Independence & Cycling

Posted in General musings, Wibbling by yourstruly

I would apologise for the lateness of this latest post but I won’t because anything posted between the last one and now would have been quite boredom-inducing…

So summer’s come and gone (not about to break into song), and for the first time I’m going to teeter on the brink of Political Discussion. It was inevitable: if you live where (or near where) I live, there will be no avoiding the Scottish Independence debate. Feelings are running very strong all over the place and the campaign is getting ever more intense, with only a couple of weeks to go in order to decide which box to tick on the big day.

The best indicator of the ante being upped significantly is the amount of physical leaflet-y material coming through the door almost daily. Thankfully I live in an area where the predominant feeling is one I generally agree with, otherwise I’d be getting very uppity almost every day. However much of the campaign – particularly on the “yes” side – has been propelled by online activity.

For a recent writing project for a new website, I chose to air my own view on the whole thing, with the hope of helping to convince people that they do still have a chance to sway the vote, no matter how much propaganda to the contrary is being flung in everyone’s collective face:

http://writertown.com/how-social-media-can-sway-the-vote-for-scottish-independence-2/

What else… apart from reading, “gathering inspiration” for my writing, and quite a lot more Netflix than is healthy, I’ve been trying to resume cycling. Without a motivating influence to keep pushing myself on, it’s been quite a bit more difficult to ride for very long, or even find a good reason to do so in the first place. However I am trying not to slide into apathy, and will make a point to find somewhere interesting to ride; to enhance the novelty value, preferably somewhere I haven’t been before.

Here are a few pics of the latest solo ride:

A bridge en-route which I took a photo of instead of crossing…

Bird wire-sculpture

Apple tree at the train station, which I was unable to pick at the time

Later that day I tried to make a pie; sadly, these were not made from apples from the apple tree above…

21Jun2014

Writing Update

Posted in Literary appreciation (at the risk of sounding pretentious from time to time), Wibbling by yourstruly

In order to celebrate the summer solstice (since I can’t make it to Stonehenge and I would probably never find the place anyway) I’d like to draw attention to some more stuff I’ve been working on.

View from my abode – love that midnight sun

#1 – My latest fling with some verse*

*Now has its own page on this site: “Meta-lite”

#2 – An extract from my new work-in-progress short story “Spin”, inspired by the legend of Arachne:

Before I really understand what I’ve taken on, I am unceremoniously set to work at the loom, with a different, much lower, stool to sit upon for the purpose.

I really have to reign in my recurring impulse to embellish the tapestry in my own way. I am given strict instructions not to “deviate” from the pattern. She has it all planned out for the big day. I look at the picture, already becoming clear to see, of a young devout man, and a young devout woman – separately – imploring the gods to grant them a wish I cannot decipher from the clues provided here. This is followed by a cluster of young men and women enjoying each other’s company in an entirely wholesome way, then a flock of birds soaring over a field of wheat and grain. The tapestry ends, rather abruptly, over the face of a young maiden (I don’t know if it’s the same one as the first one but she has a different expression on her face), and this is where I have to take over and finish the tapestry. It is around this point that I realise that I have not actually been provided with a “pattern”, per se, but the instructions were explicit nonetheless, to finish the tapestry in a way that is fitting. They have obviously credited me with barely enough common sense to finish the pattern more or less by repeating what has come before.

Each time I return to the tapestry, I re-evaluate what I have to do next, and it changes only a little each time. Mostly, I try to recreate what has come before – groups of young men and women enjoying a chaste gathering, flocks of birds, trees and bushes, houses, basically anything inoffensive.

I begin by finishing the girl’s face and body. She is perhaps too symmetrical to be realistic but better that than imperfect – or ugly.

I soon find that this is too easy, but at the same time it’s too hard, too boring to do this all day every day. The temptation to alter the pattern, to add my own flourish, is getting stronger each time I sit down to face the loom once again. I fantasise about making the silliest and boldest changes to the tapestry; having the young man yawning whilst praying, the young woman’s strand of hair coming a little loose, the lambs bouncing around the field, the birds “depositing” on the house below, one of the young men giving a sneaky pinch to one of the young women… but each impulse I only barely manage to suppress, falling in line with the prescribed pattern.

This task has taken a few days, as I’ve been called away from the project several times to attend to some other chore in the house. I am going to give myself the gift of something of my own.

I set to work, barely thinking about each motion I go through in my sequence which I’ve taken many years to learn to perfection.

