Fancy free food? December 16, 2009

 
My son likes to rummage in bins. He is a connoisseur of rubbish in all its variety. He can tell you what time central London convenience stores put their binbags out on to the streets and hazard a good guess as to what will be in them. He can tell you about how the waste [...]

A loose sally of the mind; an irregular undigested piece; not a regularly and orderly composition December 7, 2009

In an interesting review of a book by David Shields, Zadie Smith discusses definitions of the term ‘essay’ and why novelists write them. It set me thinking about the whole blogging process, and the resonances between blogging and essay writing.
Smith calls Shield’s book of essays ‘an engaging form of bricolage without obvious authorial structure … [...]

Back to the 60’s November 23, 2009

I spent a great weekend with 2 of my kids in London recently. We visited the Aztec exhibition at the British Museum – I had studied Latin American history for part of my degree and my daughter is studying Spanish so it was very apt. And very interesting.
After culture I always need to visit Liberty’s [...]

Denmark October 30, 2009

I had a lovely time in the civilised and pretty town of Skagen in Denmark last week. There was nothing west but sea and sky:
 the view from the window
And not much east either. We were at the very northern tip of Jutland on a spit of land that was only 5 km wide. My header [...]

A Gude Cause: A case of Quine Flu October 12, 2009

 I had such a great day on Saturday. The sun shone on the 3000 or so people (mainly women but plenty of men too) who strode through Edinburgh re-enacting the Gude Cause protest march which took place on Princes Street 100 years ago, when women took to the cobbles to demand the right to vote. Both now [...]

The Shy Connector September 14, 2009

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I came across a marvellous presentation on Angela Maiers’ terrific blog (don’t seem to be able to embed it. I’ll try later, but follow the link if you’re interested) and it spoke very strongly to my condition. Like Sacha, I enjoy speaking to groups of people, but find social situations and contributing to discussions challenging, despite [...]

gymnauseum September 1, 2009

Definition from Addictionary: ‘When working out at the health club, the feeling that you should have stopped working out ten minutes ago’.
Oh how I loathe exercise. And how the guilt racks me because I know I should when I curl up with a good book. I just want to be lithe and limber without any effort at [...]

twitterbaited … August 27, 2009

… condition of having been seduced onto yet another social network
Example:
I have facebook and live journal, but my friend Sam is making sure I will end up twitterbaited!
Still haven’t taken the plunge!

Once Upon a Time … August 25, 2009

We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say-and to feel- ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it.’ You’re not as alone as you [...]

Island hopping August 15, 2009

I’ve just returned from a fantastic week in the Outer Hebrides, walking on beaches such as the one here (Luskentyre on Harris). The sea really was this colour.
And look at this sand!

We travelled to Barra from Oban, then a short boat ride to South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist. Another ferry took us to Harris [...]