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A spooky walk along theNorth Shields Fish Quay

It's like stepping back in time. More

440bhp of fun

Stick a prop on a powerful engine To the article

Who is PC249?

A mystery emerges in an old book. More

Hall Hill Farm

A farm based attraction that let's you get up close to the animals

The Sun &The Skye Bridge

The sun breaking through the cloud cover over the Skye road bridge. My Flickr

A snowy drive out

An eventful drive up to Tan Hill and a visit to the famous inn there. To the article

Whitby in December

A quick visit to Whitby in sub zero temperatures, but the food & walk made it all worthwhile. To the article

The Royal Armouries, Leeds

One of the largest collections of arms and armour in the country My Flickr

Loch Morar

To be seen in the distance. Fantastic drives and walks to be had in the area. My Flickr

Loch Lomond

The bonnie, bonnie banks My Flickr

Rievaulx Abbey

A former Cistercian abbey near the town of Helmsley in North Yorkshire My Flickr

Blair Castle

Lovely Scottish castle I visited recently. My Flickr

Silver sands of Morar

The beautiful view over the sands of Morar. My Flickr

Duart Castle, Isle of Mull

Standing proud on the cliff edge. It's an imposing sight from the ferry. My Flickr
 

Metaphysical Undertones

By Alasdair On February 1, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Writing Related, Writing Techniques
Books

I was flicking through some profiles online this evening, primarily looking at authors and journalists. Now I’m not sure if this is a UK versus USA type comparison, but I noticed at home, the profiles were all very down to earth, very workman-like explaining what people did in plain English. This contrasted sharply with [...]

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Editor’s Block

By Alasdair On January 31, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Writing Related

Writer’s block is well known. When the creative juices dry up and it is impossible to carry out the modern putting of pen to paper. Well it seems I’m suffering from editor’s block. It’s an important part of the book production process, going back over draft manuscripts, checking for spelling and grammar errors, double-checking facts [...]

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Golf Course

A walk out in the sun

On January 28, 2012 By Alasdair

Not exactly ideal walking conditions today, but for me, it wasn’t far off. I could have done with it being a few degrees colder.

Did 5.17 miles, the activity log is here taking the total up to 76.41 miles.

It seemed strange today but there were more people out and about, [...]

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Tweetdeck 0.38.2

Tweetdeck: The old friend returns

On January 28, 2012 By Alasdair

It was Labi Siffre I think who sang “Something inside so strong”. It was the song that came to mind this morning when I went to launch the latest version of TweetDeck that I had upgraded via the AppStore. Except I made one change, the title I used was “Something inside so wrong”.

It [...]

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Books on a shelf

Power, wealth and outrage

On January 27, 2012 By Alasdair

The news today has been full of comment on the £963,000 bonus payment awarded to the Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, a bank that had to be bailed out by the taxpayer with our money. As a result we have an 82% share in the bank, yet [...]

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Falling Bird

Rights and wrongs of Twitter

On January 26, 2012 By Alasdair

It seems UK Politicians aren’t having a good time with Twitter of late and the reason is, they just don’t get it. The latest one to experience trouble at the Twitter Mill is Tom Watson. The BBC cover the story here.

Apparently an ‘intern’, for ‘intern’ read cheap labour, accessed [...]

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If you have a website, contributed to a forum, or uploaded a pic, you should read this

On January 24, 2012 By Alasdair

It used to be said “An Englishman’s home is his castle”. Somewhere they would be safe and sound if they stuck to the law of the land.

Thanks to the negligence of Parliament, that is no longer the case.

Take a look at this newspaper article. It is about a [...]

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RTA

Accidents happen

On January 19, 2012 By Alasdair

I wanted an early night tonight. Loads to do tomorrow. I’d just headed upstairs when I heard the first siren go by. It’s not unusual where I live. I regularly get woken up by sirens and flashing blue strobe lights.

When the second blue light and siren passed I cursed to myself. It gets [...]

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Wiki SOPA Down

Wikipedia – Down but not out

On January 18, 2012 By Alasdair

It’s highly unusual for an organisation to withdraw its service in protest however today, Wikipedia has done exactly that.

If you visit the site today you will find the screen blacked out with the message show in the picture displayed. It all relates to the SOPA and PIPA bills that are going through the [...]

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A new Royal Yacht?

On January 16, 2012 By Alasdair

A couple of news outlets this morning are reporting that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has suggested the nation buy the HM The Queen a new Royal Yacht to mark her diamond jubilee.

This has to be the latest act that shows how completely divorced cabinet ministers are from reality. At [...]

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Frosty Trees

A nice stroll out

On January 15, 2012 By Alasdair

A nice stroll out today in near enough ideal conditions for me. It was the first of my walks of 2012 and long overdue since I hadn’t done any since November last year.

The weather was cold, enough to make little clouds when you breath out, but thankfully there was virtually no wind so [...]

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Magistrates Court

Justice? What Justice?

On January 12, 2012 By Alasdair

Earlier this week I took another trip to the courts to observe the cases going through. I had a nagging doubt about a procedure I had described in my latest book and wanted to double what happened in ‘real life’. As it happens, I had got everything correct but it didn’t hurt to check. [...]

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  • Updates

    • Metaphysical Undertones
    • Editor’s Block
    • A walk out in the sun
    • Tweetdeck: The old friend returns
    • Power, wealth and outrage
    • Rights and wrongs of Twitter
    • If you have a website, contributed to a forum, or uploaded a pic, you should read this
    • Accidents happen
    • Wikipedia – Down but not out
    • A new Royal Yacht?
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    A photo on Flickr
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