Abbey Road @50

It was 50 years ago today that the infamous Beatles album cover shot was taken outside Abbey Road studios on the zebra crossing. People are gathering by the crossing today for numerous strange, understandable and personal reasons.  It's only just past 10am. Every other person using the crossing is being photographed by a friend or one of numerous camera crews on the scene. I've never visited Abbey Road but it must be tough to use the crossing and somehow not try to walk like Paul McCartney in some suddenly self conscious way.

Healthy

Recommended by the kings of Scottish Hip Hop, TV chefs and knowledgeable family members; Greek yogurt, blueberry, honey, milk and oats breakfasting creations that you make yourself and then eat yourself. Cooled and matured in the fridge and ready for any eventuality. A snack that brings peace to a troubled world and calms those inner unnamed demons that stalk the dark places of early morning hunger (assuming you fall fowl of this sort of thing). Edgy in some ways, ancient and traditional in others and better for you than haggis and fried egg on a morning roll. That's it.

From California to Cardenden

Immigration: A touchy subject for people who are touchy about touchy stuff but strangely some people actually want to live here and they are not all crazy. They're not trying to colonize us, convert us to some Jesus thing, exploit our natural (?) assets or undermine our culture, they're not trying to find some European roots or family history, not all need to be rescued either. They just like it here. We do friendly things, we have parks, bowling clubs and swimming pools, houses are affordable, there's public transport and some reasonable places to eat, the NHS. The weather may be odd but it's not extreme. Plain, unpretentious towns are OK, tourists don't really stray into these parts, there's a sort of peace even if you have to turn a blind eye now and then. You can go to California but you can also come back.

Various

Various interesting cat portrait poses demonstrating the versatility of a cat and cats in general. 

Hawkwind visit SQ

This one is a bit too weird.

A version of something

A peculiar and unfaithful rendering of South Queensferry discovered (and reflected) in an antique barn near to Dundee. It is a poor representation of this bizarre and slightly challenging piece. To be honest I don't know what to make of it but that would of course apply to about any artwork I might stumble upon. A final verdict may well reveal itself via my tortured alien subconscious some time in what you time-locked humans describe as "the future".

Dear Purveyors

Somewhere over those troubled waters there is a convenient and well rendered bridge.

Dear Purveyors of technology,

Firstly thank you for your hard work, imagination and resolve. Much of what you do makes the world a far better place: health, food supply, hygiene, medicine, communications, transport, convenience  etc. Above is a simple example of how a hand painted  artwork image can be saved and shared; wonderful stuff and it works thanks to your efforts. BUT!

Of course there has to be a but, a niggle, a bug bear, unintended consequences, impacts and trouble. The thing is that things (?) seem to always need upgrades and updates and well that's when all the wobbles begin. 

"It was all working fine until I had to install the updates. Now it's working BUT it's not the same, now I can't do ________ , there's no longer the option to _______ , the screen freezes when I ________ , the resolution has changed to _______ , I've lost the ability to ________, the upgrade can't be done on my older operating system so I'll have to ________ , it's broken now but it was fine yesterday before the _________."

Thanks to an upgrade my (otherwise fine) laptop has to be exchanged, three days work has been affected, a new one has to be couriered up from London, I've to stay home for the delivery, I'll have to reconfigure it over the phone via the help-desk, the old laptop will be binned. I'll never get those three days back. Hmm. Most progress is good, some not so good. 

As you are the smart guys and I'm just a humble user, please fix this.

Best regards

A well wisher.

Plant based

Plant based, plant baste, plant boast, plant bias, planet based, pant based, paint bias, plane based, place base, plant beige, plan based, place bias, plant bland, planet beige, plant placed coffee. It tastes OK, it's cool in a cold way, almonds are hard to detect, coffee flavour is bland, it's sold in supermarkets. Not sure who buys it. People like me I guess but do they do it regularly? Does anybody every say "I could murder a nice, cool, plant based, almond, vegan coffee?"

Isn't all coffee plant based or am I missing something (like cow's milk)?

Thundery downpours

Maybe it's global warming, maybe it's in between. We're obsessed with the weather, the gift that keeps on giving, the everyday phenomenon that makes or breaks our day. Cancelling plans, staying indoors, buying salads, wrapping up in tinfoil and scarves. Skidding and sliding and flooding and burning. Famine and hardship, holidays and parades. Animals and birds migrate in new directions, fish follow strange, fresh currents and we drown in new puddles. Anybody would think that the earth had had enough of us and was simply trying to wipe the planet clean (just like the Bible said). Hmm.

