I have indeed been back on the bike and zooming all over the place. It's been hot this week (by British standards, anyway) and I'd no doubt have been very sticky were it not that I now have a cycling top.I've had it for a while. It came from a shop called Mountain Warehouse, and was reduced to about tuppence in the sales, possibly because it says it's a size 18 but fits me (generally a size 14 or 16 on top) pretty well. It's grey and a darkish fuchsia pink; possibly not the colourway I'd have chosen first, but it makes me nicely visible to traffic, and (as I said), it was cheap. I've also acquired gloves, and I've been wearing knee-length baggy shorts this week and feeling almost like a proper cyclist.I've noticed that I seem to be a lot more noticeable than usual when I'm wearing the...
And think for yourselves. The number of people googling "show how attributes traditionally associated with masculinity and femininity are contrasted in Pygmalion" or Medea or whatever and reaching my pathetic little blog has reached ridiculous heights. I swear if it wasn't for something what I wrote over two years ago, which was a load of old shite by the way, then I would have no hits at all.So, stop googling and trying to blag a pass off of other buggers efforts by cutting and pasting and start doing some real research. Talking about a load of old shite, it used to be if you googled that that I was second in the hit parade. No longer, I'm glad to say. Anyway that's what I get for not heeding the advice of someone whose name escapes me; don't blog your OU efforts as it's against OU...
Leave a bit for the wit?As part of our quart to pint pot move we gave away immense numbers of books which had trailed around the world with us. 300 alone to Embra University -the nucleus one imagines of the Huttonian Memorial Library. As many to the Charity shops with the racier titles discreetly placed in the Oxfam bin outside Sir Morrisons (No, don't rush, that was some time ago)Despite buying up most of IKEA we are still desperately short of bookshelf space. Every inch must be used:returning (for the antepenultimate time) from house clearing in the Old Manse, I noticed a tiny space in the smallest shelf of the narrowest bookcase-too thin for a Wisden, too short for a Penguin; then I found just the gap filler-it fitted easily: a slim volume indeed:Scottish Wit and WisdomSample from John...
Statues in a Garage, originally uploaded by ccgd. Yep - someone's garage........Mind you that's Spain for...
I am keen to encourage creativity and creative endeavours, and am quick to scorn historical attempts of the Church to limit scientific creativity, but I wonder when does inquisitiveness become sin, when does our research become Eve’s reach for the fruit?Thoughts in the comments.Similar Posts:None Found...
Yesterday saw he departure of one of the long standing village members B..... ( English - noted for his sartorial elegance). His departure means we have lost one of the real characters within the village people. Noted for his love of Newcastle United, which of course we never held against him. He shared a love esoteric films with S.... ( Welsh - another soon to be ex village member) particularly those spoken in some weird foreign language but with sub titles.So to B..... , we wish you well in whatever you get up to next, and we shall await with baited breath for your return in December for Annual Christmas dinner.Another face from the past returned to the village lounge this week, regretfully I cannot remember her name, but for those of you who were in Riga around 1996, you may remember...
There are many stories about the amount of drugs available behind bars, but the Jakarta Post was able to explain how it appears to be getting smuggled in!JAKARTA: A visitor to Central Jakarta's Salemba Penitentiary was arrested for smuggling 30 grams of crystal methamphetamine (known as shabu-shabu) in her sanitary pad.The 20-year-old woman was at the penitentiary to visit a friend. "When a female officer searched her, she found something wedged in the woman's private area," said penitentiary head Bambang Sumardiono, as quoted by detik.com Monday. The woman said she was menstruating, but the inspecting officer insisted on a further search, uncovering five packs of shabu-shabu. AK, the person SW was to visit, was put in an isolation room after the discovery, Bambang said. "He (the inmate)...
I've done nothing, absolutely nothing....when was the last time you had the opportunity to do "sweet F*ck all"And it is...
