:: make it stop!

The rain is starting to get me down. This morning was bright and sunny and hot, so I bundled Bertie into the car and went to Blackness, planning to mow the lawns when I got back. Fantastic walk, very peaceful. Just as we were heading back, the first drops fell.

By the time we got home it was raining steadily, with occasional torrential bursts.

I went to the supermarket instead of mowing the lawns.

Tomorrow, if the weather is still horrible, I'm going to force myself out to do some clothes shopping. A certain dog tore the sleeve of one of my favourite white shirts on Friday night. When I had a close look at it, it was actually worn quite thin. A lot of my clothes end up like that, worn thin because I'm so reluctant to shop for new ones. Some of my trousers need replacing too. So there's that.

If the weather IS good, I may go for a sail in the afternoon. I haven't been out for ages, and I want to try out my new buoyancy aid. The lawns can wait.

Then I'm doing a Sunday shift as foreign editor, 11am to whenever, 9am probably -- we've got early deadlines because of the festival. I've got one story lined up already, about a man in Bulgaria who's changed his name to Manchester United. His dog is called D. Beckham.

The paper's become famous in Bulgaria since our Moscow correspondent visited there and wrote a story about King Simeon. Here's what a Bulgarian acquaintance of the reporter wrote to him: "The day it was published, the Bulgarian Information agency, the National radio, Dautche Vele and probably some others radio stations gave it to he public. Next day all the national newspapers had some bits of you, or had published all the article. It could be read also on the main www agencies. The day after - today - I read in the "24 hours" newspaper some kind of "investigation". The author had interviewed some people from The Scotsman."

By contrast, an earlier article about Bulgaria focusing on the plight of dancing bears tortured by hot coals -- thrown in as a desperate space-filler on a slow news day -- evoked this response from A. Bulgarian: "I am sorry, BUT THIS IS A LIE!!! I do not know which is the sourse of this discusting libel, but the dance on hot coals is not played by bears. This dance is part of our nationality and culture, as well as the stripped skirts in your country. It is a part of our folclore. This dance is played by HUMANS, usually at our national holidays. We believe that with this spiritual ritual the evil forces will be sended off our lands."

It reminds me of how New Zealand used to be: amazed if anyone took a blind bit of notice of us overseas (apart from sport, obviously). And horribly offended if they got it wrong, of course.