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Here we are, then.James Bond is on the telly.Watchnight service in the Hillswick kirk tonight.We appear to have enough to drink and eat.Various children are at home. The dogs are asleep downstairs.Granny’s at the care centre, but will be here tomorrow.I think there’s enough propane and heating oil. It’s been a gloriously mild Christmas Eve,…

This is my friend Duncan’s private aeroplane. It’s in North Roe, Shetland.It’s a little tricky to explain why Duncan has a four-engine, 16-seat passenger aircraft sitting next to his house. To be exact, it’s a French-made Potez 840, one of only three ever manufactured. And yes, he has the wings, the wheels and most of…

Here’s a thing: if in Aberdeen and looking for a taxi, be careful about using Comcab (353535) if you have to be somewhere on pain of death or flight check-in. I had a taxi booked for 8.00 am on Saturday to take me to the airport for the 9.30 flight home to Shetland. Admittedly, it…

Well, it is according to one of Scotland’s most experienced Curryistas, editor of a national newspaper and a man who in his youth used to import spices from the Indian subcontinent to satisfy his desire to create the perfect bhuna. And last night, in Dundee’s Perth road, I had what I can only describe as…

The Libertine will have Tea and Toast Take one whisky, it’s good for the heartNow here’s a reasonable place to start:A dead distillery in the central beltSmooth and silkyHardly felt Life is lush, life is junkI’ve been all at sea and I’ve been sunkLived like a libertine, lived like a monkCan’t live sober and I…

So, farewell to the Barn of Bannocks, which was handy for the hoose, but cold, damp ( despite desperate measures involving storage heaters and three convectors) and echoey. Having retrieved our old crofthouse from an unfortunate rental, we’re in the midst of converting it into a bookshop (of which more in due course) with a…

Home by the skin of my teeth, having taken a notion to take the Wednesday boat north rather than the Friday one I was booked on. And just as well, given that all NorthLink sailings between Aberdeen and Shetland were cancelled on Thursday and Friday, due to the appalling weather. I was aboard the Hrossey,…

Apologies for the absence of new postings, and especially photographs. I have, however, been snapping furiously with my Sony Ericsson pile-of-crap cameraphone (useless, useless keyboard for anyone with normal size hands) and some of those pictures should make their way here soon. Currently in Aberdeen, following four days in frostbitten Glasgow. Good grief, it was…

Stage one is INDIVIDUALISM: either as a working hack or some sort of pundit, you are identified as having something to say and the stylistic arsenal to say it well. So you get a column. Stage two is ECCENTRICITY: Loveable, preferably, but the whiff of sulphurous, ranting rancour can have its appeal. You’re special, some…

Journalism is like blogging, only you get paid. Though my Google Adsense feature has made me, oh, seven of your US dollars in the past three, err…months.I used to be a journalist, and on occasion still am. I have been a regular columnist, paid (sometimes handsomely) for The Scotsman, The SundayHerald, Scotland on Sunday, the…