Gaelic events in Edinburgh Sept/Oct 2009

Gaelic events coming up in Edinburgh during Sept/Oct
Please prefix the phone numbers with +44 131

Monday 21.09.09 – 6.30pm Advanced Gaelic for Learners Telford College course, Boroughmuir High School.

Tuesday 22.09.09 – 1.00pm Gaelic Lunch Club, Mount Royal Hotel, Princes St. Guest speaker: Roy Maciver. (Cont: 07906 318561).

Tuesday 22.09.09 – 7.30pm Gaelic Conversation Circle – SNP Rooms, North St. Andrew St. with Calum Cameron. (Cont: 334 7005)

Wednesday 23.09.09 – 7.15pm Edinburgh Saltire Gaelic Choir weekly rehearsal – SNP Rooms, 16 North St Andrew Street; an opportunity to learn Gaelic songs in a supportive and friendly environment; prior knowledge of Gaelic not essential as tuition is provided. (Cont. 669 6418 or see website)

Wednesday 23.09.09 – 6.45pm Edinburgh Place-names – origins & history, 4-wk Telford College course with Neil Macgregor. (Cont: 0131 559 4428)

Thursday 24.09.09 – 7.15pm Lothian Gaelic Choir weekly rehearsal – Tollcross Primary School, Fountainbridge. (Cont: 07906 318561)

Friday 25.09.09 – 7.00pm Ceilidh nan Amhrain Gàidhlig – Gaelic & Irish songs to learn, Tollcross Community Centre. With Deirdre MacMahon.

Saturday 26.09.09 – 10.00am “Deasachadh airson an àrd-ùrlair” (Preparing for Performance) – Workshops for young people – various instruments – TX Community Centre, Fountainbridge. (Cont: Fiona Mackintosh, 476 6611)

Sunday 27.09.09 – 12.30pm Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place. Mr Alasdair Macleod. (Cont: 225 1900).

Monday 28.09.09 – 6.30pm Advanced Gaelic for Learners Telford College course, Boroughmuir High School.

Tuesday 29.09.09 – 7.30pm Gaelic Conversation Circle – SNP Rooms, North St. Andrew St. with Calum Cameron. (Cont: 334 7005)

Wednesday 30.09.09 – 6.45pm Edinburgh Place-names – origins & history, 4-wk Telford College course with Neil Macgregor. (Cont: 0131 559 4428)

Wednesday 30.09.09 – 7.15pm Edinburgh Saltire Gaelic Choir weekly rehearsal – SNP Rooms, 16 North St Andrew Street; an opportunity to learn Gaelic songs in a supportive and friendly environment; prior knowledge of Gaelic not essential as tuition is provided. (Cont. 669 6418 or see website)

Thursday 01.10.09 – 7.15pm Lothian Gaelic Choir weekly rehearsal – Tollcross Primary School, Fountainbridge. (Cont: 07906 318561)

Friday 02.10.09 – 7.00pm Ceilidh nan Amhrain Gàidhlig – Gaelic & Irish songs to learn, Tollcross Community Centre. With Deirdre MacMahon.

Saturday 03.10.09 – 7.30pm Comunn Tir nam Beann Ceilidh, St. John’s Church Hall, Princes St. with Lothian Gaelic Choir & solo singers & instrumentalists. (Cont: 334 7005)

Sunday 04.10.09 – 12.30pm Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place. (Cont: 225 1900).

Monday 05.10.09 – 6.30pm Advanced Gaelic for Learners Telford College course, Boroughmuir High School.

Wednesday 07.10.09 – 6.45pm Edinburgh Place-names – origins & history, 4-wk Telford College course with Neil Macgregor. (Cont: 0131 559 4428)

Friday 09.10.09 – 7.00pm Ceilidh nan Amhrain Gàidhlig – Gaelic & Irish songs to learn, Tollcross Community Centre. With Deirdre MacMahon.

Sunday 11.10.09 – 12.30pm Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place. (Cont: 225 1900).

Monday 12.10.09 – 6.30pm Advanced Gaelic for Learners Telford College course, Boroughmuir High School.

