Category Archives: Life

Moving to Glasgow

After a successful interview at the Strathclyde Law Clinic, I can announce that by the end of next week, I will have moved to Glasgow to study for a two-year accelerated LLB. During lockdown I did a lot of thinking … Continue reading

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The Last Laugh: Scotland’s 17th Century

Once again, I have been googling things like “graduate interview questions” and how to prepare for an interview in x sector. They haven’t changed much, but a refresher always helps. Some of the wildcard ones always amuse me, like “what … Continue reading

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“As a Roman arch survives the luxury of departed empire”

The title quote is taken from Arnold Bennett’s Old Wives’ Tale, an epic novel of 1908 whose essence can be distilled as the disastrous attempt of a lower middle class family to hold onto former Victorian glories while the structures … Continue reading

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On Arendt

This June has felt remarkably like the last. A lot of doing not very much and feeling guilty, anxious and restless about that. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had to jump start the car a couple of times and … Continue reading

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Money is a Memory

Last night we were talking about the tin mine at Warbeth. That and the problem geology posed to religion in the 19th century. I thought I ought to have included the mining operation in my Bronze Age spiel for the … Continue reading

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General Knowledge

It’s May. At the end of the month, we could be heading into phase one of lifting lockdown. Had it not been for Coronavirus, the tourist season would be ramping up in Orkney and I’d be fulltime Skara Brae. As … Continue reading

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Charles

Charles was the first to move in at Hermit’s Croft student accommodation that fateful Saturday in September. His buzz cut look and austere apparel was not the combination of flowing locks and trim overcoats I would become used to over … Continue reading

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Gray’s Gauntlet

“At least now there is something we all have in abundance – time” – one of the truisms of the Corona era. But time is what we’re fighting for now; the Quarry’s been brought in to buy it, to put … Continue reading

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Mid-March Musings

I am now a qualified lifeguard. Well, more accurately, I have a lifeguard qualification. I am not currently “practising” as a lifeguard, not yet being paid to guard life as it were. In my last post, I used the term … Continue reading

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Toot-toot-toot! Lifeguard going in!

The year 2020 is in and I am reaching the end of my twenty third on this planet. Will Taylor Swift ever speak to me in the same way? I think at this stage I should firmly be considered an … Continue reading

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