Awake early again

Still waking up at about 4:00 am every day - of course, going to bed just after 9:00 pm doesn't help! Must be the change of clocks.

Jo spent a lot of yesterday sorting out her kitchen cupboard and relocating some of the stuff to Dad's cabinet. It certainly looks a lot better than the state I left it in on Monday evening - note my trophy corner:


Now Jo has to decide where she wants the Alcatraz poster re-hung. It looks rather forlorn sitting on the floor at the top of the stair:



(Poor picture quality - taken with Blackberry this morning).

I downloaded another 2 albums last night - James Taylor - Covers; and Jackson Browne - Time the Conqueror. Both are new releases so if anyone wants a copy of these or any of the ones listed yesterday, just let me know.

As promised, today's list is audiobooks I have downloaded from e-music. So far, these are:

Alex Ross - The Rest is Noise (not listened to yet)

Charles Dickens - Bleak House

Geoffrey C Ward - Jazz (currently listening to)

Jack London - Boxed Set - Call of the Wild and White Fang

Keith Zimmerman - Alice Cooper Golf Monster

Monty Python - sketches

Neil Simon - Biloxi Blues (stage show)

Philip Roth - American Pastoral

Rick Reilly - Who's your caddy?

Steve Martin - Born standing up

Tom Robbins - Even cowgirls get the blues

Likewise, if you want a copy, let me know.

Tuesday - 3rd entry

You can tell I'm not having a good day. We've just been served with Sheriff Officer's papers in connection with the court case we're still running against John Anderson - remember Scofish' former Sales Director who defrauded the company, forged documents and told endless lies, with $2m. of herring disappearing in to a black hole in China? Well, his lawyers have now asked us to produce all the documentation going back 3-4 years. We can do it, but it's just sheer hassle and a lot of time - classic stalling tactics on their behalf.

It's not even 3:30 pm and already it's looking dark outside with occasional snow flurries. I don't think I'll hang around long.

Time for another list before I go - I subscribe to http://www.emusic.com/ - one of the few who actually pay for their downloads! Here's the music I've downloaded over the last couple of years:

Arcade Fire - Funeral

Aretha Franklin - Best of

Beck - Modern Guilt

Bert Jansch - The Black Swan

Bjork - Volta

Brian Jonestown Massacre - My Bloody Underground

Cat Power - Jukebox

Eric Burdon - Crawling King Snake

Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)

Graham Parker - Don't Tell Columbus

Ian Hunter - Shrunken Heads

James Taylor - One Man Band

Joanna Newsom - Ys

John Fogerty - Revival

Katie Melua - Pictures (one of my weaker moments!)

Miles Davis - Live at the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival

Nils Lofgren - Sacred Weapon

Nina Simone - Protest Anthology

Otis Redding - Remember Me

Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full

Paul Weller - As Is Now

Pentangle - Early Classics

Pretty Things - Get the Picture

Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

Ronnie Lane - See Me

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Naturally

Thom Yorke - The Eraser

White Stripes - Icky Thump

That's it - I'm off. Tomorrow the audiobooks.

Holidays 2009

Apart from Lucy, nobody else has responded as to their preferred dates to Tenerife next year - hurry up, you lot!

I'm now thinking about our summer trip to the West coast. Possibly fly to Seattle this time, then down to Medford from there. A week in Grants Pass then we all fly from Medford to Salt Lake City for a week there, then back to GP for another week. Return back to Seattle and home. What do you think?

Winter arrives

First morning of frost today - had to scrape the windscreen. In fact, when I drove over the moor towards Garlogie, it was snow in places. Anyway, they say it's good to kill off the germs - and there's an old wives tale in the fishing industry that the sprats don't appear until we get some frost - and the catching season is due to start any day now - fingers crossed.

The collapse of sterling is going to increase our costs when we go to Florida next week - although the golf and accommodation is already paid for - we got an average rate of $1.80 for this, but it looks like we'll be lucky to get $1.50 next week. It's all a far cry from the $2.10 level a year ago when we booked it.

Had a quiet evening last night just watching Corrie - that was after Ross and I had brought up the bottom of the display cabinet from Dad's house. Gary and Ross had brought up the heavier top part on Sunday and we thought that might be OK, but Jo thought it looked like what it was - a top part sitting on the ground - so we've now erected the whole cabinet. It'll help with some of our storage issues - Jo says at least she can put my beer in it!