One of them is the keep - Bergfried in German - of Adelebsen Castle, the only remaining Medieaval structure (the rest has been rebuilt into a Baroque palace). It's another of those old remains at my backdoor. :)In 990 Emperor Otto III gave the land of Ethelleves-husen, situated on a military way (Heerstrasse), to his sister Sophie. Such places on the main roads criscrossing the land were important in a time where the royal court still traveled around, and where troops often had to move at fast speed. The whole system culminated in the King's Highway (Königsweg or via regia) that runs all the way from the Rhine to the Baltic Sea and was king's land, no matter who possessed the fiefs along it. The King's Way still exists, partly for hiking esp. in some scenic areas, partly changed into...
Duns The Builders; read Dunces throughout?Consider this:Mid May Builders arrive on site and 'mobilise' This means turning two long ladders into ramps for moving stuff with wheelbarrows onto a slightly raised site. Gardener moves two recently planted apple trees to allow ramp to cross corner of garden. Cuts down a few shrubs Takes down large chunk of internal fencing. Builders not seen for two weeks. Late May Builders arrive and take down neighbours fence. Wrong fence. Neighbour peeved. Three days later after several angry long distance phone calls (we were in France) Builders replace fence.Neighbour puzzled but mollified Builders not seen on external site since. Height of new extension remains at 0cm. (Mysteriously summer house full of builders debris. From what?) Mid May discussion with...
Whyte and mackay, originally uploaded by ccgd. Just home - in fact only through the door about an hour, having just driven up the A9 from a warm and very humid Glasgow. Got back from Spain to Glasgow late on Monday, but straight into work meetings and a renewable energy conference at the SEEC.When in Glasgow I usually stay at the Hilton (we get a great corporate rate which means it's cheaper than a Travel Lodge) and walk up and down to Sauchiehall Street, where our Hamish has a flat.The Whyte and Mackay Building always catches my eye, I love the bold lines and rectangles. A very modern Glasgow...
Chan eil mi ag iarraidh ach iPhone beag. Carson nach eil iPhonaichean gu leòr anns na bùitean? Tha mi a' fuirich anns an tìr Apple fhèin ach chan urrainn dhomh iPhone a lorg idir idir idir....
Theres plenty to get through today, normally there is a bit of a smorgasborg of topics, so decided to divide the round up a bit more topically this week (needless to say the topic headings are hopelessly inadequate), let me know if that is useful: Theology/Church Stuff: Scot McKnight just started blogging through a book Rachel gave me for my Graduation - The Mission of God by Christopher Wright Ill be reading it along with this series.
The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
John Stackhouse has written an excellent post for people considering a PhD, well worth a read, it certainly quelled my fantasies of Post Grad work! Jason Clark gives you a peek into his PhD research. Andy White writes a helpful post on the subject of why your visions should be...
Cha do sgrìobh mi dad ann a sheo airson greiseag ged a tha mi air a bhith dripeil trang leis mo bhlog bheurla Gurn from Nurn. Dhomhsa chan eil e furasta gus eadar-theangachadh gu Gàidhlig a dhèanamh a h-uile turas a sgrìobhas mi rudeigin air mo bhlog bheurla. Chan eil sin a ràdh nach eil mi comasach sin a dhèanamh. Nuair a thoiseachas mi eadar-theangachadh bidh e nam mhiann gus rudeigin a bharrachd a chuir a-steach, gus ceàrnan smaointinn eile a sgrùdadh. Aig a cheann thall bidh mi a’ sgrìobhadh rudeigin sa bheurla agus rudeigin diofraichte sa Gàidhlig. Saoilidh mi gur ann mar sin a tha mi beò, tha taobh m’ inntinn a tha a’ cleachdadh Gàidhlig a’ dol sìos rathad a tha caran diofraichte an taca ris an fhear beurla a th’ agamsa. (ged a tha mi eòlach gu bheil mi...
