Monday, May 29, 2006

The film crew strike back



Film Crew up to something


The Confushian film crew use Upper Parkhead as a surprise location.

Fraser and Karen (the guerrilla Confushian film crew) took us by complete surprise and into mental hostage yesterday by carrying out some extra filming for parts of their “Conspiracy Theory” video (check the Confushian link on the right). Using a mixture of garden equipment, sports cars, trampolines and West Lothian’s ample sunshine the impromptu shoot seemed to go well, I marvelled at the couple’s enthusiasm and creativity while Ali donned her favourite sunglasses and quickly got into the act for a small cameo role. We eagerly await a full viewing of the finished product and of course the red carpet at Cannes next year.

The location shoots also uncovered all sorts of marvellous vegetation in our woods, a million swarming tadpoles, tiny wee fish, oak apples, numerous nettle stings and the added attraction of getting lost in your own backyard (for a few moments). I also got the chance to play the bouzouki badly for all of five minutes while Fraser grinned and stood by.





impossible songs



Crow Wars II (The return of the Jackdaw)

One upon a time in a garden far far away,
Strange alien beasts with black hearts ruled,
But an unlikely alliance of humans and tiewrap is fighting back,
The way of the lacewing, the peanut and the corn,
Shall prevail.
The feeders are stronger, the crows are darker,
The jackdaw cleverer, the food gorged more quickly,
The seeds spilled and upset, the sky torn,
The innocent victims scattered, an apple in the middle,
The crows are six, like black riders,
To curb their obsession, to silence their cackle,
The war returns, the fight continues…

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Nice Horsey






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Three pigeons and Jake the jackdaw.

In the Crow Wars an uneasy truce has been declared. The crows have stopped coming over because we stopped putting out food. I decided today to put some out again, after a week of nothing. I deliberately put something out for the crows and strengthened the feeder for the small birds with cable ties. It seems to be working albeit that the Jackdaw (the real brains in the crow army) is still able to take food from almost anything at any angle. We’re also hoping that the higher insect count (the garden is buzzing) will aid the smaller birds, give them a new source of food and so still keep them coming around.

Nice Horsey

Hopetoun Horse trials are on this weekend. Numerous horses and buggies are clip clopping around at the end of the road as they work up their times for circling the estate. I pulled Ali from the bath in order to see Prince Philip canter by; alas she missed him by two minutes due to wet hair and no clothes. The twins and I stood on the wall high above a deep nettle bed and observed the royal visitor from a few feet driving four of the Queen’s best ponies as friendly helicopters buzzed over our heads.

Popcorn

“Popcorn” is not yet an Olympic sport but I’m sure will be one day. Simply sit in the middle of a trampoline, cross-legged and holding your toes. The other participant / opponent then jumps around you while you try to hold onto your toes. The idea being to last as long as you can without letting go of your ten little pigs. I am easily the best and the current undisputed Upper Parkhead champion. I am also exhausted by the effort.

Friday, May 26, 2006

The secrets of a decent sleep.








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The secrets of a decent sleep in this world.

48 Hour experience.
Just the right amount of alcohol
A conscience as clear as a mountain stream
A day in the garden
A ten mile run
Stuck somewhere and home late due to flight delays
Watching a late film
Watching a late DVD
The 24 Hour experience
Building a shed and cutting your fingers in the process
A hot bath
New clean, comfy cosy sheets
Telling the truth about something
The 12 Hour experience
Cheesy toast with Worchester sauce
Mixing tracks and figuring things
Coming down after a weeks nightshift
Driving home from Bristol
Cleaning out the barbeque
Having friends round
A day in the saddle (cycling)
The 6 hour experience
The thought of a good breakfast, asleep in the fridge.
Two bottles red wine
A Day spent in the sun
A spot of DIY
Achieving something
Not doing anything special the next day.

Rare live snapshot



Ali & John lookalikes...



Rare review.

We don't play live very often so this was fun. Cannons’ Gait 13/05/06 Scott Renton: Impossible Songs are rarely heard live these days, but three songs were administered with the remembered vim and vigour. Nobody Jones got its all-time second airing tonight, a thoughtful rocker centred on an esteemed member of the Edinburgh acoustic community, and which casts the figure into a realm of doubt, uncertainty and darkness- "my fragile world is crumbling", sings Ali? What are you gonna do about it, Nobody?? Airy stuff on the second track, Apple Toast Awakening (??){the song is "Hunter", the correct lyrics are "eyes in the grass, appetites awakening"}, which reminds me of late-period Beatles b-sides, and they took it home with the distinctly personal I Miss That Boy ("No idea we had won first prize until half our lives were missed"). Nice to see them back onstage, what what?

