Yesterday night there was Scottish Firework Championships taking place at Ocean Terminal. We missed first show but there were two more to come. The cold weather and wind kept people indoors so we had good place to watch and photograph fireworks. The fence before sea also provided steady support for the camera.

Photographing fireworks is tricky and especially if you cannot use manual settings for exposure and focus. I was using my Canon IXUS 60 which is just a simple pocket camera. It was impossible to set exposure manually so I had to trick it a little bit. The camera shows exposure time on its display after focusing so I was able to try my luck and when I got right numbers on the screen I kept shooting with continuous mode. The down side of this method is that I took nearly 400 photos and selecting 20 best ones took some time.

Building a social network after relocation is pretty important and takes effort. Based on my experience in Hungary I would recommend to start building local social network as soon as possible. Later on you will have already established routines and getting involved will be more difficult.

The first persons you get to know in the new location are usually your colleagues. But they tend to have their own circles already outside work and often you would prefer seeing different faces. Luckily it is rather easy to meet new people if you know where to look.

Various user groups are easy way to meet similar minded people. I have visited local Java and Mac user group meetings in Edinburgh among some other IT related events. These have been free,relaxed and fun. Some events are simple social meetings in a pub but there are also educational events with valuable information.

Edinburgh Mac User Group

Java user group for Scotland

The washing machine was fixed and also something unexpected happened. Weather changed and there were several really warm and sunny days. It was such a luxury to have lunch outdoor in the park. Too bad the lunch here is usually just a sandwich or similar which is pretty much nonsense compared to proper two course lunches I got used to in Budapest.

Nice weather also took us to Portobello beach to check activities there. For our surprise there were some people swimming in the sea. We decided to stay dry and just walk along the beach.

Just couple weeks ago I had a leaking radiator valve which was fixed. Today I was checking the washing machine while it was working and I noticed it leaked water out on the floor. The washing machine is part of the kitchen furnishing and it has covering panels so I cannot see where the leak is or how big it is - just some water coming through while the machine was running. Luckily the leak was not flooding the whole floor but any leak near wooden floor is bad.

So I had to call my landlady again and now she is trying to organize repairs for it...

Actually I do not understand why washing machine is in the kitchen so often in this country. In Finland and Hungary the machine was placed in the bathroom where water leaks from the washing machine are not that dramatical. I guess it has something to do with peculiar electricity standards here in the UK.