Snowy Saturday

When the snow came down in Aberdeen yesterday afternoon, it seems every man and his dog decided to panic and rush home - including me. The upshot was chaos - Bridge of Don instantly became a car park. I left before 3 pm and it took me over one hour to travel the 400 yards from my office down the hill to the McDonald's corner. I was going to drop out of the football but I was getting nowhere anyway so just decided to try to get to the Beach and hopefully the traffic would have moved by the time we had finished - this plan eventually worked, although not all of the players made it in time, so it was a bit disjointed.

We got back to Banchory - which showed little signs of weather disruption - safely and I had a few beers at the Douglas after tea, whilst Jo caught up with her X-Files. This morning, however, we have snow - I've got 2 tickets for the Scottish Cup match against East Fife, but I'm not sure whether or not I want to go - will take a rain check.

As nobody wants to take part in my photo quizzes, I've decided to give the answers up front. This is Kelly and I at the Performing Arts Center (sic) at Branson, Missouri in 2002:

Kelly must have wondered what hit her that year - not only was she on holiday with her parents at the age of 23, but she - and we - discovered that being in your 50's actually makes you one of the younger generation in Branson - where it seems many Americans go to spend their final years whilst being entertained by former stars of their era giving it one last hurrah at the many shows in town.

We went to see the Platters - or at least one of the many touring franchises bearing that name - and a dreadful Neil Diamond impersonator (Eric Monet). Here we are just before the Platters show:

The theaters (sic) were full of vets - not Vietnam or Korea but from a greater vintage - many wearing their medals, and each show was preceded by the national anthem when everybody stood up, saluted and sang along. We also stood - we felt we had no option - but saluting and singing? - we didn't know the words anyway. We felt like traitors or spies - it seemed every eye was on us. Weird feeling, but remember this was our first US holiday since 9/11 and all the nationalistic tendencies were coming out - although I have a feeling that Branson is caught in a bit of a time bubble and is always like that.