Writing
Still Glasgow I decided to to return to the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) to see what was new. I previously blogged about the gallery in May 2025, in Part 149 of this blog series. Some of the exhibits are still in place, notably John Akomfrah, Mimesis: African Soldier; the Sharon Hayes exhibit and … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 194
Are you a footballer? Playing catch-up here, but I did visit the Whisky Experience at the top of the Royal Mile recently. I’ve been before, but it has changed a bit and was a really enjoyable experience. Also tried the Bowmore 20 year old single malt in the bar later on which was a real … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 193
Robert Burns Portrait I took a trip to the National Gallery in Edinburgh to see what is described as the lost portrait of Robert Burns. As a fan of his work this was quite an occasion. I was fortunate to be able to find a space to see the painting as the lunchtime queue for … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 192
2025 I can’t believe it’s February already and I haven’t written my review of last year. So here it is. It was a good year. I had writing plans and didn’t manage to stick with them, though I did manage to produce some work. It happens. I suspect it’s the same every year. I blogged … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 190
Imperial Cathedral of Speyer Leaving Strasbourg, I returned to Kehl, and then back on the boat, with the next stop Speyer in Germany. The highlight here was a visit to see the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer, which is one of the world’s finest and largest Romanesque cathedrals and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 173
Strasbourg Back on the Rhine, the next stop was Kehl, in Germany. From there a bus journey took me over the border into France and the city of Strasbourg. This has to be seen to be believed. I can imagine looking up the word picturesque in the dictionary and see the name Strasbourg. It is … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 172
Piano Revisited Looking back through this blog I see that in Part 33 from February 2023, I noted, “…something on my bucket list is to play the piano for the public in a railway station. We have pianos in stations here for anyone to sit down at and entertain the public. I thought doing a … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 171
One Hundred Thousand Words A milestone has been reached in this blog series. After publishing I always cut and paste a copy of my latest post into a word document as another backup. That word document containing all the posts from Inside the Fiction Factory to date, now amounts to a little over a hundred … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 170
Edinburgh Futures Institute I’ve attended two cyber security in-person conferences this summer as part of my day job. It’s always good to get away from my desk and hear what is current in the industry. Even better when I’m an attendee and not a presenter. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy presenting, but it … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 159
Croatia I took time out to head over to Croatia, staying in a small place called Mlini. It’s a beautiful place on the coast and a half hour boat ride from Dubrovnik, which was my main reason for the trip. The television series Game of Thrones used Dubrovnik as the main filming location for King’s … More Inside the Fiction Factory – Part 158
The Fiction Factory 