Thanks to Scott R for fulfiling his reviewing duties so well.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

The crow wars carry on




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Saturday evening:

I made a mild curry last night(and can still smell it whisping around in the kitchen today).
Babysat one grandson also along with Guy and Erin and their pizza and Hagen Dass experiments, missed Dr Who; saw the awful but compelling Eurovision contest and a small segment of Big Brother, I found it absolutely nauseating particularly the feasting.
Sunday morning football cancelled, damn!
On the way home the dip on my car’s headlamps failed.
When I got home the phones (internet and normal) had packed in.
Ali and Paul were in deep conversation so I sat in on it and had a beer.
Sleep at 2am.

Sunday morning:

The phones are once again working.
A dead sleep has strangely revived us.
Coffee and some kind of brownie.
Thoughts on parental rights criss cross in the dark along with the super smug Lottery being visibly shaken.
A crow attack occurred. The feeder was knocked down and emptied, the seeds scattered everywhere. In the midst of the carnage the woodpecker returned. In a moment of blind optimism I though I’d put out a single bird fat ball as a test. We shall see. Ali put out some bacon scraps..hmmm.
Burning a batch of OOTB CD4 copies for the launch night at the end of the week.
Shed? (If the rain stays away).

Saturday, May 20, 2006

No shed assembly




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The weather has put paid to the proposed shed assembly.
Lunch happened at about two thirty.
The cat was sitting in the pot of a bamboo plant in the rain.
The blog was given a slight makeover due to some odd piece of corruption.
Recorded a series of crow sounds to add to the (unfinished) crow wars.
Getting used to broadband again after a long period of disconnection.
Far away phone calls are faint and often hard to understand.
Tuna, cannelloni, champagne, wine, chocolate shortbread, bacon rolls.
The lost jotters ideas carry on even into Scott Renton’s OOTB review
My car needs cleaned out, as it smells like a shed due having had a shed in it.
I am babysitting my grandson tonight whilst in Greece the Eurovision song contest takes place.
No TV since the Champions League final.
Many growing things start to grow at this time of year.
A late night discussion on ethics and philosophy but I was really too tired.
Missed Green Wing (happens most Fridays)
A spot of hoovering and dusting followed by R & R.
Some more digital sales recorded.
World Cup predictions continue to be made with almost as many variations possible as lottery numbers.
Noisy dishwasher in the background.
Programming the new phone with a library of numbers.
In this weather people are climbing hills and walking over their tops and summits.
The spongy top from a microphone covered in fluff.
The Angel Conversations take their name from..

New OOTB cd has a marvellous cover.

Launch night is May 26th at the Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh, 7.30/8ish.

Track list:

The Angel Conversations – October
Aaron Wright – Paperclip
POL – Welcome to winter
Indigo Rose – Melancholy Baby
Alex Payne – Autumn Rain
Coke and a Cake – Underachiever
Danny Dyer – Sweet Peace
Eagleowl – Buy my hands
Emily Scott – I lean
Peter Lewis – San Vero
Meursault – Rose
Lisa Paton – Land and sea
Davy Watson – Shoreline
Calum Haddow
Susanna Macdonald – The last song
The Victorians – Naked civil servants

Produced by David Reilly.

The speed of light v the speed of sound (handicap race)
Origami and the art of performance song writing.
Trivial things take up so much time.
What to make for the tea? A nice rhubarb crumble?
Failure? Not likely.
In a few weeks almost everybody will be on holiday.
She was reading the Economist and I was wondering what on earth the Scotland stuff was all about, perhaps a slow news month. Piper up to his waist in a Loch, piper at the gates of dawn, Piper Export (remember?).

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Crow Wars








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The crow wars

As of today (16/05/06) at 18:35 a state of war has been declared between me (me) and the three crows that live somewhere around here over in the trees. These pesky black bullies have for the last three days eaten all the fat balls and knocked down the feeder arm thus denying the little birds essential food. I was prepared to put up with this until this evening. Today (not sure of the exact time) in a final and brutal act of unprovoked hostility they knocked down and broke the wee bird’s feeder thingy.

