My ’Festive Five’ or most played/favourite songs from 2020

I’m starting to think I should just bite the bullet and update my Mac to the new OS rather than waiting around for SuperDuper! to be updated.

The trainee Animator has been busy painting some records as a gift for her sister…

Observations further suggest in risk status-dependent manners that adding cheese and red wine to the diet daily, and lamb on a weekly basis, may also improve long-term cognitive outcomes.

It’s a proper scientific paper!

Visiting some old friends today, both 80+, and with health issues reminds me of a saying that remains true but we would probably word differently these days…

“Old age sure ain’t for sissies”

First ’live’ gig since you-know-what… It was great to be able to watch Lau play live again.

♬♩ All I want for Christmas is a Big Sur compatible version of my favourite backup software… ♬♪

Dear Santa, that would be SuperDuper!

That’s the tree up! We’re fans of maximalism here so all the old favourite decorations are out again.

I replaced my old Garmin hill walking GPS with a more modern version. I’m loving just how quickly the thing pulls in a position and gets to 1.8m accuracy.

Weird thing I’ve learned today? There’s a research paper published about the bad things that happened to 8 out of 13 participants after they carried out an exorcism on a young woman while she was monitored in a functional MRI.

I think I just finished my book of the year. Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan (it may be called Caledonian Road in the US) was mesmerising. Poignant, distressing and joyful.

This morning I have been making a surprise fun Christmas gift for the family. Just needs printed onto decent paper and framed…

Excited to book a couple of tickets to this ‘gig’. as the daughter and I are big fans or Lau.

2020 has felt like Philip Pullman’s description of his world in The Secret Commonwealth

“Things that you are familiar with will become strange and alien, and things you have never imagined will become normal.”

Laughed out loud!

A Writer and Three Script Editors Walk Into a Bar

This morning…

“What sort of person puts butter in the film drawer‽”

“What sort of person has a film drawer in the fridge!”

Any micro.bloggers use Standard Notes? Thoughts?

I do like the focus on privacy but other than that, ot seems a bit of a spartan note-taking world.

Treat of the day was using FaceTime to see my daughter’s reaction to the chest burster scene from Alien as she watched it for the first time.

Since then she’s been keeping me up to date…

Best productivity aid for me? A personal whiteboard I can glance at, mark-up and prioritise all the spinning plates on sticks in my work life.

Rebecca (2020) ★★★☆☆

boxd.it/ighW

I’ve replaced my well worn Snowsled Ventile smock with a new one made in the north of Scotland by Susan. I love that little detail.

The apostrophe misuse can not be forgiven though! 😀

I’m excited and a little nervous to have joined the Edinburgh Photographic Society, founded in 1961. It’s been a very warm welcome so far and they encouraged me to submit work to competitions.

I love these old photos from Edinburgh taken in 1954

It’s nice. The house is quiet — the good lady doctor her indoors is having a lie-in, daughter no. 1 at Uni, daughter no. 2 taxi’d to work by me and I’ve bought some lovely fresh, plump mackerel from tonight.

Now to enjoy some ‘well mashed’ Earl Grey.

Sorted for cider for a little while.