The 1982 Air Guitar Championship

As Dave mentioned in the comments on the previous post, before Guitar Hero came along, people had to make do with air guitar, and I have to say that in my teenage years I was pretty damn good at it. My first axe would have been my elder brother’s squash racket. Squash rackets make surprisingly [...]

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Dead Pets For Character Building

A few years ago in The Guardian, there was an article about whether it was a good idea or not for your children to have pets. It was probably asking questions along the lines of Will a kitten increase your child’s carbon footprint? or Can a budgie help your child’s learning development? Stuff that only [...]

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Colonel Thumper’s Cavalcade of Travel Mementos from the Caledonian Nation

After writing about the marvellous souvenirs that can be purchased when visiting Italy, it only seemed fair that I should also do a post describing the wide range of travel gifts that can be purchased in my homeland. Now, tourism of course is very important to Scotland, meaning that when there, you can be sure [...]

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English for Italians

Learning a foreign language as an adult is a pain in the arse. There, I’ve said it; I know, I should have said something along the lines of it being a fun endeavour that allows you to learn about foreign cultures and communicate with their peoples and all that, but the reality is a [...]

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Cappuccino Scozzese

In Scotland, it has to be said, we do tend to take a few liberties when marketing our country to tourists. Piles of stones in the middle of a field in Orkney turn out to have been Neolithic burial chambers all along, and quickly gain a plaque, an old norse name and a visitor’s centre. [...]

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