Some website typos make you cringe – spelling mistakes can set your teeth on edge, and dodgy grammar can make your wince. But this typographical error, from the website of the Moffat House Hotel I want to treasure. What a picture it conjures: Maybe a Chateau Haut Brion, a Lafite Rothschild and a splendid Marques de […]
Black with a hole in the middle
My turntable has returned from the dead. For too long it lay on a shelf, unconnected, unplayed. My album collection suffocated in its solid coffin cabinet, untouched for years. Then, a few days ago, I decided to return it to its position of glory in the living room, and wired it up again. My 14 […]
Anticipating Yes
A friend bought me the new Yes album, Fly From Here. Thank you, really appreciated. It’s the first new Yes album for ten years or so and I’m looking forward to listening to it. But when? I could listen to it now, while I’m working on my computer, but no, I want to give it […]
Scottish Review
I’ve lived in Scotland since 1981, when I came to take an MSc in Astronomical Technology. I enjoyed the privilege of studying and working at the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill, from where the view over Edinburgh is spectacular. Looking north you take in: Morningside at your feet; Edinburgh Castle; Castle Rock and Arthur’s Seat. […]
A Victorian Kindle
What happens when you set a brief for a student project : “Explain something modern/internet based to someone who lived and died before 1900” Rachel Welsh took on the challenge of explaining the Kindle. Follow the link to find out where the brief took her. A Victorian Kindle
Elric and Phaedra
I’ve just revisited a good article in the Guardian about Michael Moorcock. (When Hari Kunzru met Michael Moorcock) It’s an intelligent piece with lots of good insight to the writer and his works. Moorcock was one of the writers I turned to regularly when I was reading sf in my teens. His imagery and ideas […]
Catching up on the Past
It was good to catch with Steve Green again. It had been 31 years since we last made contact, in a science fiction convention in Glasgow. We first met in 1977 as teenagers at Solihull Tech College, when, along with my best friend at the time, Paul Harris, we got together and created a fanzine […]
The Burns Supper
25th January is Burns Night – a Scottish celebration of Robert Burns. In Scotland and all over the world there are Burns Suppers to mark the life and work of this great poet. I play in a ceilidh band, though we play less frequently now. We played a lot of Burns Suppers – a twirl […]
End of Snow
It’s a dismal sight – the final remains of snow lying in the gutters. Crumpled¬† heaps of ash grey, with patches of white barely peaking through. When the snow falls the whole world feels pure and clean – anything is possible. It feels like a time for a new start. I relish the chance to […]
Snow, snow, quick, quick snow!
Until this year, that was what I would call to the children. Over the last dozen years it has snowed so infrequently in Edinburgh that I would shout to the children to come to the window to watch the snow fall. As a faithful follower of the snowflake, each winter I would sacrifice a little […]