UK folks, anyone got a decent cheap supermarket go to white wine these days? Ideally no more than £8 and unoaked - I can tell you a few nice options at £9/9.50. The Coop Verdicchio Castelli Di Jesi was fantastic value maybe 5 years ago at £6.50, but it's become more boozy and now costs >£8.

The latest from my gmail firstname+initial account. The US dept of State clearly doesn't do email verification first... Anyway if you've applied for a US passport and recognise the application # looks like you're good. I can only hope they mail it over and don't send me collection instructions!

Calls to remove the cone from the statue of the Duke of Wellington in Glasgow have restarted (it happens interminably every few years) It’s clearly a stupid idea. Like making New York taxis grey instead of yellow If anything needs to go it’s the aristocratic twat on a horse. Bin him. Keep the cone

Sorry Jarvis, that sounds like a you problem, because when I think children choirs, I automatically think of some fantastic tracks. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

I've been saying this before the High Line even existed, and that's because the Coulée Verte opened the 90s and it's very nice. (and there is a long section with cool shops and artist studios beneath the arches)

building a spec for "Anglesey", so I'll obviously name the file "Ynys Mon"

Featuring an otter in Linn Park! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Words have meaning which is why I use them or not, so do GTF Outlook "conciseness" advice and your suggestions that change meaning. "huge majority" >90%. "most" >50% "many" unquantifiable

I've un-reposted the AI squirrels sorry about that. I was hoping to post my less cute actual picture of a real squirrel that I'd taken for my mother (she no longer travels) to make up for it but I can't find it, so instead here's her Leo that time he got stuck on the roof.

And as described by Huysmans in A Rebours. ALT will be easier to read. English and German translations avail from gutenberg.org chapter 6. #WyrdWednesday

I just ate the last of the Christmas chocolates.

Page 42 is blank someone please give me another number.

Mark Carney's speech is now only the second most acute analysis of where the world is at right now:

OK going to have a go at this one, but making it easy by picking Spiritualized. #ArtistFave00s #MusicChallenge 3 studio albums, Complete works CDs, and new versions for Spiritualized Acoustic Mainlines to pick from. A big personal fav.: "Don't Just Do Something" (2001) youtu.be/1uwXVeVXhqY?...

Well, it’s the 9th anniversary of this today. No special reason for mentioning it now, obviously

Speaking to a colleague about ditching Sky - which I did some years back - and my top tip to avoid wasting time on the phone with their sellers is to speak sales to them. "If I buy a Freesat/view box the CAPEX is this. If I stay with Sky, the OPEX will reach this figure in <1 year".

Of all the clever things she did, Dolly's bluegrass trilogy may have been her best career move. Until then, so many people, myself included, had grown up only aware of "9 to 5" and "Islands in the stream", Dolly as the cheesy lady with the big boobs and hair! youtu.be/0pRXSIfTmQI?...

I certainly have not missed LinkedIn.

You will not regret scrolling up for the rest of this thread about the sheer audacity of cats to walk into houses they don't live in and swan around like they own the place Honestly, excellent cat behaviour 💯

been quiet as it hasn't been a good week. whole team at work getting shut/offshored. 6 months notice so at least that's that. but yeah interesting times ahead.

Max Richter - Sleep

just gonna dip in and out of music challenges whenever.

#BilliesMusicMonth #MusicChallenge 12. True Love This could only be one song. Some excellent covers available, but sticking to the OG. youtu.be/UUbEf67bbrA?...

Getting my phone calls interrupted or eavesdropped on by my sister picking up the second landline phone in the house.

They keep forecasting snow for Glasgow this week but all we keep getting is 0C dreich but dry weather, where do I complain?!

Some online security system asking me for my mother's birthday - how am I supposed to remember whatever fake date I put in and it's definitely not 0101 (too easy) either.

Edinburgh has this gem:

I ventured out and although technically it's not freezing, 100% humidity is making it feel even worse. Anyway I got nice bread and came back and made brunch and warmed myself up and it's all better now.

P.U.G.S P.U.G.S P.U.G.S P.U.G.S P.U.G.S P.U.G.S P.U.G.S I think it was the disconnect between the signage and the 'art' on display that really made it special

I've been playing Sky Cards and it's been informative. Got me wondering why so many 78 seaters crisscrossing the US eg. (E175 LW my first and still only cyber card) , so I looked into and they've got weird employment laws and pilot grades and 78 seat the max for www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I can't believe I'd forgotten about this lovely curated art space in Shawlands! It was open for a few months, maybe only weeks ca. 2012.

I realised I'd not moved all old data off the very old NAS and onto the less old one, so I powered it on and did that last night, and found a few pics I'd forgotten about in the process. Very old NAS is so very old (and I'd messed with custom FW years ago) that I had to resort to FTP for transfers!

How did I nearly forget about #InternationalUnsolicitedDuckPicDay ?!

complete word salad. "Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and Expert Adviser on Delivery" Wtf does that even mean? Wtf does this "unit" (lol) do? all politicians going on and on about "delivery" should just quit and apply for a job at Evri.

advanced level bilingual - i hate writing technical emails in French, takes me much longer than in English.

#LookAndSee #MusicChallenge I Break Horses - Winter Beats youtu.be/-Sg7YkPnEYw?...

if the internet has taught me anything it's that people in Venezuela love to post vids of their parrots expressing political opinions, so it's obvious reaction vids are fake simply because they don't feature parrots. (try a search for "loro chavista" on yt)

Not sure I can think of a single fave, but some memorable videos that definitely featured on MTV. The first French vid on MTV - that went on to launch JB Mondino's career. youtu.be/e9c1ya90N2M?...

#EmojiSounds #MusicChallenge 31 - 💃 Sons & Daughters - Dance Me In (JD Twitch & The Truffle Club's Optimo mix) (2006) youtu.be/UeQYZbZw3bU?...

As the year draws to a close, I’m signing off 2025 with a magical find! An ancient amber bear. Carved some 10,000 years ago, it washed up on a beach at Fanø, Denmark, from a submerged Mesolithic settlement in the North Sea. ✨ Happy New Year all! ✨ National Museum of Denmark 📷 by me #Archaeology

Quick catchup #EmojiSounds #MusicChallenge 25 - 🧑‍🎄 Low - Blue Christmas youtu.be/jR310TSlYhs?... 26-🤢The Black Crowes - Hotel Illness youtu.be/hjihjhvaMxk?... 27-🎸Chicks On Speed - We Don't Play Guitars youtu.be/gZMwkDTONpM?... 28-🐠Wolf People - Kingfisher youtu.be/vhXBzDe4_ig?...

If you need cheering up this might do the trick - some very funny videos in there too www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

An old rasta on Argyle street surrounded by a strong smell of weed. As I walked past I cast a side glance and he was using a broken plastic fork as a cigarette holder.

Not playing "Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains." because the question is so obviously flawed.

Proud of my 10 y.o. nephew correctly asserting that Columbus didn't "discover" America despite his History coursework, because he knows better as he loves reading Asterix!

I always just ignore, except I filled one of these last week! Delivery survey - 5/5, best thing was the friendliness and professionalism of the staff at the collection point. the staff there = a good friend of my sister's!

BB always struck me as the kind of person who went all into animals because she was deeply misanthropic.

Share a great female villain Lydia Gwilt ("Armadale" by Wilkie Collins)

And he's unmistakably Orange.