On the 8th of May I invited you all to guess why I had bought some coathangers while I was in Kerala. There were some wonderful suggestions and but no-one was gross enough to fathom the correct answer.

The best incorrect suggestions were from and . Consolation beers or equivalents will be yours whenever I see you next. Meanwhile, the actual answer is here.

What is this doing on sale anywhere? Surely it’s banned, especially in Scotland?

My photos from February, March and April of this year are currently uploading to here. Constructively critical feedback would be welcome.

The Virgin train I’m on just now (17.52 from Edinburgh to Birmingham) has Fairtrade tea and coffee.

The train’s kettle is buggered so I can’t have any.

Update: The situation got sillier later when my train was delayed by an hour at Preston. An earlier train had hit a cow on the tracks. No-one thought to invite passengers to the ensuing barbeque.

Ecosse.net appears to be playing the game again. So feel free to get at me via the normal address.

I’ve had some issues with them as webhosts. Can anyone recommend a different **FREE** webhost? Or am I just plain greedy?

My ecosse.net account appears to be down and I’m unable to contact their tech support to find out how long until this is corrected.

So please contact me via My_First_Name.My_Surname@mac.com – I’ll let you all know when ecosse.net’s up again.

A phenomenon I’ve heard of before has just happened to me. A PFO email I received today said

Unfortunately it appears that you are a little too experienced for this role…

Duh, doesn’t that mean I am far and away good enough to do this job and so am an excellent candidate? Why are they annoying me and depriving themselves the chance of hiring someone who is very good at what they want? They’ve shot themselves in the foot and me in the, well, somewhere else with the same bullet. The only good thing I can see about this PFO is that they emailed it, thus avoiding delay and dead trees.

Still, other prospects are arising so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Also, compared to some things that dear friends are going through right now, I have nothing to complain about.

Yesterday I bought a four-week Lothian Buses bus pass. Nothing unremarkable in that – in fact the only remarkable thing is how long it’s taken me to get around to buying it.

I have to congratulate LB on making the process so simple. Within 5 minutes of entering their office, I emerged into Auld Reekie’s inclement climate clutching my brand-new, personalised, credit-card-sized pass.

I just wish I knew why I now appear to have a gold front tooth.

scary or what?

Also, I appear most of my grey hair seems to have reverted to a more youthful shade. Thanks for the miracle, LB!

While perusing vacancies at my local JobCentre, I saw a one that made me laugh out loud and ask the staff if the advert was a practical joke.

An organisation was looking for a GANGA PERSON and willing to pay them £14 per hour. Was this organisation intending to pay more than I had earned per hour for someone to smoke weed? Alternatively, could I get rich imitating the holiest river in Hinduism?

Unfortunately not. ‘GANGA’ was a typo for ‘GANGER’, i.e. a team leader, managing a large team of ground workers on a big civil engineering project.

I believe I provided the JC staff with some amusement on a dreich Friday in what can be an utterly thankless job.