Duns Plus OneNo crows in the chimney so we had a quiet start after our first night in the Small House in Duns but no glorious vistas either. A secret house in a secret garden but we pay for the privilege by being hemmed in all sides; in Hutton the nearest visible house to the north was a clear two miles, here it is not quite two metres. The only outbuilding, a dinky 'summer house' is crammed full of builders rubbish-builders who have so far built nothing, but then it is only 5 weeks since they removed a neighbours fence -the wrong one-right neighbour, wrong fence, filled the summer house with rubble, presumably from a previous assignment as they have cut no sods here, and buggered off. We hope that they will return if only to empty the summerhouse so as we can find room for an array of...
Huge thanks to all who commented on my last post and to everyone on Raisetheriver for their kind comments following my Mtt cash on Saturday night.It seems these things are like Glasgow buses ( you wait ages and they all arrive at the same time) as congrats are due to Rosie for taking first in a weekend Mtt for a nice score,to Mair for winning the live APAT Event for Raisetheriver and to Mr Cloud over at Hairygymnast.com on taking a shot at a higher level sng and scudding the fish to win it. A feelgood weekend if ever there was one!I've downloaded the whole hand history ( all 7 hours 31 mins ) and will try and pick out a few of the more interesting hands to look at in future posts.( just be grateful I don't plan to make a video of it!)First of all I should probably thank the poker gods for...
John Piper quotes Adoniram Judson who has some good things to say regarding missionaries - that is wherever we are called (yes, that means you), Some of these points are interesting in light of the missions series I have been running. it was so engaging I have posted it in its entirity:(Author: John Piper)
As I was working on the fifth volume of The Swans are Not Silent series about the lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John G. Paton, I found a letter written by Judson from Burma on June 25, 1832 with sobering counsel to missionaries.
Actually, these are hard and good words for all of us. Here are four of his points:
Fourthly. It may be profitable to bear in
mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the
East die within five years after...
DUNS HERE WE HAVE COMEWe are Dingers now. Well honorary Dingers at least. We have been here since 12 noon and no longer feel incomers. Shunters prowled around the Old Manse with the removal van, doors agape, avoiding the family of partridges pecking around the weeds in the gravel. A family? Well a Mum and 10 chicks born yesterday; images to follow when I can find where Shunters put the camera. Probably in the garden with the majority of our possessions there being not enough room in the house until the builders finish their work-not actually started. Luckily the weather is glorious and even if it rains our priceless Persian rugs will keep the groceries dry. Yes it was sad to leave the Old Manse but we will be back every day this week removing a lot of disorganised bit and pieces and...
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Do friendlies mean anything at all? Most managers would say they're a valuable way of gauging a team's readiness for the season ahead. If they win. If they lose they'll write them off as merely a fitness excercise.
So who knows if they do mean anything.
But three events in Scottish football show that friendlies can have a far from positive impact.
Example 1
Peterhead 4, Aberdeen 0
A full...
Websites which have address forms for UK residences, whether for buying new products, paying bills or registering interest, I have a simple request: do not presume your database knows my address better than me.
For the benefit of non-UK readers, let me explain. The UK has a system originally designed for mail delivery called the Postcode, which is similar to the US zip code system. Unlike zip codes, it’s far more granular, generally resolving to a handful of addresses. In fact, most of the time, if you have a post code and house number, you can uniquely identify a particular delivery address. That’s all that is needed: a G1 4BQ and a 35.
In 7 characters, most people can be readily identified. That’s the power of postcodes.
A lot of UK websites take this as an absolute...
When I saw in last Monday’s Guardian that Charlie Brooker was taking aim at 9/11 conspiracy theories, I hoped that he’d use his wide audience to present a logically watertight argument, in an entertainingly acerbic register. And buried within his piece was the quite probable suggestion that the paperwork alone would be impossible to conceal. Unfortunately, because he’s evidently paid by the ad hominem, he also said that every conspiracy theorist might as well believe that he is the Emperor of Pluto, and unleashed a firestorm in the online comments. By opening up too many fronts in this debate, he left himself open to attacks, even from other Guardian commentators.