I am currently trying to fix the damaged feeder.
I am seeking approval from the UN for further action. The use of “scarecrows” has been considered and rejected on the grounds that these crows are too clever. We call upon all peace loving starlings, tits, finches, woodpeckers, sparrows and blackbirds to join us, (not sure where the jackdaws stand on things at this point).

Impossible songs v American Idol Underground

Click to vote for us in this weird American on-line contest and we may win something and we will thank you. The song is “She’s a waitress” from Heartburst, features Ali on vocal and Siggi Richter on piano

http://www.idolunderground.com/Pages/Profile/UserProfile.aspx?UserID=38080

Links that allow you to spend great wads of cash on our songs:

These fine looking stringy links promise to take you away to the noisy, strummy, drummy, hi-fi, lo-fi, singy songy world of iTunes and in particular to places where you can hear and buy our music.impossible songs: scapes

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=4323986

impossible songs: heartburst

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=30954729

impossible songs: (wip) sneakin' out

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=48762067

impossible songs: social enterprise

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=64918911

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Sunshine Optimism








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The phone man comes and finds no fault.

It’s not my fault.

Nobody’s fault.

A multiple of marvellous other faults exist out there in this imperfect world but they cannot be identified or listed or fixed, too bad. Trees come down on cables, lightning strikes, power failures and mismatched components, supply chain problems, conflicting specifications, white noise, grey noise, no noise, just too much trouble all round. No broadband when you live all of ten miles from Edinburgh, out here in the snowy wastes of West Lothian.



Sunshine brings optimism and complaints about the heat (?) and it’s the first few days of May. Only we Scots could think it could possibly uncomfortable at 16oC. Help.

OOTB CD number IV (Volume 4) has turned out rather nice, the usual mix of styles and deliveries and some kind of x factor make it a far more interesting listen than I’d expected (is this sunshine optimism?). If you want a copy it’ll be on sale from 26th May, launch night in the Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh. Details at www.outofthebedroom.co.uk and it will be on sale each Thursday at OOTB, now in the Cannons’ Gate basement. Full production credits rest with Dave Reilly at Crispycat Productions, www.crispycat.co.uk. Oh yeah we’ve still to burn the first few hundred and label them up and so on.

Syrus the cats killing spree continues, so far its four rabbits and one bird in the last few days. I’m a bit worried we may be driven from our home by angry torch wielding locals, unless of course we turn the little killer in.

Impossible Songs’ new recordings are still firmly stuck in the packaging and finishing loop. As usual we’ve no shortage of ideas, which is a problem in itself, maybe something will emerge in a few weeks, (more of the sunshine optimism?). The working title remains “Border Crossing”, I think we are both happy with that and a basic cover concept based on material photographed driving through Switzerland in March.

Diet thoughts: weekends seem to be curry’s and stir fries. Weekdays are pasta, toasties (cheese still figuring highly in the content of whatever it is), bananas, crisps, apples, grapes, chocolate, cakes and bread rolls. Is this healthy? Do I really care?

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Surprise easy access









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Hidden soul

Finding the hidden soul
Beneath the places we could control
Perceiving some deeper soul
Between the spaces and mental folds

Seeing the bigger truth
Pictures painted of something new
Explore a language above the clouds
To realise and have no doubt.

Easy Access?

The pursuit of the elusive broadband connection goes on. Since we left Inchgarvie this holy grail of contact with outside world has been denied to us. Engineers, call centres, mild verbal abuse, strongly worded letters, paying bills (reluctantly), fiddling, twiddling and moving equipment from room to room, new leads, new filters and new contracts have been tried but still that blood green light on the modem wont light up. The fact is the big boys don’t care about a minority of customers who, like us sit at the end of a long line. Our telephone cable disappears mysteriously into the trees across the road never to be seen again. I imagine a family of squirrels hanging out their washing on it, jackdaws cavorting on it, branches rubbing through it’s insulation and rodents gnawing into it’s copper core. We are defeated it seems. Well that’s all I can think while I sit patiently waiting on a visit from yet another BT engineer who is late already (he didn’t turn up).

Today

I wish for rain
The dark torrent from the sky
Again
Sprouts weeds and wash the streets
Fill the pavements cracks and gutters
Drip from windowsills and under
Cars and traffic and splash the world
Clean the breath from my lungs
Taste the chill freshness on the tip of my tongue.


Last weekend...

