Facebook and Twitter seems to have absorbed everything I have to say.

Apparently this constitutes mumblings of no more than 140 characters in length, and some daily photographs with occasional explanatory or locational captions.

So here is the first of what may become a monthly update – a collection of some of my daily iPhotos that facebook absorbs.

First off, a video from my ‘Summer Holiday’ where we tried to sail to France, twice – but the wind was coming from France at great speed – humph.

(If you’re reading this on facebook you’ll need to click this link to view the vid)

And more from that little trip…

Then I played some lacrosse…

Which we won…

and some tennis, which I didn’t…

Then I drove down to east sussex for bug’s birthday in my new car – a Morris Minor Traveller that looks like this – Cool huh?

But mostly I’ve been bumbling about London – enjoying summer and newly embracing the entire concept of a ’social life’ after 7 months of solid lacrosse evenings and weekends – here it is!

That’s Hammersmith Bridge, on my way to see long lost school friend Tiffany Freisberg. This is her in the middle below:

And my good friends Tommy and Tiggy (Hidetomo and Tugela)

Oh, I forgot – I spent a weekend working on a new website for a client (well… sort of client – we’re exchanging services – I’m doing her website, she’s giving me life coaching – pretty neat exchange I think). This is me at my desk:

This is Marylebone where I work, and my lovely summer lunchtime walks.

More London ramblings – detatched feet:

Present shopping – Oliver Bonas Rocks:

Out for my friend Jamie’s birthday do:

These are straws.

Then my pal Liz invited me to her ‘Domestic Burlesque’ exhibition (she was a model)

Oh, they were all taken on my iPhone 3Gs by the way – that phone rocks.

All in all a super month. More please.

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. The computer demands a blog
2. Guest blogging on Lacrosse World Cup website
3. An evening stroll through the West End

I’m definitely not an activist.

I like to think that I know Politics, and I’m pretty sure of where I stand on most things; a good political debate is fine by me, over a glass of wine etc, but I’m definitely not an activist. So I’m slightly hesitant to admit that next Tuesday I will be attending a demonstration for something very un-green. You’d think that after waiting all these years to find a cause that would compel me to campaign for something that it would at least be for starving children in Afghanistan, victims of some terrible natural disaster, or perhaps in aid of breast cancer research – something worthy. But no, after work on tuesday I am off to campaign against a parking charge for motorbikes and scooters, in a very small central borough of London.

Pretty pathetic huh? ;)

It really gets my goat though… scooters are so small and though not totally ‘eco’ are definitely more so than big 4 wheel drives etc. We used to be able to park in designated spots about the city without charge, and now the situation is very complicated and the signs so elusive that I’ve twice been slapped with a £60 fine for not paying without realising that I wasn’t doing so. Apparently they’ve dished out 10,000 of these every month to unsuspecting scooter parking folk. Darn annoying… so off I trot, and you’re welcome to join me. I’ve got space for one on the back of my bike! ;)

No to Bike Parking Fees Website

No related posts.

I noticed a few weeks ago that the Lax World Cup website were looking for guest bloggers, and I thought to apply.  I’ve found over the last year or two that I’ve been keeping this blog, that I’ve slipped into a fairly decent rhythm with it.  By which I mean that you, as a reader, probably know what to expect when you come here:  A photo or two and a few lines of text – pretty simple stuff.  I’m not really much of a writer, and I don’t often feel compelled to pen down my thoughts in the way that real writers are drawn to do.  Plus, that’s not really what this blog is about – which is why guest blogging on another site is so perfect.  I can write, or rather, I will l feel compelled to write – and so I will.

Please feel free to cast your eyes over my first blog posting:  Top Secret, and my profile page where all future blog posts will be linked to from: here.

Here’s the first post:

Top Secret

The first thing that came to mind when I thought about being a guest blogger here on the World Cup site is that I must be incredibly careful not to give away any of Lacrosse Scotland’s top secret moves and tactics. Definitely an offense punishable with dismissal! Then it occurred to me that I could do a brilliant job of confusing our opposition by making up fictional moves and mentioning them here to cause total chaos on the pitch! I think, with my sensible hat on (and my knowledge of my complete biological inability to lie with any believability), that I should probably just stick to the facts – but with that in mind, if I do let anything slip you’ll have to be very careful what you read into it – I may well be tricking you!

The phrase, “Life is simple… eat, sleep, play lacrosse.”, is written on the back of some great T-shirts that the Welsh team had made up for fundraising (I’m wearing one in my profile photo). I remember when I bought it I thought, That’s silly – surely it won’t come to that?!” Recently, however, it dawned on me that my life is indeed very simple right now. I go to work, go to the track or the gym (or moreoften both), eat, and then eventually crawl into bed shattered ready to do it all again tomorrow. Every now and again my schedule is punctuated by a game here, a night out (with team mates) there, or perhaps a fitness test just to spice things up. But yes, the T-shirt says it all – and I have to admit that I couldn’t be happier!

A couple of years ago (maybe even less if I’m honest), you wouldn’t have seen me dead in a gym. This wasn’t for want of trying of course, as over the last few years I have joined more gyms than I’ve had hot dinners, but for some reason I have never found myself going more than once to each (for the induction). I always forgave myself by explaining that I was a ‘team person’, “that’s why I do team sports” I’d say, “the gym is too lonely for me “. So, lacrosse was the perfect way to keep fit without having to find the motivation to trek off to the gym every few days to pound the treadmill and lift some weights. I was pretty happy with this solution too – that was until I joined the Scotland squad. Oh no, not going to the gym was no longer an option! So I struggled in silence for a long time, going as often as I could, but never with proper vigour or determination. It was exhausting, and I always felt defeated, but then a wonderful thing happened: something called TEAM.