Eventually the tiny threads converge to make a rainbow-like string, strong enough to catch the light, yet delicate enough that I barely felt it when I placed it along my wrist, allowing myself to imagine what it would be like to be allowed to wear such a thing, such a thing that wouldn’t snap and flutter away if caught on something.

It just barely covers the mark made upon my wrist many years ago, which although faded with time. It is now covered with something of my own making. Almost. Not quite.

Happy pagan dancing!

3Jun2014

Just Trying To Help… Spare Some Change?

Posted in General musings by yourstruly

I’m going to disclose something potentially damning about myself now: I’ve never had a paid, conventional, 9-5, full-time job before. Well, I’ve never had one that encompasses all these qualities at the same time.

Although I’ve been able to safely account for most of my “working” life by virtue of being at university* (full-time, or as full-time as an arts student can be…), and in volunteering, the often-uncomfortable fact is that, due most likely to a combination of circumstance and simple bad luck in that area, I’ve made it to nearly-thirty with less “working” experience than your average school-leaver, fresh out of the can.

*Also, I guess that spending those years at university investing in a degree which is probably one of the LEAST likely to lead directly to paid employment also hasn’t helped my situation.

However, this isn’t for lack of trying, particularly upon my leaving school with considerably poorer grades than I was hoping. At my peak, I was dumping around 5-10 of my proudly-tailor-made CVs per day upon the unwitting shop-bar-cafe circuit in my town; only a (child-size) handful of which actually invited me for an interview; almost none of whom actually offered me anything. Eventually, I would end up acquiring a very short-lived customer service job and a brief stint in “hospitality temping” – both of which I became certain I was suited to in NO way…

Furthermore, during those times when I found myself out of both work and education, I found myself actually WANTING to do something productive with my life. For me, finding work wasn’t just a way to earn money and make a living, it was a way to potentially enrich my life and to “make a contribution to society” – win-win.

Thus I was initiated into the world of volunteering. I started out helping in my local Oxfam store, which I grew to like enough to actually want as a paid position, except none were then available. I got a well rounded impression of working for a charitable organisation and felt… of-use. Then sometime later along came a full-time placement doing editing and graphic design for a local community project – full-time, but still technically volunteering.

Then in the middle of uni, I did more Oxfam time here and there, then when I graduated I had WAY more free time to fill, and job prospects which ended up being only slightly better than when I started my course. The trouble was that by the time of my graduation, the climate was such that not only were jobs scarce even for the most highly qualified people, but now competition for volunteering placements had grown so much that there were virtually queues out the door to basically work for free.

A few years ago, shortly before graduating, I applied for a mobile library role which would involve helping to deliver books to those unable to come to the library. After an intensive interviewing process and a thorough background check, I then heard… nothing. Ever again. I’m still not sure whether they were inundated with applicants in which I got lost in the shuffle, or they simply found a better fit for the role. Either way, it would now seem that even offering time for nothing in return would be a new challenge.

Something to this effect would happen a few more times between then and now. I would apply for a volunteering position with a view to “making-a-contribution-to-society” (and frankly, also to stop myself going insane), I would go along a few times, basking in the feel-good glow which comes from doing-a-good-thing. I believe I even dared to allow myself to feel a little smug on occasion.

Then the work-load would cease, or I would no longer be needed for the position, or communication would simply cease for whatever reason. Then I’d be back to square one.

I’m still not entirely sure whether I’m going wrong somewhere in the whole process of volunteering, or if there is just no place for a would-be writer/researcher/librarian (where my skills most closely lie, if anywhere) in this mad new world with far too many people also wanting to do-a-good-thing.

But in the absence of that ever-elusive full-time job which has been dodging me ever since I’ve been old enough to require one, I need to do something to keep the encroaching tide of ennui at a safe distance.

Or I might even be forced to take up running again.

26Apr2014

La Dolce Vita II

Posted in The Sporadic Traveller by yourstruly

At long last I am able to bring you the second half of the tale of my trip to Italy, because the illustrating photos finally managed to upload after a few weeks, so better get it down before it gets any more patchy in my memory… After a day in Venice (really needed more time there), I caught a train to Florence, propelled along by a highly efficient Italian rail service and some good tunes from Spotify – my Kindle was broken, most likely from over-use 😦

When I got to Florence, two things immediately struck me. Firstly, it was WAY more tourist-dense than I was expecting. I thought I had come during the “off-season”, my primary reason for coming at the time, but apparently I was wrong. This would cast a bit of a shadow over the trip for me, but I was determined to take full advantage of being in such a stunning place.

