Coffee and company.

What a country.

Trump Spends Entire U.K. Trip Trying To Figure Out Where He Knows Prince Andrew From

Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell. Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass. That, right there, is the problem.

When it comes to the rumours regarding current US politics, I just can't stop thinking of the JG Ballard short story 'The Secret History of World War 3' and the Lou Reed song, 'Sick of You'.

August books... or rather, more or less august books. Some escapist, some informative, some enjoyable, some very necessary.

Business idea: a cheese takeaway. For when you are too many glasses of wine in and you want cheese.

We have several parties now not just 2. We MUST HEAR from the others. The broadcast media are allowing ONE to set the agenda. It’s not a science @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social @itvnews.bsky.social @skynewsrss.bsky.social You CAN decide to look at LD, GRN etc too. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

Mild evening again but dark now it's late August; sat outside. Pleasant woodsmoke from a neighbours crackling firepit. No animal snufflings from the garden nor distant owl hoots. Cleaned boots and a whisky for dad, two years gone.

Fucking awesome. With a few blasts of red spray paint you can turn the English flag into the Dead Kennedys logo As the band said: Nazi punks, fuck off!

Frame: 02399

Sometimes, rarely, my dreams come from close to the surface of reality; last night was one such night. Off to revise the (M)ETHANE acronym now.

How To Become A Roadie In 6 Easy Steps: 1. 2. 1. 2. 1. 2.

Elon Musk’s Grok AI accuses Farage of spreading fake news over ‘migrant invasion’ video www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/elo...

ONE BIG WIFE

The war in Gaza has killed 186 journalists as of Aug 11, 2025. This is the highest number ever recorded in any war. 🚨 It is more than the total journalists killed in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, the Yugoslav Wars, and Afghanistan combined. ⚖️📸💔 #HumanRights #PressFreedom

@gralefrit.bsky.social You have to see these! A friend of mine has been collating a series of images entitled "Things my students have written turned into Philomena Cunk quotes" and they're just glorious.

Norwich: a city of flint-filled walls. Rude not to go visit Sir Thomas Browne; harder to get a picture of his statue without a seagull perched on his head. What words would he have had for our modern age? What would he have made of his own tomb?

Meanwhile, the coverup continues, and let's just say it bluntly: the panic in the White House suggests that Trump is a child rapist or that something else extremely compromising is in those files and that history.

Happy 45th birthday to David Bowie's Ashes To Ashes, released on this day in 1980 youtu.be/HyMm4rJemtI

The July read book pile, caught out in the garden where much has been read of late. Some old favourites - authors and books - and some new ones, too. @stonelands.bsky.social is a stand-out for the megalithic accounts & emotional honesty; always a joy to read Lister-Kaye. And the brothers Reid...

TERRIBLE JOKE OF THE DAY™️ I got sick while staying at a small hotel in Spain. The front desk sent up a doctor, & after he gave me some very effective medicine, I said I was surprised that such a small establishment had a doctor on call. "Yes," he said. "No one expects the Spanish inn physician."

Sat in the garden, reading. Lot of cheering going on hereabouts...

Love moments like this. Public Enemy meets Mavis Staples ❤️

YES YES YES

Do I even HAVE enough opinions for this?

For one of the delicious things about folklore is the promise that it makes to us that just beyond the gate to the meadow, just beyond the first trees of the wood, lives wonder. For folklore is never less than an enrichment of inner lives. – Dr. M. Benn #Folklore

Preston: within earshot of the Japanese Garden waterfall, Avenham Park. I'm seeing damselflies, a dragonfly; my eye and attention are aligned. I realise the secret to watching them is to stop looking & start seeing. Swifts & swallows swoop low follow the bowlcurve of the lawn.

Ozzy Osbourne visited my magic shop. He said he'd like to buy some stink bombs. How many? All of them. I had to go through drawers finding every last one. He bought 900 of them. To sign the credit card slip I handed him a shock pen, which he thought was hilarious and bought that too. RIP

Evening, garden. There are two skies: bird sky of slow pigeons, doves, blackbirds. And swift sky; banking, veering, g-force inducing. One, then three then eight, high banking and scream, screams. Tunnelling air low behind houses then fired out, fast and swerve and gone. Return, flown.

We live in the Long Neolithic. Its shadow falls across our landscape, falls across our inner space. When portal tombs topple, we restore to balance, not only as an act of reverence to the long dead, but because even after 5,000 years the stones speak to our now. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday

‘Art is the pact of individuals denying society the last word.’ Nice way of looking at it.

The June book pile; on reflection, that's quite a heavy month given the presence of some of those books, not a lot of lightness there. Thanks to @geoffprad1.bsky.social for the loan of one of them; others may be available to good homes if you ask quickly enough.

While it's disappointing to hear that Rod Stewart supports divisive gobshite Nigel Farage, it's very good of him to announce it just in time to be told to fuck off by 200,000 people at Glastonbury.

In the garden, late night, with the moths. I've not worked a night shift for a year now, but the sky's not entirely dark, and I miss that.

I am slowly adapting to new reading glasses. I suspect the real test comes at work tomorrow.

“Your #thoughts will wander. It’s inevitable. But that’s not a sign of #failure ..If you have to #LetGo and begin again seven billion times in those few minutes, it’s fine. That’s the #skill we’re developing.": buff.ly/uB9Kv2t from @theguardian.com #MindfulnessMeditation

If you see this, I invite you to post a picture from your device without explanation,

Today's charter made me wonder if my grandad ever worked on any of these coaches in his dining car days. A coach was called 'Balmoral', part of his final addres. As it left, I saw the diesel loco was named 'Scarborough Castle'; my grandparents lived in the town. Connections.

Michelle Mone has admitted that she lied to the media over her links to a PPE firm. Enough is enough, it's time those in power put an end to this sordid affair. Sign the petition now and demand Mone is expelled from the House of Lords: act.38degrees.org.uk/act/expel-Mo...

Bluesky is dying...to meet you! Come on over everyone!

An interesting read on reading interestingly. jmarriott.substack.com/p/how-i-read...

Beg, borrow or just plain run to try and get to see #RemainInLight with Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew. It ain't no Mudd Club, it ain't no CBGBs, just but it's probably the best night out you could imagine I'd you're a Talking Heads fan.

Have you checked in on your Conservative family members lately? Especially the ones you argued with at Christmas? Perhaps today would be a great day to, you know, check in.

"Morning, Jim!" "Hey, Tom."

Shouting at my radio again! 6music news 8.30pm tonight had a soundbite from Tony Smith lamenting that we stopped the Rewanda plan! We need to stop this BBC bias petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70... #bbcbias

May book pile: two rereads (well... sixth time for the Sebald) two I'll venture into again. Alexei Sayle's childhood autobiography was deeply amusing and intriguing - he must have come across my grandad once or twice! And 'The Ministry of Time' is both inventive and (...ahem) ...timely.

Who among us, etc. etc.