So That’s What Umbrellas Are For!

It seems umbrellas are designed to keep the rain off things. Ground breaking isn’t it? It is quite unusual to use an umbrella in the height of summer but this year has been quite poor weather-wise. Step forward a new use for an umbrella – keeping a summer barbecue dry! Quite ingenious I think…

H0me is Where My F00tball Kit Is

Hibs have launched their new football kit and have adverts running on First buses that run around Edinburgh and the surrounding areas (I wonder why they didn’t pick LRT buses that run just inside Edinburgh?). The line is “MY HOME KIT” and to the right the say it is the home kit for 07-08. Err, no they don’t. They say it is the home kit for OH-7 and OH-8. That’s not a zero. A zero is not perfectly round. That’s the letter O as in Oscar. Take a look at the O in HOME – they are identical! Someone should get sacked from the PR agency for that. Just because so many people say OH-7 doesn’t mean you should type it…

It Doesn’t Rain In Edinburgh. Disney Disagrees…

As we approach the heart of summer, I am reminded of something someone once send to me in the first few months of being in this lovely city of Edinburgh: ‘It doesn’t rain in Edinburgh, but when it does it’s really bad’. I think I’d agree with that, especially compared to Glasgow. Yes the Hare comes in and it’s sometimes misty or grey but it’s not that often that it rains. It looks like Disney disagrees as they have their own Edinburgh full length mac for the inevitable summer down pours.
UPDATED: It seems Disney are correct. Maybe Disney actually control the weather and are just trying to shift excess stock this year?

Ignore Your Neighbours; The UK is England for Family Companies

Yes, today the smoking ban comes into affect (???) in England. I guess that’s why Johnston & Johnston (a family company) are running adverts with “Go Smoke-Smell Free from 1st July” on them to advertise their odour neutraliser Oust. I am perplexed however that they have chosen to do this in the side of Lothian Regional Transport buses running throughout Edinburgh where it has been illegal to some in confined public spaces for the last 14 months… Maybe they think England is the UK?

Hey DJ, Where’s My Apostrophe? Maybe He’s Drunk…

Stand back green grocers, there’s a new kid in town! It’s not really forgivable for someone to not have an apostrophe in the company name Chaplins Disco but a lot of company names are being written like that, e.g. Tescos rather than Tesco’s. They cross the line when they blatantly abuse the apostrophe further down the sign when the inform use they provide “mobile disco’s” (yes, it could be a contraction of discotheque but really, hand on heart, would anyone believe that defence?). Maybe he’s a local of “Jacks Lodge”? They have “the friendliest local’s in town”.

Grape Juice Now Comes In 1 litre Cartons Rather Than Bottles

Why oh why oh why would anyone buy 750ml of grape juice when you could buy 1 litre for exactly the same price? Any sane person wouldn’t do that. Plus the larger package comes in a lighter tetrapak carton rather than a heavy glass bottle. However when that grape juice has fermented and become white wine people suddenly change their tune. It’s the same wine, from the same vineyard packed in arguably better packaging. Let’s see just how quickly (or slowly) it catches on.

BTW I wouldn’t advise trying to steal this supermarket trolley. My superior observational skills tell me that it has some for of security alarm installed.

Is The Scotsman For People Who’ve Just Woken Up From A Coma?

What can be done with The Scotsman? I’ve previously mentioned bizarre comments by them and a real dumbing down of the product however I was out last weekend and spent a couple of hours having a fascinating conversation with their Scottish Government Editor, Peter MacMahon. He’s an incredibly articulate, witty and intelligent yet the paper he writes for (and a totally different person has just come up with this classic): “Mr Salmond accused Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, of…”. Those words were written by Hamish MacDonell in today’s paper and online edition. Who does not know, that for over ten years, Tony Blair has been the Prime Minister? Why add this redundant title after his name? Have they been set a minimum number of words per article? The mind boggles sometimes.

Everything Is Cyclic, The Fashion Of The 80s Is Back!

For some people, the 80s never went away. 1980s related things are cool again to the mainstream. David Hasselhoff, Dirk Benedict, Mr. T and of course Alf (or is that David O’Doherty?). I’ve been listening to “Waiting for a star to fall” over and over again on my MP3 player (no, not the original, the remix). The CD in my car at the moment is the incomparable Bad. If you doubt the 80s revival is here in the fashion industry then take a look at the main display in GAP’s window at the Gyle. Think Miami Vice. In fact no, think the up coming Life on Venus which will be set in … the 80s.

All the colours of Scotland Unite … to fight the SNP?

This is not a question over race, it’s a question over speed. All the colours of Scotland’s political parties have united to fight the evil enemy, and amazingly it’s the central/leftist SNP that are the target of this rainbow coalition. Friends of the Earth (Green) brought together MSPs and councillors from Labour (Red), the Liberal Democrats (Yellow), the Conservatives (Blue) and the Greens (erm, we’ve already had Green. What about Purple and Orange?) to support the proposed Edinburgh Tram System and Rail Link. Did I write that correctly? Labour and Torys working together? This minority government really is making huge changes…

Princes Street, The Castle & Other Great Edinburgh Pictures

There have been several new pages added to my gallery of Edinburgh without much fanfare. Several spectacular sunset and dusk shots, a few beautiful Spring shots and the odd scene picture. Have a look around and if you want to use them for your own personal purposes feel free!