Ceud Mìle Fàilte

Photography Nature Technology Food
Movies Music Politics

and life in the Highlands.

Fàilte

Thank you for dropping-by, I hope you enjoy your visit. The main content is to be found in the blog where I discuss everything and anything but topics including photography, nature, technology, food, movies, music and politics make regular appearances.

I commonly write reviews of movies (or films, if you prefer). Some movie reviews are short, others will be discussed in more detail. The scope covered will be mainly mainstream English language movies from the 1930s until the present day.

About me

My name is Iain MacDonald and I live in the Highlands of Scotland (although I have lived elsewhere in the past). I am a big fan of Free & Open Source Software which I use both professionally and at home.

Computing and technology tend to infuse themselves into my other interests, as once you learn some skills in one area it is convenient to use them to solve problems in other spheres.

When not tinkering with computers, I am likely to be found repairing things because living in the countryside you learn to be resourceful.

Of course, man doesn't live by SSH tunnels and kerosene vapour burners alone so food, as a subject, makes regular appearances too. Did I mention I used to work in hospitality?

Latest Life articles

My most recent ramblings.

  • Eurovision

    I'd like to apologise, publicly. The poor woman went for some peace and quiet, and what did she get? Two eejits rolling-up in a campervan, blaring out the Eurovision song contest. [Read more...]

  • Feeling sheepish

    I went for a walk along a forestry style track, yesterday. Ahead of me was a ewe, with two lambs. The ewe felt nervous about my approach, and started to trot away from me. The lambs were, of course, following her closely. However, the sheep didn't trot away uphill or ... [Read more...]

  • Regatta Hydrafort Matt Jacket

    I needed to buy a waterproof jacket for use when working. I also have a Gore-Tex jacket from Craghoppers, which is excellent, but I didn't want to ruin that jacket by using it for working every day. I have a few other Regatta products which are well made, so, for ... [Read more...]

  • Highland Life and the Coronavirus

    It is quite extraordinary, I've never experienced anything like it. We are now a couple of weeks away from Easter, which is normally the time when the summer tourist season starts. The roads would see increased traffic, and the tourist hotspots would start to be busy. Not this year. [Read more...]

  • New Manual Coffee Grinder

    I was without my vintage wooden Zassenhaus, so I rushed out and bought a new manual coffee grinder. The one I got is from Maison & White, and it is amazingly good. It is adjustable from very fine to coarse. Grinding is done with ceramic burrs, and the rest of ... [Read more...]

Click here to view the whole Life section.

My latest Mastodon posts

Mastodon is a microblogging app that is part of the decentralised web known as The Fediverse. See this article for more details.

Fitheach (@fitheach@mstdn.io)

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 14:17:26 +0000

On to-day's met Reggie. Reggie was a chocolate coloured Labrador/Pointer cross. Reggie is a rescue dog from Cypress.

Gruoch really liked Reggie (boy). Fitheach really liked Reggie's owner (girl).

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 14:07:34 +0000

Damn!
I'm not the only one who likes the Kooliburra Shiraz.

Media enclosure type (image/jpeg)

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 11:53:06 +0000

Coo, it is Friday again.

I'm not complaining, but, where has the week gone? For that matter where has January gone? Almost half of January behind us already.

On the bright side, the TV isn't on this morning. I think hostilities have ceased.

I hope you have a nice weekend, whether you are working or not.

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 20:37:05 +0000

I hadn't realised that was just a battle won, the war continues.

To-day, the TV was on before I arrived. It was tuned to daytime TV. Oh my dog. There must be a lot of brainless people watching this nonsense.

I was "treated" to some breakfast show (missed the name), then Countdown, and lastly some show looking at holiday properties abroad. Thankfully, at this point I was able to escape.

Mankind is doomed.

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 21:44:08 +0000

Thank goodness I recently purchased that powerbank, as otherwise I would never have managed my commitment to have Heavy Metal ALL DAY, at work. 😃

\m/

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 12:12:33 +0000

One of the great things about being a doggie person is the instant camadarie with other owners. Stopping for chats with people (and dogs) you don't know, striking up friendships with people you meet regularly, and getting waved at just because you have a dog.

It is like being part of an enormous club.