EU Referendum

I have a vote in the upcoming EU referendum in the UK, but this vote leaves me with a dilemma. During the IndyRef, I may have wanted to vote, but I understood there were reasons why I should not. Mostly because I had chosen to leave the country, and this meant I didn't have the right to decide what people who were resident there should do. This reasoning goes hand in hand with the fact that non-UK citizens who were resident in Scotland at the time got to vote. What is  also different is that EU citizens resident in the UK won't necessarily get to vote either:

British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens who live in the UK, along with Britons who have lived abroad for less than 15 years, are eligible to vote.

Commonwealth migrants from 54 states - including ­Australia, Canada, India, Pakistan and Nigeria - can join the electoral roll as long are they are residents in the UK.
Unlike the general election, Commonwealth citizens in Gibraltar are also eligible to vote in the EU referendum.

Citizens from other European countries - apart from Ireland, Malta and Cyprus - will not get a vote on whether the UK remains part of the EU.Malta and Cyprus are both Commonwealth countries. Source.

That Canadians resident in the UK get to vote where French or German residents in the UK do not, I find to be off. There may be cynics out there who suggest this is all to the good for getting the result that those in power want, but since those in power (i.e. the Tory party), are split on the matter, I,m not sure that's quite right. I would be interested to know if there was any precedence for Commonwealth citizens having the right to vote in these kinds of thing, or if it was just a way to include Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus, who the vote does directly affect.

This time round, I do get to vote. However, the same reasoning that I accepted the last referendum should surely stand, to do otherwise would be hypocritical, no? However, I balance this with the fact that in all my adult life, I have never failed to vote when I am allowed to. I did miss one general election in the UK that I could have voted in after I moved here, as I wasn't sure of the rules, and didn't get my postal vote sorted in time, but that is the only exception, and I now have my postal vote registered.

What is furthering my dilemma, is that I am not entirely sure I want to vote for either option. Let me be straight, I think the UK should stay in the EU. This is not a change in my position from the IndyRef either, as I thought then the best option for Scotland was to remain in the EU after independence, so I am not flip-flopping. What I mean is that I don't know that I want my vote to count as a vote for either side of the internal Tory party debate that is the root of this referendum. I don't want David Cameron to stand up at the end of the vote and say "all these people who voted stay think I'm right!" That is certainly not the case. I am also not saying the EU is politically perfect, but I don't think you can improve things in the EU by stepping back and leaving all the good parts aside.

The last point that crossed my mind was that if the UK votes to leave, but the majority of people living in Scotland vote to stay, it could be taken by some as impetus for Scotland to gain her independence. This has already been mooted in some circles as enough of a reason for another IndyRef. I think this is a bit of a stretch, but obviously I wouldn't say no if it happened. However, the difference between the Scottish (or Welsh) votes and the rUK votes would have to be significant which I don't think it will be, and my vote would be counted in Edinburgh. So if I voted to leave, it would be a vote to leave registered in Scotland, so would indeed count against the reason for voting to leave! So, no, that won't work!


This video by Caitlin Moran nicely sums up what I was thinking on this subject, even points I hadn't realised I was thinking, and is much more concise.

Fuck David Cameron. I will vote, but I'd rather be playing swing-ball!

Quickie Weekend in New York

We took a little trip down to New York last weekend, for lots of little reasons, but no one big reason other than, it's New York, and it's just next door. Well, in North America, next door can be a six hour drive, but still if you live within driving distance of a city like New York, why not make the most of it.

Whilst there, we caught up with good friends, and rode the new Seaglass Carousel (twice), which K has been waiting a long time to go on, and had just opened earlier this year.

A very relaxing day wandering round the city, eating in dim sum Chinatown, and having cake. What more could one ask?

However, the main reason fort the trip was to go see the Wild Kratts Live with the kids. This is one of their favourite shows, and this was the nearest place they were playing on their tour, despite their production company (and one of the brothers) being based in Ottawa. We weren't sure if they'd like it, as it's a very different experience watching a stage show, that watching the same people on an animated TV show, but they were both enthralled by the whole experience, so it was well worth the trip.

Halloween 2015

This year, the kids decided they wanted to do their own pumpkins, which was fine by me, as the suggestions that were put forward when I asked what they wanted got particularly outlandish So, by doing them themselves, we get back to a more traditional face carving on our pumpkins.

