It’s been a weekend of big talks for me, as I opted out of what little mischief you can get up to in Cambridge of a Saturday night…
Monday morning and for the younger members of my university a chance to reflect upon a hectic and undoubtedly fun-filled Freshers’ week…
As autumn encroached, my time at Morhamburn drew to a close. Sitting in the slowly emptying office, watching the sun burn lower and lower over Arthur’s Seat, I contemplated the past month. I had learnt some valuable life lessons…
“Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art–
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite”
All is transient, nothing lasts forever. I’ve been visiting the National Library of Scotland after work to make some much needed progress on an imminently due university dissertation. Wandering alone through …
“Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.”
Believe it or not, attending First Ministers Questions was probably not the most outlandish thing I had done all summer. In fact, I had herded and milked cows. I …
“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star’d at the Pacific — and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien”
Of course, it is all very well being inspired by something, …
The birth of a nation, a First Minister resigning, “a Taxi for MacLetchie,” financial ignominy, collapsing roofs, “fire-raising peers,” electoral fiasco…independence?
10 years on from devolution political journalists and picture editors scramble to assemble to the right mix of sensationalist clichés iconic images and wild speculation to commemorate this ‘historic event,’ before clocking off for the …
“What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to Escape?
What pipes and timbrel? What wild ecstasy?”
Scottish politics. As seductive, ephemeral and mesmeric as this magical scene described by Keats. It follows its own hypnotic rhythm that is often difficult to follow. Even 24 hour news, BBC Parliament and the rafts …