Here's my school satchel and some music books, from the exhibition of The House of Annie Lennox, when it was presented at Aberdeen Art Gallery last year. These things accompanied me through my secondary school years. They're redolent with memory and symbology. The...

I came upon this  rather well worn spinning top the other day. It's clearly been through a few seasons and a lot of  turning. Metal spinning tops were so popular back in the Fifties..I guess they've been replaced with computerised versions. This one is so...

The Spirit of elBulli...the Michelin 3-star restaurant near the town of Roses, Catalonia in Spain, run by chef Ferran Adria, which was closed on July 30, 2011 and will reopen as a creativity centre in 2014. Somerset House in London is currently hosting an exhibition...

Design by Nature! On the topic of design moving on from cars..As shells go, this one is pretty outstanding..A gorgeous conch, or to put it more formally.. A marvellous example of a marine gastropod mollusc! This one stays with me on a shelf for decoration..but conch...

God bless the Morris Minor traveller! I'm not much of a car person, but there are some cars that just have a certain "something"...This little car quietly speaks volumes sitting quietly under a London lamppost in the moonlight, just waiting to be noticed by...

Sullen building-Sullen sky...There's a certain type of construction that went up like a nasty rash all over Britain between the 60's and 70's. It's persistent signature is the colour of cement and concrete..Angst Grey. Here's a typical example. It goes well with a...

It's lemonade weather-although this is actually iced tea! The air conditioning and electric fan retailers must be having a Summer bonanza, and the electricity grid must be frazzling. Everybody's frazzling in the UK. It's quite bizarre. What's it like in your neck of...

I had a lovely time earlier with the folks at the University of Essex, who gave me a warm and friendly reception ( and even stood up for my speech! )Wowza!. The Chancellor sweetly (but accidentally) awarded me with the wrong certificate.. and then most generously...

The Cheese Grater and the Little Brown Jug.. Sounds like the perfect title for the type of children's stories you used to read in the 50's.. I haven't read any children's books recently. As a child I used to love Edwardian children's books..usually involving dark...

Some things are idiomatic.Take these two dugs for example.. ( dugs..not dogs!) What could be more synonymous with Scotland than two West Highland terriers and shortbread biscuit boxes ?! I always get a little bit nostalgic when I encounter them..These ones can be...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/12/malala-yousafzai-united-nations-education-speech-text This young girl is absolutely incredible...Malala Yousafzai is a sixteen year old force of nature. Please take the time to watch her extraordinary speech in the...

Bath or shower..what's it to be? I used to be a bath person, but now it's all about the power of the shower! When I was a young kid we didn't actually have a bathroom in the tenement house where we lived..There was a cold water tap by the sink, and a little gas geyser...

Another picture from the land of my forefathers and mothers. A Scottish forest after rainfall..Nature..The planet we inhabit..Is it really sustainable? Does anyone really know? The point is that like the song says.. You never know how much you needed something till...

This is the little cottage where my great great grandmother once lived. It's up on the hills in the Highlands of Scotland. The view is incredible, and it hasn't changed much at all from the time she lived there in the late 1800's. I only found out about it after...

It has been noted that I have "opinions".. Well..As it happens..Yes...I do..I have opinions and I have a blog. No one needs to agree with my opinions or read my blog...And if they do happen to read it,they might just stumble upon one or two opinions. That's...

There's something wonderful about being able to watch an entire TV series right the way through, uninterrupted by adverts or days of the week…Needless to say, I'm a massive Netflix fan…Whether that's a good or bad thing I don't know. In any case..It's...

Youth and Beauty...Are we inherently insecure, or do we eventually become that way? What gives you a sense of self worth, and how do you find it in any case? How do you get it back if you've lost it? Any psychologists out there? What's it all about Alfie???

It was very interesting to get so many responses to yesterday's blog on the subject of plastic surgery. Interestingly it seems that most people find something disturbing about it. Good to note that everybody understood what I was saying. Thank you for that ! I'm...