Rebirth

 I've recently decided to reinvent this blog, share some experiences, news and hopefully
bring some joy or learning to other people's lives.

I stopped blogging approximately one year ago.  There were a few different reasons for going offline.  Chief of those reasons, was a great deal of cyber bullying that was carried out behind the scenes.  I lost a few different people from my life.  I got depressed and lost a lot of confidence.  Nothing can make you lose confidence in such a way.  I feel sorry for the kids today who have had to face this growing up, but I guess they will have a different resilience to us.

"'Forgiveness' is not a word that I use in Druidry.  Because consider it way beyond the reach of humanity to forgive with sincerity, I can understand how other religious traditions ascribe it as a quality of a supreme deity.  My theology has no such god, though; while I consider it a human construct, I don't percieve forgiveness as a human characteristic.  The word I do use, however, is one that is critically important in terms of honouring our ancestry: the word is acceptance.  Druidry teaches us to accept.
...
When we are able to find acceptance, the effect is extraordinary: a profound sense of stability within perpetual change, the power of evolving through continuity.  Spirit flows like a river, life energy coursing through the generations."

Living Druidry: Magical spirituality for the Wild Sould, Emma Restall Orr

It's been a long road, with many interesting turns, weaves, off the road trails and journeys into the heart of who I want to be.  I dealt with the cyber bullying, tackled my work related stress issues, looked far into my past to growing up, reviewed my current boundaries and discovered a deeply spiritual self.

To the future, I have decided to change the focus of this blog so I can move forward in a positive way.  There will still be adventures in Edinburgh and the Lothians however I will also cover lessons I have learned over the last year, programming topics, mental health coverage, some recordings of poetry and some thoughts on my journey on the Bardic Grade of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids.

Good day and thank you for taking the time to read this post!

[1] Living Druidry : Magical spirituality for the wild soul; Emma Restall Orr

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - Aldos

Aldos - Sighthill
Price: £6.40 (Supper)
Our original intention was to go to a shop at the end of the 33 bus route in Wester Hailes.  This area was originally in the 1750-1902 a quarry and in the 1970s became a council estate.  It has the Union Canal running through it now.  Originally this was bricked over until a development in 2001 by the council to extend the canal from Falkirk to Edinburgh.

At the end of our journey, we stepped off the bus onto Westside Plaza (not in a musical).  There were a few people hanging about and many of the shops had shutters down since we arrived so late.  Not to be deterred, we decided against Javits as we have already reviewed one previously so we will have to come back to this one at a later date.  We went to the only open shop in the vicinity to buy some Irn Bru.  I've never been in a shop where you can't touch anything before, but all of the goods were behind a glass window and I had to point to what I wanted.  An interesting experience!

After doing a bit of a look around, we decided to go to another chip shop, which was supposed to be in the area however I suspect was closer to Sighthill.  Sighthill was mainly an area of farmland and farm houses up until council estate developments took over.  It is now mainly ex council and has a few high rise areas that are rapidly being demolished.  It also featured in a horror film Looking after Jo Jo.

We finally arrived at our target and proceeded to order our food.  A few of the locals kept coming and going while we were there and there was a lively pub next door.  The staff were very friendly and seemed to know all of the locals.  One of the group, went off round the corner to get cash and came back a few short minutes later.  Shortly after, a rather friendly local stuck his head in the door and said "Mate, you didn't take your cash from the cashline.  Here's your £10!"

A 10 minute wait ensued and we were finally presented with our food in a polystyrene tray.  I was rather disappointed with the food, considering the amount of waiting I had to do for it.  Many of the chips were burnt and if they weren't burnt they didn't taste of anything in particular.  Sadly my fish followed a similar trend.  The slight flavour I tasted at the start was only a little hope that was soon dashed.  That being said I did eat most of the tasteless food so it can't have been that bad.  I have definitely had worse.

On average:
5/10

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - Giulianos

Giulianos, Union Place
Price: £6 (Supper)
I ventured out of work and headed towards the Omni Centre for a delicious dinner.  Stopping only for a short half hour at Primark to meet my friends.

This is a cleanly presented shop, which sadly had no seating.  The staff were in excellent humour and were even dancing along to the radio that was on in the background.  Our food was served up very quickly with only a 3 minute wait.

I received my meal in a polystyrene tray.  This did not detract from the flavour.  The fish was quite flaky and the batter was quite crunchy.  When I finished the fish, there was a little oil left, however this may have come from the chips.  There were a few burnt chips that I could not bring myself to eat, although the rest were of a decent standard and they seemed to opt for crunchy again.  Afterwards we ordered our final deep fried sweets having tried the full pallet.  My deep fried dark chocolate Bounty had to be made again as there wasn't enough batter the first time.  Due to his mistake I ended up with 4 bits of chocolate - a little too much for me.

Overall this place was excellent and if I was on a night out here and didn't fancy the walk further down to Rapido, I would go here,

On average:
7/10

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - Pizza Palace

Pizza Palace, Gorgie Road
Price: £5.80 (Supper)
A short walk up from Princes Street we visited Gorgie Road.  I used to get the bus from here to go to University every day so it was familiar ground for me.  This place was well presented and clean with some very efficient staff, who gave us a little bit of chat.

We ate in the place at the very comfortable seats at the front window, looking across to McDonalds and listening to the radio as we ate.  I discovered that this shop is on JustEat and also sells bottles of Edinburgh Chippy Sauce for £1.  They also do Munchboxes for £5 and £10 depending on the size.

Our food was made fresh for us and the server took real pride in serving it freshly made.  I noticed that there was no premade fish on the counter.  I was served this in a polystyrene tray with some delicious salt and vinegar.  The fish was really nicely made and really benefited from being fresh.  So often you find that places will serve you premade food.  My chips were quite crispy and the vinegar really made these chips.

In summary I would say this is one of the best in Gorgie.

On average:
8.5
/10

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - Stefanos

Stefanos, Morningside Road
Price: £6.70 (Supper)
On this beautiful evening, I ventured forth on a walk from Princes Street to Morningside with constant cries of are we nearly there yet from Ryan.  It only took a few short half hours for us to arrive.

The main attraction at this chip shop is it's pizzas with a few friends telling me that the pizzas are one of the best chip shop pizzas in Edinburgh and indeed if looks could kill this, surely would.  Pizza boxes were the main feature of the display on top of the counter.  The staff had some good chat and enquired how our food was before we left.  They seemed to know all of the locals suggesting that this is one of the best chip shops in the area.

My food was cooked fresh, in a cardboard box, so there was a 10 minute wait, allowing me to check out the meal deals that were on offer.  I have to say that the food was worth the wait.  My fish was delicious, slightly flakey and not oily at all.  Prior to serving, the staff had a little look through the chips to remove the bad ones so I didn't have to throw them away, making sure I was satisfied by every chip.  The vinegar was beautiful.  It had a slight twang to it but this added to the flavour.

I will be back to this chip shop at the earliest opportunity to try the pizzas!

Overall:
9/10