It was hot. There were six of them squeezed into the rear of the van, packed in like pilchards so that the door had to be forced shut. Alec had dressed like the others in expectation of a chilly morning. Cheap nylon raincoats buttoned over black woollen tunics. Now, with the sun climbing a fine … Continue reading Discipline and Decorum
Doubts and Procrastination
So I’m home. Back to the old routine. The girls are off to school, the eldest having stomped off in tears because a school concert to be given in honour of the departing head mistress (newly announced) falls on the date of a planned trip to New York. First world problems... That old enemy, procrastination, … Continue reading Doubts and Procrastination
Moniack Mhor
A year to the day since I was last here, I am back. In the little cottage. Same room. Same view. Same feeling of peace. Just under two hundred miles from Glasgow, but a million miles from the perpetual motion of city life and the the gravitational pull of family. No longer an atom flying … Continue reading Moniack Mhor
Normal Service Will Be Resumed
It was like leaving an airlock. Alec climbed down from the warm interior of the van, away from Danny’s running commentary on life and the chattering VHF, the stale smell of chips that had lingered since the back shift, his cap, turned upside down on the dashboard to hold Annie’s morning rolls, and stepped into … Continue reading Normal Service Will Be Resumed
The Beauty of Time
Technology is both a blessing and a curse. In this case I'm going with the former. The type of technology that would have cost you tens of thousands of pounds a decade or so ago, comes as standard in your smartphone. I live on a small rise in the land in a suburban enclave in … Continue reading The Beauty of Time
iScot Article
My first ever magazine, or newspaper opinion piece. As good or bad as it is, I'm really pleased it got published. Thank you iScot! Everybody wants to change the world. Well, most of us do. It’s that fundamental human urge to travel ever onwards. A river of life thing, bound with the laws of the … Continue reading iScot Article
Snow!!!
It's a relatively rare thing to have snow fall as often as we've had this winter. Turns a grey winter cityscape into something altogether easier on the eye. I used to work in an area of Glasgow riven with multiple deprivation. The only time it ever transcended it's perma-bleakness was on days like this. Snow … Continue reading Snow!!!
The Power of Flags
Flags. They’re so 14th Century. I mean, they’re not really relevant in this one, surely? We can all give ourselves a pat on the back and stick our well fed noses in the air. We’ve moved on from all that dull tribalism. Who rallies round a flag these days? I don’t anticipate another Bannockburn any … Continue reading The Power of Flags
Lockerbie
They could all see it. The luminous grey of decay, a stark contrast to the dark earth underneath. Harry composed himself and slowly exhaled. His breath formed a thick vapour trail as he crouched lower, thighs burning with the effort of holding still. With a gloved hand he lifted up one end. It clung momentarily … Continue reading Lockerbie
It Had Been A Long Day
It had been a long day. Possilpark, its sullen streets lined with hard as nails tenements, looked gloomy in the constant rain. They had trudged around as popular as Jehovahs witnesses, leather folders clutched against water-streaked raincoats. At every door they had met the same reception. Shaking heads and hostile faces. Now he could feel … Continue reading It Had Been A Long Day
