The Play What I Wrote

On the final dates of its autumn UK tour, The Play What I Wrote reached Dundee Rep last week.
This was an entertainment put together by the brilliant Right Size Theatre Company, and originally starred Right Size Sean Foley and Hamish McColl when it was in London.    Now I have seen this pair (who met at [...]

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ClearType

Like a lot of people I expect, I received Internet Explorer 7 this week.   I downloaded it and it gives a chance to allow ClearType.   This turns out to be a way of improving the readability of screen text by some clever software that rounds the edges of the letters.    It is explained here.
You [...]

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November

Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves go whirling past. (Sara Coleridge)
Dark November brings the fog, should not do it to a dog.    (Michael Flanders)
November is always a tricky month.   The weather is often dark and getting darker, windier, wetter and colder.     The days shorten all too abruptly.    The first decent frosts of the year [...]

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The Times – New Font

The Times has moved on to a new font  for its headlines as from yesterday to be more in keeping with its tabloid compact format.
I really don’t like this messing about with fonts, as The Times changed it only fairly recently in 2002 to the Times Classic font.     There is a sprinkling of a sans [...]

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Christmas starts too early

Christmas starts far too early.   
It is the commercial pressure to get presents bought, decorations looked out, food planned for, cards ordered and written.    And so it goes on:  we all get sucked in a bit too soon for our liking.   Christmas charity catalogues that arrive in July/August are the worst offenders.
I have a birthday in early [...]

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Tom Fool – Citizens

I had not been to the studio theatre at the Citizens before.  In fact last time I was at the theatre was back in the good old days of Glasgow Mayfest (R.I.P.) when the colour scheme was red and gold.   Now it is black and pink – even pink elephants.
The play Tom Fool  by Franz Xaver [...]

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Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh is Festival city for a month every summer.   People travel from all over the world to put on, or see shows and take in the unique atmosphere.
Underneath the surface though, the duck’s feet are paddling like mad to keep the show running.    Losing a long-time director Brian McMaster will be a blow, especially when he [...]

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Scottish Baftas – Red Road

The Scottish BAFTAS were on TV the other night – highlights from the awards ceremony the previous night.    Red Road deservedly won 5 awards.
But rather incredibly the director of Red Road, Andrea Arnold,  did not turn up at the ceremony to collect her award.    Neither did the best actor Tony Curran to collect his.    Red [...]

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Re-wiring a tractor

I have an old Massey Fergusson 135 tractor that I use for pottering about the yard, splitting logs etc.     It does very little work each year, but it comes in handy for odd jobs.     I had been having battery problems with it, and despite recharging the battery recently, it was still struggling to start.
A little [...]

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Park and Ride – Perth

Had to go to a 3 hour+  meeting this morning in Perth, so thought that I would use the Park and Ride bus.   Cost is £1 per person, and as it was only me, then this was cheaper than parking in the town centre.
I arrived in what I thought was plenty of time:   25 minutes [...]

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