Heart-breaker: Pram, Never Used, *Not* For Sale.

As a surprising twist on one of the shortest stories out there ("For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn") we have this heart-breaking story.  Pram, never used, *not* for sale.  I would pay a silly amount of money for this pram.  Well, if I had somewhere amazing to display it...

Tesco Find A New Pathway To Failing At Basic Maths

The strange thing is, this didn't shock me that much. Not being able to spot that £1.50 is not 25% of £8, despite such a simple check. If dividing by 4 is too hard for you, just half it and have it again - even a child can do that!

Unintentional Institutional Racism In Advertising

UKIP have had a bit of attention this week for alleged 'racist' adverts ahead of the European elections. I've only seen this one advert complaining about excessive EU salaries. That's a relatively safe opinion to voice. Just so long as they don't put the advert up next to something that can be misconstrued....! It would seem that in advertising, positioning is everything - in both senses of the word.

Update: It seems someone has posted this *after* me on Twitter and then had it picked up by Edinburgh Evening News. 

http://m.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/ukip-poster-next-to-no-poles-required-tent-ad-1-3392092

The Only Flight From Edinburgh To Edinburgh Has Been Cancelled!

Oh no! Arried at Edinburgh airport early morning to find that the 08:55 FlyBe flight from Edinburgh airport to "Edinburgh" has been cancelled! I was looking forward to the shortest flight ever! 

Co-op Against Independence And - Or Basic Geography Knowledge

Wow, never expected The Co-operative supermarket to come out with such an early pro-union message! Near the West End of Edinburgh, the Friday before the Scotland vs England 6 Nations game, in their supermarket closest to Murrayfield (depending on travel direction), the Co-op proudly promote a special offer on Coca Cola when you buy the Coventry Telegraph - a paper for a city a mere 300 miles away and in another country! I can't see what else this could be other than an anti-independence statement - surely no one could be that oblivious to put that out by mistake?

Taylor Walker's Classic Pub Food? Classic Mistake!

Sigh. Big companies are still making the same basic mistakes. How can you seriously not employ a proof reader with marketing / quality assurance that has a decent grade at GCSE English?

So Taylor Walker pubs have "classic pub food" do they? Well, as the possessive apostrophe doesn't exist in the third person generic, their follow up line must mean "at it is best!". Unsurprisingly that doesn't get my taste buds tingling, instead it gets my grammar goat up!

Tesco Ireland Have So Much Better Worse Deals Than The UK

Ahh, Tesco.  You never fail to entertain me.  So here I am in Ireland towards the end of last year, looking at coffee.  Whilst there are no multibuys to tempt me, there is always economies of scale.  For example, one 227g bag of 3 strength / flavour ground coffee is €3.05, but you can get twice that amount for err €6.49.  But if you increase the intensity of the coffee then the negative savings get even better!  4 flavour coffee is a steal at €2.39 a bag, but you'd have to be insane not (not) to buy twice that amount almost 3 times as much, just €6.99.  Good to see Tesco enforcing standards across their global stores...

(Glasgow) Evening Times - Haunting Sponsor of Celtic Connections

Have I been watching to many J-Horror films?  Because sitting in a lovely venue for the opening Saturday of the Celtic Connections music festival I naturally scanned around the room.  Unsurprisingly I saw a sponsor, the (Glasgow) Evening Times.  What is frightening is that the image they use has trailing blood from a haunting female ghostly face.  Start at her little finger coming off the end of her bow.  Just above, can you see two chilling eye sockets?  And leading down from her little finger, the definite structure of a nose, and below that a blood red mouth open - trying to communicate her warning from the other side...?  Apt choice of a violin to play the scary music...

Paint The Whole World With A Rainbow . Every Little Helps...

A lot of big downpours lately and some nice Spring sunshine means a plethora of rainbows popping up all over Edinburgh. They are almost as common as Tesco stores, but certainly far prettier to look at and feed my soul rather than my body.

Ireland Has Some Strange Traffic Rules, Perhaps From The Dark Side

Ireland has some strange rules… For example, during peak travel no more than 5 Imperial Tie Fighters allowed at one time. It seems they do as much damage as schoolchildren in corner shops!

A Sign People Are Ho-pin-g To Leave Dublin?

Oh dear… In central Dublin this sign is great to drum up business for attracting tourists in. Shame the socket and pins are the wrong way round for Ireland!  And for those who dispute that they could be advertising that for people about to travel from Ireland to Europe, nice idea but I saw the adaptors they were selling and they are the usual tourist sockets to Irish 3 pin plugs...

Best Gents Toilets sign ever! Or rather, best “Used Beer Dept.”...

Best Gents Toilets sign ever! Or rather, best “Used Beer Dept.” sign… Hugely impressed with The Porterhouse in Bray, and very grateful the sign is outside the gents and meant I didn't have to try and snap another photo inside the gents! Again!

Molson launches in Ireland today - Get it in The Bailey, Dublin

Molson launches in Ireland today, in The Bailey, central Dublin. Great Canadian lager with a crisp clean taste.  Just been in there having a few pints of it whilst they go through the press launch and have a few cool photos taken (the bar is kitted out with a moose's head and gorgeous white wolf).  Here's my entry for the competition they were running to snap a pic to celebrate their launch.  I even managed to get the compulsory bicycle in the shot (as every Irish-themed pub would have me believe).

Which Came First, The Chocolate Chicken Or The Egg?

Surely the chocolate Easter Egg has hatched and we know have chocolate Easter Chickens... But inside this chocolate chicken is a chocolate egg...! Either way, this is a great reason to eat your Easter Eggs as soon as possible else they may hatch and you'll have to feed the chicken and give it space to roam around.

Google Is Spreading The Love Of Me Underwater

A treat for everyone of Valentine's Day, for any woman, man or other.  After a brief hiatus I'm back in the top four images for "person underwater".  This sexy / questionable *(delete as appropriate) pose, which is very hard to maintain underwater with your eyes wide open, is back in the top four images when searching for person underwater, which means when you enter a normal web search through Google, it offers you me as an image you may want to see!  And who wouldn't...?  Other than those people with functioning eyes...?
#egotist or #ironic or #bitofboth

Saying White Rabbits Three Times Summons The Dark Side

On the first of the month people have a tradition of saying "white rabbits" three times.  However, just like Beetlejuice, saying "white rabbits" on any other day (like the 2nd!) summons are far darker rabbit that doesn't care that he's late.  I was going for dark, creepy, and sexy, in a Japanese-remake kind of way. Did I pull it off?  Would you follow me down a rabbit hole...?

Princess Square In Glasgow Shows Off It's (Pea-) Cocky Front

Edinburgh - I love you.  But there is something about the architecture in Glasgow that is refreshing and bold - very similar in many ways to Liverpool.  And without doubt Princess Square in Glasgow wins the award for 'Best Building Decorations Ever'!  That said (as NM pointed out), c'mon Glasgow City Council - you still have what looks like a Christmas tree up!

Getting Inspiration From The Heavens On A Crisp Morn

Pictures often say a thousand words.  In these three shots, all one thousand words are synonyms for beautiful.  I'll let you enjoy them in peace...

 

Ever Get The Feeling Buildings Are Watching You…?

They are watching us all...  And this seems to be the Queen of the Watchers, else why is 'she' wearing a tiara?  Let's hope they are watching out for us, just like the Liver Birds do in Liverpool.  On the plus side, this building can't fly away!

Is This The Birth Of A New Universe Visible To The Naked Eye?

Probably not, but "oil" let you decide... (what a awful pun next to a pretty / enigmatic picture...)