Thomas Alexander Neil

It has been two years today since my brother tragically left us for what lies beyond. It was something that shocked everyone that he knew and was a startling reminder of how precious and fragile life is. It has taken a long time for me to come to terms with and it has only been with time that I am even able to talk about it.

He was a bit older than me and even though I don’t remember us living in the same house for very long he was a fixture in my life, he was mischievous, loved watching his soap opera’s and always had a story. He was easy going, hard working and generous to a fault.

When I returned from living in The Netherlands I lived close to Tom and it saddens me that I didn’t see him more before he left. Nothing will ever alleviate the guilt I feel about this. So, if you are reading this and there is someone in your life that you haven’t seen or called in a while, do something about it.

Thomas Alexander Neil

Een beetje gebroken

A tough week that left me a little broken, dinged and blue. I don’t mind tough times when they’ve been of my own making, these are definite learning opportunities, but when they are created and left without explanation it is tougher to deal with.

Thankfully my work is busy and my own project of shedding ‘lockdown fat’ is keeping my body busy, if only my mind would quiet down a bit.

In Scotland the attitude has always been ‘shake it off’ and ‘move on’. Of course modern mental health attitudes are more along the thoughts of work through the pain and take what you can learn from the experience.

Whatever happens I won’t be basing my decisions on my horoscope.

Winter Solstice

In what can be described as feeling like the longest year ever, I am happy that Winter solstice is finally here, marking the day with the least amount of light before the earth’s axis starts tilting back to summer again.

It seems ironic that at the start of the year most people were sick of hearing about Brexit on the news and were wanting something new in the headlines. I guess you should be careful for what you wish for. Interestingly both Brexit and COVID are about to cause a major clusterfuck at the end of the year with no imports or exports into the UK due to COVID and the (oven ready) No Deal with Europe.

It would be hard to believe that 2021 can be any worse.

Unfortunately for most in Scotland we will not be able to see the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn tonight, it’s very cloudy, I actually wonder if it was cloudy on the night 400 years ago when they last met like this. I look forward to the videos and photographs tomorrow!

After the year that has been we should take a moment to acknowledge the solstice, knowing that the darkest day eventually leads to the lightest.

Lockdown

It’s life, but it’s not exactly living.

I have been isolated for the best part of five weeks now and it would appear that the lockdown is going to last for another week, month, or three months, depending on which ‘expert’ you choose to listen to. I get the feeling that no-one really knows. Except Donald Trump who will soon declare that America never even had the Coronavirus and he single handedly stop the virus at the border himself.

Most of the advice I have been reading is telling me that creating a routine is the best way for coping. I am fairly sure they didn’t mean watching a shit-ton of Netflix and getting up late everyday. Am also pretty sure they didn’t mean getting up at stupid o’clock and only getting four hours sleep each night either. Most of the time I am between the two depending on what day it is, which of course relies on me knowing what day it is. The longer the lockdown continues the less I care about what day it is.

I am grateful of course that I have managed to avoid this virus so far and that I am in a position that many are not. I am interested to see at what point people stop caring about the stay at home rules.

Stay safe.

June/July

As my Instagram followers and posts can attest to, I haven't had much time to go out photographing in the last month. In what was probably the best month of weather that Scotland has ever seen, with included spectacular sunsets, I have been busy moving to a new apartment.

As much as I enjoy building furniture from IKEA after hauling it up three flights of stairs and then having to spend over a week building it, my body decided that it was not much fun. Never before has a bowl of Swedish meatballs cost so much.

Now that I have been in the apartment for over a week I am starting to get myself into a routine where I can balance working with some web design and some photography. After the world cup has finished I'll start appreciating this summer weather before it disappears again.