ooh, slight excitement; a(nother) promising-looking north-of-scotland cottage has come on the market. it's offers over 13k, which is very cheap, it's near enough to the railway to be accessible to carless visitors, it's in the right area (just south of Tain), and it sounds like it's the right size. given all of that, the 13k price tag suggests that "in need of extensive renovation" might be a slight understatement. but from the picture at least it looks like there's a roof, and i always said that that was my minimum standard...

annoyingly it doesn't have a property schedule on-line, so i have to wait for the post. but i have a good feeling about this one. who knows...

well i needed something to cheer me up. work is a real drag at the moment - too much to do, no motivation to do it.

oh yes, and alan and i won at tennis last night, 3 sets to 1, including a 6-0! up yours, ken and richard. aah, i love an understated victory.

saturday was pride scotland march and festival day in glasgow, and after all the shenanagins with people departing the committee in most public and unfortunate manners, it actually went extremely well. the volunteers who stuck it out did a brilliant job.

anyway, it rained and we left a little early and came back to edinburgh. i had my little rainbow flag which i got from castro street when i was in sf a few years ago, and it was sticking up out of the back of my little rucksack. so we went out the back way of waverley train station and there was a bunch of boys, about 16 or 17, on the steps, and as we walked past i heard lots of comments about rainbows, which i thought were just faint abuse.

then a clatter of feet behind us and two of the boys were there asking very sweetly if they could please have the flag; they had rainbow badges, but really really wanted a flag. i said they could buy one for two quid, and anyway this one came from san francisco and was special to me. then they started offering me bits of their clothing in return for it! (these were very cute boys, by the way.) tim said that they could probably get a flag in the shop under the blue moon, but they said (in really plaintive voices) "we're not old enough to get into the blue moon" - which is of course nonsense, but never mind.

and then one of them said "please, we'll do anything" and gave me one of those looks, and before i knew it i had given them the flag and they were happy as larry and skipping off down the road, and i was left thinking that that was probably a good way to end pride day.

i shall miss my little rainbow flag. i hope they are treating it well.

have you ever wanted to create your own mr man or little miss? of course you have!

go on then.

a jew, a muslim and two christians take over as hosts of TV's "Osama's wackiest home videos"...

well it's sunny in edinburgh and all is well with the world. ish. anyway, the important thing is that both of the people who are on holiday from the office this week are getting rained on as we speak. this makes me smile, in a caring and compassionate way.

got excessively drunk on saturday to say goodbye to my old flatmate tommy and his girlfriend claire who are heading off to live in derbyshire. it was a good old catch up session too with my friend liz who emigrated to new zealand a few years ago and who i hadn't seen for over a year. looking gorgeous, love!

then down to leith on sunday for a fabulous lunch at the Waterfront to celebrate helen's birthday - i think we had every kind of seafood imaginable around the table, and it being the leith jazz festival weekend we had live jazz right outside as well. very relaxing and altogether indulgent. but one really must take advantage of such occasions.

and today my eldest brother turns 37. cripes.

not much happenin' round here for a while, eh? well, i've not known what to say really. i saw on the telly this morning that everyone in the country (i think they meant england) is meant to be happier than they've been for ages, because of the queen, the football and the boxing. funny how imminent nuclear war in kashmir isn't dampening anyone's spirits...

anyway, i'm having a slightly less melancholic evening this evening, but even so i thought i'd share with you a drop of rufus, who really is singing me softly with his song:

every kind of love, or at least
my kind of love
must be an imaginary love to start with
guess that can explain the rain,
waiting walking game
schubert broke my brain to start with

hoped to look at you in a cab
back of your head across my lap
oh what grace, green back seat against the
red of your face
hoped to look at you in any old grand hotel
drunken demands gave way to reservations
oh what a room, champagne brings such happy faces, happy faces

'cos every kind of love, or at least
my kind of love
must be an imaginary love to start with
guess that can explain the rain,
waiting walking game
schubert broke my brain to start with

rufus wainwright