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Simon Varwell

@simonvarwell.bsky.social

570 followers 730 following 2.3K posts

Loves trains, the outdoors, travel, Esperanto, ambient and post-rock music, dystofic, good food and scrontous beer. Hates car-centric societies, late stage capitalism and courgette. He/him. Inverness | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | 🇪🇺 Work: @hisasimon.bsky.social

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 10h

Just tell the dinner party that you did.

Reposted by Simon Varwell

Niall Huggan @hugan.bsky.social · 15h

Kubrick's ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Muppet Show’ were filming next door to each other at Elstree Studios, and that’s how Danny Lloyd got to visit and hang with Kermit in 1979.

#movies
#muppets
#Kubrick

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 15h

One production a psychedelic headfuck with unreal characters, strange voices and surreal twists and turns, and the other…

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 17h

After all that intense effort, I clearly deserved a gorgeous 11% Trappist beer. Near where are staying is an ordinary neighbourhood supermarket but it has a very, very good beer selection. One more full day of touristing (and my inane skeets about it) to come.

A bottle of Trappist Rochefort 10, a glass full of its contents, and two wee blue ramekins - one with coated peanuts and the other with triple layered Milka chocolate.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 17h

And some sights from the adjacent park.

A Roman ish sort of arch in a park. It might not be Roman ish. I’m guessing here.

A bandstand sort of thing with ornate colours.

A small tower in a park, like a ventilation shaft for a subway or the sort of thing that might indicate access to a now-forgotten nuclear bunker.

Not just one arch but three, you lucky things, across a wide path in a park. The arches (really more of a bridge) are heavily overgrown with plants and stuff.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 17h

Thence to the contemporary art museum. Less my thing but here’s lunch and some modern commentary on Ukraine. Plus a view out of the window to an empty exhibition space.

A massive big painting with strong lines and bold colours of heaps of food as if on a platter: fruit, meats, veg and so forth.

A portrait orientation of the Ukrainian flag (yellow on the bottom, blue on the top) with a white cartoon hand coming up through the middle, as if lifting the blue half like a cloth or curtain, with a middle finger erect, telling the Russian warship to spin on it.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 17h

One Scottish connection that I could find: this painting by William Gouw Ferguson, who I’d never heard of. Though that’s not a slight on him - him and me are equal as he’d never heard of me. His Wikipedia page is helpful as an explanation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 17h

Today’s been a museum day: Ghent’s fine art and contemporary art museums. Both very good. A couple (ok four) standouts of the former. Banter in the alts.

This is… somewhere in Rome? Well, it’s in the fine art museum in Ghent but I mean the image displayed is meant to be in Rome. It is, according to the label in the corner (and whomesoever am I to doubt it, not being an art curator) the San Martino ai Monti Basilica in Rome. I’m a sucker for arches and light in art, and this is a paining of an altar with lots of arches and strong light and shadows. It’s a clever and revealing photo, drawing you in to what lies behind each of the arches (and like a Glasgow nightclub goer of a certain vintage).

This is a really striking painting - lots of strong light and deep perspectives. It’s a park scene, with a bunch of people with horses on a path between two tall trees, almost as if they’re in a ravine. Beyond is vaguely, faintly distant, a city (in this case Brussels). It’s the Sonian Forest and its Wikipedia page is quite thorough and helpful in - ahem - painting a picture of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonian_Forest

A striking 1920s painting with art deco shapes and curves. It’s called Haven by Victor Servranckx, and - in a slightly abstract way and against a black backdrop - portrays a boat in a harbour under a vivid moon.

This one’s fun. But I forgot to photograph the interpretation and can’t read it in this photo because it’s blurry. The painting itself is fine though and quite clear - a jumble of buildings with abundant Belgian flags and people outside. I think it’s meant to be a marker or fair or something. It’s bustling, bold and bright. And other things beginning with B.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 18h

This is my sort of skeet and responses.

Irvine Welsh @irvinewelsh.bsky.social · 19h

English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh towns where the main railway station is annoyingly a little trek from the town centre. #Dunfermline #Cheltenham #Colchester.

Any more?

