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Alasdair MacDonald

@macdonwald.bsky.social
1.9K followers 2.3K following 5.4K posts

Former university administrator; happily married step-dad to three, and cat-servant to two. Also a “middle-class leftie remoaner lunatic" (wtt Dan Wootton). There are places to visit, books to read, guitars to play, and songs to sing.

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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
He generally leans in last thing at night, before curling up at the bottom of the bed. It’s sweet, but uncomfortable…
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Obligatory picture of a cat for BlueSky.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Enjoying the cool of the courtyard in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Sevilla. What a city! Nice to take a break from the assault on the senses.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Delighted to announce, after three days of exhaustive research, my findings that the absolute best tapas bar and restaurant in Granada is the Taberna Palo Cortao. Always rammed with locals, wonderful food, free tapas with drinks, lovely staff. The chef brings you your dinner. What’s not to like?
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Situation here last week.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
He would send postcards to his friend Lucie, when visiting Europe after the war, with a sketch on the front and her address on the back. They had made buttons together when they needed to earn a living in London. She is rather better known now than him.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Staying with OH’s aunt and uncle near Glastonbury this week. OH’s grandmother was a friend of Lucie Rie and I have now discovered some of the exquisite sketches and water colours of Fritz Lampl, a Viennese emigre who came to London in 1938.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is Basil, literally King of Cats.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Basil sleeping off his third or fourth breakfast (I’ve lost count) since reveille at 4 am….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Current situation. Good job I’m stuck into an improving book.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
They’re great, aren’t they? Here is ours, an earlier version, for Oxford to Bristol. I happen to have lived in five places along the route!
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Morning Kev. Here are my regulars.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
It’s as if we are not yet hot enough this morning.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
My regular two. The other six are in the cupboard….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Playing for a friend’s birthday party this coming weekend. He’s requested to sing a couple of cameo songs from the 70s, including “Pretty Vacant” (not our usual kind of song). I’ve been enjoying a good old thrash this afternoon!
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
George and I are enjoying the slightly cooler evening. It’s still pretty warm though, especially in a fur coat
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Because neither of us is hot enough.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
I think somebody’s a bit hot. I suspect I’m as daft as he is, as I’ve just mowed the lawn and have now come up to the top floor to do some guitar practice. Not sure how long either of us will last up here.
Our senior cat, Basil, stretched out on the bed on the top floor of our house.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
The sleep of the just….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Our senior cat, Basil, has been on cloud nine since the day about a year ago that he learned that he was to have only freshly cooked chicken owing to a digestive complaint. As you can see, he has things pretty tough otherwise….
An elderly blue cat living it up on an expensive sofa….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
So, Basil’s newly prescribed “renal” food seems to have been a big hit with both cats. What on earth do they put in that stuff?
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Just one of the treasures from my FiL’s house, in anticipation of forthcoming downsizing. Maybe they think I need a wig….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I raise you.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
There are four beds and three sofas in the house, and yet, here we are….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Rescued from my father-in-law’s downsizing exercise, a Bridge accessory. I’m rather tickled by its dual-use.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Say what?
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
We have a wind-up bell right in the middle of the front door. It is amazing the number of people who fail to recognise it as a doorbell and hammer on the door.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Reading this fully clothed and under a duvet, with two cats huddled for warmth.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Update…
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
The King (Basil) resting on his throne after a stroll in the garden and second breakfast.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
You can find them second hand for about the same price as new US manufactured Fender ones. They are very well made. Here’s mine, I got it p/x from Steve Jordan, in Leicester. He has one on his website at the moment, I think.
2005 Taylor T5 hybrid, along with a 1950 ES-125.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
It’s cleaned up nicely!
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Post-dentist update.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
And I need to get up and go to the dentist……
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
🎶”Five miles out of London on the Western Avenue, must have been a wonder when it was brand new”.🎶 Helping in-laws to downsize prior to a house move and we found this curio, a 1930s (?) ashtray of the building, now converted to apartments of course. Lyrics by Elvis Costello.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Utterly indifferent to human suffering…
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
I should really be getting up, but senior cat has other ideas.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
That’s me also, and not the two little bastards who have kept me awake most of the night.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Fruit bowl yesterday on the lunch table of OH’s aunt and uncle, who are potters. One of Lucy Rie’s late works….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
We’ve been away for a few days…..
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Glastonbury Tor looking good in some dappled sunshine this lunchtime.
A photo of Glastonbury Tor taken from the east in Pilltown, on the A361, with pasture land in the foreground.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Like this?
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
So, as some relief from what’s going on on the rest of the world, this evening two old friends and I went to see the Au Pairs supporting the Skids at the Junction in Cambridge. Both bands were pretty neat. Took us back 45 years or so.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
It’s wet.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
The cats woke me early so I moved into a spare bedroom to avoid disturbing OH. Didn’t take long before I wasn’t alone…..
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Currently about to start cooking supper. There’s a strong sense of expectation….
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Paul - just out of curiosity, this is from Dan Todman’s “Britain at War” (vol 2). Is the Bernal mentioned any relation to you?
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Today I’m going to be mostly looking at pictures of cats; everything else feels too awful to contemplate.
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Alasdair MacDonald @macdonwald.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Happy New Year to you both! We’ve been enjoying Beans’s outfits over the break….
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