Category
Scotland
A bit of the world I love - over the years I’ve lived, played, worked and loved there. My mum still stays in the Inner Hebrides, and I go north of the border several times a year.
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06.20.07Order, orderApologies for the crapness of this camphone photo, but crossing the road to the bus stop this morning I was struck by how perfectly all the commuters in the line were preserving their personal space. Lovely. I've written about queuing here before, notably:The Fine Art of Queuing - in which I attempt to buy a sieve in a backstreet Bolivian hardware storeThe Revolting Queue - in which the locals turn nasty when someone cuts inIn the Queue - in which I'm accosted by an oddball...and others, I'm sure. H2G2 has a nice breakdown of queue typology here. And I liked this invention ...
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12.31.03Two on FiveBreaking radio silence for a brief greeting from the wind-blown Hebrides. There's a gale of epic proportions going on outside - with stinging rain and wind strong enough to lift you off your feet, to make the chimney roar, to whip the sea into wild foam hurled at the shore. Electricity is intermittent. Tea and hot water bottles are in plentiful supply. I'm feeling coldy, sleepy and snug, currently wearing five layers of clothing. Now it's dark outside, and every time the electricity pings off, the world is dark and noisy - just raging wind and lashing rain and sea spray ...
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12.27.02SilenceBeaches. Turkey. A million mince pies. Long walks. Completely absorbed in a great book. Listening to Kate Rusby and The Streets and Ani DiFranco and Bill Hicks. Watching terrible films. Late nights playing cards and laughing, laughing. Trifle. Cold toes. Great slippers. Dark at three. Big skies. Skipping stones. Sleep.
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12.23.02Where’s your head at?I envy Santa, you know. I could have really done with a team of flying reindeer and a sleigh tonight, to shift me from London to Glasgow. Instead, I had a plane, and a not-very-co-operative one, at that. Three and a half hours of waiting at the gate, three hours of waiting, taxiing, waiting, returning to the stand, waiting some more in the plane and then one hour of flying. We arrived four and a half hours late.I could have herded some reindeer and trained them to fly in the time it took to get to Glasgow.So, in summary:I spent ...
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01.02.02SouthThe long journey southwards begins at breakfast tomorrow - a walk, then ferry, bus, ferry, walk, train, walk, bus, wait interminably at Glasgow airport unless I can jump on an earlier flight (not very optomistic about this) then the flight itself (less bumpy than last time, I hope) then bus, train, walk... but at least for the last three modes of transport I should have company....Saying goodbye to this lovely island is always hard - there's something special about the quality of the air, the fine light, the stiff breezes and rich colours. There's something cosy about the thick stone ...
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01.02.02Wind-whippedBeautifully sunny day - but there's a fierce wind, whipping up white horses on the blue sea.I had a conversation with a five year old the other day, looking out over the fields towards the ocean on a windy day."Look at the white horses," I said."Don't be silly," she said, with the arrogance only a five year old can muster, "they're sheep." It's all about perspective.
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12.30.01At the end of a yearOn the subject of big plans for next year, and so on, there will be no review of the year on this site. This is not a football match, and I'm afraid I stubbornly refuse to put together an edited highlights package. Bollocks, quite frankly, to that.If you've been reading throughout 2001, you'll already know what has happened - the highs, the lows, the various dramas and lulls. If you've come to the site recently, then you can always wrap up warm in front of your computer and delve into the archives which will explain far more than any summation ...
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12.29.01ChillyIt's got to be minus five out there. And it's got to be only a degree or two warmer in here, so I'm going to make this a short one before my fingers drop off.I do miss him. So much. The lights are flickering occasionally, and the TV ariel has broken - either locally or the main mast on mull, but regardless, no tube. Meanwhile, a repeat viewing of Best in Show with my mum (she snoozed off - but then despite earlier protestations along the lines of "I never get ill, I'm as healthy as you like" she has ...
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12.27.01BlearghAnd just like that, half the island was struck down by a mysterious 24 hour bug, which manifests itself through near-constant vomiting and all sorts of other nastiness - aches, dizziness, insomnia, fever - and is not very pleasant at all.And I got it too.I'm starting to feel a wee bit better, though I haven't slept or eaten in 24 hours, and feel fairly abysmal. Apparently I am very white indeed - I ventured out of bed this afternoon for a wobbly-legged walk down to the village, and eight people commented on my pallor. Look, I'm from London. We're all ...
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12.26.01Boxing DayA light dusting of snow over the island, and I've just woken up hot in a proper bed, by a phone call from far away. It feels good.So christmas day is over, but thankfully there's still ten days of lying around and reading to be done. Hoorah.Yesterday afternoon, fortified by wine, we went out for a long walk to the white beach at the north end. The wind was coming in directly from the north, blowing such a gale as to make us lose our footing a few times. We leant forward at a steep angle and shouldered ahead. When ...
recent posts
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