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 18h

I’ve invented a way of using a bottle of Swedish vodka to divine one’s choices of sports and activities, so it gives regular interventions and directions as to how to fill one’s spare time.

I tell you, it’s an Absolut game changer.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 21h

I’m delighted to announce my new social realist novel about the life and times of a group of mechanics.

It’s called Through a Spanner Darkly.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 21h

It’s ok, I’m handing the rights over to you for free.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 21h

Some mind-bending ones in there!

Reposted by Simon Varwell

Monica Byrne @monicabyrne13.bsky.social · 23h

I had to look at these ridiculous chairs for design research and now you do too.

Strange and Interesting Chairs

Are you sitting down?

cheezburger.com

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Reposted by Simon Varwell

Graeme Swanson @swansonian.bsky.social · 23h

So much to enjoy here. I can't chose a favourite between "year 7 studens" or "rain rain barkels". I'm struggling to accept it's real.

Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 1d

kids teacher just sent this home as part of an assignment he's doing and i want to smash every computer at the school

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 21h

Earth Was Rubbish.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

Yes. But he should never have been heard about again. I’ve no idea what the BBC were thinking.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

😶

A restaurant, unfortunately called “Msemen”.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

I see it was the Republic of Ireland v Armenia in the football this evening. A tiny slither of a once coherent nation with a massive slice of its territory gouged out by a larger neighbour, with a vast global diaspora who can’t even speak its language properly, versus…

Reposted by Simon Varwell

Faex Optim @faexoptim.bsky.social · 1d

Like the Red Army in April 1945, I've made it into Berlin.

(Deliberate Mark Corrigan vibes)

Cheers to 20 Seconds Magazine for featuring the track...

TJ Norris 📷 🎥 📻 @tjnorrisart.bsky.social · 1d

Very pleased to note that @faexoptim.bsky.social's piece 'Ar Saoghal' (after PBK) from 'Elemental Studies' was featured on Berlin's 20 Seconds Magazine (10/7), and you can listen here: soundcloud.com/20-seconds/2...

20 Seconds Radio - Episode 20 (7/10/25) on Archipel Stations

Episode 20 of 20 Seconds Radio on Archipel Stations Community Radio, 88.4 Berlin/90.7 Potsdam. 20 Seconds editors Daniel Melfi and Timothy Isherwood present the magazine’s breadth of coverage in soni

soundcloud.com

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

The highlight was the office/bookshop of the Flemish Esperanto League. Lovely to meet some local speakers and buy a good haul of reading material.

La elstaraĵo estis la oficejo/librovendejo de la Flandra Esperanto-Ligo. Mirinde renkonti kelkajn samideanojn kaj aĉeti staplon de legadan materialon.

A bust of a dapper looking chap (Dr Zamenhof) sporting a black bowler hat.

Books on tables with a window in the background with (in reverse because it’s the interior and you’d read it from the street) “Esperantohuis” printed.

Half a dozen or so books on a table, including The Hobbit and The Little Prince in Esperanto.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

And, boy, the food. I’ve not eaten like this for a while. A major treat of a day, but hey it’s holiday.

Three pastries - an elaborate pain au chocolates, a Danish pastry with mango cubes, and an eclair with cream and strawberries on a tray next to some knives, forks and napkins. And no I obviously didn’t eat them all.

A rack of ribs (well, two!), some mayonnaises, fries and a glass of beer, on a dimly lit dining table.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

A day trip to Antwerp. A properly impressive city. Some real wow moments. Maybe Glasgow to Ghent’s Edinburgh, but without the annoying swagger? Only a day to get an impression (I remember little of a quick visit 20 years ago), so not much to judge by, but definitely somewhere to come back to.

A hugely impressive old city square, with cobbles, ornate guild buildings and surprisingly almost no people.

An ornate train station and a ferris wheel, both bathed in purple light.

A very impressive train station interior - arches, windows, a big staircase, and general air of wow.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

Who’s the contractual basis that provides corporate convenience to its self-interested Gesell?

SCHAFT!

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

Who’s the organic social unit that provides identity and togetherness to all its Gemein?

SCHAFT!