Book Of Two Factors

The Ninth Dancing Mice Collection

Received today from the pressing agent. For release in the New Year.

Tree 2022

Merry Christmas to me.

Advent

Starting the street off.

Lakes/ Living

Autumn trip to the Lakes, this time Stepping Stones House by the River Rothay. Stones had disappeared by the end of the week.

Went to the pictures in Ambleside , saw Living starring Bill Nighy. Strange Japanese style story set in 1950’s London, atmospheric and good for the most part.

6,000,000 lives

Saw Prof. Dame Sarah Gilbert speaking at RSE tonight.

Saved 6,000,000 lives wow. Very moving talk, very grateful audience.

Everything Gets Worse

Goodbye to my faithful answering machine. The new VoIP phone system renders my housephones useless, I have switched to my mobile for everything but it is not the same, and not as good.

Hall Tub

November light.

Crab-Apple Jelly ‘22

6 kg fruit , too much. Got 14 jars from 3kg.

RFS ‘22

It’s that time of year, meeting with the remnants of the Robert Fergusson Society at the Canongate Churchyard, on a mild rainy day. Coffee and cakes opposite, courtesy of the Royal Bank of Scotland, who mucked up closing the account, their fault, £25 compensation. With CB, MF and R R-P.

63

Surprise treat, passionfruit jellies yum.

Moonage Daydream

Bowie biopic at the Fountain Park cinema in Dundee Street. Pretty good, ignores the 90’s. Dundee Street very much changed, but the Library still dominates. With R O’C, who worried about too many flashing images.

Book of Mormon

At the Playouse tonight, really good, better than I expected. Expensive elaborate production with snappy choreography. Highlight: Spooky Mormon Hell Dream. Like an extended episode of South Park with the usual moral ambiguities. With BW.

Dreamachine

Installation at Murrayfield Ice Rink, getting good reviews. Lie back on a sofa, eyes closed, listening to sub-Rubicon era Tangerine Dream electronic music while strong lights strobe at your closed eyes. Disappointingly banal, just a scintillating kaleidoscope. Many claim to see visions, cities etc.but I think they must have very long inspection times,for me nothing coalesced, even at the fastest strobe rate.

Creepy oleaginous attendants.

Pleased it was free.

Came out to torrential thunderstorms, but managed to dodge the worst. 11 and 26 there and back, what happened to the good old 12?

15:2 One for His Nob Go!

Got a smart new cribbage board today for next visit by FM. Came up in conversation about electricity blackouts as teenagers, how much fun it was learning card games by candlelight.

Piano Tuner

Piano tuned for the first time in ? 5 Years. Tuner kept a poker face even though clearly cringing inside.

31 Stamps

Post Office withdrawing old stamps to replace them with new (ugly) barcoded ones; free swap through the post, I had 31 and they came today as promised.

Moth Trap Success

Long-johns and jerseys intact.

Dornoch

Little trip, super little town. Adventure on the way back, bad crash 10 mins ahead of me on A9 at Slochd summit meaning 50 mile detour via Cawdor and Grantown on Spey.

A Saucerful Of Secrets

Nick Mason and Band at the Usher Hall , wonderful stuff. With Fraser Mills, with whom I saw Pink Floyd at the Usher Hall on the 4th of November 1974. I still have the programme.

Among others they played:

One Of These Days, Arnold Layne, Fearless, Obscured By Clouds, When You're In, Candy And A Currant Bun, Vegetable Man, If, Atom Heart Mother (good bits), If (again), Remember A Day, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Interstellar Overdrive/Narrow Way medley, Astronomy Domine, The Nile Song, Burning Bridges, Childhood’s End,  Lucifer Sam,  Echoes, A Saucerful Of Secrets, See Emily Play, Bike.

Night Phlox Tonight

Pots either side of the front door, smells of honey and cloves very, very powerfully.

Shade Journey

Ordered new clip-on lampshades, more interesting than I had thought. Tracker map.

Spring Lamb

Highly successful tagine.

Tidy-up

Warm enough to potter in the back, bleached the moss and had a general tidy and think.

Vaguely Ukraine

 

FM/AM

At Redbraes Weir 26th February 2022

Cf. https://amoffoot.blogspot.com/2021/11/amfm.html

VdGG at Queen’s Hall

Saturday 26th February, postponed for two years with Covid, well worth the wait. Luxury “Cabaret” seats with a table an unexpected plus. With Bill Wait, Ian Deary and Fraser Mills .

Mary’s Loot

A nice birthday, lunch in Felton.

Christmas Amaryllis

Did well in the sunny front window. Also, two more stalks still to bud.

New Mobile

Good Ol’ Xperia XZ reached the end of its days, needing charged twice a day, clunking along. New Xperia 10 iii, seems to do what it should. Getting £37 from EE for sending the XZ back to them. Factory reset of course.

St Mark’s Park

Been exploring where the old railway lines went, now paths. Very interesting.