Collected Reuben from his Gaelic nursery, thought I had better learn a few basic words myself so found nice BBC website – but it looks really hard! The pronunciation bears little relationship to the written word, but not only that, there are a lot of unusual sounds. According to Wikipedia, “Most consonants have both palatal…

I’m a gadget geek, but even I have been struggling to understand the mysteries of television cables. I managed to work out that audio can go digitally by coax or optical, but the HDMI thing is really complicated and noone seems to want to make life easier, even the people selling the things. So it…

We pressed on with IVF for years in the belief that it did not cause long term harm. In retrospect, I wonder if this was a bit naive. As the BMJ editorial (2011;342:d436) explains, maternal mortality in the UK, US and various other developed countries has been increasing over the last 20 years, and IVF…

http://www.co-operative.coop/membership/points-and-offers/pao/food/chinese-new-year/chinese-zodiac/tiger/ Christian’s chinese zodiac – Like the real animal you are brave, intelligent, energetic and always seem to land on your feet. Your many attributes make you a born leader, but one who is well liked – because you are a bit of a charmer. However, you can be unpredictable and like to jump from…

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  [Victor Frankl]

Probably my favourite design. I was disappointed with the Sutherland Hussey entry, the only local one, I love their Tiree and Chengdu designs.

Pathfinder government policy encourages knocking down of old properties in run down areas so land can be given to private developers. If new houses are unaffordable, they are then rented to people on low incomes, but paid for by housing benefit – in 1 famous case in London, a homeless family were installed in a…

True blood series 1 and 2 Linn park walks followed by Derby Cafe hot chocolate and apple pie Reign over me (Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle) A Single Man (Colin Firth, Tom Ford) Minnie Driver at playgroup! Summerlee industrial museum Edinburgh holiday, Deep Sea World, Zoo Kung Fu, the 70s series, on DVD – the fighting…

So far I haven’t been convinced that Wikileaks is an improvement on regular journalism or public protest. Publishing what people talk about in private, perhaps when they have not had a chance to reflect or discuss more widely is not automatically a good thing. A Norwegian paper reports cables from the US embassy in Israel…

[On seeing a kid who screamed and kicked while getting bloods done emerging with a “I’ve been brave” sticker] I said to his dad, “Your kid hasn’t been brave, actually. I have a I’ve been a snivelling coward sticker for your kid if you want it.” The sticker has been devalued.  In hospital everyone can…