Moving Day

In a bold (some would say foolish) step, Aiblins will now be based at aiblins.com.

 

It will be a permanent home for the Blog and for the associated sites which are in the course of planning and pondering.

 

Whether that is a good idea or not remains to be seen. On a related point, Aiblins is being cross-posted to Wordpress, Blogger and elsewhere by the lovely folks at Posterous who have created a Blogging platform which is so straightforward that even I can use it. That is no mean feat. Thus, the .com site will direct you there. I feel a post about posting and Posterous is in the offing but will have to hold station at this point.

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On BPPV

The blog, the proposed Podcasting, just about everything. All have been put firmly on hold while I try to deal with the fact that I can't reliably stay upright. That's not strictly right. I can stay upright. I just would prefer to lie down. It all started about seven weeks ago in the retail Mecca that is Victoria Square. I was heading back to the car and had sat down to footer with the iPhone. As I finished and looked up, the whole world started to spin. I don't mean that I felt a bit lightheaded. I mean that everything started to go round and round. Vertical spinning and lots of it. It probably lasted for about sixty seconds but the after effects lingered. I was left sitting there for a good forty minutes before I was fit to struggle up to Starbucks where my good lady was summoned to take me home. The car was left in the carpark for the next couple of days and I was pretty much confined to bed. Three trips to GPs of variable quality and one consultant of considerable quality and a diagnosis of BPPV was confirmed about three times over. For those unfamiliar, this is basically a problem with the inner ear which may well have been caused by a comedy whacking of the head off an office doorframe at substantial velocity. Until it is resolved - in a seemingly unspecified timeframe - I am left feeling constantly slightly off balance and even more grumpy than usual. The result is half days at work, headaches, crushing tiredness and no clue as what to do to speed the process of recovery up. The only really useful thing I have been told is that movement seems to help. Thus I am pounding the streets at every opportunity. The resultant tiredness promptly bites me on the behind and throws me off balance again. Most worryingly, the annual pilgrimage to the Tattoo in Edinburgh and the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow is almost upon us. I was able go manage a pathetic ninety minutes at the European Championships at Stormont last weekend, which bodes less than well for the normal eight hours at the Worlds. In summary. WANTED: New inner ear. Will pay up to ten pounds.

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Test

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Podcasting

The more unkind reader might suggest that the title should read Prodcasting.

Some of the (about three) readers of this Blog will already have been hassled by me about the notion which has been growing in me to try to create an Ulsterscots podcast and it looks like 2010 will be the year when this actually happens.

We are all busy people and it has been well-recorded that Ulsterscots has been under-resourced for years - which doesn't help. For that reason, although I have spoken to a fair few people about how best to proceed, I intend to try to do the first few "shows" off my own bat. What I will need is co-operation.

Ideally, I would like to mix the content up with chat, news and a bit of music. Copyright considerations mean that I can't simply play cds or mp3s, so I'll be heading out with a recorder and trying to get an archive of tracks to use. However, if anyone has recordings of themselves, their band or group - they would be very gratefully received.

I could also do with people getting in touch to say that they could suggest some content - interviews/guests, whatever you want.

In the first instance, I would prefer to create content which is not time-specific and which therefore will not date. That takes the pressure off in terms of publication dates. In other words, promotion of an event is fine if it is recurring, but we could stay away from the "come along next Thursday" type of thing.

So, the comments box is there for a reason. Use it - let me know what you think and whether you could help....

Porridge Across the Pond

This is a wee bit out of date, but the Daily Telegraph reported last month that the Golden Spurtle at the World Porridge Championships was won by an American, Matthew Cox from Milwaukie in Oregon.

The event had a Burns 250 theme and sadly, the Telegraph doesn't record any Ulster involvement. Stand up, ye Ulstermen and get your spurtles in motion for next year's event....

OK, I'm a Big Child.

Look, I know that it's not very grown up, but I really liked this:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Ul**** Sc**s

Many of you will have seen the recent coverage on the BBC about the loss of older language from our culture. If you haven't - here's a handy link.

Have a look at it. Read through. Go on. All the way.

Now. What's missing?

Yes, that's right any mention of Ulster*****. "Hold on", you're thinking. "Surely some of the words in the actual article are fine examples of ******Scots in common usage? What gives?"

Well indeed.

What have we got instead?

Farming Words

Northern Ireland Speak

Country Words

Anything will do - just don't say Ulst** Sc**s!