What the magpie saw…

Walking home last night from Teuchters we spied a cat stalking through the grave yard of St. Mary's Cathedral. The cat moved low to the ground, using the long grass as cover as it hunted a pigeon sitting on the ground. At first I thought the pigeon must see the cat but it turned its back on the hunter that was now less than a couple of metres from his prey.

A magpie flew into the open space and up onto the gable roof of the church. He watched the cat and the pigeon with interest. A second before the cat lunched itself at the pigeon the magpie flew down from its perch letting out a warning call allowing the pigeon to fly into the air and escape by the proverbial cat's whisker.

Is this a common reaction in birds? Do they see themselves as one species united in common cause against the cats of the world, fighting a war that stretches down through the ages? Certainly the magpie's reaction had nothing to do with its own survival as the cat had no interest in it and the magpie was perched out of reach. It also must have nothing to do with 'survival of the fittest' as far as I can tell pigeons and magpies have no dependency on each other.

Read this week:

The Book of Ballads illustrated by Charles Vess with stories by various writers.

The Missing

Finished the last re-write of 'The Missing', five minutes ago. That's it now before I print it off and hand the book over to a couple of carefully chosen readers and gain my first response to ideas that have been circulating in my mind for the last two years.

It's a strange period as I have no idea how this book will be received. Previously, I kept my readers up to date with what I was writing and would feed them tidbits as I wrote, but this time they will be entering blind. They have no idea about the themes, the setting, the characters or the intent. It will be as new to them as the first time they select a book off the shelf in a well stock library.

Now is the time I'll start to write the pitch and start researching publishers. I also want to get back to writing a few short stories before the summer project kicks off.

Disappearing Bees

Apparently all the honey bees are disappearing from the US http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6438373.stm. No one really knows why this happening but the ecological impact could be disastrous. It gets me wondering what would happen if other creatures suddenly vanished. What would happen if one day there were no birds at all? The skies bereft of any flying creatures or the seas suddenly empty of fish? Who would eat all the acorns if the squirrels vanish? And what about bacteria? Whole processes of nature would suddenly stop happening.

Read this week:

Stardust by Neil Gaiman (the novel format).

Futuristic Elves

Interesting article from Ireland http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6425333.stm

I suppose the man is either being quite crafty or is slightly disturbed. The one thing the article does not cover however, is why as a futuristic elf shaman he (she) needs a selection of bras and supender belts? Was the elf shaman attempting to seduce someone in the new underwear or does she just like to look good while on the run?

A Bit of a Moan

I've been away visiting the hidey hole in Barga, which has a beautiful new set of hand crafted windows installed, and to Florence. After coming down with a virus for the first couple of days of the holiday (aching knees and thighs - which is a strange one) I was able to spend the rest of the time recuperating in the sunshine, hidden from prying eyes by sticking to my favourite park bench in the old town. Not much had changed (which is one of the reasons I go) and I was able to catch up on reading and take a little time out from writing.

Florence was fun; though this time I found the place not as enchanting as past visits. Having done all the museums and seen most of the sights, we kept to wandering the streets and watching the tourists and locals alike, partaking of food and resting. I still like the place but it doesn't feel as dynamic as Edinburgh. It's as if the place has been preserved in aspic, handsome but dead - a city haunted by the living.

All the rest and recuperation from the holiday was however undone by the company RyanAir. I've often heard of those poor passengers left out in the cold by this company with no recourse to any customer service when things go wrong (as they will some times, through no fault of any one person) to which the boss Mr. O'Leary puts down to the fact they are a cheap carrier.

Our plane was cancelled five minutes before boarding was due to begin. Along with the passengers from three other planes we were left in departures with no clue as to why this had happened and no staff to tell us what to do. The crowd then had to push their way back to the main part of the airport, past some very confused security staff to three small windows (only two of which were manned) where we then queued to be seen by a member of RyanAir staff. To get to the front of this queue took us four hours. We were then given the choice of making our way to another airport in the hope of getting a flight, or waiting for two days in the hope of there being room on the next available flight. Not really satisfactory in any way when one of the queuing people mentioned that he had already been waiting two days for this flight. In the end we were able to get on a flight to a different UK airport late that evening where we had to stay overnight and then rent a car to drive back to Scotland. To add insult to injury it seems that the Ryan insurance we took out is worth absolutely nothing.

It seems that RyanAir have no desire to provide any kind of customer service, treating their customers with a complete disregard or any kind of respect, and I'm sorry Mr. O'Leary but it does not matter what I've paid for my ticket, if I've paid for a return I expect a return. As it is I can't wait for the start up of this website.

Read this week:

Untold Stories by Alan Bennett