I've just finished off writing the latest Omnibus of Eastenders on DVD for Lucy, so that's me up to date now. This morning, I'm heading off to a seminar on fraud, hosted by one of the banks.

Camera shy Luca

Gary and Luca did eventually manage over yesterday. The first thing he did was run over to get a book and jump up on his Granny Jo's lap to get her to read to him. I took the camera out to try to get a photo but, as usual, like his mother, he managed to look away every time I clicked. Jo tried to encourage him to smile at the camera and eventually almost succeeded:


More medical news - Jacquie, our secretary, got the all-clear when she had her colonostomy this morning. Now all she has to worry about is when her husband Tom is going to get his triple bypass - he was prepared for it on Thursday morning but they had to cancel at the last minute as there wasn't a bed for him in the ICU - apparently there had been a couple of kids in road accidents and they took priority.

Jo's just back from the hospital - X-ray results in a couple of weeks - but her visit to the Doctor this morning was OK - her cholesterol was a little raised but nothing to get alarmed about. Her ECG results were also fine, although she still has a stress ECG to do.

And I've had my flu jab - ouch!

Hospitalisations could be an interesting list:

1) Medial ligament rupture - 1970

2) Rhinitis -1976

3) Peritonitis and appendectomy - 1977

4) Endoscopy - 1995

5) Cardioversion - 2005

It's only when I write them down that I realise I've had a few incidents - who can beat 5?

Medical week

It's all happening this week - I've got my flu jab this afternoon; Jo was at the Doctor's this morning re her cholesterol - and she's at the hospital this afternoon for the chest x-rays; and tomorrow Gary and Carole are off to Livingston again with little Luca for his next laser treatment.

Good luck to all!

Holiday time - vote now!

We have to decide - when to go to Tenerife? Flights are on Fridays so the choices are:

27th February

6th March (my actual birthday)

13th March (Friday the 13th!)

20th March (Jo's birthday)

Cast your vote now - rank them 1,2, 3 & 4 and we'll work out a consensus from there.

Weekend at home

Well I survived the football on Friday - and managed a few beers in the Douglas afterwards. Brian Fitzpatrick came along for a belated birthday celebration but spent most of the evening texting!

Golf on Saturday was a fun Texas Scramble and we managed a game of doubles later in the afternoon. The weather was not as wild as forecast and certainly not as bad as they seemed to get it in the west. There was some wind blowing the autumn leaves around - and the colours in the trees are fantastic - this is the view from our bedroom:

We were settling down to watch a movie on Saturday evening when Lucy called, so we just had a nice Skype with her instead.

The clocks went back so we had an extra hour to ourselves this morning - and what a glorious day it's been. I had my camera on the golf course with me and intended to take some more photos - I got Syd and Dick to pose then found out I had no battery power!

Gary phoned and apparently he and Luca are on their way here - but they must be running late.

Friday morning

Tired and sore this morning. Last night's gig was excellent but we were standing - I was knackered after it finished. Somehow it's a lot worse standing than walking - I think nothing of walking for 4 hours round a golf course, but I'm not used to standing for over 2 hours nowadays - it's something we used to do at football matches, but no longer in the modern era.


My football blog (http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/) shows some photos and videos of Seasick Steve and his support Amy LaVere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_LaVere), a young double bass playing singer who also appeared on Jools' Later with SS a couple of weeks ago.


Ross was back on to favouring the Lumphanan property again yesterday - until this morning when he spotted this: http://www-r.aspc.co.uk/cgi-bin/public/LiveProperty/267373?ID=MCEJODBF#picture


I've agreed to play football again tonight - and it looks like it will only be 5-a-side (usually 6's) - sounds like hard work to me - hope I survive OK!


I've also bought tickets to see Seth Lakeman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Lakeman) at the Lemon Tree next Thursday - the first time we've been there since it re-opened.


All this talk of gigs reminds me of some of the shows I've seen over the years - so that's the subject of today's list(s). Early live music tended to be at dancehalls - the Beatstalkers at the Mitchell Theatre, Jimmy James & the Vagabonds and Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band at the Maryland in Glasgow in the mid 60's.

