Journal

The third time is the charm

For the last couple of years, each time the anniversary of Robert Burns’ birthday rolls around in the last week of January, I’ve been committing to memory the eight verses of his Address to the Haggis to perform the duty on a Burns Evening. On my first attempt at the Rosslea Hall Hotel, back in 2010, I thought my delivery was fairly good considering I’d only learned the poem in the four weeks previous. However, the fact I missed a line out really bugged me and I was determined to do it perfectly the next chance I got.

Which is why, when I did the Address to the Haggis at Colgrain Bowling Club in 2011, I was mad with myself for grinding to a halt after just two verses because I thought I’d messed up. After being invited to do it again this year I was determined that I’d nail it, and tried to put the memory of last year’s screw up behind me. If Crazy Uncle John can reel off 14-odd verse epic’s from Burns’ repertoire with only a couple of fluffed lines, then surely I was capable of the flawless delivery of just eight verses?

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Game On

Touching the future

This week started of with a chance to have a play with Sony’s new portable gaming console, the PS Vita, at the launch night of the PlayStation Vita Rooms in Glasgow on Monday.

I’d been fortunate enough to get a ticket to the PS Vita Rooms event by entering a draw on Facebook. Having done the same and ending up with an invite for an Access PlayStation event in early 2011, I thought it’d be unlikely for me to score another. But, however you get picked for these things, I was delighted to get one and went along to join the queue on Sauchiehall Street on a cold, but dry Monday night.

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Journal

A Bit Fitter

I’d speculatively asked for a Fitbit for xmas, knowing that it was both a pricey gift and a bit of an unnecessary luxury. It turned out that it wasn’t due out in this country until early January anyway, but I was lucky enough to get one all the same.

Given my preoccupation with recording statistics from my life, the Fitbit is like catnip for me. Having every step, every flight of stairs, and every calorie burned, tracked and graphed on my Fitbit profile page is compulsive stuff. Just turning a mundane lunch time walk into a chance to improve my daily score makes it enough like a game to motivate me to get out there.

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