"An Edinburgh summer is usually a skittery, lying, drunk, untrustworthy foe - her legs are always spread - elsewhere. She is elusive and unreliable, a total fucking pisshead. The next day (for months) she pretends she's still far to poorly to make an appearance."
Ditto Aberdeen. That’ll do even though there are many more great quotes from this book.
"Every year around March, or sometimes April, there is a fear that spring may not come at all"
Ties in nicely with the next one.
"They turn toward each other and kiss for the the longest time - atoms and particles, words not better than feelings. In their kiss for just a moment there is no yesterday and no tomorrow - no fear, no pain. Cosmic rays shower secondary particles soundlessly all over the world."
Really rather beautiful.
""Is it crazy to love someone you've only spent seven days with in person?" "No, it's crazy to love someone when you've known them for years""
Can’t really comment on this without getting myself in trouble.
"Dad would like me to find a nice husband and have children. It is quaint. My aspirations are ... different. Why not become a deadly killing machine?"
"Killing is a good vocation for me. I know it's not socially acceptable, but nobody can say it won't be useful right now."
A few quotes coming up from this. This would make a great film - it would make no sense, but would be entertaining.
I am really enjoying Cantilever. I really lucked out and I think the first new album when I signed up was Shaking Hand’s debut, available a full two weeks earlier on Cantilever than its normal release - the Up the Ante(lope) track is fantastic. Since then the only other 2026 release (it is only the start of February though) has been Dry Cleaning’s Secret Love. The rest has been quite a mix of dates (and genres - excellent). A lot from 2025 and some as early as 2003. Interestingly, although only two have been “new new” nearly all the rest have been “new” to me because they just passed by me in recent years. So technically Cantilever is working for me as a new music fix. It’s exciting seeing what new album is going to be added and at the same time getting as many listens in to an album you like before it leaves.
In addition to Cantilever, as just mentioned, in an effort to keep a “new new” music fix I’ve also been listening to Rapal and BBC Introducing in Scotland via BBC Sounds. I was going to try to keep up with 6music’s New Music Fix as well, but I can’t commit to listening to that volume of output since it’s on every day (a weekly show, fair enough) and quite often we are eating tea when it’s on on the radio anyway so I listen to it that way. I have been wondering, since I’m still paying for Spotify (family plan), whether it’s just daft that I’ve not used Spotify at all in January, but then again I’ve paid my TV License for years and never listened to Rapal nor BBC Introducing in Scotland (more fool me).
However, there’s still stuff on my radar that I want to listen to. These releases so far this year:
The first three of these are available on Bandcamp so I can avoid Spotify that way, but is streaming for free on Bandcamp actually any better than listening on Spotify? Not really is it? If I buy them, then sure. But that’s if. I don’t really feel comfortable any more “owning” electronic media as I don’t trust companies won’t just pull the files or in my ability to store all the files long-term. I think I’d prefer to purchase physical media, but the number of CDs and tapes that I lost during our last house move makes me upset to go down that route again. I’d love to get into vinyl again, maybe just starting with my albums of year for the last few years, but it’s unfortunately not very practical at the moment. Still thinking about what to do here - I don’t have a good solution yet.
I am keeping a list of everything I’ve listened to on Cantilever, but I’ll probably publish this at the end of the year.
Since I stopped using Duolingo how have things gone?
For Italian I started reading I Giorni Dell’Abbandono - it has taken me a whole month to read one chapter. To be fair I’ve been quite busy, but it is legitimately slow going. I’m probably at toddler level Italian and should be reading kids’ books as opposed to a proper novel. I tend to read it sentence by sentence with the English version open at the same time but only looking at that as a last resort after the first resort of using Google Translate - there are lots of words and/or forms of words I don’t know! It is interesting (I suppose obviously) how much is not a literal translation and some short parts of sentences don’t even exist in the Italian version, but I guess sound better that way in English. E.g this in the English version:
I roused myself only when I heard the sound of a car parking in the little square of our building.
vs this in the Italian:
Mi riscossi solo quando sentii il rumore di un’auto che parcheggiava.
No mention of “in the little square of our building”, but it would sound odd without that in English.
For Scottish Gaelic I’ve started listening to the SpeakGaelic podcast on BBC Sounds. I should have started years ago, at the same time I did Duolingo, but who has time for these things? It’s interesting just listening and not seeing the words at all - fortunately/amazingly all that time on Duolingo has rubbed off a bit as for some words I can hear them and then see the word in my head and know how it’s spelt (sounding nothing like it’s spelt). I’m trying to do a minimum of one episode a week as I think I can fit that in. That means there is enough to keep me going for well over a year.
For a bit more fun (and linked to changing up how I’m listening to music this year) I’m also listening to Rapal on Radio Nan Gàidheal. I don’t understand it, but I keep hearing the same phrases, so hopefully eventually I’ll figure it out. It’s a new music show and argueably more exciting and interesting than BBC Introducing in Scotland (which I’m also listening to, but that’s a different post).
Starting the year as I mean not to go on.
Younger M got me a year of Super Duolingo for Christmas 2024 and that meant I finally managed to complete Scottish Gaelic mid last year. Since then I’ve been spending a fair bit of time learning Norwegian (just because of Hjem til Jul), but there is literally no point in this - I’m not going to Norway any time soon. Since I’ve completed Italian and Scottish Gaelic, which is all I really wanted to do, I’ve decided to take a break from Duolingo and explore other ways of learning: I might try to read an Italian Novel and might try to listening to Scottish Gaelic audio; I’m certainly not getting any better at either by doing the Daily Refresh sections on Duolingo.
I was going to let yesterday be my final day of Duolingo, but then I realised if I did today that is just over a six and a quarter year streak (as opposed to just under) so I thought I might as well do one last lesson.
All in all, in addition to completing Italian and Scottish Gaelic, I completed up to the end of Section 2 Unit 24 of Norwegian, Section 2 of French, and Section 2 Unit 7 of Polish.
Making it five years in a row. This year’s list is the most excessive of all: Over nine hours of music. And I’ve probably forgotten to add some tracks I’ve called out in my quarterly album round-ups. There has been a ridiculous amount of good music again this year.
I have absolutely loved doing this, although my self-imposed (soft) rule of “only listening to music that has been released this year” is perhaps a tad restrictive. As has been trying to keep up with The Line of Best Fit’s New Music Discovery playlist every week (found some great artists though!). So next year I’m going to try something different. Spotify is just a bit shitty. Unfortunately I can’t get rid of it because of paying for a family plan, but for my personal use next year I’m going to give Cantilever a whirl instead. And as mentioned in that post, I’m hoping it fulfils my new music fix, but “more slowly”. I know I’m going to miss some great artists and songs as a result, but that is always the case anyway.
The downside of this though is just how great Spotify Connect and the Rust ecosystem support is. It’s just soooo ace to be able to run spotifyd on my laptop and control what’s playing from my phone or use ncspot for a full terminal experience. Maybe I can figure out an alternative that works with Cantilever?
These are the ten most recent posts, for older posts see the Archive.