In the late 60's we moved in to the rock era -progressive was king those days. Green's Playhouse (which became the Appollo later) was the first to feature "name" bands in a concert hall. I was at the very first gig there, which was The Nice. After that, we went back many times - I can only list those that come to mind today - no doubt there were others. Jo was (a little reluctantly) with me a few times, but mostly it was a lads' night out. Bands were always notoriously late on stage then - they could be 2 hours later than billed and nobody batted an eyelid. Here's the other ones I remember:

Pentangle; Jethro Tull; Chicken Shack; Rolling Stones; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Family; Faces

Check out Wikipedia and/or You Tube if you're curious about any of these names. Some of them I saw several times.

I also remember going to the City Hall in Candleriggs to see Stone the Crows and Rory Gallagher.

When we got married and went to London, regular gig-going wasn't possible, although in the last year we were in Broxbourne, our neighbour Tony and I did go to Dingwall's and the Roundhouse a couple of times and saw Graham Parker, Pere Ubu and Joe Jackson. I also remember brother Barry coming down with his pal, Les and we went to Dingwall's (I think) and saw The Jags - well, with a name like that, we had to go didn't we?

When we moved up to Edinburgh, it wasn't a regular thing either, but I do recall going to see the legendary Bo Diddley with Jo and my American work colleague, Carter, at the Playhouse. I also saw the Specials and Talking Heads - amazingly, the latter 2 bands were on the same bill.

When we moved to Banchory and after a few years when the kids had grown up a bit and the Lemon Tree opened as a new music venue, regular gig-going started again. We've seen loads of acts there and at the Music Hall, and occasionally at the barn-like AECC. The latter venue hosted Radiohead, Bob Dylan and Chris Rea. Lots of the gigs were tribute acts - Bootleg Beatles, Billy Shears Band, Backbeat Beatles, Maximum Who, Australian Pink Floyd Show - and Jimi Hendrix and Small Faces acts too.

There's also some hybrids we've seen - From the Jam didn't feature Paul Weller and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and the Blockheads obviously couldn't feature their long since departed main men. The Animals only featured original drummer John Steel - but it was still a good show.

Probably the best live act was Nils Lofgren who we've seen 3 or 4 times now. We saw a very early version of Texas and also Del Amitri about the same time. Glenn Tilbrook (twice), Julian Cope, Roger Chapman, Billy Bragg, Ralph McTell and Roddy Frame are among the other acts I remember well.

Of course, we've also travelled to Glasgow and Edinburgh occasionally to see name artists like Neil Young and Eric Clapton. Last year, Dave W and I were down in London to see the cricket and took in Lou Reed at Hammersmith, and later in the year went back to Glasgow to see the re-formed Squeeze. The latter gig was at the Carling - a converted old cinema with appalling sound - avoid like the plague. On the other hand, if you ever get a chance to see anyone in Glasgow Concert Hall, take it - good accoustics, viewing and comfortable seating enhanced the experience of seeing BB King and James Taylor there.

A sad experience was seeing Peter Green at the Douglas Hotel in Aberdeen when he had just come back from years in the wilderness - a shadow of his former self. Another venue was Tunnels, where we saw Ian Hunter early this year.

Woodend Barn is a local hall we've occasionally visited - recently Karine Polwart and, next month, Beth Nielsen Chapman.

That's about as far as my memory will take me today, I'm afraid.

Brevity is the soul of ...

Has to be very brief - just back from the Broch and about to head out to Bannatyne's for a short stint. I'm meeting Colin and Jeb for a beer before we go to the Music Hall.

Dave and Doris are getting married tomorrow - after 23 years together! Jo's spent a lot of today - when not blogging - trying to send them flowers.

Ross is looking at a potential cottage in Stonehaven - http://www-r.aspc.co.uk/cgi-bin/public/LiveProperty/267027?ID=MCEJODBF#picture

Haven't had a list for a while - here's a short one - favourite seasons - in order:

Spring, Autumn, Summer, Winter

Back from OT

Was I going up the stairs or coming down? Sorry about the old dementia joke, but that's how I feel after returning from my latest sojourn to Manchester - 2 days after my last.

