You only get BBC headlines like this under Labour. When did they ever say anything like: "Johnson promises 40 new hospitals, but don't be fooled - there won't be any fucking hospitals"

On reaching the halfway point in radiotherapy www.cosmicsurfer.co.uk/2026/02/09/f...

Blog; radiotherapy update plus odds and ends www.cosmicsurfer.co.uk/2026/02/03/z...

@brave.com hope this is on your radar too.

Radiotherapy, day one www.cosmicsurfer.co.uk/2026/01/27/t...

If you are lucky enough to find a copy, this retrospective boxed set astonishes at every turn, with more releases planned for coming months.

Afternoon chunes

One for Epiphany www.cosmicsurfer.co.uk/2026/01/06/a...

Edinburgh, winter afternoon

Wishing everyone a guid new year.

Last book completed in 2025. Onwards!

I wonder if this could possibly be because so many shops did not open today?

I'm well aware that one of my novels, at least, was pirated as an eBook. Yesterday I found a company selling what looks very much like pirated paperbacks too - at 50% more than I sell them for. I'm assured that they are now taken down, but not cool.

Found in a box in the shed. Grateful Dead, Edinburgh, Oct 1981.

I agree with Dave regarding screening. However more screening will lead to more diagnosis and that requires more resources. A propos resources, II might add that my consultant oncologist is from an immigrant family. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

All this social media malarkey is a bit shit isn't it?

a word from my sponsor

Is it just me or does this season's mRNA COVID vaccination pack a punch?

Five years ago, I wrote something to the effect that just as Sgt Pepper shaped the latter half of the 60s, Abbey Road ought to have shaped the early 70s but didn't. I've decided that was wrong because Dark Side of the Moon is basically a Beatles album.

I get irritated by journalists writing short, single-sentence paragraphs. I don't mind when Thomas Pynchon does it though ...

I enjoyed that

I do not particularly like modern DC films and generally avoid them. On the basis of a video by @damiengwalter.com I watched Joker: Folie a Deux. It is excellent in every respect.

Advertising a previous Rapture

Right then, I have a couple of weeks to decide between surgery or radiotherapy. Not an easy calculation: both ought to work, both have consequences. #prostate #prostatecancer

South of the river you stop and you hold everything...

Here we go again.

Taking an old friend for a wander. Hope I can remember how it works

At the hospital. Minor injuries unit. I suspect I've dislocated a finger. Changing a fitted sheet.

30 minutes into the new Superman. It is shite. The best character is the dog.

There's a young magpie chattering away in our garden; I had not realised what a wide vocabulary of sounds they have.

Sunday blogging www.cosmicsurfer.co.uk/2025/08/10/o... #prostatecancer

about that cancer diagnosis: www.cosmicsurfer.co.uk/2025/08/08/a...

Some personal news. I'm considering options for treatment for prostate cancer. It was found by chance and early. It has not spread and is very treatable. I would encourage all men of a certain age to consider talking to their doctor about getting tested; for most of us there are no symptoms.

I had been wondering how to get to the greengages that are too high in the tree for me to reach: the wind is doing it for me. Onto the second bowl collecting windfalls. Any that are too damage will feed the badgers in the garden tonight.

News from the north (Scottish Highlander, 11 Sept. 1885). Strong eulogiums, indeed

Spotted in the Salvation Army on Lothian Road Edinburgh. No obvious price. For lovers of Dorothy Dunnett.

I dreamed last night that the Grateful Dead were playing a show in a church in Edinburgh. I was hanging with Pigpen in the sanctuary. He seemed like an OK guy.

Looking at my tbr pile and making decisions. BBC and Graun apps have gone from the frontscreen of my phone and socialmedia apps going that way too.

Watching Amyl and the Sniffers at Glastonbury. Good show, enjoyed it, but I see that the BBC (we don't censor artists) did in fact censor them on iPlayer.

There are better ways to spend a Saturday lunchtime than a transperineal prostate biopsy. The apprehension was worse than the reality.

Into the afternoon with Herbie and George

This is who runs this account

Rowdy middle-aged man complains... www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

All of this youtu.be/NH6YiXL1IYc

people catching up on social media rn be like

news from my alter ego.

This.

With elderly family member this morning. Housebound. Two pensions, investments, healthy bank balance and no debt. Complaining about the winter fuel allowance that he doesn't need.

Friday blogging. www.cosmicsurfer.co.uk/2025/05/30/i...