No direction home

Empty, broken down and being towed backwards. A simple open top, branded bus as far as I can see. A perfect illustration of something relevant to who knows what? Let's all just stand by as this tragedy passes our way inflicting on us whatever the universe deems appropriate. What is it with buses anyway?

There be dragons

Risk

As I walked out on the hottest day of the year: Sign in the local graveyard (well nearly local). Let's play Twister, let's play Risk. I'm fine with that but I will not be entering any ruined or dilapidated buildings. 

Large Ginger

Large Ginger Cat, wood, fur and random materials.

West Lothian Daily Photo

Hot, humid, sultry, dry, sweaty, summer, July, coffee, flat white, caravan coffee, signs, signs that mislead, signs that confuse, visitors, space and paths, small rises, woodland, gravestones, gibberish, heat, walking, talking, swans and ducks, cake, water, reeds, metal, iron, stone, follow the map, follow the crowd, ignore the crowd, follow the signs, the signs are wrong, there is art, artists, workshop, not really welcome, these are for others, tourists and punters, locals removed, roads bumpy, no signs, no direction, no direction home, trouble, plinths, reminders, peace, Zen chimes, water in bottles, no boats, we follow and escape but plan to return, on our own terms, to beat the paths again.

Golden time

Quite enjoying the quickly gleaned memories from seeing the Victoria Crowe retrospective in the City Arts Centre in Edinburgh. Here's one.

Buy before you try

The label said "Nitro Americano nitrogen infused coffee", sounds intriguing or something like that, the promise of the real. Turns out to be not so good, strange bitter black coffee with a beery head which I presume to be the effect of the nitrogen. Of course like any true scientist I drank the lot despite my increasing sense of dread and ultimate doom in the pit of my stomach. Then of course nothing actually happened. No big kick, no rush or high, no visible signs of either aging or regressing. No clear and godlike super thoughts or euphoria. Just that normal and almost comforting feeling of consumer disappointment. Nitro, you broke a promise you didn't actually ever make.

Game of Thrones is over

Anyway here's an early shot of Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister taken from the 1942 original Broadway stage version. I guess the recent remake was OK but they've still got some work to do to catch up. As usual the measure of the production values gives it away.

Crazy thread time

The 13 month Kodak calendar, used by the company for some time and one that might have been adopted by all if not for the inconvenience of WW2.

I'm a sucker for a good (and possibly crazy) thread on Twitter. This one (if you care to click on it) is batshit crazy covering some wild aspects of Kodak's activity back in the day. Firstly how they wanted, for good business reasons, to rearrange the calendar into thirteen months based on an idea developed by one Joseph Cotsworth. Then how they discovered (due to contaminated film) that the US was carrying out nuclear weapons trials before anyone else and then became party to secret information about the program including test dates and areas of contamination (all denied to the general public and err... victims of the fallout) and finally how they had their own nuclear reactor built in New York State that was fueled by weapons grade plutonium. Of course it all may be untrue but...

A nuclear weapons test rig that doesn't quite meet with the required safety requirements (as required), but what the hell.

Unpopular window

One bar remains, no glass, timber shuttering in place, overgrown and sightless. 

Once a window but now functioning as a wall. 

Stony faced. 

Sad really. 

Chinks of light on the other side.

I imagine.

Expect rain today.

The farmers says the ground needs it.

Dawn Patrol

Up early, trying to catch a cat that has a dirty bottom (and then clean said bottom). It's quite a mission. This of course seems impossible. She's been avoiding human contact and remained outside since the problem was noticed yesterday so the offending poop is firmly locked into her fur. The cat firmly refuses to cooperate with any rescue and clean-up attempts. Bait is placed, it's chicken. The cat duly arrives and single handled I apprehend her. A brief scuffle ensues. The cat is eating a piece of chicken so is in two minds, flight or bite. Luckily I manage to squash her (a little) on the floor and the messy, furry, poop part is exposed on her bottom. This intrusion is not welcome. Holding her down with my left hand I make a quick incision using scissors with my right hand. She's not happy, it's more humiliation than physical pain but the dehydrated poop is surgically removed and binned. She slinks away, hopefully relieved that the operation is over. I'm not so sure, there may be more material lurking in her tangled fur but it'll have to wait. All I need to do now is apply a fine coat of Savlon to my various injuries and the world will be well again.