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I came across this stuff, Mather's Black Beer, which I'd never seen before, amongst the sherries and fortified wines in Morrison's supermarket today, 6th March, 2012. It's 8.5% alcohol and only £2-a-bottle, and I thought it might be just the stuff to knock me out for the night if I were to gulp down a glass of it ten minutes before bed-time. However, having sampled it, I think more than a few sips of the stuff would probably make me very ill indeed. It's extremely sweet, and looks and tastes very much like a solution of sticky black treacle. I dread to think how many calories must be in it!

Continuing progress on the large new Market Street entrance to Waverley Station, Edinburgh, viewed from North Bridge on the morning of 6th March, 2012.

I happened to look out of the window of my bus to Jewel & Esk college whilst it waited at traffic-lights on 29th February, 2012, and noticed this mobile midden in the adjacent lane. This clutter perhaps doesn't suggest a tradesman with the tidiest and most efficient of working-practices. No doubt it's a sign of the times too that no wrinkled copies of Razzle or Men Only appear to be lurking amongst the detritus!

Progress on the new Market Street entrance to Waverley Station, Edinburgh, viewed from North Bridge, 29th February, 2012.

Dave Vanian, Garrie Dreadful and Patricia Morrison at The Venue, Edinburgh, 9th December, 1997.