Here below is the original design for the cat pumpkin, as you can see, the final work is quite faithful to the original draft!

This years costumes were started way in advance. The original plan was to have an Astrid, and a Stormfly. For various reasons, not least the sturdiness of the Stormfly costume, and our doubts as to it lasting a day at daycare, we ended up with two Astrid costumes on the workbench.

As a bonus, Abi  didn't want the rabbit to be left out of the costume event, so thought we should make him little wings, so he could be Toothless. Of course, with a plan as complete, and as cute as that, how could we possibly not! Of course, he could also be a bat!

October Weekend in Maine

Last weekend was Thanksgiving, and so a long weekend (we don't say Canadian Thanksgiving, as why would you?). We took this as an opportunity to take a weekend away. We've been promising the kids some time at the beach, and to find some rock-pools all summer, but hadn't quite got round to it..

Mount Washington with snow.

We booked up a weekend in Maine for Thanksgiving weekend a while ago, thinking that even if the weather was rubbish, we'd still be at the coast. As it turned out, we couldn't have asked for better weather. Friday was raining and miserable, but we left Saturday morning, and Saturday, Sunday and Monday were unseasonably warm, with blue skies all the way. We may even have got a little too much sun, as we weren't quite prepared with the sunscreen.

This waterfall...

Being the start of autumn, the colours of the trees all the way down were spectacular. On the way down, we stopped off at some views on Mount Washington, and other parts of the Appalachians for some pictures. Unfortunately, at one such stop, my phone slipped out of my pocket and bounced into a (rather pretty) waterfall. Oops. Fortunately, I now have a new (upgraded) phone. The pleasures of paying through the nose for a contract!

The little house that K found and rented was perfect. Two rooms, and plenty of space, although we were only to use it to sleep in.

Once at the beach, the girls had a blast. We hit Old Orchard Beach (Maine's equivalent to Blackpool in terms of stores and attractions, but with a much prettier beach). where the girls ran around like fools, even though the water was 55oF (that's 13oC in real money, but you know those crazy yanks and their love of the Imperial measure), then moved on to find rock-pools full of crabs, little shrimp and even a fish.

Monday was an easy day of beach in the morning, then the afternoon wandering round Kennibunkport. The girls also ate loads of seafood. LP loving the mussels, and A getting stuck into the calamari (and also the chips).

Of course, this was but the last of a great number of travels near and far this summer. I haven't posted on them all, as I've got out of the habit, what with facebook being such an easy medium for sharing photos. But here's to more of this type of thing! I'm sure there'll be the obligatory Halloween post, with maybe another of the costumes, as they've been rather time consuming in their build, but more of that in a later post.

Jet Feet

As an early 40th birthday present, K bought me a 30 minute session on some Jet Feet with Fly Quebec. It was absolutely brilliant fun, really like flying. 

The only trick I tried was diving in, then flying back out again. However, I didn't lift my legs enough on the entry, and they're a bit battered and bruised today.

The session was split into two 15 minute sessions, so I could have a breather in between, as it was rather tiring.  In the second session, I was really getting the hang of it, so I think the jet-ski driver let me have some more throttle, and I went really quite high. Unfortunately, I bottled it a little, and fell backwards. I hit the water quite hard, and I think in doing so, I burst my ear-drum.

All the injuries aside, I had great fun, and would love to give it another go. Maybe getting the hang of those dives....

15 years of Blogging

I have now been blogging under this psuedonym for 15 years to the day. That's a bit of a milestone really. I never really thought I would keep it going for so long!

I initially started, just to have a profile on Livejournal, as I had some friends who were doing it, and to be able to comment, you needed a profile. I didn't really have much to add of my own.

Back then, I had finished my BSc, but not yet started my PhD. I was working in Edinburgh, but still staying near, and socialising in Glasgow. I was between two stages of my life. What I did end up using livejournal for, was to document my travels. Somewhat for my friends, mostly as a way of letting my family know what I was up to (although, to this day, Idon't think any member of my family has done more than look at one or two pages, not very blog literate as far as I can make out, their loss!).

