Queen of the Seas

Normally the seas don't take kindly to being ruled over by arrogant and thoughtless kings or even by proud and beautiful queens. These royal  relationships are strained, difficult and occasionally they can become dangerous. The good news is that every so often the seas make an exception and for a time they can be subjugated though never tamed. We were lucky to briefly experience such a time, but these moments are precious, they are rare and to be cherished, captured and as far as possible remembered.

Gods of yesterday

Not quite right either.

The power of pantheon-ism: The older and more mystical I become I seem to hear the voices of the Gods of yesterday whisper and sing from all sorts of strange and unexpected places. I find a "warm Jeep seat" kind of comfort in this. Having denied myself spiritual experiences for some time these ethereal events stir my cold and alcohol starved heart. The door in my office has taken to sounding like Chewbacca. It makes mournful noises as if castigated by a manic Han Solo or upset at the loss of some Wookie stronghold or home planet. Then there is the cold water tap that, with the right adjustment, sounds like Draculus, the great green bird who advised and scolded the dim Noggin the Nog from time to time. How I miss his wise words, they came at 5.40 on the BBC just before the main news (that was when there was proper monochrome news, not the biased drivel we currently get). There is also the microwave that gives a stirring rendition of the first few bars of “Jump” by the Pointer Sisters. It makes heating up any tin of your favourite Heinz product fun and provides the opportunity for a quick disco dance around the kitchen. I also know of a fire exit that's producing ZZ Top crunch guitar noises but I can't quite remember where it is. That of course is another problem with getting on a bit. Did I mention the toilet flush that once pulled does the scary bit from “Echoes” by Pink Floyd? And I'll never forget the lathe in a dockyard engineering workshop that was a dead ringer for most of Tangerine Dream's back catalogue. What a drag it is getting old.

Fuck it! It's going to be a Marks & Spencer, Sadistic & Masochistic & Multiple Sclerosis based Christmas this year complete with hampers, frozen limbs, tiny cheese burgers and miscellaneous high street and web based vouchers from the company of your choice which will most likely be one that has failed to pay any kind of meaningful tax in the UK since Winston Churchill was a boy. Leave the greedy but clearly legally acting big boys with their milky coffee and warehouses alone I say, adding more tax money into the government coffers only encourages politicians to do stupid things with your cash. It's like talking to one of them on a doorstep, it only ever gets worse and feeds the flames. Good luck to them and smoke 'em if you've got 'em. Tomorrow will be my Black or possibly Bleak Friday, I'll source all the relevant Chrissy booty, squirrel it into the back pocket of my jeans and then sit in the car with a warm bucket of KFC leftovers and salmonella whilst listening to the Comedy Hour on Radio Scotland (the home of witty banter). I often find that on reflection, these things I muse over and daydream about seldom come to pass and if they do they are always a bit of a disappointment. In life it's the anticipation that counts for most of the enjoyment. Learn to make your latte last Young Master.

Teeth on edge

Needs more work...

My teeth have been on perpetual edge today, a likely product of the mustard mackerel and noodle diet combination mixed with pre-ice age temperatures, frozen Volvos and failing footwear. Anyway it's lucky for the entire world that even the almost bitter, bitter weather, the media frenzy over royal pregnancies and George Osborne's stream of curious measures and facial expressions doesn't stop me having a steady succession of ideas, some of which are better than the others and don't themselves require described in complete or well constructed sentences. They are out there.

So I'm feeling sorry for the cats. They are being driven mad by the intense cold, the itchy carpets and anything made of cane or rattan. These materials seem to provoke them into ripping the hell out of the poor, innocent stuff. It's full on claws and a kind of pent up feline aggression released that's desperate to rip the reeds to shreds. It makes a lot of unpleasant noise and it's not the best thing to wake up to. I may to take the edge of a blunt Black and Decker to them - that's either the cat's claws or the rattan.

Winter Post

The end of our single track street.

