This isn't here

In the Far East, further east than you can think of, a large hungry bear took a bite at the moon and the results are now available thanks to modern technology and the like  (see above). These are common occurrences in the eastern part of heaven or even space, usually it's a dragon that gets the blame. It's a cultural thing based on storytelling traditions. I sincerely hope that the Chinese rocket that landed there last week was not swallowed in the process. The effect on tides and possibly time has yet to be measured and it may well be a little darker at night once the moon returns to Scotland where, as far as I can see it tends to hover like a lost Police drone over Edinburgh airport. The good news is that mankind is working feverishly to come up with workable solutions to sort out the damaged moon and any naturally occurring wild drone bad behaviour.

In a green world

Seasonal seaweed colour changes. The cold green of January paints the rocks with a bright and slippery coating revealed as the the tide hides and packs away the water somewhere else down the river. It comes and goes, sweeps clean then deposits more material and allows the green unseen world to come to life for a few hours. We walk across the bottom of this nether world, mud, sand, rocks and weed, any sensible creatures in hiding until the chilly waters return. By then we'll be supping hot coffee and eating the remains of any reasonably well preserved Christmas fare.

Window and door

There's no doubt about it, at this time of year, in the frosty, spectral winter light and the brooding darkness our front door and the odd 18th century windows actually look rather mysterious, as well as strange and warm.

Never the right time

Shallots were discovered by this family late in 2018. In 2019 they were used up. Not sure when we'll see their like again.

Soda bread: No yeast or obvious trouble to make. Solid and dependable and quite rugged and good looking. A new year winner.

When it's not the right time to write but you write anyway but it's just not right, quite. As it turns out I seldom write or type up anything at the correct time. Ideas come inconveniently and I'm astute enough to recognize them as they arrive, often like buses, one after another. What I regularly fail to do is capture these ideas, they evaporate and remain lost and unused. It's my own fault, I refuse to learn or I'm stubborn, lazy or dumb. The ideas fly off like migrant birds headed south and so, once I've gathered myself together to the point of writing something down, I begin with an empty head. Sparse as a wardrobe robbed by a dozen funeral attendees requiring outfits, like an empty fridge two days before pay day and so on. Ideas = down the drain. Well some of the time. 

There's always a lost Christmas card, stuck in limbo, undelivered, eventually binned. Sad. In black and white.

2018 was ...

... whatever it was. Now it's nearly time to move onto 2019 and face up to the future, something that's always just around the corner but still manages to arrive quite unexpectedly. I wish I could say more but the future is notoriously tough to predict, people have died and/or lost vast sums of money trying to do just that. Best to let it happen, relax and allow the soothing magic of time's oozing and passing to wash over you like some woolly, warm, soft and flexible blanket. Welcome to 2019, a year devoted to the void, to reflection, clumsy social interaction, moved goalposts and a degree of bearable frustration. There will be change and changes, pages flicked over and storybooks thumbed through. We'll tell ourselves different things, often they're script will refuse to line up with the obvious world of reality but when all else fails just stare into the soft glow of the imagined light that's straight ahead of you and point yourself towards it.

Farewell Big A

That's my final day as a sweaty minion in the Big A over for the foreseeable future. I've returned to civvy street and feel like a combat soldier who's just done a stint in Afghanistan. Maybe that's a bit of exaggeration. The thing is that this year's sojourn into the purchasing mind of the British public hasn't been so bad. The Big A seemed almost human at times and the staff and managers were genuinely working hard to give the customer what they want, mainly a load of Chinese crap as it happens i.e. phone cases and covers, awful toy games, electronic oddities, cook books and a smattering (?) of lurid sex toys. It seems that's what Santa brings us all and then, for good measure we buy even more of it when the sale comes. As a barometer of taste and appetites it's worrying but then so are the TV schedules, the pop charts and the wayward political opinions trotted out all over the place. As a country and a society we're mostly fucked and fucked up but at least the good people of "A" retain a sense of humour and dignity in the face of Brexit and economic adversity and plow on. "It's all right for them" you may say, "what about our high streets and the retail sector?" Yup, totally fucked, blame that one on your town councils and chamber of commerce jokers. Those without any vision or flexibility will, I'm afraid, perish. 

More Cold War

I've been following Coldwar Steve on Twitter before it was cool or fashionable. Well that's my claim. The output has been patchy on occasions but this top deck shot shows him at the peak of his form. Just a pity nobody is sneaking a fag in memory of the old days and the smokey, early morning mist of the upstairs passenger compartment. The 0655 to Donibristle Industrial Estate was my ride, humming "a day in the life" and probably (but I'm not sure about this) not having a care in the world. It was 1973 and the world was truly a different place, unrecognizable and strange, austere and tough. I'm glad that it's over. None of the punters depicted have shared my experience, they've done other things but still ended up in the same place.

Some time in Fifeshire

Earthbound now for nearly 64 years, finally found a reasonable hat, still something of a tooth problem going on in that squint smile but at least I'm smiling, Christmas and the remains of all things must have been good to me this year. Sunglasses are of course vital in December, all that glow and haze going on above the fog. Having a lovely loving wife and a wonderful (if bat-shit crazy) family also helps me stay sane. Reasonable amounts of exposure to animals (dogs, cats, alpacas etc.) does no obvious harm either. I'm back at work today and I've eaten three Christmas dinners this week. Roll on 2019ish.

