I wore my kilt last night, the second time in three months, and only the second time in ten years after it was forbidden by my ex, for a variety of reasons.

She was also at the party last night. An "anonymous source" close to her remarked how good it looked on me.

I'm going to a party on Saturday, which I have been looking forward to four months. It should be great fun, I'm expecting there to be lots of excellent people, and it is great to have a party to look forward to in the post-Christmas-post-Hogmanay lull ( Read more... )

I learned something new today.

There's such a thing on Facebook as secret groups. I knew there were private groups, where you had to be accepted by the admin to join. But I'd never come across a secret group before. Which just proves how secret it is.

A friend of mine added me to a secret group. It has nearly 2,000 members which, let's face it, isn't ( Read more... )

I went to see The Danish Girl today. It is a remarkable film, though not necessarily an easy one.

The performances were remarkable. Eddie Redmayne has been getting all the press, but I reckoned Alicia Vikander was equally impressive.

I actually had a bit of a problem with Redmayne - because his performance in The Theory of Everything was just so good ( Read more... )

I finally cracked. I decided I had to play the first Motorhead LP, which I bought when it came out in 1977 when I was a long haired heavy metal fan.

I had seen Motorhead play several times, including their first London gig, at the Roundhouse (where they managed to clear the auditorium apart from six people, of which I was one. They were very loud). ( Read more... )

I went to visit a friend in the Royal Infirmary this afternoon.

I had not been there before; it is a big place.

I walked there, through the New Town and Old Town, and then along the Innocent Railway and cycle paths beside Craigmillar Castle Road as far as the hospital. Over four and a half miles in a little over an hour.

I walked back in the dark. The ( Read more... )

I've just been to a special showing of the film Under the Skin, which included a Q&A with Michel Faber, the author of the book on which the film was based.

The film was as strange and disturbing as the book (which, fifteen years on, still makes me shudder as I drive up the A9, where much of the book is set).

The movie is moved to Glasgow, and ( Read more... )

I went in the Climate March, in the rain. I got to the Meadows late, and the March had started, so I stayed where I was and let the March catch me up ( Read more... )

Months ago, I bought a ticket for a gig - Nils Lofgren, of whom I was a big fan in the 1970s - his first couple of albums. I'd never seen him live, and frankly seeing heros forty years on seems like a bloody stupid idea. And then tonight I REALLY wasn't in the mood. The weather is awful, I was knackered, and I very nearly didn't bother going ( Read more... )

I've just asked Google the distance from the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall to Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the Scottish mainland.

Google tells me it is 803 miles, which I believe, and that it would take me 11 days to walk it, which I don't.

I think Google would have me walking 24 hours a day, at 3 miles an hour.

This shows how poorly Google ( Read more... )