Excuses, excuses 
Attempting to order a much-needed Friday pint of Hoegaarden after work last week, I was disappointed to be told that there was none to be had. ‘Seriously,’ the barman told me, ‘it’s not just us, there’[…]

Courtesy of the koganbot comes notice of this new cyber-hang-out: paper thin walls. Key attraction for our patrons must be daily reviews of a reasonably varied assortment of tracks by a hand-picked squad of trig-friendly writers who’ve thrown a[…]

…No, fear not gentle reader, I do not mean the classic curse of the property-owning classes’ weekends, but something EVEN MORE EVIL!!! It is CD players wot insist on doing DIY glitchy remixes of all yr favourite records, despite all teh c[…]

(Inspired by Ned banter below) Wierdest on-street slagging I got this year = ‘ha ha love the umbrella mate’ (you need to read this with heavy sarcasm). Of course since it was pishing it down at the time, and I was (relatively) dry, should[…]

Yes yes I know commuting is irritating by definition pretty much, although Mr Popkins might like to post his bus-ride reading idylls by way of balance. But since the end of my commuting is in sight I can confess how horrific the thought of any more t[…]

In the shop on the way back to P’s yesterday I wondered why my throat seemed stiff and I couldn’t breathe clearly. Then I remembered that I was wearing a tie. See, I only wear these bastards like three times a year tops — job interv[…]

I have no great distaste for the people of Glasgow, individually. And possibly even collectively, when they take time off from posing like boho-art-school-scenester-clones or squandering money on designer costumes to squash their oh-so-ample irn-bru […]

The most repeated joke doing the rounds yesterday at the Grange ground in Edinburgh was that the only thing stopping Scotland from being a Test side was the impossibility of ever having 5 days without rain. Not that that has ever stopped England mind[…]

“The difference between Schoenberg and traditional music might be demonstrated with the help of a bon mot of Schumann’s that one can tell whether a person is musical by his ability to continue performing a piece more or less correctly whe[…]

I’ve been stir-frying again. Regular readers will remember that this has long been a source of pleasure and pain round our house. Anyway for Christmas I asked for a book about Chinese cooking, so I could learn to do things proper like, and give[…]