| They say romance is dead. |
[Oct. 14th, 2009|09:38 am] |
But in Portobello, we've proved them wrong!
This happened just at the end of our street. Alas, we were in America at the time, so we missed all the fun. :(
Surprisingly, the people involved in this incident are not our insane neighbours. Thankfully, they conduct their foul mating rituals behind closed doors. |
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| Holyrood and the Search for Scotland's Soul |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|10:57 pm] |
Those interested in such things (and living in the UK - sorry everyone else, but the naughty Beeb don't share their vids with oversees folks) really ought to watch this excellent programme that was produced and directed by my mate Craig.
It examines the history of Scottish devolution and looks at the question of independence, as well as ruminating on the meaning of national identity. With detours to Oslo and Texas, and featuring a fleeting appearance from Boris Johnson!
Splendid stuff! |
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| Edinburgh's American Civil War Memorial?? |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|02:46 pm] |
El was working out in the city yesterday, when two American tourists approached her and asked if she knew where the statue of Abraham Lincoln was. She had to confess that she had no idea there was such a statue in Edinburgh. Neither did any of her co-workers. They had to apologetically send the tourists away, none the wiser.
El came home and told me about this, and I had no idea about the statue either, but a quick Google search revealed this. It's in the Old Calton burial ground, not that far from where El was working!
Sure enough, it turns out that Edinburgh is the only place outside of the USA to have a memorial to the American Civil War. I wonder how many Americans know about it. I'm pretty sure there are damn few Edinburghers who do.
Anyway, El & I will remember, and the next time either of us is approached by American tourists, we'll be a bit more helpful. |
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| Once again, it's good to be Scottish. |
[Mar. 17th, 2009|11:18 am] |
I gathered from the BBC News this morning that Universities in England, Ireland and Wales want to increase University tuition fees.
This will make it less likely that people on lower incomes will be able to afford a University education, and will saddle graduates with crippling student loans to pay off when they embark on their careers.
As an aside, the report mentioned that Universirty fees were scrapped in Scotland. This made me feel proud. Not that I was directly responsible, but casting my vote in the right direction might have helped a little. Unsurprisingly, Labour and the Conservatives were against the abolition of the fee...
So, if the fees do increase elsewhere in the UK, will we see a huge increase in applications to Scottish Universities? |
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| A bad day for Scottish drunkards |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|10:07 am] |
It's universally acknowledged that the Scots have a very intimate relationship with alcohol. That stereotype is founded on hard facts. The one about us being skinflints is not, but that's another story...
This love affair with alcohol costs us something in the region of £2.25bn a year, thanks to the impact of binge drinking on the health service and people taking sick days due to hangovers. Not to mention all the trouble that's caused by rampaging hordes of drunken youths trying to murder each other every Saturday night.
So plans are afoot to set a minimum price for booze in Scotland. No longer will supermarkets be able to offer cheap deals on large packs of lager. There were also plans to raise the legal age to 21, but those have fallen through.
It remains to be seen how this will affect things. Clearly those hit hardest will be drinkers on low incomes, but maybe there'll be a knock-on effect and prices overall will be bumped up. I suppose that will automatically make booze less readily available, and that can only be good news for Scottish livers. But if people want to drink badly enough, maybe they'll just curb their spending in other areas? Maybe they'll buy cheaper and less nutritious food in order to sustain their alcohol budget, leading to a whole new bunch of health problems.
We'll see. Maybe Scots can learn to drink more responsibly. But I'm not holding my breath... |
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| Squirrel Wars! Which side am I on? |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|10:50 am] |
Plans are afoot to save Scotland's declining red squirrel population. Now I'm all for that, but it inevitably means that there will be a cull of grey squirrels, which I'm not so happy about.
I would hate for the red squirrels to become extinct here, but it's natural selection in action, isn't it? If the red is less able to thrive in the environment and can't compete with the grey, then who are we to interfere?
Yes, the grey squirrels are interlopers who came here from North America back the 19th century. But species migrate and invade new territories all the time, and have been since life first began. It's all part of the process of evolution.
So I'm torn. I wish there was a way to protect the reds without persecuting the greys. I don't want anyone killing squirrels. :( |
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