I have (apart from the usual):

An invitation to the preview night with Alasdair Gray (I want to go - he's amazing!)

Insomnia due to inability to breathe while unconscious (I tested this. It wasn't fun)

Four writing-from-bed deadlines next week (but M.E brainfog has taken my brains)

Arthritic pain so bad in one finger more than others that I wonder if perhaps its broken.

The flu. This is very rare with my overactive immune system so I'm a bit scuppered by these extra symptoms.

Morrison Street access

Congratulations City of Edinburgh Council. Your new pavements along the bits of Morrison Street leading up to the EICC have no wheelchair crossings. Oh they have been bobbled and lowered, but are still high enough to cause whiplash and a broken scooter. The pavement across the road had one access - and no other. You can get on but you have to go back the way you came, if you can turn. After careering round and round the area like I was on elastic I finally had to drive on the road (including two junctions with blind corners), take the only flat enough pavement edge onto the EICC taxi rank to use a vehicle to get out of the area. I imagine there was one more lowered edge on the other end of the EICC pavement but roadwork fencing was blocking it off and the works' detour round the road had a drop down one of the highest pavements I've seen yet. Cheers for that. The taxi bill is in the post. My physio's bill will be following it.

Escaped from the house today with only a couple of hours of daylight to spare. It turned out to be rather good timing. The light was golden, the sea quite calm, the clouds turning pink and the air not too cold. It was one of those seaside village days when I immediately started meeting people I like. Neighbours, rowers (boat club as opposed to argumentative types) even strangers. There's something about the sunshine and the sea that brings out the perky in people. I'd have nipped in for a swim if I could have .

Had an illicit chip butty to celebrate it being Monday. I'm supposed to only be eating salad so shhh, don't tell anyone. Pretend I look healthy next time you see me. I don't yet know how this restriction is going to tie in easily with restaurant reviewing, but I don't get out much and I have no table manners so it might turn into take-away reviewing...

There's a varied selection of culture this weekend. Can't recommend The Roxy as it's inaccessible, which is a rotten shame given the array of amazing performers and events in the Hidden Door festival. WWWrestling comes to Portobello Town Hall on Friday, The Alisdair Gray exhibition opens at the Talbot Rice on Saturday (lift access all areas) on till 11th December, there are pre-halloween 'scary goings-on' at the Zoo and the Chambers Street Museum; the Botanics (and Water of Leith) are looking glorious, Central Library is hosting Big Heid Day on Saturday where you can join in drawing models of the Scott Monument, and a new life drawing class starts in Whitespace in Gayfield Square this Sunday. Statues across the city will be sporting tartan accessories, so take your camera.

The sad news is that the university are putting Forest Church (3 Bristo Place) up for sale so our beloved Forest Cafe will be on the move after ten years growing and developing - it even has its own Festival Fringe in August. Come along and enjoy the (ground floor of the) venue before the developers maul it. Good, cheap veggie food, Gramophone Hour, Golden Hour, the art gallery, language groups, crafty clubs... check website for details and events diary: http://forestcafe.tumblr.com/

Apart from that I don't what else is going on in town because I haven't been paying attention. I'm struggling to supervise a spring clean, prep for winter writing and wrestle with art. So far the results are: one wheezing, creaky, dusty person (me!) wrapped in a paint-splodged duvet; several paint-splodged passers-by (sorry); more than ten boxes of things ready to evict; enough ex paperwork to light a decent sized bonfire; two newly-started sketchbooks, a bag of used stamps and three hours of costume sorting-by-proxy that has left me feeling like Mr Ben.




Happy Birthday Mum xxx

10/10/10

Celebrate the power of ten on the Meadows this afternoon
http://madeleineshepherd.blogspot.com/2010/10/powers-of-ten-picnic.html
as part of the powers of ten day http://www.powersof10.com/

Happy 10/10/10!
otherwise known as 42 day
http://www.fortytwoday.com/

What is the meaning of your life?

next Bloc

Did I mention that the next big Writers' Bloc show will be on All Souls Day? That's the 2nd November and it'll be around a 7.30/ 8pm start at the Ghillie Dhu. All will be revealed very shortly at: http://www.writers-bloc.org.uk/

in other creative news:

Yesterday's National Poetry (and cake) Day went well. We had our own small nod to it in the evening with Ephemeris cakes (Happy Birthday David!) and the striped presence of poet Janie MacKie :-)

I still can't get to the V&A but it appears to be getting closer to me: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/oct/03/dundee-bilbao-victoria-and-albert-museum#start-of-comments

On the topic of scale and perception we have both: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/10/art-scaled-up-and-down.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
and to celebrate 10/10/10 (Sunday) http://madeleineshepherd.blogspot.com/2010/10/powers-of-ten-picnic.html

and music: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Longlost-concerto-by-Vivaldi-discovered.6569788.jp

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHIrlcmHTME&feature=related

Doctor Who

I was up yesterday but my vision was too blurred to write anything substantial. I try not to think about eyesight deterioration or the consequences. The opthalmologist says he's keeping an eye on it. No really, he says that with a straight face.

Thanks to broken sleep cycles I dream almost all of the time I'm asleep. This isn't healthy but it does provide interesting material - if I actually write it down. And if I can read my writing the next day. Anyway, I sleep with a notebook and pen under my pillow to jot down dreams. This has caused incidents in the past. To those I've sliced at night, I apologise. But if you want to sleep well/ often/ safely; don't date a writer.

