Seekers of Vacillating Phalangers,

These are darker days. Tensions in the divide which has been tagged "The War of Information" are apparently heightened. Everything seems perfect from far away, progress seems unabated; mother and father seem to be living the Good Life having spent all day in the garden, brother added another layer to the parcel after his bath and the hole in my trainer's growth is continual.

The stude-ing continues but a mid-morning break which consisted of some more bogtrotting. The path taken could probably be considered the perimeter of the town. It has been a deceptively cold day; beautifully bright and suggestive of warmth but in reality, brutally chilling. I was disappointed to encounter a huge clearance where trees of many species had recently stood, I felt like those infantile adventurers in the Sigur Ros video, that I described, treading on the foreign landscape. The town has an area called "The Dam" which follows the River Leven to the Firth of Forth, it used to have quite vibrant wildlife but with nearby new housing development and this latest clearance of land, which might be associated with the railway heritage museum, the area is now eerily quiet and devoid of the birds that once were plentiful. The song stuck in my head while I walked was "Looking for Astronauts" by The National which I am grateful for, it might've been "Nature's Law" by Embarass, I can hear them now, "You can never fight The Feeling" - that's a shame, someone ought to. I liked The Feeling's first song as much as the next person, I recorded it off the radio but DJ O'Leary talked over the end of it, I named the file "the feeling + wassock - fill my little world right up.mp3" when I saved it, but "Sewn" is just pathetic, middle-of-the-road wallowing, I think that file is now due for the Recycle Bin.

This evening, ex-security guard and Sheffield's finest singer/songwriter/broadcaster John Shuttleworth is appearing on the Mark Radcliffe show, I have been following his brilliant John Shuttleworth's Open Mind programme on Radio Quadruple One. John and his neighbour, Ken Worthington, have been investigating paranormal occurences; with hilarious consequences. I wonder if this will be the subject of the show this evening. I might have to report the infamous Methilhill Weather Balloon Explosion. The town actually has its own UFO investigator, Sharon Coull, I've never met her, but I wonder how necessary or busy her role is. When the gory time comes and they begin rounding up the local dignitaries for the secret bunker, the list of those saved will probably consist of the piano-slapping school headteacher, the councillor in a cape, the UFO investigator and the bowling club president.

These dignitaries will probably transported to the site of their underground stronghold by hovercraft. The latest proposal to solve the public transport crisis is to introduce hovercraft links between the islands and between Fife and Edinburgh. The project is being run by the Stagecoach group, they are proposing half-hourly crossings between Kirkcaldy and Leith, the hovercrafts can seat 150 passengers and can sail in 6.5feet waves. I hope it the idea is successful, Stagecoach are a major company and with their experience and power, the idea has a strong chance of becoming reality.