November 2008

  • Friday at the Radiocroft…

    …and we’re talking mail order disasters (or at least surprises, like the 20 chrome ethernet sockets that arrived yesterday). Unexpected brushes with the law (‘allo, ‘allo, ‘allo, Mr Green…) cover versions that are better than the original and something else that just slipped my mind…oh yes! Forgetfulness. That and embarrassing moments in garages. The engine,…

  • So, I was in this teashop in Athens, Georgia…

    …in the summer of 1986, when in comes the owner. On a bicycle. Can you guess who it is yet?

  • The wonder of Woolies, secret crushes and pleading ignorance

    Yesterday on the show we nattered about driving tests and strange rockstar names (and those of their children, such as Dweezil Zappa, Zowie Bowie and -most recently- Bronx Mowgli Wendt). Woodside Wullie brought up the demise of Woolworths, and blamed himself – for a shoplifting incident (Dusty in Memphis on vinyl) and his offspring’s abuse…

  • New whisky blog – Drinking for Scotland

    The demise of the Nippy Sweeties blog, along with two whisky columns I was writing (for the US publication Scottish Life and The Scots Magazine) was provoked by several things: exhaustion, unhealthiness, the need to complete a novel and a complete absence of anything worth saying. Now, with the book finished (Serpentine: due for publication…

  • Tom Morton show in full flight from The Radiocroft (well, actually, while a record was playing)

    The Tom Morton Show is brought to you by BBC Radio Scotland. Online, on FM, Medium wave, on your digital telly and by clamping a wet piece of string between two amalgam fillings (but not during electrical storms, please).

  • A question of light

    At this time of year in Shetland (now officially possessing the highest quality of life in Scotland, whatever that means) you’ve got to grab whatever daylight there is and try to absorb as much as you can. Even in windily icy conditions like those we have today. So Susan and I took the dogs up…

  • Bitterly cold in Hillswick, and the end of newspapers, again

    Not as much snow as expected this morning, and the predicted severe gales are just bitter and brutal breezes. However, much more extreme weather is expected later today and tomorrow. If I sound a little disappointed, it’s just that I take a childlike delight in snow. It’s always fun to see a St Bernard plunging…

  • Hot Hot Heat! And all from peat!

    I’m currently trying to keep peat stoves going in two different houses…this is the Radiocroft pot-bellied Machine Mart stove, making the TM Show the only peat-fired radio programme on earth, probably. Along at the hoose, I’ve lit (or litten, as they say in Shetland) the Rayurn and have left it with two chickens in the…

  • Home, and how to buy a Book’n’a Bevvy

    Slept for 12 hours on the north boat, with occasional wakings for particularly bumpy bits of sea. And that’s the last Phenergan outing (I hope) until the new year. It’s great to be back in Shetland after nearly three weeks away in Glasgow, Ireland, Lewis, Inverness, Ullapool, Aberdeen and all points inbetween. Some good work…

  • Dundee, the legend of The Gunga Din, and chicken livers at The Malabar

    To Dundee, home of some of the greatest pubs in the universe – this time, The Speedwell, universally known as Mennie’s, and The Phoenix, universally known as Bannerman’s. And to the magnificent Malabar on Perth Road, home of Goanese and Keralan cooking. For those of a certain age, Jacob, who owns the Malabar, will be…