And the second thing… it was stunning. Coming out of every narrow alleyway (not quite as narrow as Venice) you would happen upon some amazing standing testament to the Renaissance – Florence being the cradle of the Renaissance, it was quite fitting. I didn’t even try to capture how impressive the architecture was there, because I couldn’t do it justice, plus everything was surrounded by hawkers of cheap tourist memorabilia…

Besides taking it all in, on the first full day, in a bid to break the solitude I went on a bike ride with the Tuscany Bike Tours company for the best part of a Sunday. We got a ride from the guys running the tour to the “typical Tuscan countryside”, where we were shown a pre-medieval castle where the regional wine is made. We got to sample said wine in the courtyard before the ride…

After some briefing, we got going, and what a welcome contrast to the throngs of the city it turned out to be. Good company, but just the right amount of it, and the sun came out to say hello, which lent an idyllic touch to the day.

After that, I was on my own again… having seriously underestimated how expensive Italy alone would be, this would rule out further travel for the time being, so I just decided to soak in this quintessentially Italian place.

I’ll include this photo just to prove that it was actually Florence I was in

For a lone vegan, there was a double challenge to finding an eating solution which didn’t just involve snaffling fruit in my hostel room like a squirrel after hibernation, but I was lucky to find a couple of vegan-friendly joints just round the corner from where I was staying. They were VERY busy but if I hung around long enough at least I didn’t starve…

Brac Libreria di Arte Contemporanea

(I don’t do food selfies, sorry. But I’m sure you can imagine what vegan Italian cuisine looks like. So above, here’s the place setting for a cool wee cafe I chanced upon…)

But the thing about Florence, and probably all of Italy, is that its essence is found in being in company. Couples, friends, groups, were everywhere. There were probably the odd lone stragglers but they did a good job blending in. Essentially, the place was made for “amici” and “amore”.

I picked up upon a curious aspect of the city. Not only is it famous for Renaissance art and architecture, but it has something of a modern art scene, in the form of street ornaments and graffiti. There were mosaics dotted around the place like this one,

and something of a guerrilla feel-good campaign going on,

The graffiti was far more prolific in Venice, but that alone would take up a whole essay-size article. The time I spent in Florence was both too much and too little. But I wanted to see Italy (and very clumsily practice the language) and Italy I got to see, and Italy I will definitely be returning to in the future.

I would return Venice for one final evening before flying home, almost broke and still travel-hungry, and make one last bid to fit in with the locals before making a firm point to take up Italian lessons again. I hung my socks out to dry on the balcony,

as the example was perfectly set for me from the beginning:

Now to start saving and planning all over again…

11Apr2014

La Dolce Vita (I)

Posted in The Sporadic Traveller by yourstruly

For the last while, my mind has been in a bit of a muddle (for reasons and stuff) I’ve had some time to kill and a modest amount of money to burn from an uncharacteristic self-discipline of late. Also, I had been wanting to re-acquaint myself with the Italian language. I was decently versed in it during high school, and having foolishly dropped the class, I thought it was time to pick it up again. And what better way than… to go there.

After much dithering about what to do and where to go (small jaunt or epic trek or random pootle), I decided to go explore Venice and Florence, booked into some budget accommodation and a couple of tours for good measure. Then a few days later (I move fast when I want to) it was “Andiamo!”

First, there was the photography tour of Venice. For those who know me (or read this blog occasionally), I’m quite partial both to travelling and to photography, so this seemed like the sensible thing to do in this place. So I ended up meeting a local professional photographer in St Marco’s Square and we zipped through the corners and recesses of the city, snapping all along the way. I won’t inundate this page with my photographic efforts (I’ll put together a more comprehensive collage later on) but here are a few samples for now:

Gondolas temporarily out of action

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

A typical street – clothing lines between the buildings really caught on here…

Bridge in Venice – one of many I’m sure

Being of the opinion (shared by many I’m sure) that a lack of pollution and congestion can only improve a place, I had to see a city where this was not the case. Simply, it was like how I imagined the roads and cars being replaced by canals and boats as a young ‘un, because it just looked like FUN. How getting around every day should be, before it became a chore.

Also, a vital interjection – I love the indie Italian bookstore.

unnamed (1)

This probably should have been my first clue that there were good reads to be found in the place

(As my camera decided it’d had enough for one day, I had to use the camera on my phone, and it turned itself onto black-and-white mode, so it wasn’t a deliberate choice here.)