Wednesday 14.10.09 – 6.45pm Edinburgh Place-names – origins & history, 4-wk Telford College course with Neil Macgregor. (Cont: 0131 559 4428)

Friday 16.10.09 – 7.00pm Ceilidh nan Amhrain Gàidhlig – Gaelic & Irish songs to learn, Tollcross Community Centre. With Deirdre MacMahon.

Sunday 18.10.09 – 12.30pm Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place. (Cont: 225 1900).

Monday 19.10.09 – 6.30pm Advanced Gaelic for Learners Telford College course, Boroughmuir High School.

Saturday 24.10.09 – 7.30pm Edinburgh Argyll Association Ceilidh with the Greenock Waulking Group & instrumentalists, St John’s Church Hall, Lothian Road. (Cont: 453 5766)

Sunday 25.10.09 – 12.30pm Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place. (Cont: 225 1900).

Monday 26.10.09 – 6.30pm Advanced Gaelic for Learners Telford College course, Boroughmuir High School.

Gaelic events in London in September

Here is the exceptionally well produced 10 page newsletter in bilingual Scots Gaelic and English covering Scottish Gaelic events in London during September 2009. Enjoy!

London has the world's oldest Gaelic society (founded 1777) and the world's oldest Gaelic choir (founded 1892). Gaelic was also the first minority language to have its own mailing list I believe - Gaelic-L was founded in May 1989.

mar sin leat

Craig

End My Credit Crunch campaign

All

The End My Credit Crunch group has now launched, please visit the group, check out what we're about and watch the group for imminent news of our launch. Free prizes, no purchase necessary and we help charities too.

many thanks

Craig

End My Credit Crunch

This post is to announce the holding page for End My Credit Crunch.

The site announcement is being made on 19th July at 19:48, exactly one month to the minute after having the idea. This moment was captured on twitter as I stood at Dublin airport.

The background is that a week or so previously I had been preparing an article for The Times following a tweet from Times Money about how the credit crunch had affected my family and the various problems with jobs, income and working extensively away from home we were having as a result.

That article was supposed to appear on 13th June but unfortunately, got knocked out by other news even though they thought the article would work really well and they felt my situation was really tough. However, such is the way of newspaper articles. Hopefully this one will get a lot more coverage :-)

So after a few days thought following that setback, I tried my hand at coming up with an innovative way of getting out of the Credit Crunch rather than having the story printed in The Times. A month later, here we are and the site behind the scenes is nearly ready.

We are now building the user base ready for a successful launch. Please visit endmycreditcrunch.com and follow us on twitter or drop me a mail on info@endmycreditcrunch. We would be particularly keen to hear from anyone wishing to advertise on this novel twitter related site, we hope to successfully monetise twitter to generate income that can be effectively shared out to good causes and people affected by the credit crunch. Our aim is to give away $250,000.

If this gets to be as popular as the Million Dollar Homepage then you will be glad you got in early. Unlike that site however, we are taking standard banner adverts 468x60 that make an impact. Also unlike that site, our aim is to give away a large portion of what we raise to help as many people as possible.

End My Credit Crunch - a British business helping charities and people world wide out of the crunch, let us uncrunch you!

Craig

Great money making idea for budget airlines

How about a charge to charge up my phone inflight? They would take my switched off phone, charge it inflight for a fiver and at the end of an hours flight or so it would be usable again for several hours. I would maybe  pay a fiver for this as theres scant few places you can charge up when travelling except business lounges but often they are closed or you arent there long enough to make it worthwhile. OK Ryanair, how about 1000 euro for this idea then?

Craig

p.s. Please forward/retweet etc.

Gaelic events in Edinburgh - June/July

A' chairdean,

Tuilleadh fiosrachaidh mu thachartasan Gaidhlig sa bhaile air feadh na
seachdainnean ri thighinn.
List of forthcoming Gaelic events in the city as follows.

Please note Bothan event on Friday 3rd July with two well-known personalities coming together for an evening's entertainment!

Sunday 28.06.09 – 12.30pm               Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place.  Alasdair Macleod. (Cont: 225 1900).

