Wednesday, June 08, 2005

brief hiatus

Although I feel like I've been blogging forever, this is actually my first summer of it. Summers go mental in my life, so I may not be able to keep up the frequency of posts that you've become accustomed to. In the coming weeks I'll be gallivanting off around the nation far away from the reach of computers for an assortment of reasons.

Coming up there's Glastonbury, the Big Green Gathering, the G8, and for the next couple of weeks I'll be cycling around several Scottish Islands.

Jura beckons; about the size of Leeds with a population smaller than my street. And my street only has houses on one side. It also has thousands of deer, the distillery making fine whisky, and the house where Orwell wrote 1984. Recent googling has revealed you can actually stay there. I'm already daydreaming that holiday.

Before then there's Islay, rich in standing stones and the like but perhaps more alluring because my three favourite whiskies are made in the same two mile stretch of the island's south coast.

The trip starts with Arran, where there's the distillery (do you notice a theme emerging at all?), astonishing megalithic sites, and of course the Arran sweater.

Here is a picture taken by my friend Iain showing the early stages of manufacture.



May get chance to do a post before Glastonbury. If not, you'll find me down the front for Tori Amos, flat on my back toking in the sunshine for Van Morrison and Brian Wilson, dancing my legs off all night in the Lost Vagueness Diner, feeling fragile but glowing in Lunched Out Lizards cafe, and cheering in the sunrise from the stone circle.

Going to this one will mean I've been to most Glastonburies now, and wouldn't miss it for anything. As Tony Benn says;

It always amazes me that this huge city [Glastonbury] without many policemen can organise itself in a way that almost confirms one's view that there may be something in Anarchism.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wondering if you've read Iain Banks' book about the search for the perfect dram, "Raw Spirit"?

I've just been reading about the distillaries of Jura, and of How Orwell wrote 1984 there. Interesting stuff for sure.

Anonymous said...

hey mr badger

if you are up in sunny scotland for the G8 march let me know, i will also be marching!

Anonymous said...

Those both look like female sheep to me. Are they just playing?