Tempting Fate

So I have some exciting news to impart to you all. I may be being a little hasty in divulging this information to you, but anyway...I have an audition for my all-time favourite tea-time quiz show Countdown!!! I'm sure that to those of you who know me well this news will come as no surprise, it has been an ambition of mine for while. I will let you all know how it goes! I am confident that some day soon I will be sitting beside Des :-)

A slave to EF

Well if you've been wondering where I've been for the past few weeks, I can inform you by stating just two letters - EF! My job has taken over my life of late. For the past few weeks EF Edinburgh has had over 260 students from Spain, France, Italy and Russia on its doorstep and I have been at the heart of operations! I have met some really nice kids and some great leaders who I hope to keep in touch with. On the flip side I have had some horrible, obnoxious kids who have been testing me a lot! At the end of the group's Edinburgh stay they head down to London for a few days and we leaders get to accompany them down. On paper this may sound like a perk of the job. In reality it's somewhat different! I was assigned responsibility for the group of 68 spanish kids during their stay in London. We left on the 6am train on Friday morning. From the outset things were very 'testing' as the train announcer informed us that we'd have to change trains at Newcastle due to a train shortage. Imagine, if you will, 68 students and 3 leaders sitting happily in reserved seats in coach B of a very, very long train. Now imagine having to herd them all to the luggage car, accessing their suitcases and transferring them to the opposite end of another train at Newcastle. Now add the complication of having only 10 minutes within which to complete the task. Finally take into account that the reserved seats notion goes to pot and that the students have to find themselves seats on a packed train!!! Indeed many of my students had to stand in the vestibules for the entire journey - what a farce! Anyway, that was the start of my London trip. It got progressively worse from there on in. I finally escaped the carnage early on Sunday morning when I had to dash to meet my next incoming group from Hong Kong. Things became much easier with the Hong Kong and arrangements went much more smoothly. Finally today (my birthday!) I returned to Edinburgh and a spot of respite.

RSVP Hall of Fame

So, it's my birthday in a couple of weeks, and some of you have been invited to a very prestigious evening in honour of it. Here are the mug shots of the RSVPers so far...

Doing my bit for the LibDems!

So here is my plea:

Yesterday the LibDems won an unprecedented victory against the Government in a debate on the lop-sided Extradition Treaty with the United States.

Three former employees of Nat West bank, together with south Londoner Babar Ahmed and up to 20 more British residents, face extradition to the United States under a treaty signed in 2003 that grants fewer rights to British citizens than to Americans.

Just four Labour MPs voted in favour of the treaty in the symbolic vote called by the LibDems yesterday afternoon.

UK citizens can be extradited to the US without the United States having to make a clear "prima facie" case that they committed a crime. Yet we need to meet a much higher level of proof if we wish to extradite US citizens to the UK.

Adding insult to injury, the Government hasn't even convinced the US Senate to ratify the treaty.

The Liberal Democrats have been campaigning against this treaty for three years - ever since it was signed. We were the only party that voted against the extradition rules when they were brought into force.

But the battle isn't over: the Nat West Three, extradited today, are only the tip of the iceberg. Many other extradition cases are in the pipeline, and will be decided under this unfair treaty unless the Government acts now.

Thanks to yesterday's debate and vote, the House of Commons has signalled its clear condemnation of the Extradition Treaty. It would be great if you could do the same!

Please write to the Solicitor General and ask him to support Nick Clegg’s Extradition (United States of America) Bill that would repeal parts of the Extradition Act 2003 and bring an end to these unfair extradition procedures:

Mike O'Brien
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

(Personal letters are the most effective way of lobbying him)

A summer of EF

I have been down in London for the past few days with my first EF group of the summer. They were 20 Italians between the ages of 14 and 19. It has been a really nice group to start off the summer of EF carnage. Their London stay was really successful. We arrived on Thursday, at around lunchtime. We took a wander through Hyde Park and then I let them have some free time to acquaint themselves with the shopping streets of London. In the evening we went to Planet Hollywood for dinner and later returned to Hyde Park for some Football, Frisbee and Frolics! On the Friday we braved the underground. The place was heaving! We travelled to Westminster to start their walking tour of all the important things to see in London, arriving at Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guard. After lunch we walked over to the South Bank to go on the London Eye. For the rest of the afternoon I let the group do any last-minute shopping, and visit any final attractions of their choice. We met up again for dinner before heading along to ISH to join lots of other Italian students to watch Italy vs Ukraine. After breakfast on Saturday I said goodbye to the group as they boarded their choach to Heathrow. I spent the rest of the day with Danielle, Ben, John, Rob and Luis. We sat in a pub on the South Bank for most of the day. Conveniently my train back to Edinburgh was booked for 4pm - just as England vs Portugal kicked off. I left the guys and their coronas in front of the tele.


Yesterday (Sunday) I spontaneously decided to go and do a spot of munro-bagging. Kieran came along too. I picked him up at Perth and we drove up to Loch Tay. It took us about four hours (round-trip) to climb Ben Lawers. The weather wasn't that great, but it was conducive to hill-walking. The views from the top were still really impressive.

Finally got a degree!

Well at last I have graduated from uni. Graduation was quite an experience in spite of the fact that our 'celebrity' graduand was some random architect bloke instead of someone like Michael Douglas. I was a bit disappointed about the amount of time we were allowed to ponce around in our gown but dad made sure that the necessary photos were taken with me in the Hogwarts attire. It was a gorgeous day for the garden party and the sparkling wine flowed freely! Once all that was finished and parents were safely dispatched back to their B&Bs there was a mad rush to eat and get ready for the Ball. I plumped for a hearty fish and chips option to absorb the evening's alcohol. The Ball was brilliant. Nicole, Alex, Julia and myself went quite early to guarantee space at the bar and plenty of complimentary ice cream and candyfloss. We also took full advantage of the chocolate fountain fondue. The ceilidh was good fun and I managed to persuade Luis to partner me for the Cumberland Square Eight (he didn't know it was a basket dance!), then I had an Orcadian Strip the Willow re-match with Ben Murray - the last time I danced this dance with him I ended up on the floor! Throughout the night I took tons of photos, figuring that this would be the last opportunity I'd have to get some nostalgic snaps.

My favourite part of the night was when Zebra Jam were performing - I think they're fab! As the evening was coming to a close I bumped into Simon Cross (Edinburgh Rugby player extraordinaire) and we had a spot of banter to round off the evening. Who know's what I was ranting about to him! Poor guy!