Though she was born a long, long time ago, **** ****** should know

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - I can hardly believe it was 8 years ago today that Mum died. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a Monday and Barry had phoned me to tell me that Mum was going downhill and I should come down. Jo and I made our preparations and drove down, but we'd left it too late - she was gone by the time we got there. Barry phoned again to tell me - we were between Dundee and Perth. I stopped the car for a while but then drove on.

Jessie Hamilton Stewart (nee Barr) was 81, but she hadn't been at all well since her fall in the bathroom at Foxbar Drive a few years before - and Dad couldn't cope with her after that. Here she is in her younger days - isn't she bonny?

Yesterday, we had a couple of deliveries - first the new bed for where the futon used to be; then John Lewis delivered the TV cabinet. It needed a little bit of assembly for the base, but Ross did this and tidied up all the wiring. Here it is now:


Not a moment too soon either - the old one was on the brink of collapse.

Hanging around, nothing to do but frown, ***** **** *** *******

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's not a Monday, but it is a rainy day - why does it always seem to rain on Wednesdays - my regular midweek golf day? It's certainly been that way for the last few weeks - every other day fine, but Wednesdays seem to get the worst of it. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

Come to think of it, the rain did start last night. Jo took Luca home after tea and I was sitting there watching TV, listening to and watching the rain falling out the back. Suddenly, I noticed some bright evening sunlight lighting up the tops of the trees at the back - it looked lovely. I tried to capture it on camera, but I'm not sure I did it justice:

That one was without the flash - this was one taken seconds before when the flash was still on, which, of course, makes it seem darker beyond the range of the flash:



Which one looks better? I'm not sure.

Just to brighten up a dull day, would you like to see what Albyn sent me?:





It's all happening on 1st October - hope I recover in time for the wedding - can't miss out on all the dancing, can I? - and for my golf trip to Spain a week later. By coincidence, I go back to see the cardiologist on Monday 4th - I guess Jo will have to wheel me in then as well.

Well, I finally finished my tedious book last night - The Song is You by Arthur Phillips (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Phillips). I had bought it (and a few others) at our favourite bookstore in Medford in March, but never got round to reading it until recently. It's a relatively slim novel, although very wordy, but it seemed to take me ages to finish it - I guess it didn't exactly grip me, but I was determined to finish it - and I did. The last section was the only decent bit of the book. The critics' quotes on the cover kind of gave the ending away, which made things a bit worse, I think.

What else did I do while Jo was over at Inverurie? Well, I watched another couple of episodes of the re-run of Tony Palmer's All You Need is Love series, plus I finished watching an interesting 2 hour film about Donovan's life before going up to bed to finish my book. Jo was pretty late home and I was out for the count by the time she got back.

Yes, yes, yes, it's my ****** almanac

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/



Maybe not quite autumn yet, but I definitely noticed a bit of a change in the air today - the car was covered in dew this morning and it was misty driving over the moor at Garlogie - a harbinger of things to come?



I've been trying to make the most of what's left of the golf season - realistically probably only another 6-7 weeks now. It was our delayed Senior Club Championship at Banchory last week and that meant me playing on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Add to that my usual Saturday morning medal, and, some time ago, I'd agreed to play for our Seniors team at Kemnay yesterday. I'm glad today has been a rest day.



Of course, I then compounded the felony by agreeing to turn out at squash doubles last night. Malcolm Grigor's pal, Peter Craddock, was up from Yorkshire and he was trying to arrange a four for doubles and there's only Keith Gray and I around just now - so I agreed. I somehow managed without apparently doing too much damage to my poor old knees - but I almost slept in this morning after it all!



So, it's Tuesday and we've got Luca today so I'll make sure I'm out of here sharp tonight. On Friday afternoon we're off to Edinburgh for our annual Fringe fix. Did I show you our schedule?:

• Friday 16:00 - Ale/whisky tasting session
• Friday 18:15 - Call Mr Robeson
• Friday 21:20 - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Friday 23:59 - Alan Cumming - I bought a blue car today
• Saturday 15:00 - Hit Me: The life and rhymes of Ian Dury
• Saturday 19:30 - Danny Bhoy
• Saturday 23:30 - John Cooper Clarke

Nothing booked for Sunday - just stroll around and take it all in.

The Call Mr. Robeson show is a biography of Paul Robeson, singer and activist from the 30's and 40's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson). He was Grannie Barr's (my Mum's Mum - Sarah) favourite - Old Man River was the song he was most famous for.

John Cooper Clarke could be a bit of a culture shock for Jo - he's still a pretty edgy performer, but we'll see how it goes.

Starting to think now about our trip to the Royal Albert Hall in November - best get flights and accommodation booked soon, I guess. Nothing back yet from Interval re our requests for Oz and Oregon next year - early doors, I suppose.