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Armchair Bob

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Everything posted by Armchair Bob

  1. Newport is amazing. Where else will you be offered a ride and a fight in every single pub.
  2. I've canoed it... a brilliant trip at this time of year.
  3. See it *sounds* plausible, but there is another government building in the same area in the same style and nobody says it was originally intended to be a hospital...
  4. If its half marathons you cant beat the wee island ones. If you have to make a weekend of it then you can't beat somewhere like Coll with its beaches and a ceilidh afterwards.
  5. But do these people actually *know*? Or are they just going on what someone told them when they started and never thought to question it?
  6. Saughton House. A large government office in Broomhouse, west Edinburgh. It takes the form of several institutional 2-story blocks called 'spurs' joined by a long corridor, that are suggestive of hospital wards. No wonder, because that is what Saughton House was built as, a hospital for the use of the navy during the second world war. Or was it? Reading this article makes me doubt everything I ever knew about Saughton House. Was it originally a hospital? Was it a navy hospital? Was it always a government office from the start? How come no-one actually knows? Maybe it just appeared out of nowhere one day and we have just invented stories to retro-fit the facts to stop our brains exploding? http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_buildings_s/0_buildings_-_saughton_house.htm
  7. If it is remain then part of me will be relieved. Another part will be disappointed, will have to put the popcorn away for another occasion. 51/49 remain.
  8. Hi Calmac - good to see you post again! Out of interest (asking for an ahem, friend) - in your opinion is the AFRC still to be avoided or is it now looking like getting back on track? I'm wondering from the point of view of a business analysis contractor...

    1. calmac_man

      calmac_man

      Hi Bob, just stumbled across this. Sorry, I'd sodded off again before you messaged me. I'm sure it's moot now, but my answer would be that the policy side of AFRC is alright, but I wouldn't go near RPID for love nor money. It's profoundly dysfunctional, it's a collection of different cultures, most of them strange, and it has been lacking in leadership for a long time. The current head, David Barnes, is an excellent guy, but I think he's taken on a thankless and impossible task.

      Hopefully you're not going to respond by telling me you've been working there for the past year!

      Hope things are good with you,

      CM.

    2. Armchair Bob

      Armchair Bob

      Thanks. I managed to get out in March this year after realising fairly quickly that it wasn't for me! I've got Government friends who all seem to love what they do but they are either policy or ministerial support. Instead I was working for the contractor CGI on the Futures Programme. Horrendous. I'd share some stuff if you like. I left a reasonably good job at Parliament for it. They actually interviewed me for a job in Edinburgh Council that turned out not to exist and weren't sure what to do with me when I reported for duty back in June last year! But by all accounts they are also failing to deliver at Edinburgh Council, and probably will do for the forseeable future. One of those chalk it down to experience things.

      Can't believe the TAMB is ending!

  9. A unionist majority might not be so bad. As any time before 2020 is (IMHO) too early anyway for another crack at a referendum. Whereas having the disaster of Davidson or Dugdale (or Sarwar!) as First Minister might wake people the **** up as to what unionism really means and galvanise them for 2021. Wow, just imagine. Sarwar as FM, Boris as PM, Trump in the USA. It would be awful!
  10. I went to a great club once, Seventh Heaven at Charing Cross in Glasgow. Full of minor Glasgow celebrities, think it was part-owned by Stephane Mahe. A couple of years later I recommended it to a friend who wanted a night out with her female friends. Turned out it had been reopened as a strip club but kept the name Seventh Heaven. They thought I'd sent them there deliberately.
  11. Yes, Alison Johnstone would have to be elected first. TBH I can't think of anything she has done in the last session, she has been anonymous compared to Patrick Harvie. And for the Greens to get even one MSP in most lists is a tall order - but I just think Andy might make it in Lothian through the people who used to vote for Margo.
  12. What Auld Reekie said. I am personally quite excited about Andy Wightman being in Parliament. That's about the size of it for me with this election. I can see the SNP sweeping the constituencies but failing with the list seats to end up with roughly the same total as last time. Maybe the Tories gaining a few at the expense of Labour. And the Greens getting one or two more than at current. Effectively a no-change election. If that is the case, I hope the SNP are a bit more radical in 2016-20 as referendum apart (and to be fair, that was a biggie) the impression on the streets is that nothing much was achieved in this last session. And like last time when I really didn't want George Galloway strutting the corridors of Holyrood, I fervently hope UKIP fail to gain any seats.
  13. Quite a lot of battles missing. Just looking at one wee bit of the map, the first recorded naval battle in Britain off Dalriada in 719. The battle of Bloody Bay off Mull. The Battle of Epiphany off Islay between Somerled and Godred for control of Man and the Hebrides. The Battle of Renfrew where Somerled died. The Norse attack on Dumbarton in 870. The Norse attack on Rothesay castle in 1230 and the royalist attack on Inveraray in 1644. The various battles between Macleod and Macdonald on Skye, etc. As a first attempt though it's a cracking map.
  14. No I can see how it works. Water is a great conductor of heat so will also suck heat out of an object in a freezer faster than cold air will.
  15. If I want a lager at short notice a trick I use once I've bought it is to stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Usually gets it down to a nice drinkable temperature. So you could chill the beers in the freezer for between 1-2 hours. That should be enough to keep them at the right temperature but not quite long enough for them to burst.
  16. I don't think there will be much in the media about it to be honest. In fact now the EU ref has kicked off there will be more in the Scottish media about Boris Johnson's haircut than anything to do with Scotland. It is also the last working day at Holyrood for MSPs before the election so they will all be looking ahead to the election campaign. It's basically something they will forget. Like the 300th anniversary of the union.
  17. It's slow and expensive but was surprised how busy it was when I use it last November. I predict there will be new housing developments at stops like Shawfair and that is where the future profits will come from, commuters only going a couple of stops.
  18. It feels like I am taking crazy pills here. Crow Road was dreadful. How can you not see it? What is wrong with you guys?
  19. Seems like cheap flights to Kirkwall are not available. Maybe I will get in touch and see if going via London or Bergen is cheaper.
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