At least Jo was able to help out with a bit of the driving in both directions - she drove down as far as the Little Chef at Dunblane yesterday and also back from there tonight. It was nice to see Mary and Leo as well - I was late going down so didn't have any time on Tuesday but managed to have lunch with them today.

We also went to see Dad on the way home. There were loads of cars parked at Erskine and we wondered what was going on - it transpired there was a party on the 1st floor to celebrate the 1st anniversary of Erskine Glasgow opening. Of course, Dad was one of the few who didn't want to go - typical! He was seated in his usual position just outside his room at the windows. We managed to get him up but he was very stiff and could barely move. One of the staff encouraged us to take Dad up to the party and we did - but as soon as he got in and saw all the people and the noise and the dancing, that was enough - about turn and back downstairs!

We sat at one of the dinner tables - his usual chair - but he soon made it clear to us that it was time for us to go! Plus ca change. I took this poor quality photo of Jo and Dad with my Blackberry just before we left:

It was the first time Jo had seen Dad for a while - she'll tell you in her blog about how much he has deteriorated - he can barely walk and mostly communicates through noises nowadays. He's safe and well cared for - it's never enough but it's probably the only option we have. I wish it could be different.

Ross went to see another property yesterday - or at least he tried to - the agent never showed at the property in Culter. He's taking his time - quite rightly - and he's enjoying playing games on his new HD 37" TV!

Tomorrow it's another drive - Fraserburgh this time - and then I'm going to the Music Hall to see Seasick Steve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasick_Steve). I first saw him on Jools' Hootenanny last year - and he was back on Later last week. Talk about a late developer! Check out http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pNoPNC3ebYQ.

2nd Monday blog

Forgot to say that Jo and I watched another great movie last night - The Insider - based on a true story of a a senior tobacco company executive who snitched on the industry, resulting in billions of dollars having to be paid out by the tobacco giants. It's from 1999 and stars Russell Crowe, Al Pacino and Christopher Plummer.

I'd almost given up on movie watching - too formulaic and obvious - but my faith has been restored after seeing quite a few decent films in recent weeks and months - mostly on Sky Anytime, which makes viewing a lot easier for us. We recorded it - in case we fell asleep! - so if anyone wants a copy, let me know.

Here's another photo of Dad and I yesterday:

Ross

I think Ross has gone off the property in Lumphanan - too many things not quite right for him. Anyway, here's the video tour:

Ross was developing a sore throat yesterday - hope he feels better today - don't think another dose of antibiotics is a good idea - even if the Doctor allows it.

Jo's blog today will no doubt contain details of the cooker disaster yesterday - but a side effect of that was that power was cut during the recording of Eastenders omnibus - so, sorry, Lucy - only a very abbrievated DVD for you this week!

Old Trafford weekend

Gary and Carole came over and stayed Friday night and we all left Banchory about 8:00 am on Saturday morning. Ross took the first leg down to south of Glasgow - we survived, but it was a close call - especially going over Cairn 'o Mount!

Gary took the next bit down to our hotel at Whittle-le-Woods, near Chorley and we checked in and had a quick pint whilst Carole changed. I decided to drive to the match - I would have a glass of wine and would let the others have their fill.

We parked up and took a few photos - this one in front of the United Trinity - Carole knew George Best and Bobby Charlton, but who was Denis Law?:
Inside the mega-store, Carole posed in front of Wayne Rooney:

I posed in front of my generation of United heroes - and pointed out who King Denis was!:

Inside the corporate hospitality, we had our meal:

Then we took our seats in the stand:

We fought our way out of the post-match traffic and made it back to our hotel in time for a couple of beers before crashing out in our rooms with Match of the Day playing in the background.

I was first up for breakfast - too early as it happens:

The journey north was easy and we made good time, so decided on a quick detour to see Dad. Our visit coincided with his lunch, so it was fairly short:

Back in Banchory, Jo had managed to juggle Luca and Isis OK - although she claims that Isis can open our front door unaided! Luca was happy:

and that's about it - back to work tomorrow and then off to Manchester again on Tuesday. This time, I'm taking Jo to Elderslie/Houston and will pick her up on the way back.

No list today - brain dead!