Cats and rabbits can peaceful coexist under certain circumstances I imagine, but not around here. Syrus has been hunting and has been (as usual) pretty successful. Today at lunchtime he proudly produced a dead baby rabbit, which he proceeded to toss around, cuddle and wrestle with as we looked on, jaws dropping. He was clearly well pleased with himself and showing no remorse removed it from our back door out into some secret place to enjoy as a private feast. Who are we to judge the ways of the wild? Before he came to live with us he allegedly fended for himself for almost a year so finding and finishing off fresh prey is not out with his normal behaviour. At least he didn’t try to put it on the barbeque. (Later in the evening I found another dead rabbit over by the garage, this one was half eaten; clearly Syrus has had a busy day. Whilst neither Ali nor I are completely happy with his behaviour we both see that he is at the higher end of the Parkhead food chain and that what he kills and {mostly} leaves behind will feed a few families of scavengers over the next few days. There is no point in being judgemental towards your pet even when he is exhibiting worrying serial killer tendencies!)

Most of last weekend was been spent building garden furniture. The picnic table turned out to a half-day job, I’ve never seen so many different huts and bolts and combinations of bits. I could have built a decent dune buggy in the same time and with fewer parts. Any way it’s all over now: Goalposts, trampoline, picnic table c/w parasol, swinging bench, barbeque and an ordinary bench all ready for the onslaught of summer. Whatever we all had great fun yesterday in the unfamiliar sunshine messing around in the garden. The kids spent most of the day trampolining and brushing up on football skills while we cooked, read, joined in, watched wild birds and tried to relax, right up until Dr Who came on.

Ali has been experimenting with flavoured water products. Today, as a result of having made an apple crumble (apples, rhubarb, mixed (Christmas fruit), crumble and I’m not sure what) we enjoyed apple peel tea. Boil the apple peel, strain and sieve; add honey, serve and drink. I was quite tasty if a little mild and has potential. I get the feeling that following a series of “tea” experiments something rather good, substantial and hopefully successful will emerge. Ali’s already asking me questions about bottling and preserving – as if I would know.

Still trying to put together a cover concept for the next cd. One question has arisen, “do the lyrics need to be reproduced?” We’ve always kind of felt this was important but I’m not so sure, perhaps it’s better to say less, allow people to listen and draw their own meaning and conclusions from the songs, if they bother to at all. It is certainly true that a part of the cd experience is studying the cover and reading notes and lyrics and checking credits. We have ideas for the visuals but haven’t progressed beyond the early stages; I‘ve not even done a mock up or anything. We are also thinking of using tracks from a remix that Martin is working on so the end product is still a distance away.

Long Weekend (but not long enough)

To switch off for a weekend,
To lose the thoughts and motivations,
On which we seem to depend.
To end.
Some sort of struggle against time,
To give way, stay up, sleep in, relax, unwind.

Because I’m in the same room as you,
When you devour some clever book,
I gain vicarious pleasure and knowledge,
With hardly a second look.

But in my inner strange stillness,
Ideas keep on coming back, the list of things to do,
And think and say, plan and write, read and pack,
Pack more into each uncertain day.
To lead these thoughts astray
To take you far away.
To ride a white horse in this holy mission,
Jumping between straight scientific certainty,
Black arts and modern superstition,
Just a few sparks between, the visible and the unseen.
The things that fall between the cracks,
Covering some unavoidable tracks,
Another weekend left to relax.
Another few hours left to relax.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Some time for summer?








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A sunny Thursday

A grandparent once more; Finlay was born on Monday morning at 3.00am. I left work early in the afternoon and headed up to Banff to visit the new arrival along with my daughter Erin. He did not disappoint (as if he could) and is a fine looking wee chap with a full crop of dark hair. We scoffed a bottle of whisky wetting his head well into the night and returned back here Tuesday. I was a little jaded for the next few hours after the journey and fast food diet but it was worth it.

Busy week of building various garden construction type items, one after another, BBQ, trampoline, swinging seat and then picnic table (yet to be delivered). The West Lothian sun has shone on us from time to time also and has been appreciated. Fruit trees and flowering cherry trees are budding as we race towards May and that strangest of annual phenomenon, the Scottish summer. Optimistically we plan and build in preparation for summer days we hope will dawn in pastel shades of bright and positive whispy light and waft us gently back to some forgotten time where life was more straightforward, things were affordable and we were in control; generally this is set sometime in the seventies if you’re my age. You never know, like a Lottery win, when a decent summer will come along, 2006 perhaps?

