The Gateway Guardians

Ill admit that I watched 'Black Mirror: Be Right Back' last night. While part of me thought 'how cool' and wished my mum had a version of my dad up the loft, there was a part that was deeply disturbed by how much personal information I share on the World Wide Web.

I probably give away more personal information in my writing than I think I do, for example, you wouldn't have to be Sherlock to guess my age bracket, country of origin or social and cultural background.

However I do try not to be too open and forthright in case MI5 are looking to add to their file on me (if they have one of course) and now, just in case there may be any truth in the whole 'Black Mirror' thing.

However, today I'm going to share something close to my heart and that's my home town.

You see, I am a proud Portonian.

The sunny land of Portonia lies between junctions 5 and 6 on the M9 it used to called Sealock but is now more commonly known as Grangemouth.

Any how, for some months now on the M9 we have had a kind of 'faux Senna S' near to the canal and where the Helix is being constructed.

In case you have no idea what the Helix is, it's a kind of 'something for everyone area' that is being built around Falkirk. It will have walkways & cycle routes all lit up so it can be used morning noon and night. It will have allotments for budding gardeners who have no garden of their own, it will have outdoor stuff, indoor stuff, tree hugging hippy stuff and cool stuff.

We did have what I liked to call the 'Guardians' which were 2 horse head sculptures positioned at the waterway. I am 100% certain that the sculptures will be spectacular. In fact, I really should type that in capitals because the mock-ups were devastating. So here you have it..... The sculptures will be SPECTACULAR and the first delivery of 'parts' arrived today.

These horse heads will now forever be known as The Kelpies, which is quite ironic because what I considered to be guardians are in reality (which is ironic as well) supernatural creatures that like to drag people off into the water and drown them for shits and giggles (or dung and neighs).

Being a proud Portonian, I Emailed Andy Scott to ask him about the 'Kelpies'.

Happily though, Andy hit the nail on the head, he doesn't see them as kelpies either. You see, the central belt of Scotland does have a fantastic heritage of agriculture and industry and without the aid of the heavy horses in fields, along the canals and pulling carts delivering Barr's drinks we would be no where.

You can see this historical influence everywhere around the area even today from Roman Relics to buildings constructed using money donated by Andrew Carnegie to the building of The Helix, which will certainly be the Future.






- Posted by The Portonian Princess from my iPad

Prost v Senna? No its BlackBerry v iPhone

After the BlackBerry Blackout of October I fell out with by beloved BB. I was disgusted, how very dare BB have a fault with their network which meant that I had lost touch with the world.

I had no email, no twitter and no facebook for 3 days; I mean really, how would anyone expect a woman to get through the day?

I am fully aware that there are many things wrong with that statement, like for one; do I not have a life? Or do I only have one that revolves around interaction via the written word?

Secondly, it’s not really as if it was a major hassle, I mean my poor BB got called some not very nice names, indeed the sort of words that would make a squaddie blush. It was only 3 days service missed from email, twitter and facebook in the time Ive had the phone, which is approximately 18 months or so. My little curve has been dunked in Cola, dropped in snow, kicked accidentally across a room and succumbed to the powers of a demolition expert of a 7yr old.

It is still in one piece, but I still felt let down and betrayed RIM.

As it is now approaching phone upgrade time Ive got the big decision to make, should I keep a hold of a phone that I like or go for the unknown iPhone contender?

I think the Blackberry RIM v iPhone rivalry is along the same lines as Ferrari v McLaren, Senna v Prost, you have to be in one camp or the other, you can’t (and won’t) dare have a foot in each camp. It just isn’t the done thing.

So I asked peoples opinions, iPhone 4S or BlackBerry Torch? It was that simple. I called Orange my network provider (see, I can be posh sometimes) and discussed it all with a lovely lady called Alison.

In short, FBF’s (facebook friends) say iPhone is the one to go for where as my twitfam (Twitter followers) are much more divided. Alison from Orange suggested that I try the iPhone and if I don’t like it I can easily return it within 14 days.

So, I’m finally buying into the whole ‘I’ thing, they have sold me a lifestyle choice full of hopes, dreams and aspirations and I’ve been reeled right in, all willingly.

Pfft, next Ill be owning an Audi……..oops got that.