Canny Scots Cannae Infer Aliens From UFOs

Compare and contrast the automatic response of people living in the middle of nowhere in Scotland (specifically Fraserburgh) and those in America.  It's the middle of the night, you see freaky lights in the sky and you film them.  The national news picks up on it and asks for your opinion of what they were.  Calmly the Scots answer "I really do not know what it was. I know there are military exercises and there may be an explanation there. But why would we be the only people in the universe?".  Wonderful!  First say you don't know.  Then offer the most logical and sensible explanation, whilst keeping open that there are other (but less likely) explanations.  Calm, measured and sensible - despite being offered your 15 minutes of fame.  Kudos Morag Ritchie!

On a related note, there was and interesting UFO sighting over Edinburgh in the very early 1980s that was witnessed by many people...  Anyone else care to confirm this?  I Want To Believe!

EXCLUSIVE - Luis Suarez Gets Ignored By BBC (Just Like Refs)!

It's official!  Just as Brendan Rogers quite rightly complained that Luis Suarez's repeated calls for a penalty are being wrongly ignored by referees, it now turns out even the "impartial" BBC are ignoring Suarez in footballing terms by "suppressing" the fact that he's the joint second-top goal scorer with 5 goals in the Premier League!  Yet for some unknown reason they manage to make sure the Man Utd's Robin van Persie (who appears after Suarez alphabetically) is on the list.  Suspicious, no?!?  As verification you can see that Demba Ba has 6 goals (two of which he scored on Saturday) whilst Liverpool's 5-2 victory away at Norwich happened at the same time and is clearly listed in the Previous Results section right next to the Top Scorers (when Suarez scored a hat-trick from the edge / outside the box).  It's also repeated on the main Premier League page (see insert in the top right).  So BBC, referees - stop pretending Luis Suarez doesn't exist!

PS:  It's been a busy couple of months which has resulted in no posts.  That doesn't mean I haven't thought crazy things or noticed what passes other people by.  Hopefully a steadier stream for the rest of the year.

Edinburgh Festivals Start With A Jazz Mardi Gras

I know the Jazz and Blues Festival started yesterday, but I was working. So today, down in The Grassmarket, under blue skies and the sun smiling, my Edinburgh Festivals kicked off with the Mardi Gras. It's just a shame that they have not returned to Princes Street Gardens on the first Sunday to do the wonderful Jazz On A Summer's Day... This is what it used to look like, an here's a snap from today and how glorious the Gardens (East) are - Summer has arrived in Edinburgh at long last!

What's The French For "That's A Nice Pair" (Say Pear)..?

Ah, don't say pair, say Cidre Pear! After the very successful campaign launching Stella Artois Cidre, we now have a new flavour complementing the classic apple: Pear. It's a lovely clean, fresh colour and has that crispness of the original Cidre. So really the question should be, how do you say that's a lovely French pair..?

A Very Perculiar Chocolate - Marmite Flavoured!

I couldn't bring myself to buy this... As much as I loved the Marmite advert featuring Zippy, and the packaging looks elegant, I really can't see myself eating Marmite Chocolate! Can you..?

Happy Bastille Day From The Place That Inspired Napoleon Bonaparte!

According to the secondary source known as Wikipedia, Lord Street in Southport (Merseyside, previously Lancashire), was not only where Napoleon Bonaparte lived before becoming President (well just off Lord Street), it was also the inspiration for the beautiful tree lined boulevards in Paris with quaint arcades off the buildings.

Why Wait 2 Weeks? I Already Have Now '82

Sigh... Okay, some songs were recorded in 1982 but officially it was released in 1983 (source Wikipedia) but still, Now 82 means Now '82 to me! Feeling old...

Orange & Ginger Is Good, So Long As It's Not In A Scottish Tanning Salon!

Rekorderlig launch another great new flavour, possibly only in pubs right now... Tesco are selling Apricot & Peach but pubs, including Milnes on Hanover Street, are selling a delicious Orange & Ginger cider. This is not the first time these flavours have been combined, Crabbies have a special Orange Edition of their Ginger Beer but really it's not great and is a bit too sweet (bet you didn't know I spoke French!). As always Rekorderlig's ciders are not overly sweet and have a perfect balance of flavours. I strongly recommend you try and find it, more so than Koppaberg's Cloudberry.

The British Icon (BA) Is Back In "You Only Fail Twice"

Well done!  I'm usually irked by the word "fail".  For me you can put it in the same category as other short term pseudo technical words that the masses adopt, well, en masse.  But when British Airways manages to fail to load their own brand new "transfer BMI points to us" page (frame) and then hits the ultra-rare 'double-fail', even I relent and think that's impressive!  So behold, British Airway's beautiful double-fail:

I'm On Cloud Nine With Kopparberg's Cloudberry Cider!

Okay, maybe I just hyped it up for that headline (or Instagram post)... Truth is Cloudberry is a light, sweet and very fragrant cider that is exclusive to Belhaven Pubs (such as The Black Bull in Edinburgh). Kopparberg make decent ciders but compared to their countrymen at Rekorderlig they just miss a sharpness and clarity. But that said they are a lot better than Bulmers (Scottish & Newcastle brand, not the original Irish Magners).