Superfast Ferry

Sad news today that the Superfast Ferry between Rosyth and Zebrugge is to be axed from 13th September.     It seems that the Euro exchange rate and high cost of oil is making this unecomnomic to run.
This route is very valuable for bringing visitors directly to Scotland from Europe, and with their cars.    But, even although [...]

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Bank Holiday Rain

We have had no rain to speak of for quite a while, and have been stuck in a rather cool east wind for weeks, although the sun has been shining for the most part.    The crops are badly in need of water, and the fields are very crunchy when you walk over them.
We had a simply [...]

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Fuel Prices

Having just filled up at the local pumps, this fuel price business is getting out of hand.   Diesel at £1.24 a litre here today, and I know it is more in other places, and lots more in far flung places like the Western Isles.     No wonder the lorry drivers are upset.
Interestingly, the hauliers are not [...]

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Bad Communication

The following really happened:
Bluedog:  Hi, I’m Bluedog and I am wondering if you could please let me have your Chief Exec’s e-mail so that my organisation can send him a newsletter.
Public Sector Organisation (PSO) with large responsibilities in 2009 in Scotland:  Can we do this by post?
BD:  Well, we like to communicate by e-mail when [...]

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Don Giovanni – English Touring Opera – Perth Festival

English Touring Opera have been visiting Perth for a number of years now, and it is the final date in their spring tour, which began in Hackney in March.   Perth Theatre seats about 500, and the orchestra squeezes in front of the stage, and overspills into the two boxes on either side.
So, Mozart performed in an [...]

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Falstaff – Scottish Opera

This new production of Falstaff was Domenic Hill’s first main stage opera production, although he has directed a small scale touring Macbeth opera as a taster.    I have enjoyed Domenic Hill’s work at Dundee Rep and have big hopes for him in his new role as artistic director at The Traverse.    So, how did he [...]

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A Night at the Chinese Opera – Scottish Opera

Scottish Composer Judith Weir’s breakthrough work was A Night at The Chinese Opera, first performed at the Cheltenham festival in 1987, and now performed in Scotland for the first time, by Scottish Opera.   In 1986, a young Sian Edwards stood in for Simon Rattle and made her operatic conducting debut with Scottish Opera performing The Rise [...]

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Your Every Move is Being Watched

We have become used to CCTV cameras everywhere these days, even although we may not be too happy about them.    Our mobile phone logs into the nearest base station every so many minutes, effectively tracking its location.    As we drive along roads, number plate recognition is used to monitor traffic flows, but increasingly to track [...]

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Drawer Boy – the Tron

Farms are interesting places.    On the face of it, we farmers all do a similar job to one another, and fields of sheep or wheat look much the same to the onlooker.    But look closer, and every farmer has their own way of doing things – customs and atttitudes which are often passed down the generations.    There [...]

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Educating Agnes – Perth Theatre

Educating Agnes is a new play from Liz Lochhead who has adapted Moliere’s School for Wives into rhyming Scots.    It is a knockabout farce, and very well tackled by Graham MacLaren and his team from Theatre Babel.
The story is fairly simple:   Old git Arnolphe (Kevin McMonagle) has been keeping his ward, Agnes (Anneika Rose) out of [...]

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