The cat stayed out all night to explore the still woods and dark pools of hedges and vegetation that surround the house. His adventures go undocumented and unknown to us and are because of that slightly intriguing. I just hope he didn’t have a go at the staggering (literally) rabbit population that hobble around the garden. There was I’m glad to say no outside evidence of death, destruction or any other animal mayhem that I could find. When Ali let him back in at about six this morning he immediately fell asleep and appeared to remain so all day. Cats seem to have life sussed and it’s certainly not fair to describe them as “furry snakes with legs”, they are something altogether more special.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Hey Mr Trampoline Man








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Building a better trampoline.

It’s not every Saturday that you have to stay in and wait for the delivery of a trampoline, in fact it has never happened to me before until today. We got the usual phone call from the delivery driver asking for directions, this has become a regular and expected occurrence and they are generally in a housing estate in South Queensferry when they call and are disappointed to find that we are at least five miles away and completely in the sticks. So much for sat nav and postcode navigation (our post code covers about twenty square miles).

Ali had ordered the trampoline on line a few weeks ago and not being a trampoline expert was surprised at the relative weight and size of the boxes we now had, they were big and heavy. After cutting the banding around the boxes I picked out the instructions. These mainly consisted of warnings about using trampolines when taking drugs, being pregnant or drunk and using it near fences or swimming pools. There also was advice on jumps and posture and also how not to break your neck (or any innocent bystander’s neck). The Simpson’s trampoline episode was at this point flashing back vividly to me. I finally got to the assembly instructions and picked out the key phrase “Easy assembly by two adults in one hour, wear gloves to avoid hand injury”. I knew then I was in for a fun afternoon. Ali was grinning broadly obviously happy to see that the “small” trampoline had turned out to be something that would have been at home in the ring of Billy Smart’s Circus.

I addition a large safety net had arrived, this was in a box bigger than the trampoline, clearly more ex-circus equipment now destined for the garden. Next step was to lay a number of pieces of scaffolding on the grass and then piece them together, this I did with surprising ease and soon had the whole frame structure built. At this point my oldest son Jonny arrived with his wee lad Elijah, a fine opportunity for them to witness the old man struggling with yet another self assembly project, however on this occasion there was to be no ritual humiliation for me. Ali and I were in good form and soon had the base and jump mat and springs all ready to go, and it worked. We all bounced around for a while and then retired for a late lunch which had a very high cheese content. We have fridge full of leftover cheese(s) as a result of a party last week, so every meal now has a yellow / orange tinge to it, whatever it is, (Cheese curry anyone?).

We sat around the table discussing “Lost”, architecture, doctor’s salaries and football while the toddler explored the kitchen opening every drawer and inspecting the contents carefully. Then it was back to building the safety net. This vast structure stands about ten feet tall and surrounds the trampoline, effectively preventing you from falling from a great height as you bounce. This stage of assembly was much more muddled than the previous one as the wind had picked up, the net part was blowing all over the place and I had mistakenly started fixing it at the wrong place. Finally we got it right and bounced some more in this much safer, netted and almost tented environment. I realised that on my highest bounce I could see right over the gamekeeper’s house, out towards the river and Fife. I may not need to chop down any of the bushes and trees that obscure our summer view now; all I need to do is bounce. It was about then the rain began and I returned to the kitchen to check the football results and try to concoct something original but with a high cheese content for tea.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Lucky Cats









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Another Tuesday

Comes around. Party leftovers form the basis of tea for Ali and I, the kids enjoy (and they do!) my usual pasta concoction, they also eat all the strawberries. The party leftovers leave me feeling a little queasy but I ignore the warning signs. I also eat a little too much Easter egg. The postman brings a cd with ten new mastered tracks of ours from Martin in Germany. A kind of sweaty and uncertain anticipation has arisen in me before its arrival and more so now it is hear. Will it sound like it sounds inside my head, will it be ok, and can I actually be objective enough? A scramble to convert the MP3s and Wavs to something listenable on our stereo. This is not helped by the late hour, episodes 7 –15 of “Lost series 2” arriving on DVD and various domestic issues bumping into one another. The songs however are all there:

I miss that boy – this is good and as I remember it.
Rainbow – good with a nice injected synthesised flute part.
Not pretty – had to listen a few times but I’m getting there.
Old enough – needs more guitar parts and I need some ideas.
Whispers – Jury out.
Tragedy queen – more MOR than I really expected but Siggi’s keyboard foundation is a welcome bonus.
White and red – see “old enough”.
Nobody Jones – probably just right.
Hunter – again quite different from what I thought we were playing but I think it will grow on me.
God bless the witch – needs some work but has a lot going for it.

