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After I left the concert, on the way to the college-run pub across the road for a ceilidh, I noticed the moon shining on the sound between the island and the mainland. There were no lights on the shore opposite, except for the village of Mallaig, a couple of miles to the south. The sky was almost perfectly clear, with a nearly full moon gleaming ( Read more... )

Amusing headline on the BBC website: 'Rooney and Gray row in restaurant.

Yes, the lovely Cristiano came up again last night, in a contribution by comedian and GP Paul Sinha on Radio 4's 'Loose Ends'. He was describing being a 'straight man trapped in a gay man's body', to the point of loving football, and being distraught at England's performance in this year's World Cup ( Read more... )

But when you're researching an early eighteenth-century religious education organisation in Scotland for your dissertation, it's worth coming across something in the archives which makes you chuckle: like the presence of a Mr Trollope and a Mr Hoare at a meeting of a related English organisation. Later on, sure enough, I came across the name of a ( Read more... )

Hi, all. Just got back from Cambridge yesterday. I was there doing some research for the dissertation (one more day in Edinburgh, then I'm stopping-- I have to write it at some point, eh?). Anyway, some observations ( Read more... )

First we had the Axis of Evil. Now we have the Alliance of Moderation. Way to inspire the troops, Tony ( Read more... )

Zidane headbutting one of his opponents and getting sent off shortly before the penalty phase of the World Cup final. Which France lost. On penalties ( Read more... )

I was at the National Library in Edinburgh yesterday, doing dissertation research, when I decided to take some time to do some star-gazing. After all, I was two minutes away from St Giles' Cathedral, where the queen was coming to attend an investiture ceremony for the Order of the Thistle and a service of remembrance for the 7 July bombings. I was ( Read more... )

Right, so coming home from Edinburgh last night I was listening to the France-Portugal match on the radio (France 1, Portugal 0). Constantly, I heard commentary along the lines of, 'If England were here, the atmosphere in the stadium would be so different', implying that England fans would be more excited at cheering their team on than the ( Read more... )