With the help of the photographer guy, I got to have a snoop around Libreria Acqua Alta https://www.facebook.com/pages/libreria-Acqua-Alta-a-Venezia/51303900515, and although I didn’t actually get to read or buy anything, the place in itself was a bookish revelation…

Pretty inconspicuous from the outside…

unnamed (3)

Yes-it’s-a-gondola-in-a-book-store

A book staircase

However, in seriously overestimating my remaining skill at Italian, it was more of a museum than a library experience, as I wasn’t so much reading as looking and admiring. So it strengthened my resolve to better learn the language (voucher for online lesson already bought and ready to use), if only so I can return one day and actually buy a book from the place…

I guess writing a university essay on Death in Venice failed to fully prepare me for what to expect in this particular city. There was no immediate danger on account of the threat of a plague, or an unhealthy obsession with a young foreign person (that would be a whole other story), but in getting far enough away from the “throng”, there would be waiting glimpse upon glimpse of a compact and traditional lifestyle at every turn.

By the end of the tour I had walked non-stop for four hours without a coffee or a sit-down and I was ready to collapse. But I had acquired a killer montage, much of which is locked within my phone, bursting to be free.

That’s an idea…

(La Dolce Vita II coming soon…)

14Mar2014

A Not-So-Happy Ending

Posted in Mini existential crisis mode by yourstruly

It’s been a strange time of late. I’ve been trying to finish my novel (not just a novella) in the midst of a total creative drought which shows now signs of ending, and then, somehow, my fiance and I ended up separating 😦

I won’t go into go into details here, or go all “woe is me”, but it’s been confusing and disorienting for all involved and has forced further changes in our lifestyle. With things so uncertain, he has had to move on to where the job prospects and other good things are (not here) and as for me. I’ll let you know what else happens soon…

In the meantime, here’s a photo of a nearby “poetry garden” I took about a month ago, complete with unwitting pigeon:

I will start getting up early again, if only to see nice things such as this here

10Mar2014

The Nature Of Adventure

Posted in The Sporadic Traveller by yourstruly

Posted on February 17, 2014

The topic of this post is going to be – you guessed wisely – “adventure”!

My fiance and I are usually on the look-out for an “experience”. In early December 2013, we decided, on one of the biggest of whims as whims go, to go to Tenerife. Flights were cheap, we needed a bit of winter sunshine, and it beat sitting around waiting for the chaos of Christmas to fall upon us once again. Simple. In theory. But adventure is precisely something with which, in reality, we both considerably struggle…

I rock (hehehe see what I did there?)

Trekkie…

We went on a trek on the first day, which was fun, however we found ourselves at a bit of a loss on the second day. We weren’t quite sure what to do with the rest of our time there. Then, our precarious planning was scattered to the wind – literally – when on the third day, we were hit by the worst weather that Tenerife had seen in a long time. We were then stranded in what had turned out to be a bit of a ghost town for another couple of days, over which time we developed severe cabin fever and outstayed our welcome in the hotel spa, where the same three songs being played on repeat would haunt our memory for some time to come. Seriously, if I never hear the song “Sail Away”, instrumental pan flute style, again I’ll not exactly complain…

Me in what looks every inch a ghost town

We only had a couple of days left when we were able to move to our next location, in a more populated area by the coast with a far more pleasant climate. On one of those days, my SO set himself the challenge of attempting to climb Teide by bike.

‘Mon then!

He still has unfinished business there, which may prompt another visit in the future, but as far as I’m concerned, unless one or both of us is able to drive, or there is a very good cycling / public transport network in a place, we are going to continue having difficulties going anywhere else, and with the general reality of Adventure.

We do try – and we do succeed, on occasion. Snatches of the trip here and there are filled with good memories of having at least tried something; going for wanders in the area, venturing into an obscure taverna with no menu where we were served an original meal by a really nice guy. Indeed, when we’ve gone to other places on a whim, we’ve had a far better time than I would have expected at such short notice.

It seems to be all about striking a balance between spontaneity and planning. This is our collective weakness, but hopefully we’ll get the balance one day!

10Mar2014

Warm-up To My First Post In A Long Time. And A Promo.

Posted in Literary appreciation (at the risk of sounding pretentious from time to time) by yourstruly

Posted on January 23, 2014

Hey all, a belated Happy New Year and I am still alive and kicking (mostly kicking).

I’m in the process of coming up with the best way to articulate what’s been happening over the few months since I last posted here, but until then I’ll just post an update as to my writing.

