swl - Genetically Modified

1m audio cable, 3.5mm to twin phono, B&Q - £4.99
1.5m audio cable, 3.5mm to twin phono, Currys - £10.99
5m audio cable, 3.5mm to twin phono, eBay - £1.69, free p&p

It's one thing saying Currys have to cover overheads but 650% more expensive for 70% less cable

from 2008

WE DIDNT START THE FIRE BY SW O’ L

Pope in the Middle East, Israel out of Lebanon
Concorde dies, Kursk dives, hanging chads and Bush

Ellen Macarthur, Tony Blair, Milosevic & Harrison
Race riots in the Northern towns, 9/11, anthrax

Princess Margaret, Queen Mother, Paul Burrell, the Jubilee
Karzai, Potters Bar, snipers on the Beltway.

Schwarzenegger, David Blaine, Europe in a heatwave
England win, millions march, SARS threat, Shock & Awe

Putin back, Bush back, Arafat ain’t saying Jack
Beslan, Madrid, headscarves and tsunamis

Pope dies, Blair’s in, terror on the underground
New Orleans, piano man, turkey twizzlers, Countdown.

Tracey Temple, Zizhou. Car bombs, bird flu
Global Warming, Hollywood, Madonna’s child and You Tube

Vonnegut & Bhutto, Cutty Sark & Smeato
Royal Navy I-Pods, Northern Rock & Kryptonite

Kosovo and Georgia, Cholera in Africa
Mumbai, credit crunch, Obama-mania


(deepest apologies to Billy Joel )

Many years ago when I worked in theatre, I knew an Acting ASM at Perth Rep. He was a touch old to be doing that job, usually it's given to drama students just out of College but Eddie was 30. Over the season we became friends, I used to crash out at his place when it was too late to drive home and I got to know how he had ended up on the stage. Together with a friend he'd written and performed a song that was a minor hit in the charts (which explained the bedroom filled with keyboards and music computers). This brought in a steady wee stream of royalties which allowed him to pursue his dream of being an actor. Like many friendships in the theatre, we saw each other here & there over the years but I'd totally lost touch with him until last weekend when we bumped into each other at a Glasgow party. Catching up on what we'd been up to he came out with something that made my jaw drop. He's currently 23rd in line to go into space in Richard Branson's spaceship Hopefully, early next year he will became the first Scotsman in space!!

So well done Eddie. From Fiction Factory to the stage & screen and now the final frontier. You lucky, lucky

Here's my mate the spaceman playing keyboards - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhHG337phTM

Sometimes it's the wee things that make you smile. I got a book token at Xmas and was standing in Waterstone's trying to decide which two of three books I could get as I didn't want to go too much over the token value. I finally made my choice, returned one book to the shelf and went to the checkout. What a pleasant surprise when the lassie said "Oh this one's half price" I swiftly grabbed my third choice book and left with a big grin.

Every couple of weeks I drive past a Glasgow chip shop called the Val D'oro on the way back from the Barras where I've been getting Mrs swl's cheap fags. It's at Glasgow Cross, the junction of the Trongate & Gallowgate and there's always a queue of traffic at the lights giving you time to look around. The Val D'oro is, like most of the businesses at this end of town, a rather grubby looking establishment with a neon sign in the window proclaiming "Home of the Famous Glasgow Fish Tea". I've never heard of a Glasgow Fish Tea but I have heard of the owner because he was in all the papers a couple of years ago. Apparently he's the son of Italian post-war immigrants and he is quite the opera singer. An accomplished tenor "Gee Gee" as the Weegies call him or Luigi Corvi as his dad named him, belts out opera songs in between serving sausage suppers.

Here he is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eOqRvoLlWY

Certainly adds local colour

But that's not what I'm writing about. Outside the chippy, above the facade is a brilliant piece of art. Put there for the Pope's visit it's hung at the spot where (before the chippy was built) Scotland's only post Reformation Saint was hung and gralloched (disembowelled) in 1615. John Ogilvie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ogilvie_(saint) was a priest who ministered to the very few Catholics who dared to remain in Scotland after the religious hysteria typified by John Knox saw Catholics hounded from Scotland by Protestants. The East End of Glasgow is still strongly Catholic to this day though, perhaps due in part to Ogilvie's sacrifice and the reason he was made a Saint by the Pope.

Anyway - the picture http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/49424484.jpg

It's huge and dominates the street. Obviously the bloke being crucified is Ogilvie. To the left is Peter Corvi, father of Luigi and the man who established the Val D'Oro, offering up a fish supper to the dying priest. But the figure who always makes me smile is the wee boy by the cross, offering up his bottle for the crucified man to take a swig from.

This to me typifies Glaswegians. Generous to a fault, they have a warmth and spirit that you find in oppressed communities the world over, interspersed with a real sense of humour. The wee boy - in England he'd be a Chav but in Scotland he's a Ned - is undoubtedly in my mind shouting in that unmistakeable high pitched nasal Weegie whine;

"Haw big man! Gaun then, try an' swally that ya walloper", safe in the knowledge that his Buckfast is safely out of reach for the man with his hands nailed to the cross-member.