Blog Apathy
A ‘Bad Thing’ I am guilty of.
I have 3 draft posts, unfinished and therfore, unpublished.
Hail Caledonia
Another holiday weekend over.
Good Things
- Loch Lomond
Spent the weekend at Inveruglas. Typical Scottish weather – sunshine and showers, but then it’s thousands of years of that weather that made the scenery. And the view was just a bit special.
Loch Lomond taken from Inveruglas
And all this just 45 minutes from Glasgow.
- Oban
I’m somewhat ashamed to say that my first visit to Oban was this holiday weekend. Three sunny hours is not a long time to make a judgment about the place but certainly worth a weekend break in the future.
Bad Things
- One again it’s the Virgin Mobile call centre.
I’m not sure exactly where it is; I have heard it may be Bombay.
Suffice to say it was just so much easier switching to Vodafone.
Where Is Magnus Magnusson?
Six weeks since the last post!
So this will be really just be an update on the previous item ‘Birdsong and Free Goldfish’
First off the ‘Good Things’ update
- The extension is not finished. This was blatant over optimism to say the least. Unfortunately the kitchen fitters seem to suffer from the same affliction. Oh for the Icelandic endeavor of Magnus Magnusson, ‘I’ve started, so I’ll finish’
- Rubble?
Builders rubble, kitchen rubble – my nickname should be Barney - Staropramen – Well obviously that’s finished. (About the only thing that is)
And the ‘Bad Things’ update
- George Foreman is taking a back seat.
The kitchen may not be finished but we do have ovens. Just need to work out the instructions. - Middle Age
Fully five weeks for the effect of that little fall to wear off. Maybe I should call it Old Age. - Free Goldfish
BEWARE OF FREE GOLDFISH! - This suicidal scrawny demon of the deep took out himself and Bully while we were away on a week’s holiday. Never go by first impressions – he had obviously been trained in the cool running streams of Northern Afghanistan.
A fish bowl looks empty with just air in it. 
Birdsong and Free Goldfish
Good Things
- Builder says the extension will be finished next week.
Thank God!
(See Bad Things) - Cleared a space in the builders rubble and lay in the sun on Saturday afternoon.
Not the most congenial of surroundings, but if you closed your eyes and tuned into ‘Birdsong’ on DAB radio, you could have been lying anywhere. - Drinking chilled Staropramen in the rubble
Bad Things
- Eating out of a microwave and a George Foreman grill for a month (probably more)
This genuinely isn’t a Good Thing. - Middle Age
I don’t know at what age you should start becoming unsteady on your feet and start falling in the street (and I mean when sober), but I made an impressive start last Monday. Outside the pub – of all places. Went down like an elephant that’s just been shot – you know, the slow motion thing. Twenty or thirty years ago you’d have shrugged this off and been back on your feet in no time. Not any longer. And doesn’t it take longer to get back to normal? The aches are still there a week later. - Free Goldfish
I won’t go into the details of this, suffice to say it was a Buy One Get Two Free sort of deal. Anyway there was a ‘free’ one spare, so it is now sharing the big bowl with Bully. Now this fish was ‘free’ for a reason. It has to be the poorest looking specimen I have ever seen (although I heard the second of the ‘free’ fish has since expired). What’s the betting this little scrawny little minnow will last forever?
Eurobysmal Song Contest
Good Things
- Nacho Novo gets caught at last
Well, the wheels all but fell off the Rangers bandwagon. I remain impartial as to whether or not this is a ‘Good Thing’.
What is good is that Senor Novo finally got caught doing what makes him so popular with football supporters of the non-Rangers variety.
- Australian street entertainer in Buchanan St, Glasgow on 17 May
Bad Things
- Eurovision
This had to be the worst one ever. Blame it on political voting if you like (and there was plenty), but the United Kingdom deservedly finished 25th out of 25. Only Bosnia Herzowhatever brought a smile to the face.
Poor stuff all round and a waste of a Saturday night.
