January 2010

  • It was 23 years ago…but did I really look like this?

    Thanks to my old mate Stewart Cunningham, ace snapper, I now remember that I was once this thin and this pretentious on stage. It was 1987, Shetland, indoors at the Sound Hall and outdoors on the island of Foula.

  • Ben Chonzie/ Ben-y Hone/ Beinn a’ Chòinnich,

    Near Comrie. Cheers to Dave Hewitt for putting up with my general feartyness and lack of fitness. About 150 feet from the top, having seen both ptarmigan and lots of mountain hare (white in winter!)I had had enough. Warbeck’s very nice crampons didn’t stay on, and I was running out of energy. The weather closed…

  • G12

    I’m in Glasgow G12, the epicentre of Glasgow’s west end, the buckle of the bohemian belt. The relocation of the BBC’s HQ to sunny Govan seems to have made little difference to the general atmosphere. The architects of obscurantist sandwiches still flourish (though vans do make daily trips across the Squinty Bridge to Pacific Quaty,…

  • Ultima Thule : Edge of darkness at the edge of the world

    Eshaness, Shetland between 3.20pm and 4.20pm. You can see Foula, the westernmost Shetland island, and if you click on the pictures and enlarge them, you should just be able to make out the infamous Ve Skerries lighthouse on the horizon. Everyone who could was out and about this afternoon, soaking in the last bit of…

  • Sunday paper stuff, for your delectation, delight and possibly, in some cases, fury

    Amid tales that The Sunday Post is soon going to have a pay-to-read online version available, and the current subscription-only access to the Sunday Herald and Herald, I decided to make my contributions to today’s papers available here…though of course I’d urge you buy the hard copy editions of both papers if you can! I,…

  • $254,500, anyone? Better nick than Cormac McCarthy’s…

    An Olivetti Lettera 32, identical to the one used by Cormac McCarthy to write all his novels…only in almost unused condition. £15 I think I paid for it, off eBay. Made in Glasgow too. It is absolutely beautiful, though not as spectacular as the Olivetti Valentine. Nor as expensive. McCarthy’s (broken!) machine was sold at…

  • On the buses

    , , ,

    Fed up with wrestling The Mighty Isuzu through the White Hell, I decided to get the bus today. Which, despite the conditions, has never stopped running the 35 miles into Lerwick and the 35 miles back. £5.40 return. Ginny, intrepid driver, joined me in praising our gritters and snowploughers (ploughees?) for the fine job they’ve…

  • Happy 2010…ten things that may or may not happen, mostly in Scotland, during the coming year

    1- General election has to be postponed after Alistair Darling’s eyebrows unexpectedly turn orange and David Cameron is victim of a daring partial head-shaving attack whilst snoozing on a bus. 2- Russell Brand’s utter absence of talent is sensationally revealed after Katy Perry releases YouTube video of him learning Michael McIntyre routine phonetically. He offers…