Simon Varwell
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simonvarwell.bsky.social
Simon Varwell
@simonvarwell.bsky.social
590 followers 770 following 2.6K 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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simonvarwell.bsky.social
I love doing crispy bbq tofu.
A bowl with some bbq tofu, stir fried greens, kimchi, rice and radish in red wine vinegar.
November 9, 2025 at 6:51 PM
simonvarwell.bsky.social
I couldn’t believe how noisy these birds were. No respect for their human neighbours.
November 9, 2025 at 2:55 PM
simonvarwell.bsky.social
Happy Friday!
Feliĉan vendredon!
🍻
A stem glass branded with the Black Isle Brewery logo filled with dark berr. Next to it is a can of Mini Crumble by Vault City. The can is black with a sort of honeycomb motif in the design. I’d weave in some sort of joke to the description but am tired and can’t think of one. If you can, please let me know.
November 7, 2025 at 7:56 PM
simonvarwell.bsky.social
Nice to read about Hearts’ empathetic win. Would’ve made all the difference for Dundee.
Hearts continue to be the story of the Premiership season after they extended their lead at the top to nine points last Saturday. That was partly down to nearest challengers Celtic having a weekend away from league football as Martin O'Neill's men booked their place in the Premier Sports Cup final with a win over 10-man Rangers. But Derek McInnes' league leaders still had a job to do and did so empathetically with a four-goal victory against Dundee, whose city rivals travel to Tynecastle on Sunday (15:00 GMT).
November 7, 2025 at 6:55 PM
simonvarwell.bsky.social
Fireworks Night, but the weather in Inverness had other thoughts. This is as good as it got up the hill.
A night-time shot of a tree, horizon and a vaguely glowing cloudy sky.
November 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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It’s dark as I walk home from work, so I was glad to get some (surprisingly warm and bright) sunshine on a break earlier.
A woodland scene. A low sun bursts through trees to cast light and shadow on leaves, foliage and a leaf-covered footpath.
November 4, 2025 at 5:38 PM
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www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Chris Morris as a newsreader, in a screenshot from "The Day Today". The screen behind him has the words "bloody hell".
November 2, 2025 at 7:20 PM
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A joyously boring day, which was very much needed. Watched some Andor. Did some washing. Cooked some food. Had a beer. Je via sano. 🍺
untp.beer/0BdzV
A Black Isle Brewery stem glass filled with dark beer, next to a can of Cromarty 80/- whence it hath come.
November 1, 2025 at 7:43 PM
simonvarwell.bsky.social
I just absolutely love the Dutch word for “amount”: “hoeveelheid” is literally “how-much-ness”. It’s even more logical here than Esperanto (albeit “kiomeco” would probably be understood fine to mean “kvanto”).
A screenshot of Duolingo in which I correctly translate a phrase as “the amount of water is important”.
October 27, 2025 at 9:30 PM
simonvarwell.bsky.social
It’s Friday! Not had a beer for a long time. Apart from all those I had in Belgium last week.
A stem glass with Black Isle Brewery branding, full of dark beer. Next to it is a can of scotch ale also with their branding.
October 24, 2025 at 8:48 PM
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Dinner this evening. Very chuffed, though possibly a little too much rice and could’ve made more bbq sauce.
A bowl of food, mainly stir fry. There is: - boiled white rice. - Korean style crispy bbq tofu (tofu tossed in flour then baked for half an hour, then combined with some fried onions, broccoli and green beans, and mixed with a bbq sauce made from Gochujang, water and flour, soy sauce, maple syrup, lime juice and ground ginger; with some sliced red chilli). - white cabbage kimchi (from the shop). - a salad of radish and lettuce tossed with red wine vinegar and lime juice. - on top, two segments of lime and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
October 24, 2025 at 7:44 PM
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Some chores in town this morning. Hopefully the revamp of the castle will finish soon.
A red brick castle with grounds looking like they’re getting done over.
October 24, 2025 at 10:37 AM
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Lunchtime fresh air. Autumn’s warm sun is clinging on.
The sun bursting through trees alongside a woodland path.
October 20, 2025 at 11:38 AM
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The Northern Lights are out over Inverness! Not so clear to the naked eye but came out better on my phone long exposure. I was alerted by a friend up north who sent some stunning ones. So I guess if you’re out of the city look north!
A dark sky with a shimmery wall of green. A couple of trees are visible at the bottom of the picture.
October 18, 2025 at 7:48 PM
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Much as I loved all the food and drink in Belgium, it’s good to get home and eat some veg (ok and some chicken).
A blue bowl with stir fry in it. There’s a chicken stir fry with pak Choi, chillies, onion and peppers (in a broth of veg stock, seven spice, ginger, maple syrup and soy sauce), a salad of grated salad and sliced radish, and some rice. Yum.
October 18, 2025 at 6:31 PM
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A day in Amsterdam to wrap up the holiday. So the obligatory canal photo.
An obligatory Amsterdam canal photo. It’s taken from a bridge looking along a canal. There are barges and boathouses on both sides, and buildings on the streets on either side. On the left in the foreground some flowers are somewhat boneheading the scene but they look quite pretty to be honest.
October 17, 2025 at 7:36 PM
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The journey home. Cheerio Ghent. It’s been a lot of fun. And hello (again) briefly Antwerp Centraal station, which is stunning on (ahem) so many levels.
A view of Ghent Sint Pieters station from a train platform. It’s a (perhaps) early twentieth century building in red brick, with a clock tower. The interior of a train station, from platform level. Well, one of the platform levels, a mainly concrete lower level. That’s the cool thing. You can see a train on the opposite platform and then, through some reddish purple-brown brick windows a train on an upper level. On the left into the distance you can see even more levels and an ornate stone train entrance and interior in a more classical style for old stations. A multi-level train station! Incredible.
October 17, 2025 at 8:03 AM
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And I definitely didn’t have massively sweaty palms and jelly legs as I took this photo from the top of the bell tower and I’ll definitely not have nightmares for about the next decade.
A city including gorgeous cathedral visible from a frankly terrifying height. Stone pillars are visible, all that’s separating me from a splatty death down below.
October 16, 2025 at 6:08 PM
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One last day in Ghent and oh my goodness these were nice.
Two weeks cake things, one red (it’s cherry) and one white (white chocolate). They are basically meringue pastry thingies. And so gorgeous. Next to them is a cup of of chocolate. That was gorgeous too. A smart looking white walled cafe. An ornate chandelier sits above a baking area. There are very lovely looking cakes visible.
October 16, 2025 at 6:08 PM
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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.
October 15, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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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.
October 15, 2025 at 4:06 PM
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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. A big warehouse type space. It’s empty.
October 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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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...
A dark painting with a dead game bird.
October 15, 2025 at 3:58 PM
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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.
October 15, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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😶
A restaurant, unfortunately called “Msemen”.
October 14, 2025 at 9:24 PM