On Sunday evening I was standing at a boarding gate at Aberdeen Airport, doing what I always do at boarding gates now, which is watching the crowd and waiting for my moment. British Airways board by group number. I am usually Group 2, occasionally Group 1 if …
Keir Starmer resigned as Prime Minister today. I am not sure exactly why, and that in itself tells you something about the world we are living in. The surface reasons are documented. Labour lost control of 35 councils and nearly 1,500 councillors in the 2026 local elections, …
I have an elderly aunt who lives in North Carolina. She is one of the last living connections I have to my biological father, who died when I was four years old. She sends birthday wishes on Facebook, likes photographs of family celebrations, and replies to posts …
This is the fifth in a series of articles about Aberdeen. If you have arrived here first, the earlier pieces are worth reading before this one. There is a vast hole in the middle of Aberdeen that most people know about but almost nobody has properly seen. …
A few years ago I came home from Italy with my family. It had been a wonderful trip. My parents had joined us, and although getting around hadn’t always been easy for them, they had loved every moment of it. It was the last foreign holiday we …
I was in B&Q last Saturday, standing in the grouting aisle trying to find the smallest possible amount of grout for a single tile repair. The bathroom is being replaced soon anyway, so the whole exercise felt faintly absurd. I just needed enough to fix one gap …
My son is in his second year of an Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering degree at Glasgow University. It is one of the most demanding study paths you can choose, and he chose it. I am proud of that in a way that is difficult to put into …
This bank holiday weekend was one of the warmest on record in parts of the UK. Not here, but warm enough that my wife and I walked in Hazelhead Park on Sunday afternoon. As I reached the garden that holds the Piper Alpha memorial I could see …