232/365

Our ESPC web listing went live on Friday, and we had our first open viewing today - we had TWO viewers! Yay! After loads of cleaning, the old hole in the wall is surprisingly photogenic!

231/365

Tonight, Emma had us round for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. She made roast potatoes, roast veg, and sprouts. I made vegetarian meatloaf and good ol' green bean casserole. Neil made an AMAZING pumpkin pie from scratch with rum-soaked raisins. Andi brought tasty wine.

Afterwards, we went to the Caves for a marathon of music for the Shelter charity, and loads of excellent local bands played. Unfortunately, the few bands we wanted to see were on too late for us oldies, but we got to see a great selection of bands earlier on. We left around 1am, and there were loads of bands still to play. This is the excellently-named Jesus H Foxx.

230/365

Our flat went on the market today, and we had to tidy to within an inch of our lives. It's looking pretty good, if I do say so!

229/365

The latest torture devices administered by my foot doctor-new custom insoles. Can't wait to go shopping for granny shoes.

228/365

My first photo on my new toy - a secondhand BlackBerry Pearl. I love it - shame the camera is a bit crap! Sally was kind enough to pose - she's a very mysterious lady.

227/365

Team meeting at our remote bindery. We had to use the visitor's mugs, and this was the one I ended up with - love it!

226/365

Finally back at work. This is my favouritest tool in the whole world - a brass boxmaking square given to me by a friend as a wedding present.

225/365

Early hours of Sunday morning... on the way back from a friend's house post-pub, we were rewarded by a lovely dusting of snow. Of course, I had to make sure everyone knew it!

224/365

Had Emma round for some wine and a catch-up. I was so stir-crazy from my week off work, I allowed myself to be talked into going to the pub after a bottle of wine!

223/365

Off sick again today. I downloaded Super Mario 2 on the Wii.
Perfect sickie game, kickin' it oldskool.

222/365

A cool bit of graffiti on my way home from work.

(I actually went to work today, thinking I was better. Bad idea.)

221/365

Yes, another day off sick.

220/365

Another day off sick.

219/365

Day off sick. This is all I did today.

218/365

I'm heartbroken. Magnus and I had bought tickets to see the bestest live act band in the whole world, The Black Keys, tonight at the Queen's Hall. But a trip to the Royal Infirmary for an emergency appointment this afternoon confirmed that I have a chest infection, and therefor should not be listening to awesome toe-tapping gritty blues-tinged rock'n'roll and drinking beer from a bar full of delicious microbrewery beers. Instead, I sit here a mere mucous-filled shadow of my former self, watching Scrubs reruns and feeling sorry for myself while Magnus has gone alone to the gig. To add insult to injury, none of our friends were available to go along this evening, so Magnus had to sell my ticket for less than face value outside the venue. Boo!

PS - Have I said recently how much I freaking LOVE the NHS?! I probably have, but I'm going to say it again. Time and time again, I am impressed by the treatment I have received from this wonderful service. I called NHS 24 this afternoon at 1:30, the nurse on the phone decided that I should be seen by an out-of-hours doctor, so she made me an appointment for 2:40 at the Royal Infirmary. She even offered to arrange transport to the hospital for me! Instead, we decided to take a taxi to the hospital, I was seen immediately, and we were home half an hour later. No forms to fill in, no insurance to deal with. I love me my socialized medicine!!

217/365

This has been keeping me upright for the past couple of days.

216/365

Sally bought this card for her brother's birthday - I love it!

215/365

(click for full-size. It should be legible.)

Kiki was working on this handbill today, and I think it is absolutely brilliant. Dated 1847, it pleads with the people of Scotland to turn their backs on two gentleman from Virginia who are 'at present lecturing throughout Scotland on Christian Union'. These two gentlemen, you see, 'assert that slavery, considered in itself, is not sinful - is not opposed to the spirit and principles of Christianity - and that the Saviour, and his Apostles, sanctioned the practice of man holding property in man.'

It goes on:

'For the sake of suffering humanity - for the sake of THREE MILLIONS OF YOUR FELLOW CREATURES groaning under the cruel bondage of American Slavery - People of Scotland, see that you do not in any way countenance that abominable system; beware lest you, in any degree, sacrifice your well-known Anti-Slavery principles, by apparently assenting to the absurd opinions of these men on this matter. Protest against their pro-Slavery views - tell them that you can have no connection with them, until they go home and urge upon their Slaveholding brethren to cease to do evil, to learn to do well, to seek judgement, and to EMANCIPATE ALL THEIR SLAVES!'

Excuse my French, but fuck yeah!!! This gave me goosebumps. Powerful stuff!

214/365

The moon rising over St. Giles Cathedral on the walk home tonight. Atmospheric!

213/365

Last day of holiday - mass filing operation in progress in preparation for mortgage/moving madness.

212/365

This is a bit of a cheat. We actually WENT to Ikea today on the bus (man, I HATE taking the bus to Ikea!). We didn't buy anything (except veggie hotdogs!) - it was just a bit of a fact-finding mission for the new flat. I was too annoyed with the whole Edinburgh-roadworks-bus-traffic-hellhole to remember to actually take a photo until we got back to the peaceful sanctuary of our flat. I do love the Ikea catalogue though, so I guess it does really deserve its own photo.

211/365

Ok, so it kind of feels like I'm stalking this band Broken Records. I'm not, really! But we found out they were supporting this band Okkervil River (sweaty lead singer above) at the Oran Mor in Glasgow, and decided to go spur-of-the-moment (thanks to a good few inhibition-lowering beers with some very lovely company in the afternoon). We congratulated ourselves on our reckless spontaneity, ended up really enjoying the gig, and got home way past our bedtime. And did you know that Burger King does surprisingly decent bean burgers? And that Burger King is the only place to get food at Queen Street Station at 11pm on Sunday night? Very useful facts, indeed.

210/365

The excellent Fleet Foxes at the ABC in Glasgow with Magnus and Emma. They were impressively bearded and suitably brown-cardiganned.

209/365

Magnus and I stopped for a couple of drinks at a cool super secret bar off the Royal Mile on our way home from shopping. This is the cool Narnia-esque entryway.

208/365

This is a brilliant headline.

207/365

He's done it - Chicago goes apeshit!!!!!

206/365

Getting settled in for a long night of election watching.

205/365

My amazingly talented friend Kiki made me this awesome Obama bunting for our election party tomorrow night. It really is incredible. I can't wait to put it up at Emma's house!

204/365

The park was very beautiful tonight

203/365

I'm cheating and posting two photos because I did two awesome things today, and I can't choose. This was the Obama rally organised by Democrats Abroad UK in Edinburgh. Neil and Emma came along to show their support, despite the fact that they can't vote! The weather was lovely and the speakers were great.

In the evening, Emma and Neil came for dinner, then we went to see the amazing Edinburgh band Broken Records at the Bongo Club to celebrate the launch of their new single. This was the second time I've seen them, and they are just brilliant. Afterwards, we went dancing to 60s mod/underground music at Studio 24. Much fun was had by all.