Winter Post? Where do you find it? Under a wheelbarrow, under a garden chair, on top of a wheelie bin, next door, at the Post Office, hidden behind a bush. The ingenuity of the delivery services knows no bounds. Today the snow brought a new dimension to our location, slithering up the single track road for the country mile that it takes to get to the main road and just timing that final turn at the uphill fishtail  so the traffic can be safely joined. I just made it so at least I now know what's possible in a elderly Volvo. Always good to get the first few key Winter experiences in.

Roadtrip

Willow water with photobomb.

Just back from a weekend spent some time on the M74, M6 and also in Widnes. Back on the couch now, worn out but happy. The party photos are on Facebook. Too tired to say much more.

Not animated

I'm not animated (anymore), I'm busy. In a new (to you) house it's tough to start knocking holes into walls, it seems one brave and crazy step too far. Plunging into the unknown, not sure what materials, pipework or electrical cables lurk behind the wall, so it's a bit of a rough baptism once you start making the holes and naturally once you do, finding that it's just the same as any other house. Solid in some places, hollow in others.

The community of isolated societies

The tank before we moved it.

And so it came to pass that the old oil tank moved from West to East Fife. Having never tried to move an empty oil tank before I was unsure as to how easy it would be. It turned out not to be easy at all and I was glad I'd warned the buyer by text to "bring a mate". He did but it was bigger than a simple three man task, indeed getting the tank from the garden turned out to be much more of a Laurel and Hardy slapstick experience than I had imagined. There were slips, trips, not so comic quips, minor injuries, puffing and blowing, bad ideas and better ideas. I was for a time reminded of Herzog's epic film Fitzcarraldo where a steamship is pulled through the Peruvian rain forest for some bizarre reason to do with growing rubber trees. So (despite the rain and a nearby forest) we clawed our slippery way across the lawn, across a stone wall, through the woods till we reached a track where the pickup truck could pick it all up. By the not so romantic light of wind up torches the task took an hour. As I waved a fond farewell to the injured and exhausted new owners there were tears in my eyes, yes I was in that much pain. Now to hose down the spilled kerosene and repair the various bits of minor environmental damage. Another happy day here in isolation.

The isolated society of communities

The simple and useful utilitarian bathroom shower, easy to install and easy to use...most of the time. Here in the isolated society of not so isolated and wanna be isolated communities the affixing of a new shower bracket is always a fun activity. The critical part being drilling into stubborn bathroom tiles. Ours appear to be in their second career, their first one clearly was as armour plating on a Tiger Tank. And so it was that after much drilling, swearing, more drilling, a lost chuck key and more swearing the auxiliary shower bracket and associated packaging conundrum puzzle was finally solved. Naturally I celebrated with a peach/banana and yogurt smoothie...Italian style. Now I'm away to the fair city of Glasgow to rescue my brood from the clutches of those cheeky and noisy Canadians the ever lovin' Crystal Castles.

The society of isolated communities

The Mutual Aid Society for Isolated Communities held it's first pizza and salad meeting today. Thanks to a generous imaginary grant from the Scottish Government we hope to be able to fund a few essential services sorted around here:

Road surface repairs, extended parking, regular bin collection, a "confuse the Groc programme", retaining wall building works, the digging of field drains, climate change (in the right direction), a Chinese lug worm farming project and a beer and venison based BBQ event (monthly).

Pimp my X Wing

Star Bores: We got my grandson a birthday Lego X-Wing (8 years + and he's just turned 8). Not sure how long building it will take but we're looking at an hour and half construction time at least , maybe more. I'm posting this just to prove I'm big hearted enough to forgive the mandarins and bean counters at Disney, Lucasfilm, Lego and even the Flying Burrito Brothers for whatever offence was taken at my Darth Vader Red Bubble photo earlier this month. Lego is still fun and small boys still like Star Wars so I'll suck it up.

No Steak Bake: Today's main mercy mission (apart from delivering the X-Wing) was to drop in a vital, life saving consignment of some Stephen's Steak Bridies for the eager and hungry in the far away land of Aberdeen. I hope they were appreciated and that the parachute wasn't too entangled in the tree.

