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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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Reposted by Simon Varwell

Faex Optim @faexoptim.bsky.social · 3h

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 · 6h

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 · 18m

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 · 29m

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 · 29m

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 · 47m

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

SCHAFT!

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 47m

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

SCHAFT!

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 52m

The owner said it was “in mein shaft”.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 53m

Both at the same time?

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 53m

I guess by eating it I colonised it. Or maybe Bluesky colonised it by virtue of my skeet.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 55m

Yes indeed. It’s a big headline on BBC News and Sport Scotland websites so sadly kind of avoidable.

Reposted by Simon Varwell

John Birch @fandw.bsky.social · 12h

ouch…!

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 12h

Where do German mining companies keep their antelopes?

In a gazelle shaft.

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Reposted by Simon Varwell

Ken from Chicago @kenfromchicago.bsky.social · 17h

Yes. Fiction is Alternate History which is a subgenre of Science Fiction.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 14h

Hah! Brilliant.

Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 14h

What a tactless piece to write. Retirement his biggest mistake? Bigger than, say, being a domestic abuser? Why an article about him and not his wife or his crimes?
www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-...

Stuart Hogg on retirement mistake and Montpellier reset

Ex-Scotland captain Stuart Hogg, who pleaded guilty to domestic abuse of his ex-wife, says retiring to save his marriage was the

www.bbc.com

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 22h

Right thanks. Don’t know that one.

Reposted by Simon Varwell

Pam Mandel @nerdseyeview.bsky.social · 2d

all this frog talk makes me curious about absurd acts of resistance in the past. not just your becketts and ionescos, but the kind of citizen silliness that fucks up the narrative.

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Simon Varwell @simonvarwell.bsky.social · 1d

I often think about this: bsky.app/profile/fess...

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · Sep 2

As a teenager in Neustrelitz (East Germany), I painted small stones purple and left them all over town. Did it for years. It drove the police and Stasi nuts. It meant nothing. It just felt good to do something they couldn't control or understand.