I 'made' it into the company Bulletin in the staff 'Focus On' section where you have to answer things like "If I was an animal I would be?" - here it is....

Megan went along with the Scotish Polish Cultural Association to look at the new Scottish Parliament buildings.

Here's her report in English:

Visit to Scottish Parliament

I approached the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood with a feeling of curiosity.

Curiosity raised by the numerous articles written on the 'controversial' building and what on earth could have cost over £480 million without being made of gold!

I was joining an informal tour, organised by our chairperson, Izabella Brodzinska, and waited for our small party to congregate outside the strange bamboo-lined multi-level building. Our guide, Richard Welsh, who works full time as a researcher in the Parliament for one of our MSPs, had kindly agreed to take us around. This was an excellent opportunity to see ' behind the scenes' of normal parliamentary life as well as the 'public' face experience of normal tours.

Our tour moved through the public areas: low, large curved ceilings of concrete, amazing bright spacious halls inspired by boats, the very modern debating chamber and into the more private warren of meeting rooms and offices used by parliamentary workers and MSPs.
Our guide was able to move us round the whole building sharing with us its history, his thoughts and showing us the glossy and perhaps not so glossy aspects.

I think all of us were struck at how deceptively small the parliament appears from the outside, but then this was Enric Miralles' plan.

The Spanish architect who designed the building wanted to give the impression of a building 'rising from the ground'. It is a multi-level affair, a strange mix of natural and man-made; of concrete, glass, metal and timber. No matter what your taste in architecture, you will be struck by the imagination of this design.



I walked away feeling curiously settled; I could understand 'what all the hype was about' and I could see the magnificent level of detail that could have caused those mounting costs.

I think curiosity will lead many people to drive past the building, but if you want to really see the boundaries of imagination pushed, please take those steps inside and I think you will be amazed at what you find.



We had the chance to see where the normal unglamorous day-to-day work took place, in rather small offices much like any other office but again with an Enric Miralles twist.

For us 'tourists' it was a fascinating insight into our Scottish parliament building, to our guide it was another normal day at the office.

Megan Brodzinska-Readman

And here's her report in Polish:

Zwiedzanie Szkockiego Parlamentu
Megan Readman
Tłum. z ang. Maria Musur-Grieve

Z uczuciem nieukrywanej ciekawości zbliżałam się do budynku nowego Szkockiego Parlamentu w Holyrood. Na prawdę ciekawości, bo tyle było kontrowersyjnych opinii podczas jego budowy. Co mogło kosztować 480 milionów, jeżeli budynek nie jest ze złota!

Wyprawę zorganizowała Izabella Brodzińska, przewodnicząca Szkocko-Polskiego Towarzystwa Kulturalnego. Oprowadzał nas "nieoficjalny" przewodnik Richard Welsh, pracownik Szkockiego Parlamentu, znajomy Izabelli. Była to znakomita okazja zobaczenia Parlamentu "za kulisami" jak rownież jego "publiczne" oblicze.

Przechodziliśmy przez tereny publiczne; niskie, ogromne, wysklepione sufity, nadzwyczaj jasne i przestrzenne korytarze przypominające łodzie, bardzo nowoczesna sala posiedzeń i dalej bardziej prywatne, kameralne sale obrad i biura pracowników jak i Członków Szkockiego Parlamentu(MSPs).

Uderzyło nas, jak myląco małym wydaje się budynek Parlamentu patrząc od zewnątrz, ale to był przecież plan Enric'a Miralles.

Hiszpański architekt, który ten budynek zaprojektował chciał, żeby się odnosiło wrażenie, że budynek niejako "wyrasta z ziemi". Jest on wielopoziomowy, dziwna mieszanina surowców naturalnych i surowców stworzonych przez człowieka; beton, szkło, metal i drewno. Nieważne jaka ci się podoba architektura, będziesz pod wrażeniem pomysłowości tego projektu.

The original Polish version is on szkocja.net in thier bulletin here.

Here's a picture I just took of Edinburgh Castle:


It was take from my office window - there aren't many places you get a view like that. It has been used as a fortification for over 2000 (yes 2000) years - www.rampantscotland.com/visit/blvisitedincastle.htm

Camera: 02 XDAIIi in Sepia mode.

I thought we'd seen the last of the SPHPBLOG hackers, but oh no, this guys trying to delete my password file and reinstall my website!

81.241.155.232 - - [24/Oct/2005:17:24:16 +0100] "GET /comment_delete_cgi.php?y=05&m=08&comment=./config/password.txt HTTP/1.1" 302 -
81.241.155.232 - - [24/Oct/2005:17:24:17 +0100] "GET /index.php HTTP/1.1" 200 24728
81.241.155.232 - - [24/Oct/2005:17:24:18 +0100] "POST /install03_cgi.php?blog_language=english HTTP/1.1" 404 297

No joy as I've got .htaccess files and the new version of sphpblog in place.

Just met a great Jobsworth at the local Post Office.

I'm appying for a renewal passport and I made a mistake on the form, so I crossed it out, i.e. use a ped in a left to right manor to 'black out' the mistake.

I arrive at the Post Office and no queue - great. Pam behind the counter checks over the documents and says that I will have to fill the whole form out again because I "cant just scribble" mistakes out. In fact she points out that mistakes should be removed using up and down marks, not left and right. I explain that "I am sure this will be fine", this is a 4 page form and it will be acceptible - but to no avail.

So I fill in a new form, take it to the counter (after standing behind 12 people in the queue) and she starts scrutinising my photos, in fact she gets her boss over to double check "is he facing sideways".

I haven't met a jobsworth for a while.

I was looking for the origin of the word 'jobsworth' and www.askoxford.com came up with this:

jobsworth

• noun Brit. informal an official who mindlessly upholds petty rules.

— ORIGIN from ‘it’s more than my job’s worth (not) to’.