Let us consider a single event from 9/11: the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, a 47-storey skyscraper which...
My last post concerned the conspiracy theories that surround the collapse of 7 World Trade Center on the 11th of September, 2001. In that post, I tried to provide an objective rationale for why the controlled demolition hypothesis should not be believed, owing to its unfalsifiability. The truth is that this and other 9/11 conspiracy theories provoke an almost visceral response in me. I am pretty certain that I’m not the only person who feels this way.
Right now, it’s pretty obvious that I don’t believe in the conspiracy theories (at least, the ones in which the US government or one of its agencies “made it happen on purpose”). However, I am no great supporter of the present US administration, and my political leanings (if transposed to America) would be...
ruins blogs and websites. I had to remove two blogs from my sidebar because the addition of sound widgets (what the heck do I need to hear the music to Rome while reading?) freezes my screen and I have to restart. It's a pity because they're good blogs else. Dear bloggers, the fact that you can add music, shout boxes and other stuff in the sidebar doesn't mean you must add it. Readers come for the posts, not for the fluff. //end rant I culled some never updated blogs as...
I remember .... I remember a time around 1965 when I was on a bus with my first real girlfriend. We were sixteen and had spent this Friday night at the movies. I guess the time was around half past ten or so when we boarded the bus at the town's main bus station, elegantly situated next to the abbatoir. This was a time when few people of my acquaintance owned a car and bus travel was not just a convenience, it was one of life's basic necessities. The bus station had a row of about eight stances, the closest one to the abbatoir door being Grieve Road, then Braeside, Fancyfarm, Larkfield, Branchton and so on, these being Greenock's outlying council housing schemes.At that time of night, in my memory it's autumn and chilly, the bus shelters were packed inside with queues of hopeful...
DunsOriginally uploaded by Rikki SharpThank you Rikki Sharp. This is downtown Duns within easy reach of the Small House. Bakers, Butchers, Crumbly Cafes (for crumbly people as well as crumbly coffee cake), 2 newsagents, hardware shop, veggie emporium, deli, Chinese and Thai takeaways, 2 banks, lots of pubs, even a gun shop within a short stroll. Change from Hutton in that...
Beyond Help?Yes we move tomorrow. Shunters and their van at 0930. Are we ready?No(We have our washing hung up on our line at the SHID. And our washing machine installed.And on the world's slowest broadband. Now down to .09MB)That's something I...
Tilting at windmills , originally uploaded by ccgd. The blog – the old Green Isle of the Great Deep – has been very quiet for the past month, for a number of very good reasons. Firstly I’ve been far from the Highlands of Scotland, and – very unusually for me – far, far from an internet connection. The past three weeks has seen Ruth, myself, and our two older lads (Charlie and Hamish), along with Charlie’s girlfriend Sarah, touring around southern Spain, but mainly ensconced in a Villa high in the Mountains behind Malaga, on the road to Grananda. On the road home now, in Nerja on the coast, and then Madrid tomorrow, so normal service is in the process of being restored.Oh, and these are some of Cervantes Windmills, on a hill high above the Castilian...
You remember the story about Otto of Northeim and Magnus Billung who got stuck in the dungeons of Hanstein Castle? Well, I went back to that one in an attempt to get the poor guys out of the mess, and realised it was a waste of good material to use it for no better purpose than to have some text to go with the photos. At which point I decided some bunny shoving was in order. The character of Duke Conrad in Kings and Rebels has been modeled a bit after Duke Heinrich the Lion of Saxony, and his conflicts with the emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (in the novel King Ruedegar). The fun thing is that those conflicts are not so very different from the ones Count Otto of Northeim had with King Heinrich IV, and that I can draw easily from two sources to further complicate the plot. Mwuahaha. After...
Wheee! Shoved AK sooted into JJ to go out.Perhaps I could have raised 2.5bb and folded to reraise but no complaints.Sweet cash!...
