Dear's Way

My course in Post-war Recovery Studies started today. The students come from Turkey, UK, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Ivory Coast, China, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Italy and the USA -so obviously the banter is currently bizarre to say the least.
We all went out for dinner on Friday night which was good- but there is something innately surreal when you start talking about lager and the guy next to you says that he, ordinarily, has to hide his from the Taliban. I feel ridculously privilaged to be sat beside people with such incredible life experience, its going to be quite a mental year. The work load is extreme but I'm really fired up for it. It looks like we will be heading out to Lebanon in December.
The rest of York, including flat and flatmates is sweet. Everything seems very green and pure compared to Glasgow but then, perhaps, that can be explained by Bijan's absence -the harbringer of all things sordid.

Chloe and I found about thirty fly agaric (toadstools) this weekend in the Morton Lochs. They are so beautiful! Yet so toxic.

Apparently the Vikings used to feed them to their reindeer, the beast would neutralise the toxins so that the cheerful scando could reap the war-like shroomy benefits, with none of the stomach crunching side effects. Very clever. It seems a pity that my brother doesn't own a reindeer, thus in order to enjoy the Barmecidal halucinations he had to endure the chronic vomitousness too.

Apperently the forest holds all kinds of fungal delicacies. I may have to get my own pig and make my fortune rooting around for chanterelles and truffles.

...dirty house, sleazy techno, whoreish disco, thumping rock, pumping homo-electro and all manner of trashy beats and eschewed bleeps for your aural pleasure...ah the modern times...

My first proper dance for a long time. It felt amazing. The Riverside Club is brilliant, an old school dance hall down beside the Clyde with tartan trim, a disco ball and an accordion stuck to the wall. It got so hot towards the close that the only folk who remained sensible were the men in bikinis.
Notes for the evening: Elaborate eye make-up can and should be worn by everyone. Clubs that have tables around the edge are wise. Hair that stands more than 30cm above the forhead is advisable. Eclectosexual is an irritating but useful term.

The Tay is teeming with dolphins this summer. It feels like Florida...with jumpers. They seem to have swum down from the Moray Firth and are spending most of there time fishing for bass, attracting birds and crowd pleasing.
I can see them from my window and from the end of Tayport harbour they frolic but a few metres from the crowd. It's really amazing, they are very beautiful and very immodest.
I saw an Artic Tern today and a couple of days ago (when drunk) I picked up a hedgehog. I named him Umberto-og. Unfortunatly I let him go -hopefully I can find him again and put him in the garden to eat the slugs. This all seems very David Bellamy (without the bollocks) -but actually my motives may be more sinister. I want to watch Umbe-og locked in mortal combat with Toby-tot. Toby is my psychotic tortoise.

"There was very little news in the village, on account of the weather. The shop was as quiet as a mousehole all morning and afternoon"
George Mackay Brown, from Greenvoe

...but the rain did not raineth every day, in fact we had some absolutely stunning weather. Orkney can appear flat and grey but the slightest hint of sun and the place just explodes with beauty, everything seems so clean and raw -the sea, the sky, the air, the birds. The birds.

I spent my birthday in Stromness, we camped on a little hillock with a stunning view over the water to Hoy and defying reports of force eights and water-loggings, it was warm, dry and still as a mill pond. We spoke to an 84 year old Orcadian sailor with sparkling blue eyes, who told us in his lilting accent, stop-ping in the mid-dle of words, about "the sun-ken Nazi ships of Sca-pa flow" All the people we met were very friendly. Later, we got pissed on Northern Light and Highland Park and played on an incredible flat, two player space invaders machine. I spoke to at least four cats as I swayed home through the winding, cobbled streets. In short, one of my most perfect birthdays.

The Standing Stones of Steness and Skara Brae: 5000 year old neolithic villages and paganist ritual sites are interesting. Yes they are.

Woodwick House: Chloe got me a night is a lovely hotel for my birthday. It was set in a twelve acre bluebell wood, it had its own wee bit of coast, a burn, a doocot, great food, a whiskey menu, a german lesbian hostess and a white cat. Hello.

Bis Geos: This is one of the best hostels in the world. It looks out over the north-western cliffs of the island of Westray. It is an eco-lodge and has an amazing conservatory that looks out over the sea -I could watch for weeks. The sea cliffs are teeming with birds; fulmar, razorbill, kittiwake (not tittywank as one of our party would have you believe) shag, guillemot, puffins and gannets. Crab and Lobster is cheap. You can watch the northern lights in winter. I want to take everyone I know.

Orkney is good.