Beer and Curry Medicine

Image: Curry Council

Intensity Lull
After the intensity of my blogging at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival, September feels quiet, low and almost uninteresting on the availability of things to write about. It’s a lull that happens each year; one feels almost uninspired with an absence of all the inspiration swirling around, and it makes you reach out to try and create fresh topics to write about.

Added to this is the tension surrounding the day job after management changes, workload imbalances and general feelings of inflated importance, are starting to affect the working environment. I can’t stand egotism and the bottom line is, it’s not a very pleasant place to be at the moment. I’ve been through worse, mind you; I’ve lived through two redundancy threats and survived, so a mere management shift won’t shake the roots that much.

Beers and Curry
I decided to shake things up this weekend then by taking my wife out. With daughter away to Guide camp we headed out on Saturday afternoon to Bannerman’s to see the best cover band this side of Harthill, The Rab Howat Band. It was busier than I’ve seen it in a long time and the set was fantastic—loud, but fantastic! It’s just what I needed to empty my head as the lager flowed.  I managed to catch a word with @Drumslinger before I left, drummer extraordinaire for the band, but I had to decline his offer of a curry the following night due to plans already made.

Afterwards, we jumped in a taxi and headed back down to Leith to The Raj Restaurant for one of the best Indian meals I’ve ever had. I enjoyed the Raj Shurvat Platter (chicken tikka, sheekh kabab and pakora) to start then a main that consisted of a lamb balti, shared pilau rice and shared peshwari nan, all washed down with a large Cobra Beer. It was awesome and the best thing is my wife couldn’t finish hers… so I did!

A couple of whiskies to round off the night in Leith’s Malt and Hops pub on The Shore and then it was a waddle along the road back home. I was seriously stuffed and couldn’t fit another thing in my wee belly if my life depended on it.

A decent sleep ensued into Sunday morning, and ever since, I’ve been feeling great. It’s amazing what a bit of loud and live music with beers and good food can do for you!

Workshop
The DIY work continued in the house on Sunday as well as work on the revision for the first assignment at the Advanced Dialogue Workshop. I’m not going to post it to the group as it’s very minor, because like the actual assignment, I left it open with some thoughts in mind where it might go—dependent on the next assignment of course!

I also popped over to one of Gail’s cousins and collected their old rabbit hutch. It’s in much better condition than the one our rabbit is in so by the time I get it assembled later toady, wee Pippin will probably be bounding all over the place with excitement at her new home.

Thought a lot about the 10th anniversary of 9/11 during the day. I stayed away from the live TV coverage and deliberately didn’t buy a newspaper. It’s still all too real and unreal for me, so I took the time to just remember; remember where I was, how I felt, how it changed me and the country I belong to – it’s still such a fresh wound and still very emotional to consider it as a reality sometimes.

Editing Perils
I received an email from a submitter to the Ranfurly Review who was very let down to have been rejected. It seems that although he was published twice previously, he objected to the automated email sent out by the new system I have in place. He felt previous contributors shouldn’t be treated that way, never mind the fact he’d been emailing my personal email address!

I had to explain that due to the amount of submissions the Ranfurly gets, I had no choice but to install the new system. I happen to think it works quite well and it at least means submissions can’t go missing (which has happened). I also had to explain that I can’t publish every submission people send me just because they were previously published. I still can’t imagine why anyone would assume that, but there you go—all part of the fascinating tapestry that is editing a magazine.

Looking Ahead
I’ve done a tonne of reading this weekend. I’m reading three books at the moment as well as the P.I. research book, and it’s all going in! One Day is such an enjoyable read I just don’t want it to end.

This is an important week as I have a shit load of work to get through. I’m off shift at the day job, which will make things easier, but it’s quite scary how much I have on. Can’t be helped though—all part and parcel of the gig.

Peace and out, people!