Starting with Saturday when Gary rang our doorbell before 8:00 am - Carole was away on a hen party weekend and Gary had dropped her at the station then headed straight for Banchory. I think Gary only came over for a rest - he put Luca down to sleep for over 2 hours then when Luca awoke, Gary fell asleep on the couch for another 2 hours!
Luca's lunch consisted of Jo's soup, which as everyone knows, can be a little salty - I like it, but it's not to everyone's taste - and each time he was fed a spoonful, he pulled a face - that was until I switched the camera on when he suddenly stopped doing it:
I escaped to golf for a few hours - had another good round and got my handicap cut yet again - and, what's more, we had Betty Stogs ale from Skinner's in Cornwall on in the golf club again - the weather was nice enough to sit and sup it on the balcony again.
We had good fun watching the Champions League final on Wednesday in our house - hope Jo didn't mind the noise too much as Gary, Colin, Dave and I enjoyed a few beers in front of the plasma screen. Gary (Grant)'s only complaint was that I'd forgotten to get the crisps in to soak up the beer - he had to make do with Ryvita and oatcakes!
Thursday was a charity golf outing at Cruden Bay (won another prize for nearest the pin!) and Friday afternoon was a tie at Torphins. This time of year is crazy for golf with all the ties etc - but it only lasts a couple of weeks each year so I shouldn't complain about my sore knees and hips - just get on with it - after all it's only 4 weeks now until the Summer Solstice - and then it's all downhill!
Finished my audiobook of Philip Roth's American Pastoral - more observational than dramatic - but it evoked vivid images from post war America through the '50's, 60's and 70's mostly - eras that made profound impressions on us growing up. I was lucky enough to miss out (just) on conscription but Britain - and indeed Europe - suffered for a long while after the war with food shortages and rationing etc., whilst America moved in to an era of prosperity that we could only dream of. We could only watch and wonder at American films, music and TV - the so called Western (mostly cowboys and "Indians") movies were by far the most popular and the images of the American West were particularly dramatic and it was great to visit places like Arizona in recent years and see the red rock images and scenery that we had watched in the '50's and '60's.
My long hours in the car up and down to Fraserburgh are lightened by music and audiobooks on my mp3 player and one of my weekly treats is to listen to Sounds of the Sixties which I record from Radio Two every Saturday morning (when I'm out golfing). Recently I've also been recording Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour (Thursday nights at 11) - and this, too, is very evocative of things we heard about and grew up with from USA. Recent themes have been train songs (including childhood nuggets like Casey Jones) - going through songs from the American states and cities - from Chatanooga to Missouri. Last week, the theme was Tennessee - Memphis, Nashville etc.
I guess I had forgotten what a huge influence America had on us as we were growing up - it wasn't until the Beatles and Stones came along in '63, '64 that the trend was reversed and Britain actually was able for the first time to export music back to the States - much of it hugely derivative at first, but ultimately more creative. Barring a few exceptions, we've never had quite the same success with our film industry as we did with music.
Ah well, Sunday evening - it's been a lovely day - I actually had lunch out in the back for the first time this year. I've been trying to upload this video of Luca for a few hours now - I blame Ross and his online games, but he says it's the fault of our ISP. Hope I manage to get it done before I go to bed tonight - but if you see the text only, don't be surprised - I'll try again with the video from work tomorrow.
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