Tuesday 30.06.09 – 7.30pm               Gaelic Conversation Circle – SNP Rooms, North St. Andrew St. with Calum Cameron. (Cont: 334 7005)

Wednesday 01.07.09 – 7.15pm         Edinburgh Saltire Gaelic Choir weekly
rehearsal – SNP Rooms, 16 North St Andrew Street; an opportunity to learn
Gaelic songs in a supportive and friendly environment; prior knowledge of
Gaelic not essential as tuition is provided. (Cont. 669 6418 or see website)

Thursday 02.07.09 – 7.30pm             Â"LuaidhÂ" group – Gaelic Community
Office, 137 Dundee St. (Above Fountainbridge Library). (Cont: 07906 318561)

Friday 03.07.09 – 8.30pm                 Â"BothanÂ" at new venue -  White Room
at GRV, 37 Guthrie Street, Edinburgh featuring Gillebride MacIlleMhaoil &
Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul. (Cont: 07906 318561)

Sunday 05.07.09 – 12.30pm               Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars
Kirk, Greyfriars Place.  Rev. Angus Smith. (Cont: 225 1900).

Tuesday 07.07.09 – 7.30pm               Gaelic Conversation Circle – SNP
Rooms, North St. Andrew St. with Calum Cameron. (Cont: 334 7005)

Wednesday 08.07.09 – 7.15pm         Edinburgh Saltire Gaelic Choir weekly
rehearsal – SNP Rooms, 16 North St Andrew Street; an opportunity to learn
Gaelic songs in a supportive and friendly environment; prior knowledge of
Gaelic not essential as tuition is provided. (Cont. 669 6418 or see website)

Saturday 11.07.09 – 7.30pm             Edinburgh Argyll Association Ceilidh
with Satunum McElroy (songs & fiddle), St JohnÂ's Church Hall, Lothian Road.
(Cont: 453 5766)

Sunday 12.07.09 – 12.30pm               Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars
Kirk, Greyfriars Place.  Mr John Archie Macmillan.  (Cont: 225 1900).

Sunday 12.07.09 – 3.00pm                 Gaelic service, St ColumbaÂ's Free
Church, Johnston Terrace. Rev. Murdo Macleod. (Cont: 228 3782).

Tuesday 14.07.09 – 7.30pm               Gaelic Conversation Circle – SNP
Rooms, North St. Andrew St. with Calum Cameron. (Cont: 334 7005)

Wednesday 15.07.09 – 7.15pm         Edinburgh Saltire Gaelic Choir weekly
rehearsal – SNP Rooms, 16 North St Andrew Street; an opportunity to learn
Gaelic songs in a supportive and friendly environment; prior knowledge of
Gaelic not essential as tuition is provided. (Cont. 669 6418 or see website)

Sunday 19.07.09 – 12.30pm               Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars
Kirk, Greyfriars Place.  Mr Callum Macleod. (Cont: 225 1900).

Tuesday 21.07.09 – 7.30pm               Gaelic Conversation Circle – SNP
Rooms, North St. Andrew St. with Calum Cameron. (Cont: 334 7005)

Sunday 26.07.09 – 12.30pm               Weekly Gaelic service, Greyfriars
Kirk, Greyfriars Place.  Rev Angus Smith. (Cont: 225 1900).

Tuesday 28.07.09 – 7.30pm               Gaelic Conversation Circle – SNP
Rooms, North St. Andrew St. with Calum Cameron. (Cont: 334 7005)

Business plan tips for angel finance

I'd been looking around for a while for tips on how to write a good business plan to attract angel finance and finally found this useful guide on bytestart. Would welcome comments on this and any additional guides like it that people know of.

many thanks

Craig

Facebook and Twitter URLs

I can now also be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/siliconglen and on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/siliconglen.

Craig

Scottish events in London, music & song

See the attached PDF for details: LondonGaelicJune09.pdf

Scotland is the place

My recent interview with Scotland is the Place, Scottish government website.

Hope you like it, the space was a bit limited. There's so much more I'd like to say.

Craig

Leo's Tavern, Donegal

I visited Leo's Tavern during the Irish June holiday weekend 2009. It was somewhere I had been meaning to go back to for a while, having had a few very memorable nights there back in 1996 on the stage and being entertained by Leo himself. I had meant to go there when I was working in Belfast in 2007 but never made it and the opportunity to go during the holiday weekend in 2009 now that I'm in Dublin was too good to miss.

