This afternoon on the bus a girl sat beside me wearing modest tattoos one on her wrist said Proverbs 4:23 when I asked what that was she told me it means guard your heart you know like Solomon or some other Simon says Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life I said oh ok that's nice what I meant is that it's true but I was more worried about what bad experience she had had to make her feel she needed to give warning with the passage on her wrist or whether she did it because she wanted a tattoo and wanted to warm up her parents to the idea with a view to getting more perhaps a sleeve or maybe something more delicate on the ankle or a shoulder but before I got carried away I remembered Proverbs 22:5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. and then I wondered how much into the dark side she really was had she ever ...

When apologizing for reviewing pain management options during labour and childbirth a midwife at Edinburgh's Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion said we don't normally cook the cabbage twice the midwife recommended gas and air of all the options remarking that TENS was unreliable the epidural carried the risk of crippling the woman and synthetic heroin was probably not a good thing for the baby as it was unclear what made it through the placenta of course there was also the possibility of doing the whole thing in a hot bath but gas and air was best to prepare for having the advantage of acting quickly and without detriment to the baby I never thought of the ins and outs of not cooking the cabbage twice although I did have pause when I heard someone say years later she thought her mother found her under a cabbage leaf but then I got involved with the local Ukrainians who were talking about cabbage rolls and the advantages...

If you stayed at Villa Nina Guest House in Leamington Terrace--and slept under the monkey puzzle tree, or were near enough to smell the McEwan's mash on brewing day, or went to the Edinburgh Booker cash and carry for a flat of eggs or a tin of sweets, or crossed the Bruntsfield Links (where nobody ever plays golf but some occasionally engage in medieval swordplay), or ducked under the whale's jawbone arch when exiting Middle Meadow Walk you met Dr Spiegeli. It's not that he was actually in all of those places all the time, but his sense of humour was as ubiquitous as porridge.  And to understand him you need to understand real Scottish oatmeal--not that he served it in his B&B, but his spirit was pervasive like the porridge, and his laugh was contagious and his smile wicked and bewitching and infectious.  Now it's time to remember some aspects of Dr Spegeli. Pinhead and Aga cookers and spurtle sticks When you are going to make a good Scottish porr...