Category Archives: Life

Fairy cows and ferry nous

Posted on 30/11/2025 by alasdairflett

My first drive onto a ferry was not in Orkney but at Kennacraig. We were taking the boat to Port Askaig in Islay where we would be staying for three nights on a last gasp long weekend before the close … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience | Tagged 1984, adventure, bog, Carraig Fhada, dog, Europe, Finlaggan, George Orwell, Islay, Jura, life, Literature, Machair Bay, nature, Scotland, the paps, travel, whisky | Leave a comment

Admitted and discharged

Posted on 20/09/2025 by alasdairflett

A historic week for the family Flett (the one commencing 8 September). It started with the 30th anniversary of my parents on Tuesday, was sandwiched with my qualification as a solicitor on Thursday and ended with the birth of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience | Tagged birth, family, Law, life, running, Scotland, solicitor, uncle | Leave a comment

Excursion sur les Côtes de Normandie, en Bretagne et à l’Île de Jersey

Posted on 02/06/2025 by alasdairflett

On the flight out, I had a window seat and could peer down at the port of Southampton and the Isle of Wight—the end goal of my August 2023 trek along the English leg of the Camino de Santiago from … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience | Tagged Bayeux, Brittany, Europe, France, French, history, Jersey, life, Mont St Michel, Normandy, St Helier, travel | Leave a comment

An update: professional and personal

Posted on 05/05/2025 by alasdairflett

Time for an update. Professional and personal. I learnt in March that I am being kept on at the firm I’m working for after the end of the traineeship. That means that from September I will, at last, be able … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience | Tagged Alliance Francaise, blog, career, France, francophilia, French, languages, life, teaching, travel, update, walking, writing | Leave a comment

Musical highlights: 2024

Posted on 22/12/2024 by alasdairflett

I can sign court documents in my own name now, have people swear oaths before me and (technically) represent you in a solemn criminal trial in front of a sheriff. What that is to say is that I am now … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Music, Personal experience, Review | Tagged 2024, Alvvays, Beach Fossils, brat, Charli XCX, Charlie XCX, Clairo, Drahla, Geordie Greep, Honeyblood, Khruangbin, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Lemon Twigs, life, Magdelena Bay, MGMT, Mount Kimbie, music, Nilufer Yanya, pop, Review, Say She She, Ty Segall | Leave a comment

Substance as well as ethereality

Posted on 01/12/2024 by alasdairflett

York York historically claimed authority over Glasgow as an archbishopric, but the Pope dissented, naming the city a special daughter of the Church. No intercessor needed between us and Rome. It began on a frosty Thursday morning. On the train … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience | Tagged cathedral, Cuddy, Durham, Durham Cathedral, England, Gothic, history, life, Norman, Ouse, Romanesque, sanctuary, Shambles, St Cuthbert, St Cuthbert's Way, St Magnus, travel, Wear, Wolf Hall, York, York Minster | Leave a comment

The adders and slowworms of this morning’s breakfast table

Posted on 20/10/2024 by alasdairflett

Tuesday Escape is my aim but my nostrils root me in greater Glasgow when two friends embark at Dalmuir harbouring a sharp scent of cannabis in the folds of their clothes, unfurling as they rise or shuffle in their seats. … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience | Tagged Arnold Bennett, Autumnwatch, Calgary, Calmac, Celtic cross, Celtic crucifix, Christianity, cycling, Eas Fors, Fionnphort, history, Iona Abbey, isle-of-mull, life, Literature, Mull, nature, Scotland, St Columba, St John's Cross, St Martin's Cross, The Waves, Tobermory, travel, Ulva, Virginia Woolf, wildlife | Leave a comment

The Wexford-Pembrokeshire Way or a Hiberno-Welsh Odyssey

Posted on 01/06/2024 by alasdairflett

These are trying times indeed. I’ve been watching connected criminal proceedings at the Glasgow Sheriff Court as part of my job as a trainee civil litigation solicitor. On the third day observing I had cycled back down to Carlton Place … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience | Tagged Dublin, Fishguard, Holyhead, Ireland, life, Normans, Our Lady's Island, Pembrokeshire, pilgrimage, St Davids, St Magnus, Wales, walking, Wexford, Zola | Leave a comment

From the new petty bourgeoisie to the PMC: a review of Dan Evans’ ‘A Nation of Shopkeepers’

Posted on 21/04/2024 by alasdairflett

According to Dan Evans, I am a member of an emergent social class he calls the new petty bourgeoisie. Evans’s thesis is that the new petty bourgeoisie has been the driving force in left politics and populism over the past … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Personal experience, Politics, Review | Tagged aspiration, Corbynism, Dan Evans, graduates, ideology, life, Marxism, Nation of Shopkeepers, petty bourgeoisie, PMC, proletariat, Review, self-employment, socialisation, socialism, University | 1 Comment

On a Central European vibe

Posted on 10/03/2024 by alasdairflett

I am nearing the end of a beginner’s course in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I decided to try it after watching many Breathe and Flow yoga videos on YouTube where the guy (Florian) frequently mentions how his yoga practice feeds into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Review | Tagged All of Us Strangers, Austria-Hungary, bjj, brazilian-jiu-jitsu, cathedral, Central Europe, film, fitness, Glasgow, Good Solider Svek, jiu-jitsu, life, Literature, martial-arts, Review, Sandra Huller, work, yoga, Zone of Interest | 1 Comment