File under food related: As if determined to play havoc with my cholesterol and monk like healthy diet those entrepreneurs in our local M&S have installed a fresh bakery that's full of fresh bakery products and wonderful smells and aromas. So much so that you don't just want to buy the bread, you want to buy the whole shop and anything else for sale in the surrounding area. Curse you, you capitalist and nice smelling bakers.

London - more daily photos

Under London's Guildhall there's a Roman ruin, an amphitheatre with the bones and stones preserved below the streets above. A wooden sewage pipe ran through the middle but the wooden sewage has gone,  nowadays Tron like figures pose and the great British public ponder the past.

Close up of the virtual Roman Trons punching each other out and celebrating. Strange days.

South of the river, the Shard shines brightly at 2300hrs.

North of the river, St Pauls is warmly lit up for  the  cold November night. 

Breakfast by the Tate Modern building site at Fratelli's coffee shop.  Outside street incidents and accidents abound, a fascinating place to sit and slurp perfect coffee and expensive but tasty yogurt.

Just back from a highly enjoyable 36 hours in the Smoke. Celebrating EH's graduation at the royal ans ancient Guildhall with pomp and circumstance, eating twice cooked chips, swilling and swallowing wine and water, transporting giant umbrellas, using ceramic speech balloons, experiencing a 7am hotel fire alarm, queasy noisy flights and marvelling at the scope and convenience of the Oyster Card. Back home in Scotland and the rain water is running from the fields, down the hill and past the front door. Inside we clear windowsills and prepare for more improvements. Mudslide slim and the blue horizon indeed.

A new and more optimistic era

Whether it was the thirties, the sixties or the eighties,  every so often people believe that "now" is their time, their moment, the best and most opportune of times. I think I've experienced that feeling, briefly, a while ago but not right now. That's not to say I feel bad about things or pessimistic, it's more the languid settling into an acceptance of things being just as they are, whatever that means and making the best of them. Like frying up leftovers and making Bubble and Squeak, again and again but with different seasonings. Drinking yesterday's wine, making do and being content in your borders. Recognising the viscosity of the cycle of things, nobody really learning from their mistakes, the stubborn and stupid denials of leaders...the stiff inevitability.  So the Israeli army are bombing the Palestinians, for the rockets, the rhetoric and reprisals. The USA still backing the diamonds of Israel's traders and the neighbouring shattered states rattling sabres and getting ready to be sucked into or capitalise on the events as a diversion. Always an opportunity in there. The trouble is that nothing will fix this primitive tribal religious friction, the squeeze will continue as Israel moves down a twisted path believing their own obscene destiny as God's one time chosen people, though they dare not confess it to a watching and muddled world. They see this as their (next big) moment and that is their biggest flaw.

Some funky shower

I rather like the photo I took the other day of the new shower unit at Creg-Ny-Baa holiday cottage situated deep in the heart of Fife. You can stay in this cottage and use the funky new shower (for a reasonable fee) if you just click on the Alison's Scottish Cottages link on the right and make a booking. Simple as that.

We live here - ish

Lunch time view from the kitchen. 

Lunch time view from the kitchen - close up. 

Yes, she's a rainbow.

Weeks later: Still busy with the last stages of the house move, we tied up, dusted down, unmopped and surrendered old Abercorn today. We walked away in the grey drizzle and failing light and that was that, five years later or something and the keys pushed through a letter box in a brown envelope. We came home and scoffed pasta and chicken and sadly a stray rainbow crashed into field just up the road. I don't think anybody was hurt in the incident but there was a fair amount of wine consumed and the colours started to blur. All that led to the question "would cheese chocolate cake be as good and socially acceptable as chocolate cheesecake?" I'll never know. Tomorrow the chimney sweep comes at the crack of noon, just before the American Grand Prix begins so I'm brushing up (?) on my Dick Van Dyke jokes and Mockney accents, easy peasy.

