There is nowhere on earth like the Isle of Skye. I’m back up at the north end of Skye, in a little village called Staffin, where the organisation I work for has a magnificent custom-built building, just stunning. It’s pelting down with rain outside, but I can still see out to Staffin Bay out one of the windows. We’re so far north here, it stays in twilight until after midnight, and starts getting light again at about 3am.

The other night, we were heading back to the centre after a couple of hours down at the beach, it was about 10.30 and the sun was just setting, flooding the Skye sky with all sorts of revoltingly pretty colours. And you know, this is not a very rare sight up here, and I’ve even seen better ones where the whole bay (just visible in this photo) is lit up in oranges and pinks…

*sigh*

Cause everyone loves a kitteh-whore!

So I was walking home from work today, and again I passed by Moglet in the street. He saw me, tail went up, and OMG! I love it when cats raise their heads in anticipation of the stroke they just KNOW is coming! Moglet is a wonderful, gorgeous kitteh, and as I just happened to have my camera with me, I thought that Moglet and I should have a little photo shoot.

Now, I don’t know if anyone knows much about the LolCats phenomenon (see the Wikipedia article) but one of my favorite sites to check every day is “I Can Has Cheezburger?” It’s all just ridiculously cute photos of mostly cats, with captions to make them cuter and funnier. Often the captions are some indication of what said cat is saying.

Sounds a little sad, but for a sad catless person like me, it’s definitely a wonderful start to any day.

Anyhoo, it means that I can no longer post pictures of cats without giving them captions. Just so you know. Mmmkay?

K, that’s all.

Oh, and I met Moglet’s familiar, a lovely lady called J. I gushed for probably longer than was appropriate about how cute I thought her master was, and told her that if she wanted someone to feed and look after Moglet and his brother Fatso while she was gone, I was just around the corner and embarrasingly keen to help. I then handed over my number, with further supplications for her to allow me to look after her pet…

How embarrassment.

It’s all in fun until someone loses several hours work and their sanity…

It all started when I decided that I needed to clean my keyboard. It was SERIOUSLY dirty. Dust and grime and crumbs from sandwiches past, eaten hastily at my desk during a rushed lunch break on a deadline. Tiny shards of sunflower seeds somehow getting through the cracks of the keys. The odd stray hair. All KINDS of gunk that just makes you shudder, the kinds of gunk you don’t even REALISE are lurking beneath the keys of your keyboard.

But in order to REALLY clean a keyboard, you need to clean under them. And to clean under them, you need to remove them.

And this gave me an idea.

Simon (of-the-Flying-Sea-Bass) went out to a meeting but left his computer at his desk. Simon’s a relatively fast typer, but relies more on sight than Nicky or I – looking at the keyboard actually slows us down… But Simon has to look at the keyboard to type anything.

My Mischief rose in me, forced me to do it. I had no choice, but to slyly switch over two of the keys on Simon’s laptop, the J and the F. Not too much switching, cause that might actually take too much time to put right.

It didn’t take long on his return for him to start swearing at his computer, and I’m a TERRIBLE prankster. I was giggling almost before his fingers hit the keyboard.

So that joke was over almost before it had begun, but it still got me giggling, for all it was a childish prank.

But his revenge was more sophisticated, and I give him props for that. Every time I tried to type “and”, it invariable came out as “amd”. I thought I was just off on my typing, till I slowed down a bit and realised what was going on – he’d changed my autocorrect in MS Word. He’d headed home by that point, so I sent him a text giving him the aforementioned props, and he sent one back saying, “have you tried typing ‘nice’ yet?”

I had to laugh at what came next – type “nice” into a word document, and it changes to “smelly”. Nice one, Simon.

I am now taking submissions as to how to get back at him, cause folks, it’s Game On time…

Oh, and I just noticed that he switched over the [ and ] keys… definitely time for PrankWar 2007.

I miss cats!

Some of you have heard about how much I’ve been suffering through Cat Withdrawal over the past 2 years (my god, it HAS almost been 2 years since I arrived here in the UK!!). I’ve NEVER lived for more than 2 months without a cat, and that was the two months before I obtained the inimitable Mushuk – you all remember Mushuk, don’t you?

Aaaaanyway, living without a cat has been hard. Very hard. To the point where even a picture of a cat is enough to make me coo, and when I see one in the street, even if I’m running very late for work, I still need to stop and commune with it. I’ve recently become quite cozy with a rather handsome black gent called Moglet (or so says his collar) who lives in one of the houses around 100 Cumberland Street. Moglet lets me pick him up and pet him, and it’s just SO gratifying to make “tsking” noises at him when I see him, and to see his magnificently long tail go up in the air in greeting as he pads over to me.

At work today, Simon-of-the-Flying-Sea-Bass showed us this gorgeous video for a data systems company. You really must watch, it made me laugh so!

I’ve been thinking about how I can solve my cat-less-ness… I’m afraid the only option would be finding a new flat where pets (other than goldfish) are permitted, but I love – REALLY LOVE – the flat I’m in now. Gill is a wonderful flatmate, the flat is absolutely immaculate, aside from perhaps my bedroom. Greig was teasing me just the other night, he said “so did you call the police about the burglary in your room?” It’s not quite up to the muckiness of my YouTube video, but it’s not as immaculate as the rest of the flat…

But that’s beside the point. I love this flat. Only thing this flat doesn’t have is a cat – but if you know me, you know what an issue that is for me.

*sigh*

So MySpace is good for something after all…

It’s tough, y’know, not living in the same country as the rest of the guys in your band – it means that even though you recorded your parts for an album late last year, you still don’t get to hear the finished product until just before the rest the world does. But the wait is over, my friends, and I have been in suspense for as long as you have!

Yes, dear friends and readers, we are proud to announce a sneak peek of the new Mark Saul Band album, due for release in Oct 2007. Mark has posted two new tracks on his MySpace page, which you can visit by clicking here. The new tracks are called Love the Technology and Surrender the Booty, and the tracks are even available for full-quality download.

Pull em out, share em around! It’s gonna be a ripper of an album!

Incredible footage of a battle between buffalo, lions and crocodiles in the Kruger National Park.

I swear, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life – just mind blowing. It’s a long vid, but keep watching, just keep watching right till the end, cause even the most stoney hearted would be moved by the bravery of that herd of buffalo!