After a 4-year long pause caused by the pandemic and other factors, last Monday I decided to go wild again. I mean hillwalking in the great Scottish wilderness. My hill of choice was located deep in rural Perthshire, an area I had never been to before. In such cases, I use the sat nav to get to my destination. I…
A couple of weeks ago I read an excellent, light-hearted column in the newspaper. A couple of sentences, referring to the author’s recent visit to a church, made me smirk: ““Please ask if you require a gluten-free host” deadpanned my order of service. Presumably Catholics don’t have this problem, the bread becoming miraculously gluten-free during transubstantiation.” Clearly, the columnist misunderstood…
Hampden Park went ecstatic last Tuesday night when Scotland beat the mighty Spain 2:0. After the earlier win against Cyprus, the Men’s Scottish National Football team sits at the top of the table in their group. Those who follow them know that such a statement is a rarity. So, Scottish football fans at Hampden Park and across the country have…
Most of the time we don’t think about prisons. Occasionally we are reminded of their existence when we hear in the news that someone has been convicted and jailed for their crimes. Some cases spark more public interest and scrutiny, and when they do, it’s usually because of a perceived leniency, inadequate to the severity of the crime. Another aspect…
Since last summer I have been in two minds regarding my old dog. On the one hand, it was clear that his age was catching up with him; on the other hand, he was still doing well considering his grand age of 15+. Recently it became increasingly painful to watch the dog struggling and eventually I had to bite the…