However, it's a changed pub indeed from 1996. Let me explain for those who went to the old Leo's and who might be thinking of returning. First off and not surprising at all considering his age, Leo himself no longer performs regularly - his accordion is still on the stage just like it used to be but his appearances are mostly limited to a few special occasions, coaches of tourists in the summer and playing at weddings. It was unfortunately inevitable that he wouldn't be able to carry on the 6 nights a week performances he enjoyed for so long, but for all that it's great praise indeed that he managed to play as long and as regularly as he did despite his age. We've certainly got a lifetime of happy memories from his younger days.

The pub was also redeveloped in 2005 and is now run by Enya's younger brother Bartley Brennan. The new pub includes a back room which has lots of Enya and Clannad memorabilia, a mini-shop and restaurant. These changes were necessary in part to accommodate the large crowds, particularly in the summer. The food is great - I didn't get to see the function room as it only opens for organised events. There is also separate public and lounge bars. The public bar is smaller than the old bar so has more of a cosy feel, however you need to go into the lounge bar/restaurant if you want to see the musicians. I was in the public bar and on the same ground where traditional music once filled the air, the TV was on instead with Britain's Got Talent final. There's fewer items of the band / Enya within the bars now, I believe that a lot of these are in the function room at the back.





With Leo being a draw in his own right, his semi-retirement means that other artists take the stage with one act per night, generally starting around 10:30. A bit late compared to Leo's 9:30 or so. With the revamp what has been been lost is the authenticity of the place. Whilst accepting it needed to be larger, you no longer feel that you are on the same stage that Clannand/Enya began on - it's a bit like going into the room where W.B. Yeats wrote poetry, only to find it had been modernised as part of a refurbishment - the link to the past is weakened. The other thing which is lost is the ceilidh atmosphere which Leo brought with him. It wasn't just him on the stage but it was a real ceilidh with spontaneous performances from members of the audience, including myself and Moya Brennan on the same night in 1996. You didn't know what to expect, one night there was a brilliant Irish singer from Iowa. Such is the nature of a true, unorganised and spontaneous ceili but again that is lost. When I was there, despite it being a holiday weekend in June, the place was largely empty. Harder to draw people in with Leo not there and combined with the recession it's changed times indeed from the packed houses of a few years ago.

It's a pity I missed the 40th anniversary celebrations in September 2008, it would have been the best party ever but perhaps tinged with sadness marking the pub's former focus as probably the best music pub in Ireland.

Still, I hope to be back one day. Leo's tavern and Bunbeg are great places to get away from it all.

Craig

localpages.ie, buggy, broken and not interested in feedback

Dear localpages.ie

I just encountered the following error when browsing your site, did you test it or have you outsourced this to customers? Never mind, I did try and send it to you so that you could fix it but as you've intentionally left out any means of contacting you on your website I was unable to do so. Since I would like the problem fixed and since I would like to tell you your site is broken so that you can fix it and I might enjoy using your site at some point in the future, I think the only way of telling you about your broken site is to post the details here in the hope that you find them on a web search.

If you weren't so rude and difficult and made it impossible for people to reach you I would have sent this in an email instead.

Cutting yourself off from customers is rarely a good tactic. Other websites take note.

Craig

p.s. Good programmers trap their errors.

Server Error in '/' Application.
DataBinding: 'System.Data.DataRowView' does not contain a property with the name 'glat'.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: DataBinding: 'System.Data.DataRowView' does not contain a property with the name 'glat'.

Source Error:

Line 29:
Line 30:
Line 31: point = new GLatLng(<%#Eval("glat")%>0, <%#Eval("glong")%>0);
Line 32: content = "<%#Eval("name").ToString() %>
<%#Eval("category").ToString() %>
<%# Eval("phone").ToString()%>";
Line 33: map.addOverlay(createMarker(point, 87, content));


Source File: c:\domains\localpages.ie\wwwroot\ajax\businessByCounty.aspx Line: 31

Stack Trace:

[HttpException (0x80004005): DataBinding: 'System.Data.DataRowView' does not contain a property with the name 'glat'.]
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.GetPropertyValue(Object container, String propName) +197
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.Eval(Object container, String[] expressionParts) +79
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.Eval(Object container, String expression) +107
System.Web.UI.TemplateControl.Eval(String expression) +120
ASP.ajax_businessbycounty_aspx.__DataBind__control7(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\domains\localpages.ie\wwwroot\ajax\businessByCounty.aspx:31
System.Web.UI.Control.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e) +99
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding) +206
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind() +12
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBindChildren() +204
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind(Boolean raiseOnDataBinding) +216
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind() +12
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.CreateItem(Int32 itemIndex, ListItemType itemType, Boolean dataBind, Object dataItem) +130
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.CreateControlHierarchy(Boolean useDataSource) +454
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e) +53
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.DataBind() +72
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.EnsureDataBound() +55
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +12
System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +86
System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +170
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +2041


Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.1433; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.1433

Call 0800 numbers free from a mobile

Great tip from the money saving expert. Posting it here so it's easy for all to find.