I mainly blame Twitter for my first dream last night, though email and FB are also guilty. I'd skimmed through the backlog of tweets on my laptop, complete with soundbites and links from entertaining strangers and acquaintences.

Bed. Within an hour I was out in the park with the Mark Thomas listers watching the dog training. The dogs were wearing sunglasses, styling their own hair and teaching each other tricks. The only thing that could have moved any of the riveted onlookers at that point was the shocking revelation about the new series of Doctor Who now sweeping across Edinburgh: Neil Gaiman has redesigned the TARDIS. It's now Victorian, tartan (goth-level tartan) and powered by intergalactic bagpipes. If Queen Victoria had been a goth, Balmoral would look like the Gaiman TARDIS.

The programme starts - all around us. Doctor Who is wearing a (21st kilt and his armchair has black lace antimacassars. The teapots are filled with mead. Minchin (Doctor..?) is on piano (six foot cock and ten thousand virgins) Oh no, the interaction of the design features are causing a rip in the space-time continuim and parts of the Stephen dancers are vanishing - Fry's (Doctor..?) arm, his hand still holding a pint glass of mead, has gone and Tomkison's too - oh no!

The answer is clear; we need techs, geeks, Stross and Rankin. It's Saturday night so everyone will be in a pub. There are only two kinds of pub in Edinburgh; ones for football fans and ones for Doctor Who fans. We've got to materialise in the right pub or the whole series will be lost...

The week ahead

26 Treasures at the V&A has been extended to the 26th October! If you're in London for the weekend, go have a look at the treasure trail. My nautilus cup and creation story are in there and online. The V&A actually have several nautilus cups but mine is the Frewen cup. Disregard any photo you saw me working from earlier :-) http://www.26treasures.com/ and http://26treasures.tumblr.com/post/1241483607/you-still-have-time
(peer closely at that third photo down..)


This weekend sees the second Portobello Organic Marketplace held in Rosefield Park on Saturday 2nd. I know the rain looks imminent but last week the cake and bread stalls were selling out by mid-morning, so its popular enough to be waterproof, probably. In town its the huge International Glass Conference at ECA, from today till Monday 4th. If you thought glass art was just paperweights, go see these artists sculpt, twist, scrape and enamel. http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/

I was also going to recommend the Hispanic Arts Festival, this weekend from tonight's (Fri 1st) opening party onwards, but I've just called the music library on George IV Bridge and they've explained (and apologised) that there is no wheelchair access at all to the venue.

During the week there are drop-in arty crafty evenings
Granny Green's Big Night Out, Monday, 6pm - 9pm at The Lot, Grassmarket then Tuesday 6.30pm - 9.30pm at the Spider and the Fly, Bread Street to make your own badges.

Thursday is National Poetry Day, so you (with or without favourite poem in hand) will be welcome at the Scottish Poetry Library from 3pm for a literary cuppa.

Next weekend sees the Usher Hall's grand reopening, complete with more disabled access than before. It has actually already opened and has shows running all week but there you go.
Houston Symphony – Sunday 10 October 2010
19:00
Holst’s The Planets
NASA - the Universe!!

The Usher Hall has an exciting official reopening on 10 October 2010. Whilst you listen to the internationally acclaimed Houston Symphony playing The Planets, watch images recorded from space on a large 24 foot screen. This combination will be an experience to remember. The beautiful and mystifying music will transport you to another galaxy! When the Houston Symphony collaborated with NASA and award winning producer/director Duncan Copp this monumental and innovative project was the result.

£35/£30/£25/£20/£15 - Concessions £2 off

If you're in Glasgow, there's always the Steampunk market bazaar in the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, the oldest surviving music hall in the world, Sunday 3rd. Stalls and entertainment. I was thinking of having a stall there to clear a cupboard of costume, but not now. If you're still out West next weekend try the Girl Geek Dinner for some creative networking.

I've found lovely big mushrooms at the bottom of my garden for the first time ever. They look tasty (as in I think I recognise them as edible) so I might test them to see what happens. Embrace the season for yourself by heading to the Botanics to learn more about the mould around you: Aspergillus & Candida: Fungus in the Air & in Our Guts - Sat 2 & Sun 3 Oct
Fungi: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Thurs 14 Oct. A talk by Dr Lynne Boddy, President of the British Mycological Society.
Fungi Fun - Sat 16 & Sun 17 Oct. Hands on Activities for all the family. Don't get your hopes up; despite the name of the workshop they won't be doing magic mushrooms.
Fungi Under the Microscope - Sat 23 & Sun 24 Oct. See amazing time-lapse photography.
Fungi Finds - Sun 31 Oct . Mycologist Neville Kilkenny displays locally collected fungi.

Don't forget the fruit. If you're mobile and the paths aren't too muddy for yer wheels, you can collect enough in the way of hedgrow and woodland apples, rosehips and brambles to feed yourself for free all month. Otherwise head back to the Botanics for their Apple Day next weekend (Saturday 9th) 11am - 4pm, or the later Apple Day in the Portobello Community Orchard, Brunstane Road South where the tastings will be followed by a bonfire and fireside musicians. 2pm onwards, 16th October. http://pedal-porty.org.uk/2010/09/apple-day/

Bon appetite.