Once I moved to Edinburgh, there was something of an explosion in the number of people who had livejournals, and used it as a means of communication. This was in the days before Facebook was as ubiquitous as it is now. So when it came to the 5 year anniversary of my blog, it was something of an event, if you measure events on blogs by the number of comments you garner (the only metric then readily available).

Since then, my internet following has dwindled,as Livejournal use dwindled and other social media sites took over. In May 2012, I moved this blog over to blogger. I did this due to LJ coming under DOS attacks, and I was scared I'd lose my posts. Since then, I have been slowly trasnfering posts from there to here. Someday I might complete the transition. Maybe.

So, since coming here, I have lost followers, I don't mind that, I don't go looking for more followers either. If they happen by, that's okay. I don't mean to sound defeatist here, but I blog here mostly for myself. I use this as a place to post my thoughts on a subject, and usually in doing so, I have to research them, and in that way I learn more.

I also use this as a place to keep a history of what I do. Of where we travel, to track major events in my life, and post pictures of the kids as they grow. These things I do as a means of family history. My kids can come on here and read this. Read of me and my thoughts and doings before they were born. Before K and I were married, and even before I met K. They can have access to all this, which I find amazing. It is a form of open diary, backed up, and available wherever, whenever they get round to reading it. In that regard, it'll be here after I die, and will be there for possible future generations of my family, as a geneological tool. How cool is that! I love that idea,

So that's why I still blog. I blog for me. If there's a larger audience, that's all good.

So here's to the next 15 years of posts of our holidays together. Of putting memories and theories out there into the ether, to be picked up in the future, or not.

Hello future. Life is good here, how's things with you?

The Scotsman Abroad and the Quantum Vote

I had never got round to figuring out a postal vote here. The first UK General Election to be held since our move was 4 years in, and I tried to get a postal vote, but had left it too late. I didn't bother sending the forms away, as I thought the time limit to have a postal vote in the UK was 5 years after leaving, so that would have been my last chance.

I've never been allowed to vote in Scottish elections since leaving, as they count as local elections, and even though my last residence is in Edinburgh, overseas voters don't get to vorte in local elections. This was the same rule that was extended to the Referendum. In a way I can see the logic, and I have covered that in detail previously, so there's no gripe there.

However, I recently found out that the legal limit on voting from abroad is not 5 years after leaving the UK, but 15 years. I discovered this as the time limit to register for a postal vote approached repidly, so I faxed off my form on the last day of the deadline and squeaked in under the wire. I am now a registered postal voter in UK general elections, and I get a vote in the upcoming election on May the 7th, and will do so in the next one in 5 years time, then I'll be done! Unless of course there's another election in between, which is not to be ruled out with the currently predicted outcomes of the election.

So, I am on the list. However, when on the phone to a helpful person in Edinburgh about the best way to do things, she did warn me that the ballot would not be sent out till the 29th of April, and that it had to be back by the 8th by the close of the business day. Thankfully, the ballot did arrive quite quickly, on the 1st of May. I posted it off on Sunday, with the promise that it would go Monday morning, but that it would take 4-6 days to get there. Which brings us to the quantum part of the title. I have made a decision, and posted off my vote, but I will never know if it arrives in time to be counted. If my candidate of choice loses by 1 vote, then I can blame the postal system (or myself for not organising the postal ballot quicker), if they win, then I shall happily claim my part in that victory.

Some people may be a little miffed that I can vote in the UK, and yet have chosen not to live there, and indeed become a citizen of another country. They can then take solace in the fact that my vote will be unlikely to be counted. But otherwise they can quit their whinging. The law states I am able to participate in the democratic process in two countries. In fact, one of the main reasons for becoming a citizen is to be able to vote in the running of my chosen country of residence. I do also have a vested interest in the outcome of the UK general election, as a full citizen of that country too. Lucky me. This affords me a privilage, and it is one I intend to use to the fullest potential.

With the upcoming Canadian general election this October, this means I get to vote in two general elections this year. But Canadian politics, compared to the open book that exists in the UK right now, are really dull. Who could possibly blame me for wanting to take part in what I believe will be a rather historic election? I really believe, that whatever the outcome, there will be a big shake-up in how things are run over in the UK following this election, whether it's over the Scottish question, or electoral reform, and I have a vested interest in both those subjects. But I digress, that's leading off into a whole 'nother series of blog posts.