Holy crap, Batman! or "Why I am suspicious of colonics"

I've just been reading this fantastic Guardian article by Ben Goldacre. It's quite specific in its discussion of one particular individual but summarises quite nicely my suspicions of all new-age health fads.

... that's exactly why you do scientific research, to check your assumptions. Otherwise it wouldn't be called "science", it would be called "assuming", or "guessing", or "making it up as you go along".

Don't get me wrong, I have watched and enjoyed "You Are What you Eat", but for it's enjoyably sensationalist cruelty, certainly not it's nutritional advice. (I find myself laughing out loud at the table full of bad food, the shocked expressions on the unhealthily-skinny one's face, the reactions to the poo...). And, there's nothing wrong with some of the advice; eat more fruit and veg and less fried food, drink less, take more exercise etc.

Next time you're in a bookshop, pick up (and I don't mean "buy") a copy of the book, and look for the hilariously touched-up photo of the author - she is almost unrecognisable. This vanity, coupled with the fact that she is married to a lawyer who writes threatening letters to people who publicly disagree with her, must ring alarm bells with most free-minded individuals.

All this got me thinking of a conversation I had with a work colleague last week, where she mentioned that most of the people she knew had regular colonics. She reported that it made her feel better, rejuvenated, fresher.

Well... so can a really big poo!

I wish I was a poet...

If I was, I'd write a poem about this story :

Italy mystery of prehistoric hug

I think it's a nice touch for them to be found just outside Verona, adopted home to Romeo and Juliet!

Glasgow Casino and Story Spam

Last night I dreamt that I read a junk email and discovered it was an episode of a wonderful story, half-way through, and I wanted to know what happened next. It also referred to things that were told on previous emails that I had deleted...

Another bit of my dream involved going shopping in Glasgow and discovering that the whole city had been converted into one big slot gallery above the M8; I was endlessly trying to find the "down" route to the shops on the level below.

Galtway Gallavanting

Today we went to search for Rock Art near Kirkudbright, saying hello to High Banks and exploring the area to the south, known as Galtway.

It started as a bright day but later the hazy mist moved in.

Humber Bridge

I do a lot of travelling with my job, sometimes it's crap but the compensation is access to places I otherwise wouldn't go very often.

One such example is Hull; I wouldn't go there unless I had to - although I've been there a few times because of cheap childhood holidays to visit family who lived here. I know the area reasonably well and made sure I drove back past the Humber Bridge.

It was a lovely clear evening and although I had a Friday- night, 3.5-hour journey ahead of me I stopped at Hessle to take some shots.

The last one is a re-creation of one I took when I was about 13!

A708, Yarrow and Ettrick

Last weekend we took a trip up the A708, returning through the Ettrick valley. The weather was grey and cold, and we were both still recovering from winter illnesses (that's our excuse!) so a nice drive in the car was chosen as our outing for the day.

The A708 is one of my favourite roads; not by frequency because I've only been on it about 4 times; but because that normal-looking yellow line on the map hides the truth that it is a road with landscapes of epic proportions.

We travelled up the M74 and came off at Moffat (we'll have to spend more time there one day) and onwards up towards Selkirk. On the way we passed the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall and St Mary's Loch. There were some rather odd imprisoned Scots Pine trees:



The main reason for the trip was to visit the standing stones in the area, starting with the Glebe Stone , near to Yarrow village.

Yarrow Kirk, built in 1640, had a wonderful sundial


Snowdrops under the trees, and enchanted white horse as a "Neigh"bour (!)



There is a lovely churchyard, with very old gravestones including this fantastic skeleton, which was procariously holding up a horizontal tomb cover. For more info on Skeletons on gravestones see this page.



Another with a flower, carved in sandstone:



At Yarrow we turned south and took the little road which crossed a remote pass, complete with Pele Tower which has been restored and I think is now home to Lord Steele.


Here we stopped for lunch of chili cheese sandwiches and licorice tea. When we continued downhill we joined the B7009 and headed south again, through the Ettrick valley.

We stopped briefly at the Samye Ling Buddhist centre near Eskdalemuir, (I considered going inside to see if anyone there owned up to recently sending me a "Shout Gouranga Be Happy" message to my house voicemail, resulting in it being read by Tom Baker which was quite surreal! )



Then down to the M74 again, passing Lockerbie and thinking of the crash again. A future trip may be to visit the memorial there.