Me, Flame, and AT this Saturday, after a morning training together out at St. Catherine’s School (nr London)

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, as it turns out, one doesn’t have to go to the gym alone, and neither does one have to struggle forlorn around a running track with headphones on, desperately battling the urge to just run off home to a hot bath. No! It can be done with a whole group of your most favourite people in the world: your team mates. It’s their supporting “nice work Jem” that makes me run harder, and the desire not to let them down that makes me turn up at the track even through torrential rain! Not forgetting, of course, some healthy competition that has installed in me a bizarre ambition to get to the World Cup and be able to say that I’m the only one not to have missed a single training session since January!

So suddenly I’m a ‘gym person’ – who would have thought that? Having now broken into the echelons of the exercise elite, I now find that on the occasions when I do have to go it alone I don’t mind at all – My entire perspective of solo exercise has been turned on its head, and all of this through the power of my team. I actually look forward to my solitary gym sessions now, and get excited about moving on to heavier weights, or being able to do more reps without absolutely dying! An absolutely brilliant success, and one of many things gained through my experiences with lacrosse that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

I’ve introduced myself briefly in my biography, but I haven’t yet done so for my all important team, Scotland. Today we have released the selection list for the World Cup, and so in case you’ve missed it, here they all are: The Scotland World Cup Team.

I’m so incredibly proud (chuffed to bits actually ;) to be a part of that list, and am particularly happy to be living so near to so many of my team mates which makes the training much more fun and far more fruitful. I hope and know that these friends will stay with me for life, and that this World Cup will connect us as a group for many years into the future.

I look forward to sharing with you the experiences that I have with them, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my first posting here.

Thanks, and keep training!

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. Driving home from Manchester, and the Lacrosse World Cup
2. 2 months on… Lax World Cup
3. Junior Scotland Pipers at Loretto

All I can hear looking out of my window is the drip drip of melting snow. I think it’ll all be gone in 12 hours. What a beautiful day – all day long mums and dads were out with kids walking past my window throwing snowballs and carrying sleds on an unexpected holiday.

Lots of folk walking back from the shops with manageable (and some less manageable!) purchases. A bag of food for dinner – instead of the usual unnecessarily large Asda shop. Lots of chatter between strangers too. First thing I heard was an old chap telling a worried commuter that the tube tracks were under snow. She about turned and went back home!

Update – turns out the snow is still here (5th Feb) – but it’s definitely gonna be gone tomorrow! ;)

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. Snow in Putney!
2. The move to London, and 1 year anniversary!
3. Exhibition at the Proud Gallery, London

It’s true, and I haven’t seen it for years!

After a morning playing lacrosse in the snow out at Haberdasher’s Aske’s School, I came home to a chilly but not snowy London and dozed all afternoon by the fire.  It wasn’t till 6pm that I removed the cats from my lap, got up and opened the curtains in the sitting room and saw the product of a wintery afternoon!  At about midnight I had an urge to go out and take some photos (in my dressing gown).

No tripod, and very rushed due to cold!

Took me a while to get out of the door and brave the cold!

The front garden:

My street:

And a fox that I just managed to capture:

Next day update:  I can’t get to work!  London Snow Chaos!

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. Last snow in London
2. New eyes in old places
3. The Moon, the Castle, and the Night Sky.

Back in November I entered a competition called ‘Renaissance‘. Rather excitingly I have been selected as one of the organiser’s favourites and so will be appearing in the exhibition in London and in the accompanying book.

Please do visit the gallery to soak up the culture. I’ve seen some of the other pieces and it will be a very enjoyable exhibition.

Renaissance Exhibition
Dates: Launch Night is on the 5th March, Exhibition is open to public 6th to 9th of March
Venue: The Proud Gallery
Address: Buckingham Street, London, WC2N 6BP

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. Vote for me, Saatchi Gallery Online.
2. Jem goes activist: No to bike parking charge in Westminster!
3. The move to London, and 1 year anniversary!

I’ve placed the photos from this wonderful evening onto their own little webpage in sequential order, click here to see them: Gallery

The evening was fantastic and involved many a meeting of old friends. I took the sequence of photos below and decided to make it into a little animation. It’s of a friend tapping Nan on the back, and then as she turned around her face went from confused disbelief, to the raised arms and smiling face of yet another surprise greeting.

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. Working in the Scotsman building for the Evening News.
2. Twitter ate my blog (So this is my summary of what I would have been posting)

I’m going to do a whole series experimenting with this idea, I only took a couple like this because it was getting late… more to come in due course.

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. A bit of experimentation
2. Renaissance series
3. Vote for me, Saatchi Gallery Online.

A few nights ago I was playing about with candles and long exposures in our living room, I was pretty pleased with the results. I’ll post them up later, but last night during soundcheck at an Amplifico gig I fancied a bit of something different so took a few photos like this. I’ll only post the one up because the rest were pretty blurred.

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. An old vid of the ‘fico
2. New lens, new start!
3. KT Tunstall in Dundee

A few other similar posts on this blog:

1. A bit of experimentation
2. Twitter ate my blog (So this is my summary of what I would have been posting)