vote should count.

The polling day fiasco is shameful and will not encourage high voter
turnouts in the future.

This is a huge scandal and must never be repeated.
The outcomes wont change and if i know scotland it will be used as a
political barganing tool by minority politicians.

Unless its a sunny day and involves free ice cream i wont bother voting
next time and i havnt even started on the policies and the parties
and personalties themselves!!

Does anyone else feel like this or is it just me??


Yours angrily..

Election fever is at a crescendo. I have had so many flyers

seeking my support i almost feel popular.

I have never proffered my support to any one party or one

set of beliefs. I seem to stand for the "whats suits/matters to me at

the time party". At the moment my concerns are th NHS,

crime and housing. All issues affecting me right now!

I thought the Newsnight interview of Jack MConnell was

superb in proving that he/they just condem others and

some of their promised policies hold no factual content.

Watching Jack squirm was superb viewing. (I am not

anti-labour -  I just enjoyed seeing politicians being asked

direct questions repeatedley as they try to avoid or avert

the host). Newsnight is a superb programme.

I really dont believe any one party will move mountains

but ridding politics of lies and corruption and this ridiculous

lib-lab pact would be a start.

My vote is as yet undecided. I do hope the turnout is increased

this year as the apathy in the past make the whole process

a bit meaningless. If you dont vote you can't moan!

Even France managed an 85% turnout last week. Surely we can
improve on a 55% voting public in Scotland. Don't people care?
And if not..why not? 

The links market was a bit of a damp squib for me this year
after all the pre-links exitement. At 37 i have maybe grown up
or had just seen it all before. I felt so old even have a walk through
this year. It was like a under 16 disco. The police did an excellent
job policing the masses.

Hopefully the first day of Summer (officially) will see a change in
the weather and the grasscutting, hayfever and ice cream season
can really begin.

Finally, good luck to Raith in their play off semi this week.
If they win i have promised to suppport them in the next match.
Just dont tell my fellow season ticket holders at Ibrox!

ps. this irratatingly good song in the charts "take a look at my girlfriend".
Who did the original?

 

 

start saving now for next years links market!! you know it makes sense. well,
it makes sense to save - it makes no sense to annually spend about
£50 per capita on what boils down to spinning round, feeling dizzy, eating
fluoresent foods and retching at the sea wall.
you must be thinking - "wot a grumpy old git!" your only half right
because i have a love of the links which must go right back to toddler
days. the smells, oil mixed with sickly sweet sugars and fried onions
all stirred along with the repetitive banging of the heavy basslines
and horns and sirens and wee jeanie jamieson heaving in between the
burger caravan and the ghost train.

it was a good walk on saturday. the weather stayed dry and i bumped
into a few well kent faces. the police presence was high and visible which
meant that even though 90% of market goers are "gadgies" you felt
relatively safe!

the rides seem to get higher, faster and louder each year.
i think i am getting a bit old to be excited by it but i still got
the butterflies in the pit of my stomach whilst traipsing down Olympia Arcade!

the links is part of our heritage and is a good thing for the town. it must be economically
sound for the council as well.

scream if you've had enough till next year!! bah hamburgers!

The weather has been glorious for the past week. The clocks changing
and a prolonged (more than one day) spell of sunshine can make such a difference.
It is like a cloud lifting from around weary shoulders or a breath of fresh air.
Young lambs, easter eggs (is it acceptable for a 37year old to be excited about receiving a Maltesers easter egg from his Dad?) and the dreaded spring clean all spring to mind.

My promotion came through at work this week. Mixed emotions really as
the changes are both good (financial reward, career outlook and self belief/worth) and bad (long hours, even more grumpy with the staff, having to grow up).
Last week was a b*gger at work and i felt my stress levels could take
no more but the weekend was fantastic!

I had a lovely day in St Andrews yesterday (Easter Sunday) and a surprisingly nice meal at
the Crusoe (Lower Largo) on the coastal return journey.
Just what I needed - a complete destress.
I am working today (Easter Monday) but as i woke early this morning i opened the back patio doors as usual and ALL i could hear was the tuneful twitterings of the Balfarg bird chorus
- it was so uplifting. There has been an air of peacefulness all weekend (even on the home front!).
Usually the morning aural greeting is one of the thunderous rumble of the heavy goods lorries roaring along the A92.With the morning traffic being virtually non-existent and my
Springtime mood it could be a great Monday!   

I have always been an avid Fife Free Press reader.
It formed part of my upbringing.
Thursday evenings - me and my dad in the blue transit van rattling
along the cobbles going to the old newsagents around the east end
of Links Street.  
He would get the inky local paper - The Press, and i would get a 10p bag.
This could contain delights such as white mice, pink prawns, blackjacks
or fizzy flying saucers. To an eight year old in the late seventies
a 10p bag was a treat to saviour.
I coud do a whole blog on sweets of old!!

The ritual in our house was that no-one touched the Press
until Dad had read it - that might take until Friday night before it
beacame public property.
Even as an eight year old boy I loved the little jaunts to get the press.
The paper was a cornerstone (and still is) for my family and probably
thousands of similar families around the kingdom.
As I grew up and went to college and then started work I carried on the
ritual "buying the press".
The feeling was that the Press night was almost the weekend
- it was tangible - the first taste of the weekend. 
I still love dipping in and out of the press on a Thursday evening.
I have my little routines
 - front page, back page, weddings, other photos, births/deaths and then
slowly deavour every story, column and snippet throughout.
(Nowadays I do check Blog Bites at a relatively early stage!!).
I also upkeep the "hands off its mine" tradition.  
I am a very proud Langtonian and Fifer.
I have travelled and worked extensively throughout the country and still 
believe Langtonians to be Best of Breed.
The Press is informative and straightforward in its reporting and 
I like that.
I remember when working abroad the press (three weeks out
of date when it reached me!!) was still the most joyous of experiences.
To some people it may just be a newspaper but to me its an inky
old family friend and an institution which is close to my heart.

Roll on Thursday night..