By the way...

lupercal and I are DJing tomorrow night at Stigmartyr, at Scrufy Murphy's.

I would maken the link thing with the flier but it's too early in the morning for that sort of thing.

Would be good to see some of you folks down there.

Bookends?

As many of you know, lupercal and I are going to Orkney next month. Usually, when going away, I plan an itinery beforehand - so I know what I'm doing when, and the best order to do things in, and when things are open etc. so I don't have to faff around when I'm there. Because lupercal has been to Orkney in the past, he wanted to do the Orkney itinerary. But, because I have a pathological obsession with planning, I planned my own *secret* itinerary, just for the fun of it, whilst being happy to stick with Simon's (probably). I've just come home and lupercal has shown me his. He couldn't understand why I was laughing so much...

( Simon's itinerary )

( Jane's itinerary )

A little knowlege is a dangerous thing.

One of the most difficult things about being vegan, is the people who try to accommodate you, but don't quite get there. Once, for example, I had to eat at least a few mouthfuls of a vegetable *thing* that had been made for me and then garneshed with a dollop of Stork margarine.

To be honest, unless you absolutely know what you're doing, I'd really rather you didn't try. I'm used to it. I can bring my own sandwiches. It's not a problem. Don't worry about it. Today, for instance, is a case in point.

I have been out for the end of year department meal, during which my head of department kindly made some presentations, most of which were bottles of wine. You know, bottles of non-vegan wine, filtered thrugh isinglass. The thing with a bottle of wine is - it's disposable, you can give it to somebody else, it doesn't matter.

Unfortunately, my head of department is savvy enough to know that the vast majority of wines, I can't drink. So instead of buying me an ultra-disposable bottle of plonk to celebrate my recent employment success, she buys me a mug...you know, something I can use every day at work, a lovely mug with a cat on it and everything...

...made out of bone china...

And...

My hair stinks of fish, because both the person next to me and opposite me had a fish thing for their starter that you think are small fish that come in a can, but aren't, and smelt very very bad. And now my clothes smell of it etc. etc, and I feel quite nausious. This is another reason I prefer not to go out and eat with people who are not vegetarian. How you people can eat something that is so grossly disgusting is beyond me, let alone the moral implications of it.