Simon Varwell

The nights are fair drawing in.

I haven’t slept a full night in three weeks ahead of the polls opening in Brazil today. I might be shouting into a void here, but if you can spare a few seconds to send good energy towards our elections today and for the largest country in South America to beat fascism, please do so. 🇧🇷

This is a really good overview of Armenian linguistics. It’s a fascinating language but a very unrecognisable one and one I never grasped more than a couple of words of in my visits there.

Storm Boelo left this gift in my garden. What is it? Why is Daniel O’Donnell on it? Has it come from Ireland? Was it used with phones? It expired in 1999 😂

He started out life in Pernambuco was a trade unionist while Brazil had a fascist ruler L-U-L-A Lula

The storm seems quite mild around Inverness. Blustery, sure, but perhaps we’ve missed the worst unless I’m counting my chickens.

I’ve written a song in Gaelic about Rangers’ most depressed player. Tha mi sgìth 's mi leam fhìn Bouanani, Bouanani Tha mi sgìth 's mi leam fhìn Bouanani, daonnan

Het is weer die tijd van het jaar waarin de eerste trampolines hun trek naar het zuiden beginnen om daar de winter door te brengen.

Scotlands energy is a scandal and a tragedy.

Despite only living an hour away, I’d never been to the Highland Wildlife Park. Went today. Very impressive. The highlights for me were the wildcats and the wolves. Another highlight was it not raining despite the forecast.

Seeing this doing the rounds and it is a properly good read, and impressive because Surý sets stuff out in lay terms, with a level and objective tone. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

literally this comic except he apparently lives in Czechia instead of Nebraska

Which birds are best at policing a dance? Copperceilidhs.

According to legend, it’s 31 years to the day since the Financial Times killed one of Britain’s finest poets? They didn’t mean to. It’s just that Gavin Ewart was 79, and the day before they’d bought him a lunch that involved enough booze to fell an ox. A glorious story, but is it true...?

gm to this interesting juxtaposition 👀 ☕️ #berlin

This is genuinely really good

This is the part we don’t talk about enough. The reversal of good placemaking—from literally ripping up bike lanes to reducing library hours to scraping public transit projects—creates cynicism. Someone should calculate both the social and economic cost of this issue.

A good thread.

One of my earliest ones. "My daughter is made of trumpets"

What rock band is best at transporting biscuits? Oreo speedwagon.

How does Shakespeare mark out distances? Iambic paint-a-metre.

Winding down at the end of a relaxing day of holiday, listening to Postcard From 1952 by @explosionsinthesky.bsky.social. I’d struggle to choose a favourite track of music but I’d I had to at least make a shortlist this gorgeous soundscape would be on it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFwO...

New day trip option!

Some nice responses to this. Early days so have bookmarked to come back as I’m sure there’ll be more.

As they raced along the road Milo continued to think of all sorts of things; of the many detours and wrong turns that were so easy to take, of how fine it was to be moving along, and, most of all, of how much could be accomplished with just a little thought.

This is lovely. Looking forward to seeing the fillum. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oc...

Ok I’m a bit late in this prediction, but it came nonetheless. Now to see if my prediction of down to a dozen by May 2027 comes good. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What currency will they use?

Hmm that band name rings a bell.

Funnily enough the sermon this morning in my church was Matthew 22, the “render unto Caesar” bit whe Jesus is tested by religious folk trying to catch him out. There are some parallels I’m now reflecting on.

Learn Esperanto then make mistakes.

The man once called Valerio barely ate except scavenged scraps. The mail stacked up until it stopped. His beard grew matted, his eyes crazed, his clothes stank. Folk avoided him. He now haunts a room with barred windows, stroking his camera and babbling incomprehensibly. Nobody comes for him.

I love watching Dutch cyclists perform their fietse strength.

In every conversation about change, there is always someone who quotes: 'Not everyone can ride a bike.' I answer: 'One third of Germans can't drive a car,' which always earns me ___ silence.

I can't help thinking it would have been easier to simply tell people where you CAN'T go 🤔

I mean… good? It’s pretty much illegal anyway.

Apparently Stacey Solomon has a new TV show coming out, where she helps cocaine addicts on the road to recovery. It’s going to be called Snort Your Life Out.

I like living life on the edge. Wordle 1 946 6/6 ⬛🟩⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