Return of the cats

The cat's (Missy and Clint) first few moments exploring their new environment in a different and foreign  house. There was a lot of scuttling, stretching, sniffing, scratching and eventually purring as they gained confidence and their bearings. The bright starry night was a big help. So their organised incarceration will now last for a few days before we unleash them on the neighbourhood moggies who furtively sneak past the windows staking their temporary claims to paths and gardens. Much chaos and hissing is likely to ensue once released.

Banned by Disney

If offended by this image then please contact Mr M Mouse & Co.

The Empire Strikes Back: I got an email today from a web site where the above photo (taken by me in John Lewis' Edinburgh) had been on display. No much of a photo really, a Lego Darth Vader store display that has hardy created a storm of comments or interest. Anyway it turns out that the owner of the "image", presumably Disney these days, has complained to the Californian website where my picture has languished for the last couple of years. Apparently I shouldn't have put it on display because...it belongs to them.  Well then Star Wars fans, look out for your future, Disney is eager to hold onto all parts of it's new investment and as part of a key marketing strategy my image has been quietly removed. Of course I've replied and told them where they can stick their Lego Star Wars, lumpy bits upwards or sideways. May the force of nothing in particular be with you, this doesn't auger well for the future of the franchise.

Rewiring an atomic bomb

Or a TV, Sky box or DVD, it's all the same really, red to red, green to green and blue to smithereens. If you're lucky or technically competent everything will work eventually one fine day.

Out and about and shopping for mug racks and beetroot (which I forgot to buy) I saw my first Christmas trees and other appalling seasonal tat on special offer of course, defiantly on display in the spirit of oafish capitalism and ignorance and asking for the fully Molotov Cocktail treatment, another fine day. Their rough brainwashing process is failing on me, thankfully. I'm no longer angry, I'm indifferent and elsewhere.

Still life with stepladder

Flit: Uneven, empty rooms and stained floors, dark and light wood, marks on walls and the brief, fading, intense tattoos we leave as we pass through the cobweb that is our bit of history. Been here, been there, got tangled, laid down and slept and then slid into a new version of this mobile freedom that takes us across the water; elsewhere. We always cross the water, symbolic and cleansing, temporary invasion that turns into settlement and an arm stretched out to find peace and meaning. So we are not here but there and everything is falling into place as if the past never happened.

James Bond- Skyfall: Quite a good movie (needs an "e" in Sky to make complete sense), takes the mind away from shelves, boxes and house moves. James is impossible, wounded, drunk and strong and unbelievably Scottish. Secrets and special effects make the action pass quickly to the tune of B&J's strawberry cheese cake ice cream and there is a good baddie to disconcert and hold in some fresh nightmare. Not a bad cinema outing for those who find loose ends useful. Take some tea with you and mind those steps on re-entry. You can also purchase your Hobbit tickets now, never thought I'd say that.

Hidden Souls

Farewell Abercorn: The big move and most of the clean up is over leaving the house a bit of a sterile and empty husk, dry and abandoned with it's own personal ghosts, our spirits have roamed and moved on. Some others will re-engage with the house some other time but not us.

Meanwhile I was so busy on the house clearing I forgot Remembrance Sunday's 11:00 silence, usually I observe a few moments for my Dad, a young sailor at sea from 1939 till 1945 and his best friend who went down with HMS Hood. All so long ago. I learned from him the importance of remembering and...today I forgot.

We once lived here

Here it is, the grand old house where we lived for more than five years bathed in the watery rays of a short lived November sun. Now we've moved on and beyond and the old ranch will hopefully have new and happy inhabitants. Today's two van, two car furniture move went remarkably smoothly (but a few weeks of planning and shuttle runs of prized possessions had taken place) and we're in, The Sky and BT Broadband are both working and only umpteen cardboard boxes remain to be emptied. Tea? Prosecco and fish and chips. A hard wired cooker and other utilities to follow.