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….so true.    http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/what-if-we-dinosaurs-are-smartest-people-room   It’s the default leap for every former hack, and one that I’ve taken myself, to an extent, sort of.   Because for me freelance work is all about flexibility. It could mean providing strategic PR advice, writing website copy, editing, subbing, speaking, broadcasting, singing, teaching, fishing, whisky tasting, crisis management,…

This has been a difficult magazine to put together for lots of reasons, but I think in the end it’s a really good read with some fantastic photographs – and the opportunity for you to take some that will perhaps be just as good! Andy Holt from Papa Stour contacted me several weeks ago to…

Deep Fried on the Electric Brae Riding the length and breadth of Scotland The Magnetic Hill I can see the slope, the rising road ahead, threading its way upwards along the coastline. There’s a lurch of disappointment in my stomach. It’s been a hard morning, cold and damp and in company. I’m not good at…

Southernmost! some of the Dundee Fair Traders with  Dave Donaldson. Me at the top of the Redcastle Brae, looking down on Lunan Bay. What a fantastic evening’s riding that was. And Dave just as we emerged from the Dalmeny Estate towards South Queensferry. We just scraped across the bridge before it was closed for Torchification.

Having problems with pictures so they’ll pop up when I get to a proper computer and on Twitter/FB. Stephen from Fairpley, who are handling the logistics for the Mull2Muckle for Scottish Fair Trade Forum, ran me down to the Mull of Galloway from Ayr, where I’d broadcast from. Set off in a smirry rain and…

Scooped a scallop shell off the beach last night, and thought: might as well take it with me! SIR WALTER RALEIGH in Daiphantus, 1604 ; written about 1603. THE PASSIONATE MAN’S PILGRIMAGE. GIVE me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon,My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation,My gown…

A quick visit to Cee and Jays and then Tesco to buy waterproof map bags, water bottles, a spur-of-the-moment 2-in-1 bum bag/rucksack, toothpaste, travel clothes washing liquid, Sudocream, Johnson’s Baby talcum, Pampers wipes, Anadin (oh, for Askit Powders…)and doubtless there will be more to add before I head south from Shetland on Wednesday. I’ve all…

(After WM) Without Bicycles Without bicycles, Mao Tse Tung would not have won Even though revolution comes from the barrel of a gun It may also come from sweaty backsides and Sturmey Archer gears On Brooks leather saddles, which need careful breaking in, but will prove rewarding.     If you persevere. For years. In tears.…

Very curious. In the (with hindsight) odd and innocent world of early 1970s Scottish evangelical folk and rock (now THERE’S a niche!) Paul Openshaw was someone spoken of with reverence and a degree of awe. He was the first person I had ever seen who owned and played a Dobro (a proper one, too, none…

Everything is coming together for the Mull2Muckle/Fairly Long Ride, which pedals off officially from the Mull of Galloway lighthouse on the evening of 8 June. But today, I started with the first 10 miles. Plus 13 for luck. I’m taking a week off broadcasting to do the mainland Scotland section of the ride, but I’m…