Craig

Jammin' at the voodoo

Just back from an outstanding blues gig in Edinburgh, free. Tonight included Sandy from the legendary Blues'n'trouble that I was asking about back in 1993 and who have toured and guested with the likes of BB King and Robert Cray. To give you an idea of the superb standard of tonight's gig, BB King called B'n'T the "best white blues band in the world", read their reviews on amazon.co.uk.


Unbelievable for a free gig with such talent that there was such a small audience. Those that could hear the gig from the street outside were surprised by the unexpected treat. Watch the facebook group or myspace for details of the next jam! Many thanks to Ash Gupta for the event and an excellent performance himself!


Craig

Gaelic mailing list celebrates 20 years

The world's first online group for a minority language, Gaelic-L, celebrates its 20th anniversary today (latha buidhe Bealltainn, 1st of May). All the archives going back 20 years into the days before the web was invented are available at the Gaelic-L archives. Enjoy!

Craig (former co-owner, Gaelic-L - 1992)

Cheap printer cartridge replacements

I'm switching to MoreInks for my replacement printer cartridges as they are by far the cheapest I have found so far, and importantly the replacements they sell include the necessary chip in the compatible cartridges so you don't need to mess around for ages trying to pry the chip off the standard cartridge and onto the clone.

£3.99 for a replacement black cartridge (with chip) for a Canon printer, can't complain at that price, or a whole set of 4 chipped cartridges for £12.99

many thanks!

Craig

Susan Boyle and the local talent contest

OK, I thought I'd add this piece of local info for the millions of Susan Boyle fans watching her on YouTube etc.

Personally I think she's a brilliant singer, even more so that she broke the mould for what the judges expected a winner to look like.

However, it seems that despite an incredible voice and world wide fame even she seems to have struggled at my local social club's talent contest, so reports this week's Linlithgow Gazette, a paper from the same county as Susan Boyle.

As if that wasn't surprising enough, three other UK talent finalists have also failed to win anything in the local talent contest. They are: Michelle McManus, winner of the UK wide Pop Idol series 2, David Sneddon, winner of the UK wide Fame Academy on BBC and Andrew Muir, a top ten finalist in the previous Britain's Got Talent.

Good going that West Lothian has so many singers capable of reaching the top in UK talent contests, if only they could win at the Linlithgow Rose social club down the road they'd have it made!

Craig
An occasional singer who is #1 on Google out of 500,000+ pages...

Easter Holiday

Great weather and views in Elie, Fife & the world's best fish and chips a short drive away in Anstruther.
Craig

Fulltiltpoker.com, stickiest site on the Internet

Figures according to Nielsen on-line, February 2009. see here for full breakdown.

Craig, Web project manager, Full Tilt Poker.

Available from mid April for my next opportunity, LinkedIn.

Diomhair- The BBC documentary on independence for Scotland

Diomhair Part 1, Diomhair Part 2, Diomhair Part 3, Diomhair Part 4, Diomhair Part 5, Diomhair Part 6

Diomhair is Gaelic for "Secret"

Diomhair on iPlayer (no longer available)

This is a major eyeopener. Congratulations indeed to the BBC for broadcasting it. This story demands global coverage.

-original message-
Subject: Diomhair- The Secrets Out
From: David McCann <david.mccann24@btopenworld.com>
Date: 06/04/2009 17:59
Read my blog, make your comments, get the links to Youtube, and pass to all
in your address book.
http://www.scottishindependenceconvention.org/
David McCann
Secretary Scottish Independence Convention
24 Paton Street
Alloa
FK10 2DY
Tel 01259 211335

http://www.scottishindependenceconvention.org/