Blogs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n1vhr I don’t watch many silent movies. I’m not as old as some people make out. The only time I watched silent movies when they were on the telly on a Saturday morning and there was nothing else on. And that’s going back a few years. I guess you could say I came to appreciate the genius of Harold Llloyd and Laurel and Hardy. Ok, Laurel and Hardy weren’t silent but they were geniuses. This is the kind of era in...

Our poem of the week is from PhilipSidney, one of those rare writers who can produce poetry and prose of equal quality: http://www.abctales.com/story/philip-sidney/snowdonian-stone Picking this week's winning story was equally as difficult but it's this from OliviaStJames: http://www.abctales.com/story/oliviastjames/under-my-skin If you find a particularly affecting and effective story or poem please do let us know and also, if you read...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02dlcf3 Lots of folk may be asking why I’m watching Insane Fight Club when I live in Dalmuir and am living it. Well, quite simple. I went out to watch the Celtic game in the Horsie and we couldn’t watch the second half because the internet was buggered and it was a crap game. That’s the kinda insanity I’m forced to put up with and if I put insane before most of my actions it makes them looking slightly...

I can't stop running,I won't stop running, I have to keep running. What would happen if I stopped? I'd have to stop to find out and I can't do that. No no sir,there is no mystery here, I am an open book. I don't know who I am, I wasn't who I was and I lost sight of who I am supposed to be. That's everything you know about me and everything I know about me.I am an open book, you see sir,there is no mystery here. I'd have to stop to find out and I...

Being Scottish we take a perverse pride in the weather. It’s too cold. It’s too wet. It’s too sunny. And that’s just in a morning. Made in Scotland. It’ll never last is the common refrain. That’s just about right. We do however take a particular delight in snow. Kids love it, for ten minutes. Adults love to moan about the state of the roads. Everybody’s happy because they are unhappy. This week it’s meant to stay below zero. Ho. Ho. Ho. We say...

A confused elderly lady thinks her old buddy has gone missing and suspects foul play. In the words of Vicky Pollard 'yeh but no but yeh' and I'm not going to give away what surfaces from the buried wreckage of World War II, from Maud's mind as she drifts through 'the foggy ruins of time' (Dylan quote), from a back garden, oops slight spoiler there. Elizabeth is Missing does a lot of things really well, Maud's first person narrative is real-...

Pain became a central part of my life to the extent it became unrecognisable.Subconsciously I built a defense mechanism that was on auto pilot 24/7. It made it easier for me to disconnect with what I had unknowningly chosen to forget.Empathy,Sympathy,Pain! I felt this was a rational perrogative to adopt for ME! One less person to add to the thousands that broke me. No sooner I realised, I was being selfish because in feeling this way I became...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04yn2yq/the-superrich-and-us-episode-2 This is the second episode of Peretti’s investigation into the relationship between the super-rich and us – the other 99% of the population. He begins with a sobering statistic, but only if you’re drunk, eighty-five people own the equivalent of half the world’s population. I quite like that statistic. But it’s unfathomable by its sheer immensity. Sure you can divide...

Two wonderful autobiographical pieces take the honours this week: Cannonette's Slip One, a slice of life about knitting and a nan who can do everything all at once, and Scorpio88's The Mechanic, a fleeting moment of a childhood summer. They are both brilliant - do read them! http://www.abctales.com/story/canonette/slip-one http://www.abctales.com/story/scorpio88/mechanic-0 For this week's Inspiration Point I give you a phrase that's been in the...

Love is complex,it doesn't have to be. I sat one evening in my study and I thought, but why do we make it that way?Why can't we all accept our skeletons and work through it instead of walking way. Walking away is dramatic,walking away makes the problem bigger than it actually is.There is good and bad in some of us,if not all of us.It's better to acknowledge it than try to ignore it, but it's better to never let the grey dictate the way.The way...