The Big Dilettante

Little over a half an hour drive away from Edinburgh lies the half marshland, half sandpit nature reserve that is Aberlady Bay. Conveniently, at its start, just off the A198, there is a small free car park for you to pitch your vehicle as base camp before embarking on your stroll up to the headland. This calm and quiet oasis is perfect for a long mind clearing walk – unless you’re a dog, in which case you are not allowed! Council’s orders I’m afraid my furry friends. Maybe something to do with protecting the resident fauna. Or maybe there was some kind of previous “owners not picking up their dog’s poo pandemic”. Either way, if you can give off the appearance of seeming human, not being too hairy, and walking on two legs you should be safe. Or, if you’re Paris Hilton and keep a small kennel of chihuahua’s in your handbag that might also circumvent the all-powerful might of the council. Anyhow, embarking upon the trail one is immediately presented with a charming and useful narrow w...

Newcastle are at the beginning of what is surely going to be a hugely transformative new ownership. The stairway to heaven before them, however, is a long one considering the dilapidated state Mike Ashley ground the club down to.  Currently wallowing in the relegation zone, the remit for this season is simply to retain the club’s Premiership status. Eddie Howe has been named as the man for the job. But what factors are likely to influence how he fairs in his challenge this season? During Ashley’s ownership there was no ambition or hope at Newcastle. But Howe now most visibly represents the new era – underlined by those two valuable ingredients hope and ambition – at the club.  With such cause for optimism the Geordie faithful will throw their full support behind Howe and the team. Such unity means the team can play with a vigour and spring in their step because the club – in the long term – are now playing for achievement rather than solely for survival. As far as honeymoon pe...

Cooking has never been much of a forte of mine. It’s a very complicated enterprise I would say. Why would professionals for the art exist if it were so easy? For example, if I desire a candlestick, I visit my local tallow chandler, I don’t magic one up by myself – I can’t. Hail consumerism. That was my logic. All my life it was. But not anymore. Enter bashed avocado mixed with cottage cheese. Like so many of us it was the insurmountable might of the pandemic that brought me to my knees and ushered in a new age of food practices. It was late one evening that, much to my astonishment, I found that I felt finally tired of pizza deliveries. What was I to do in this never before contemplated reality? That was when I had the realisation – ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. If I could exhaust my lust for pizza then maybe – just maybe – I could do this cooking malarkey. Perhaps it wasn’t an impossible pursuit. With this spasm of optimistic inspiration I marched down the yellow carpeted staircase to the...

Biden, Johnson, Morrison and Macron walk into a bar… Yes this is the beginning of a bad joke. It is little over a month since Australia, America and the UK signed the Aukus nuclear submarine deal, and in so doing slightly upset France – or more precisely Mr Macron. As a result of Aukus, the French missed out on a A$50 billion bilateral deal with Australia to sell them some conventional submarines. A primary purpose of these submarines is to counter the swelling military and naval power of China. Whatever the semantics may entail, let us just imagine how such a meeting of the four in a downtown British boozer might play out in this aftermath – without any delegates or carers to buttress their wild steeds.   Sitting round a small circular table the four leaders all faced one another. Biden nervously rubbed his glass of sparkling water, staring at it intently. Johnson and Morrison heartily cheers-ed each other before taking a large gulp from their pints of beer. And Macron ele...