Picturesque Fife corners

Looking west in Limekilns. Fife.

Further west.

East, in the blurry distance.

Emergency Kitten

Boxing day: If the holidays, vacuous TV broadcasting and hollow religious festivals are getting to you then here's an emergency kitten to study and thereby calm you down. His name is Kylo, he's about eight weeks and he's currently residing in Dundee and in this pic he's having a wee nap. You're welcome.

Daily Truffle

We started out with twelve, that's slowly reducing. They're rather good. HN no less.

Monopoly

The source of numerous family breakdowns, Christmas arguments, tears and tantrums. It's that time of year when some (not all) turn off the TV and play games like Monopoly. Surely this year of all years there should have been a Brexit Special Edition to go with all the other variations. "Go to jail" or be sent back to wherever you came from, "Chance" they're be no food or movement of goods, "Community Chest" whereby we destroy local communities and industries, Utilities get little or no investment and you can forget your tiny green houses and red hotels, they'll all be sold off to Saudi as their prices collapse. As for the railways, they're fucked anyway. Never mind finding proper sensible political or economic solutions either, just roll the dice and see whatever deal or no deal comes up. Good seasonal family entertainment.

Daily Reindeer

Traditional Bambi burgers. One of two hungry reindeer that popped into work for a visit. Neither were called Rudolph though they did have names that I didn't quite get. Their own actual reindeer names, the ones they gave themselves will however never be known to us. I'd guess they'd be quite complex, possibly Finnish sounding or in some similar Scandinavian language, tongue twisters for the likes of me. That's the thing with reindeer, you never really know what they are about. They probably taste alright though. 

Waves and winds

Classic Japanese art morphs into GIF territory. I quite like the unnatural way the volcano (Fuji?) moves up and down. There's a lot of turmoil in this world.

Typical Fife countryside scene, an idealized winter time.

Wonderful etc.

A sobering thought. Paul McCartney's highest earning tune i.e. the one that pays him the most royalties is in fact "Wonderful Christmas Time". Indeed I have heard it about 18 times today and that snyth part is starting to get to me, never mind the rest of it. Paul is a musical genius no doubt but it must be strange for a tune like that to at the top of your earnings considering all the others bangers he's come up with. Life and art are not fair.

Gilets Jaunes

Christmas Card No1: The three wise angels of the Fairport Convention.

I sometimes think that whatever is going on in France right now, the yellow jacket protest etc. would be a bit useful here, now and again, just for a change. Something just to shake us and our friends in the political elite out of our/their complacency. The "will of the people" could be misunderstood. Careful what you wish for I know but it seems that the UK's "strength of feeling" is seldom easily articulated. We sit back and hope for the best because we're British, not foreign and not likely to get over emotional or excited. So we get ourselves rolled over and, as in the case of Brexit, led by stupid and greedy donkeys into likely disaster. Gilets jaunes just means yellow hi-vis jacket, and here was I thinking that a gilet was a really classy and expensive waist coat thing that country types wore when out gathering up blackberries and stray ponies in the winter months. Riots in the UK, civil disobedience over Brexit? Hmm.

Beetroot

Pickle of the day is Beetroot: Superfood, alternative Christmas dinner, snack material, sandwich filler or simply salad.

And relax

It's illogical to get stressed out when you know what you know. OK when you don't know.

Fed up with Brexit, politics, economics, Westminster, national bickering, the BBC and Christmas tunes? Relax. Another busy week ends in a busy Friday and possibly a busy weekend but I had a colourful Social Bite lunch and the bus wasn't too crowded. Extreme weather (but normal for winter) is promised and the Christmas bug and the panic it exudes is biting legs and the back of necks. Wild alpacas are loose all over Scotland. It's just fluff really. Keep that seasonal stress in check by simply staying busy, it's the only antidote and alternative. Refuse to jump from the speeding merry go round, stare at the ground, breathe in and decide not to get dizzy. All things must pass eventually. 

Daily Alpaca

I met some alpacas today at work and I'm not even working on a farm. I didn't realise that alpacas were a part of the Christmas story and that they belong in there with the various cows, sheep and donkeys (and presumably camels) mentioned in what is often loosely described as "God's Word" the much edited, redacted and distorted Holy Bible. Anyway nice to see that our progressive and modern society has now included the humble alpacas into the Christmas menagerie. Next year I've no doubt dinosaurs or even mammoths may well make an appearance. So much of the fabric of our society and our belief systems are based on very little, or nothing in particular or just plain old fiction ... but you might get imprisoned or worse for saying such things in certain places, Northern Ireland would be one I'd imagine.

Half a banana

Rare version of Andy Warhol's half banana, created as a prototype before he'd considered adding the other half. Trial and error, that's how you do art. The musical part of it ... well it is an acquired taste. There's no sign of it here but I recall being beat up by it at the time.

Meanwhile: I was in Edinburgh today for work. The grubby, grey Athens of the North. Litter, mess, gunge everywhere (seems to me), tacky markets and billboards, funfairs looking dismal in the morning light, public space hi-jacked for a quick quid and wandering tourists gaping as they wheel their cases across the bumpy pavements. Christmas in Scotland, we've not really done our homework.