Greenbelt

Greenbelt 2016: Silent Stars

Late on Saturday afternoon as the thunder roared in the distance and the angry rain hammered down oak leaves onto the canvas of the Canopy stage, I was sat entranced by a show I'd not intended to watch. Human Cargo uses folk songs to weave together four centuries worth of tales of the slave trade, clearances, kidnapping and immigration. It was a challenging hour, a strangely uplifting hour, and ultimately my favourite moment of Greenbelt 2016.

Tech

Oh, Android

One day Android phones won't come with unwanted extra apps trying to justify their intrusion into your privacy with grammatically dubious phrases.

Open phone permission for fully enjoying APPS. User's privacy is safe. Open storage permission for stable basic functions.

Sigh.

Festivals

124th Dufftown Highland Games

A runner comes into the field. It was quiet when she left, but two hours later the arena is packed. There's one final circuit to do before finishing the hill race. At the bottom end the "heavy events" are well underway, as hammers are flung towards the highland dancers at the top. The back straight is shared with the band competition so the runner needs to dodge pipe and drum before reaching the final corner. Glancing to the left she sees tug-of-war teams digging their heels in, watching for any hint of a movement that will give a strategic advantage. At last the finish line is in sight; it's just a matter of dodging the sack race that's sharing the last straight.

You must visit a Highland Games at some time in your life, and the Dufftown Games were our perfect introduction: by far the most fun we've had all year.