If the snow stays, there'll certainly be no golf tomorrow - the skiers, sledgers and snowboarders will be in full flow down the 3rd hole. Maybe Luca will get a chance to try it this year?
I drove up to Fraserburgh on Thursday morning for our management meetings then headed south to Glasgow via Alloa. I stopped for lunch at what used to be the Little Chef at Brechin - it's now a Bervie Chipper!
I mentioned Alloa - why? Well, I had agreed to drop off a couple of cases of festival glasses at Williams Brothers brewery (http://www.williamsbrosbrew.com/). Tom-Tom only took me so far - after that, I had to hunt out the exact location. Eventually, I managed it and I was handed a mixed case for my troubles (I gave it to Barry for putting me up). The funny bit was getting out of Alloa and getting back to the motorway. Tom-Tom was directing me over the Kincardine bridge and I was almost there when I spotted a sign saying Glasgow - there were some brand new roads. Poor Tom-Tom got really confused - it kept recalculating and was urging me to turn back - the screen showed me apparently crossing fields and eventually walking on water as I crossed the Forth! It was the new bridge that had just opened the day before - Tom-Tom's chip is not up to date and didn't recognise it!
I went to Foxbar and Barry, Helen and I went to see Dad. He was in his jammies - perhaps a little accident? - otherwise, he was fine:
"How are things in Glockemorra?" was the usual constant topic but I tried to get Dad to remember some other songs he used to sing - particularly "Me and Jane in a Plane" which I distinctly recall him singing to me in bed as a youngster - but he has no recollection of this song at all. It does exist - honest - check http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8x99YXVrLQw
Barry, Helen and I went to the Three Craws (http://www.emberinns.co.uk/thethreecrawsglasgow/) in Crow Road for some food - it's quite nice there and some decent beer too. They're copying Wetherspoon's - Thursday night is Curry Night.
Up early for a breakfast seminar at the Hilton, followed by 2 meetings, then I dashed up the road to try and beat the dire forecasts of heavy snow for the North East. There was nothing until I got to about Auchenblae - Cairn o' Mount was closed and the Slug Road was not advised so I turned off and went past Durris. It all looked good until I hit about a mile of black ice - not nice.
I listened to my Archos on the journey up and down - the end of the audiobook Jazz, Sounds of the Sixties and a couple of Bob Dylan's Theme Time radio shows - the last one I listened to was themed California - he opened it with Al Jolson's California Here I Come (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=awbGc8XPFJ8) - another fond memory from childhood - very non-PC nowadays, pre-dating the Black & White Minstrel Show from the 60's. If you haven't heard of Al Jolson, he was often described as the world's greatest entertainer. The first ever talking picture, the Jazz Singer featured him - check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_jolson
There were lots of other songs about California on BD's TTR - Calfornia Dreaming, Do You Know the way to San Jose? among the more obvious. That got me to thinking about today's list - why are there so many good songs featuring American locations and so few about Britain - especially Scotland? Of course, there's lots of kitsch old "tartan and shortbread" songs, but nothing modern and decent. I vaguely remember Abba mentioning Glasgow in Super Trooper back in the 70's, but can you name any other modern songs featuring Scottish places? Over to you to complete today's list!
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