You said "Be there or be square"

The marvellous Idlewild play a cheeky wee acoustic version of City Hall from their excellent new album, Post Electric Blues. Just thought I'd share...

The Fly - Idlewild 'City Hall' FlyTV In The Courtyard on MUZU.

Quick edit: I left the video playing and a brilliant version of Little Discourage came on afterwards. Well worth watching...

I swear I saw this...

Sidewalk Instructions

Spotted on a lower East Side (I think) sidewalk on a recent visit to NYC. A sense of humour is always a good thing, no matter where one finds oneself. I'm not sure how funny I'd find it, however, if I was a sufferer of the following complaint, bearing in mind this is merely the subway station version of the ad - on the way into Manhattan from JFK we saw this ad blown up to building size! Them's some big ol' piles...

...or are you just pleased to see me?

A recent trip to NYC showed just how all those travel writers come across their seemingly implausible tales of encounters with 'colourful' locals which add that oft needed human interest element to the traveller's tale...

A shopping excursion - a must in the Big Apple - took me to the Empire State Building in search of a modelling kit of the eponymous Manhattan landmark. In these security conscious times, no chances were being taken and entry to the skyscraper's gift shop could only be gained after passing through an airport-style security check, complete with walk-through scanner and baggage x-ray.

With nothing to hide I removed my coat and put it in the tray for scanning. Cue 'colourful encounter'

Security Lady: excuse me sir but do you have like a package in your jacket?
Me: There's a guidebook in one pocket...
SL: (not bothering to check the vefacity of my claim)Oh, okay. What about the other pocket? A brick or something?
Me: Er, my glasses case is there, it's quite bulky.
SL: (still not checking) Oh, okay, no problem. On you go.
Security Man: (classic 'Noo Yoik' accent) A brick? A f###in' brick? You kiddin' me?
SL: Well you never know what people are collecting these days...

Ach just stick it through as two slices of toast...

Okay okay. Our own fault I know for going to Asda in Clydebank but come on..."we never usually sell any cereal" hence they didn't know where to find milk for it. Or how to put it through the till.

The pack is still well within date too, which mean that they obviously have thrown out all the other packs they've had in the cafe which has been open for over a decade now.

Full-on fry up instead, anyone?

More of life's good, free things

Apples from the in laws tree in deepest Lincolnshire.

This is just a few minutes haul. Loads of windfall in too bad a state to eat and yet more still on the tree.

I'm thinking crumble, tarte tatin, chutneys...or maybe we'll just eat the lovely things.

The best things in life are free...

Ahh. A trip to the library - surely the greatest of the free public services alongside the NHS? - and a walk back along the riverside where myself and the youngest one collected an array of conkers, acorns, beech-nuts and red-berry type things (rowan and A.N. Other).

A perfect autumnal Saturday.

Signs o' the times...

I Twittered (Tweeted? Twatted?) about this earlier but I just had to put it here too. Signs, with their often poor spelling and grocer's apostrophes are a source of endless fascination for me (as indeed they clearly are to this Flickr group) and it was with no small sense of joy that I spotted these chaps in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

The first begged the question: are we not all, in our own way, "International People"? The second, and here it may just be my warped sense of humour, struck me as just a tad sick...