Usually I hate getting PDFs because they take ages to load and all too oft make the browser go all topsy-turvy when it tries to open them embeddedly. Embeddedly just makes me think of being in bed. Embedded in bed. Mmmmmmbedded in bed with a good book. Oooh ensconced even. Ensconced with a scone. Yum.

But this is probs my fave one ever. In this rare case PDF means Pretty Damn Fine. Or Pretty Damn Fly if you can pull it off. I can’t. But if I looked this good in two pairs of shorts, two vests and a cycling cap then I’d make sure I had the lingo to match.

Lingo. Dingo! There’s a fence here to keep them away from all the sheep. It’s longer than the Great Wall of China. Just so you know.

Up on North Ronaldsay in Orkney where my mama lives there’s a drystone wall round the shore that keeps the wee lambs on the beach so that they’ll eat seaweed and grow up to be all sweet & tasty.

Yum. And one of the many things that’ll keep me zooming back and forth. Missin’ haggis neeps & tatties. And Gregg’s sausage rolls. I once said “Thank you maam” in Greggs and got laughed out of the shop. True story.

Headin’ back to Glasgow for a spell on May 25th. Can’t wait to see everyone again! I’ve missed all you lovely talented lot. Visa lark says I can travel to-and-fro & work in Aus as much or as little as I like for the next 4 years. Quite good really.

Ps. Images sourced in fine ol’ Creative Commons technicolour. Attributions: North Ron Sheep by Ian Caldwell, Dingo by Jarrod Amoore, Haggis from Glane23. Thanks loves.

Much like Glasgow, Brisbane has it’s own trendy West End. But y’know, with sunshine and blistering heat. Bliss. As you’d expect, there’s many a low-v-tee/ray-ban combination to be spotted. Bless.

This is the cute as a button wee music shop where I got my Pantha du Prince bag, designed by Hisham Bharoocha of Black Dice. They only made 84 of ‘em so as a child of ‘84 I felt compelled to have one. In China 1984 was the year of the rat, and the rat’s motto is “I Rule”.
Just so you know.

Jet Black Cat Music, 72A Vulture Street, Brisbane QLD 4101, (+61) 0419 571 299

Great name, tick. Great street name, tick. Only sells Vinyl, tick. Aw shucks partner that’s all the boxes! Well done you.

Parcel tracking is such a rewarding hobby. It’s a bit like trainspotting, but with a present to open at the end of it. Seeing it arrive at each port makes me feel like Edmond Dantes’ pal papa Morrel, the kindly merchant in Comte de Monte-Cristo, poring over the shipping news each morning for the fate of the Phareon.

Hmm, Shipping News is of course also a novel by E. Annie Proulx, punning on shipping the news. Quite clever really. And the obligatory film of it taught me how to write a headline too:

Publisher: Now, have a look outside, what do you see?
Protagonist: HORIZON FILLS WITH DARK CLOUDS?
Publisher: no, no, no. IMMINENT STORM THREATENS VILLAGE.
Protagonist: But what if no storm comes?
Publisher: VILLAGE SPARED FROM DEADLY STORM.

My parcel arrives in ten minutes! bisous

I greatly enjoyed reading Ten Lessons I wish I had been Taught by the late mathematician Gian-Carlo Rota just now. On aging he quipped:

“If your papers are no good, they will say, “What did you expect? He is a fixture!” and if an occasional paper of yours is found to be interesting, they will say, “What did you expect? He has been working at this all his life!“

A very pleasing wee bon mot, and with a structure that automatically made me think of the fight in Of Mice & Men. I couldn’t recall more than the gist of Steinbeck’s “damned if you do” passage so I had a quick skim through and found:

“Never did seem right to me. S’pose Curley jumps a big guy an’ licks him. Ever’body says what a game guy Curley is. And s’pose he does the same thing and gets licked. Then ever’body says the big guy oughtta pick somebody his own size, and maybe they gang up on the big guy. Never did seem right to me.”

A quick google reveals that “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” is a rather old idea, and was first penned in a rant about the bible by Lorenzo Dow, American evangelist (d. 1834):

“You can and you can’t - you shall and you shan’t - You will and you won’t - And you will be damned if you do - And you will be damned if you don’t.”

Very well said. Reminds me of The Zutons - You Will You Won’t, you do you don’t.

Gian-Carlo Rota → Steinbeck → Lorenzo Dow → The Zutons

hmm, friday mind-a-wandering. bisousss