Category Archives: Referendum

Of Fairies and Plesiosaurs

June 30, 2015Referendum, Stroke, TravelFairy Glen, Loch Ness, Urquhart Castlericky

So, Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth and I did indeed make it to Inverness last week to embark upon a scientifically rigorous search for the Loch Ness Monster. We stayed at a hotel on the Lochside. We took a boat ride up the loch to Urquhart Castle. And the results are in…..

Just take a look at the red area on the right hand side of the scanner readings. RIGHT?!?!

But for those of you who aren’t experienced in sonar interpretation, here’s some pictorial evidence of our results that’s even more conclusive than that presented in last week’s blog. Continue reading Of Fairies and Plesiosaurs →

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Killer Lines

May 25, 2015Art, Classical Music, Comics, Referendum, StrokeJames Rhodes, Stephen Colbert, Wonder Womanricky

As followers of the apoplectic.me Tiny Letter will be aware, the University of Edinburgh’s Creative Writers had their second reading night of the year just over a week ago. I co-hosted with my co-host, the handsome and talented Mr Jacques Tsiantar.

For this event, we only had three minutes for each of our individual slots. That’s about 600 words, which isn’t a lot. But fortunately, the first 600 or so words of my stroke-y memoir of extreme survival stop at a real doozie of a line.

Jacques and Ricky on the Road to Rio — ‘And the Scotsman says to the Englishman, “My left arm feels funny!”‘

Continue reading Killer Lines →

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Local Heroes

March 9, 2015Edinburgh, Politics, Pop Music, ReferendumChemikal Underground, General Election, Iain Macwhirter, Strokericky

A week stuffed full of different types of culture in Edinburgh this week. On Wednesday, I went the art school for a music industry session organised by Edinburgh University’s careers service as part of their Creative and Cultural Careers Festival.

Now, of course, becoming a writer isn’t necessarily the best step to take for career purposes.

Oh, Franz Kafka, you're a card! — I’ll become a partner in an asbestos factory, if it’s all the same to you.

Don’t let Stroke Bloke fall into a Kafka-esque slough of despond –
sign up to the apoplexy newsletter!

Continue reading Local Heroes →

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Burns Night

January 26, 2015Aphasia, Nerd Bait, Referendum, StrokeBBC weather map bias, Robert Burns, translationsricky

Address to a Haggis
(extract)

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Robert Burns

Give me fierce! Oh, that's perfect! Again! — Get tae Falkirk, Rabbie, ya bass!

I’ve been writing a wee bit in Scots, or Scots forms (Lowland Scots, to differentiate from Scots Gaelic), a lot in recent weeks. Firstly, for a short story that I’ve submitted for workshop tomorrow, and secondly for the Nerd Bait Liederbuch. Continue reading Burns Night →

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The Kübler-Ross Model

September 22, 2014Edinburgh, Mental Health, Politics, Referendum, Stroke#indyref, five stages of griefricky

Well. We have to talk about the be-kilted elephant in the room, slumped in the corner, clasping a sticky bottle of Buckfast to his chest.

See also golf, kilts, whisky, and haggis — Things that aren’t Scottish, #94

Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth tells me that referendum questions in the States are usually comprised of statutory legalese. Below that, they’re explained in less comprehensible terms for the voter. But the choice on Scotland’s #indyref ballot paper was stark.

[Sign up for apoplectic.me alerts and extra personal reflections here.] Continue reading The Kübler-Ross Model →

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McEwan Hall

September 15, 2014Books, Mindfulness, Politics, ReferendumCritical Legal Studies, Ian McEwan, Sweet Tooth, The Children Actricky

I was recently asked to complete one of those ice-breaker questionnaires.

Where's Wally? — Stroke Bloke takes his delict exam in McEwan Hall, 1992 — dissertation to follow

What was the title of your dissertation?
What are you reading at the moment?

[We live in interesting times, so leaven that with some boring old tat —
sign up for more personal apoplectic.me Tiny Letter distributions here.] Continue reading McEwan Hall →

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Battle Prom

July 28, 2014Classical Music, Design, Referendum, TravelBattle Proms, Kew Gardens, Londonricky

Our host, the partner of ein Autobahnkind, throws the Mercedes people-carrier into bends that lead us to Highgate. Looking out the windows, I want to tweet to every Scot who ever said, “I can’t be doing with London,” and fill 140 characters with wide arboretums and bilingual Eurostar stations and urban parklands and Japanese supermarkets and treetop walks.

Imagine dozens of Jar Jar Binks, kids — The Kew Gardens treetop walkway: it looks cool, but, y’know, Ewoks

[Sign up for apoplectic.me alerts and extra personal reflections here.]

Continue reading Battle Prom →

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Vote Man!

May 26, 2014Politics, Referendumricky

[Update, 26 May, 13:29 BST — This post was written over the weekend of 24 May. Today, the UK’s European Parliament election results were released. Ukip came first across the UK, with 27.49% of the vote and 24 seats. In Scotland, they picked up one seat, with 10.46%, as the Liberal Democrat vote in Scotland melted down. ]

On Thursday, I voted for the first time since my repatriation, in Scotland’s elections to the European Parliament. The neighbourhood’s polling station is the local primary school, and it seemed appropriate that during my absence it has been extended in the modern Scottish style that echoes the Scandic. I thought that I had better toddle along, particularly after Mrs Stroke Bloke’s dad had sent me this riotous Danish public broadcast. I certainly wouldn’t want my next menage à six ruined by political apathy.

Continue reading Vote Man! →

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Kinky Kricket

April 28, 2014Great British Strokes, Mindfulness, Pop Music, Referendum, Strokericky

A quick plug before we move onto Britishness, strokes, and pile-driving Aussie rock:
Nerd Bait will be premiering their latest short-form musical, Wrong Word Write Time (the fictional life story of a pilot suffering from aphasia) as part of Illicit Ink’s Underground night at Edinburgh’s Bongo Club on Sunday, 4 May.
Please come, tell your friends, and please share and tweet these links: 1, 2. Thanks!

It's gonna be face-meltingly good. — No! A car crash! It’s going to be a *car* crash!

Continue reading Kinky Kricket →

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Threads

January 27, 2014Books, Lists, Mindfulness, Referendum, Rehab, Strokericky

Long-time readers of the blog may remember the meditative trilogy of posts (1, 2, 3) from this past summer, sparked by Alan Spence’s imagining of the life of the Zen Master Hakuin in his novel Night Boat. Others of you may recall my more recent discussion of empathetic imagination. This week, those threads resurfaced and wove themselves into this post.

"The full horror of nuclear war and its aftermath." — Well, this should be fun….

Continue reading Threads →

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Apoplectic Me

the scribblings of a bloke who had a stroke…

Category Archives: Referendum

Of Fairies and Plesiosaurs

Killer Lines

Local Heroes

Burns Night

The Kübler-Ross Model

McEwan Hall

Battle Prom

Vote Man!

Kinky Kricket

Threads