Little wonder Tel is considering giving it up. - Working on a holiday Monday
Ghost Town
Seems like my office will be deserted tomorrow – apart from me that is.
Keep getting emails like this:
‘Due to an important meeting scheduled in Manchester tomorrow I will be out of the office all day.’
‘Is this the same meeting that I’m scheduled to be at too?’
Nice work if you can get it.
Oops! Here’s another:
‘OFFICIAL UEFA HOLIDAY – I’m off on holiday until Friday’
Unfortunately this means no Buzzword Bingo for a couple of days, and I’m only waiting on four for a full house:
- ballpark figure
- bring it to the table
- think outside the box
- take it to the next level
How will I survive?
Typical Friday
No Good Things Bad Things today
1.30pm
Five o’clock draws nearer but in keeping with Glasgow tradition the weather has broken after a week of hot sun. Typical wet weekend coming up I fear. So no change there.
Apologies to Agenda in Battlefield for being less than complimentary a few posts back. We spent a pleasant hour there on the holiday Monday, sitting in the sun sipping Gin and tonic and Strongbow cider. Strongbow because they don’t sell Magner’s, just that Bulmer’s rubbish (the Grolsch of the cider world).
I’m still only giving them a 5/10 as there were more than a few complaints about the waiting time for food.
On the plus side our local, The Bank, now sells Estrella (the beer of Barcelona).
On the minus side £2.90 a pop is steep.
1.50pm
Stopped raining.
What are the odds of the sun coming out?
Glenluce
Good Things:
- Holiday weekends
- Portpatrick
- Crown Hotel
(Spot the writer)
Never really been a great fan of the Crown but couldn’t complain this time. - Becks Beer
Bad Things
- Waterfront Hotel
Always quite liked the Waterfont. I would say the service was atrocious but there wasn’t any service at all. Spot all those empty seats outside (empty inside too). No way to run an establishment. - Glenluce
Not really a ‘Bad Thing’ but it is a little run down
What was once the Glenluce Hotel and below is Glenluce main street at 8 on a Friday night.
Good weekend nevertheless.
Almost Eurovision
I’m devoting this post to just one good thing.
Good Things:
- Sarajevo – Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision
If you missed this at the King’s Theatre you missed a treat
On the night Estonia took the honours with a song called ‘Together Again’ performed admirably by Toomas Jerker and the Stone-Hard Boys.
Estonia’s favourite son, Toomas Jerker rose to national prominence in the former Soviet Union after he was awarded the coveted “Strongest Soviet Singer (Youth)” back in 1987. Soon after, Toomas carved a career in entertaining for the military and at only nineteen was invited to perform for Gorbachev himself, whilst the former leader was under house arrest. After he had so openly aligned himself with Gorbachev in 1991, the former Soviet Republics turned on Jerker as the Soviet Union collapsed. After years of rumour and speculation about his private life, Toomas Jerker made a welcome return to pop in 2002 after he released his acclaimed comeback single “Glasnost Got Me Good!”.
I rather enjoyed the Greek song ‘Oh Aphrodite’ by Persephone.
The tears were rolling down my cheeks at the start of this.
Like her namesake from Greek mythology, the artist known only as Persephone is a creature of both light and darkness. Did she rise like Venus from a scallop shell with the ocean foaming around her knees? Was she a princess abandoned on a Greek island to be raised by humble goatherds? Could she be a spy in the international house of love? Because the truth of the matter is that she was born to a family of fishmongers and studied to be a secretary in Athens, she prefers these questions to be asked and remained unanswered. It was an unexpected win at a karaoke competition on Mykonos that propelled her into the glamourous role of representing Greece in this year’s event. First prize was in fact to become the Greek representative, an honour that intimidated many of the country’s better known performing artists. Persephone’s naïveté and humility are qualities she might convince the more gullible of her audience members to believe in but few could ignore the passionate temptress that lay simmering underneath the surface of her innocent exterior.
Much better than the real thing and all suitably hosted by Sally Lindsay and Craig Hill as Boyka and Sergei.
Bad Things
- None