Got a new (miniature) poetry offering on Kindle. Linky:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Surface-G-Devine-ebook/dp/B00HZUXRRG/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411085508&sr=1-3&keywords=g+devine

*I’ve since moved my writing from Kindle onto this website for the foreseeable future so the link won’t be working (12/03/15)

Back soon!

10Mar2014

I Will Take Up Running One Day

Posted in Literary appreciation (at the risk of sounding pretentious from time to time), Wibbling by yourstruly

Posted on October 4, 2013

Recently I’ve been trying – trying – to get into running. Properly, not just jogging a little bit here and there, which I usually end up doing…

It strikes me as one of the physical activities that comes most naturally from a human perspective, and I’ve read enough blogs about people taking up running, and positively gushing about how addictive it is and how it’s changed their life, etc.

I’d genuinely like to get in on that, if possible. I want to find a form of exercise that I enjoy and that is relatively affordable and provides an outlet for stresses of the more mental variety, which I could really use. Plus, I actually do voluntary stuff for a fitness website, so I’m coming into ever-increasing virtual contact with people who have found that spark, either recently or a long time ago, and appear to have found their calling.

I even joined a running group in the hope that I would catch on too. I imagined myself as a writer who runs, or a runner who writes, something akin to Haruki Murakami, or Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal website, or an ordinary vegan fitness junkie, like the people on the aforementioned fitness website. I could be one of those!

But it’s just not happening.

I don’t know why it’s turning out this way, but every time I step out the door ready for a run, (if I even get that far in the first place), a wave of what I can only describe as cringe engulfs me. The cringe results in thoughts popping into my mind which discourage me from running right from the get-go; I’ll not even be able to run that far without having to *shame* slow down to walking, right in front of everyone; I look like an utter moron (even though lots of other people are doing it I am the only one whom the spotlight of moron shines down upon, goes my thinking); I have no business being out here; TURN BACK AND GO HOME…

In the safe realms of my imagine I am running, sprinting, skipping, free. But in reality I am a shrivelling ball of cringe who cannot think its way out of this state and just get the hell on with running.

Everyone else is doing it so why can’t I?

The only solution I can think of to get out of this cycle is to locate a “way in”. I will keep a close eye on the “world of running”, and one day I will spot a space in a group, which I will sneak into as stealthily as I can, and at least I’ll simply be blending in.

Then I can focus on the more serious business of running for fun.

10Mar2014

Boatin’ Time

Posted in The Sporadic Traveller by yourstruly

Posted on October 4, 2013

Greetings once again, I shall dedicate this post to recounting the fairly recent boating trip I referred to in the previous posting. It took place in late summer, and it is already well into autumn, so apologies for this being so late but here we go-

Powering through Loch Ness – peacefully of course

It was… an interesting experience. I left most of the actual sailing up to my fiance, but I did most of the tying and untying of the boat’s ropes, and we both had to endure constantly having to pass through canal locks, but when we were actually able to sail freely, it was jolly good fun, and the simple pleasure of having lunch in the middle of a loch on a reasonably nice day (as long as it isn’t too choppy) is one that isn’t all too commonplace…

Last but not least, it has to be said that – no we did not see “Nessie”. He was probably sleeping or generally avoiding people when we passed by. Also, according to local legend “Nessie” has a fellow prehistoric buddy, “Lizzie”. No sign of Lizzie either when we passed through where s/he is meant to live. We saw lots of ducks though, and they got quite a feast of cereal and bread on the house, as it were.

We could both potentially get more into boating, providing we had more freedom to take the boat wherever the hell we felt like. As folks who like not to be tied down to one place for too long, this could fit nicely into our lifestyle. However it may be just another pipe dream for now, as there are quite a few things on the proverbial to-do list, so for now it’ll get put into the “we’ll see” pile.

And yes I still managed to struggle to write – even in the midst of that damned nice scenery. More on that next time…

The boat that was briefly our home

Ben Nevis REALLY doesn’t look that difficult to climb from here…

Silly Goose

neurodivergent vegan bibliophile, blogging about some of the stuff I get up to

Author Archives: yourstruly

Independence & Cycling

Writing Update

Just Trying To Help… Spare Some Change?

La Dolce Vita II

La Dolce Vita (I)

A Not-So-Happy Ending

The Nature Of Adventure

Warm-up To My First Post In A Long Time. And A Promo.

I Will Take Up Running One Day

Boatin’ Time