This is a topic I have tried, and failed, to understand my entire life. As non-smoker, I’m told that I can’t possibly understand, and therefore shouldn’t try to. Perhaps in my quest to truly comprehend, I should take up smoking in order to get perspective from that side of the fence? However, I refuse to...
The festive period, that 6 week duration stretching from Thanksgiving (celebrated in the USA on the 4th Thursday of November) to the first week of the New Year, accounts for some 78% of all family visits made throughout the year. This shows that we are reminded of a need or obligation to make this effort,...
This has been a very busy year social-mediawise, and these 25 people have made Twitter a very interesting place to be. I shan’t go through all the why’s and wherefores, save to say I’d happily spend lots of time in their company (probably arguing the toss). I’m not so sure they’d all say the same...
Ever since Jeff Taylor launched Monster, and Robbie Cowling founded Jobserve, it has been generally accepted that job boards are merely replicating the print media model of advertising vacancies. Enabling employers and recruitment agencies to broadcast their available jobs to candidates, who were actively looking for a career move was very civilised, but meant that...
I read a blog post tonight, entitled “ConDemd” which detailed the real life experience of a university graduate, and the ongoing effects of student loans. Despite that blog title, the fee regime Betty, and most further education students since 2002 have experienced was introduced by the Labour Government of Tony Blair, supported mostly by the...
I recently had a conversation with a very good friend of mine, who was at a crossroads in his life. He was in a position where he was in complete control of his destiny, and was therefore quite literally spoiled for choice. In the course of the discussion, I did something I have never done...
I’ve only just realised that my Dad is handicapped! That sounds like a bloody stupid thing to say, doesn’t it? It is, however, alarmingly true. Sometimes we just don’t see what’s in front of us as unusual, if that’s how they’ve always been. My dad is almost 72. Like Clive James, he says “The Second World...
This is a repost of an article I published anonymously on another website earlier this year. I did so because I wrongly thought I shouldn’t be seen to provoke the journalists I am complaining about. I now think I should have put my name to it. ———————————– I’ll keep this short. I am disgusted at the...
I just had to add this. As you may know, I am from Airdrie, and my home town team are therefore Airdrie United. Last weekend, in commemoration of Remembrance Day, the good people at the club decided to depict a wartime picture on the cover of the programme, showing a train scene with soldiers going...
The past week has thrown up a couple of instances where the content of your Twitter account can be grounds for prosecution (or persecution, depending on your perspective). Paul Chambers was charged with “Menace over a communications network”, found guilty and fined £2,000. Tory Councillor, Gareth Compton (a barrister no less) was also charged after...