The tracks all sound very bright and loud, something I didn’t quite expect. Now I need to develop and work on a few little fillers just to bridge some of these tracks and we need to cement set the whole thing into some kind of decent landscape. Looking at a 37 minute cd at the moment. Thank you Martin for another fine piece of work and a pretty quick turnaround.

Prepared and despatched two demo cds for the good people running the Knockengorroch Festival to consider, dates are in September and there are spaces in the programme somewhere. At the moment we are planning to bring along Mobil (Martin’s band from Germany), possibly sharing a stage and generally set to have a good time. One demo is a 3 track Mobil blues type taster; the other is impossible songs and features two of the above list and an older song. Just trying to mix old, new and song styles so we get a fair hearing, we are hoping for the best.

The to-do list in my head is not getting any shorter, it is not getting edited or refined and a log jam of things, ideas and general pulp is building up in there. I think I need to go outside for a while and water the plants.
A new arrival in the garden. “Woody” a brilliant looking woodpecker. Ali sent me an excited text about this itinerant wood butcher on Saturday when I was up in Macduff; I’ve now seen him (or her) three times, always acting unlike a woodpecker by dangling on the feeding “fatballs” pecking for all he’s worth. On a sad note I also saw a blind rabbit staggering around, not a good sign for the general health of the local rabbits who we still like and would encourage even if they eat our fresh new plants.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Thursday as usual









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Thursday

Woke up groggy with a few mild cold symptoms. They did however move on remarkably quickly though current levels of vim & vigour not running high. Work was nothing special, left the office at 0930 in a rainstorm in order to pick up the children. Next some Easter egg dropping and some supermarket shopping with the addition of my older daughter. Apples, strawberries, cooked ham, flowers and Easter bits and pieces, she bought a shed load more. All the shopping was done remarkably quickly but I feel I don’t really ever pay attention to detail, there is so much stuff that I just don’t like or have no interest in. Traffic queues are mad on the way home but thankfully all going in the other direction – high winds on the bridge. Arrived home to find that the house painter has managed to lock us out by using some other lock on our back door, one I never use, the cat joins us in the car as we await rescue. The estate office bale us out, the painter returns, paints a little and I make lunch. Ali texts me showing some concern about the foot (feet) picture on yesterday’s blog, I explain and wonder what she has been thinking, then I think I am thinking what she has been thinking, then I forget all about it. After lunch I dig a hole and plant a large shrub that Ali bought on Sunday. It has been blowing over in it’s pot everyday and was beginning to look distressed; now it is rooted in. For most of the afternoon we watch pop videos and I read the List. Red Mustang is nice, good to have. The Nintendo is taking a hammering on Tony Hawks; this is possibly due to the previous three days of snowboarding that the kids have enjoyed. Burgers for tea and rather fine oven chips and two glasses of red wine. The cat meanders in and out enjoying the open house. Have a few daydreams about going to France or running some kind of vague business that does nothing much, isn’t to taxing but still makes money. TV moments: Chilli Peppers new video is fun. Various cartoons, one with a really funny cat in it. The Simpson’s, lots of nice little adult gags in tonight’s episode. My name is Earl. Leonardo Da Vinci. The Last Supper: The Apostle John is not John, that is definitely a woman, what is everybody thinking? I light a log fire, first time, these logs are ok, superior to the previous batch, thank you nearby farm shop. Why on earth should there be a difference? I remember that this morning I was supposed to give Ali a PA lead from the gig case for tonight’s OOTB last ever Waverley night which will have just started, oops. Gave in and ate a Twix. Put a new set of strings on my resonator guitar, usual teething and tuning problems follow, funny how they are never right (new strings that is) on the day you put them on. Back to thinking about different song mixes, I really need to get down to some work on this, I also need to pick out a couple of tracks for demos one we get some of our newer material back from Martin. AC/DC, Iggy Pop, Run DMC and Will Smith. Pick two little black bugs from the cat's ear as he lounges around on the couch, he promptly gets up and goes back outside, no doubt to collect a few more, such is the cycle or circle of life. Easter egg pyramid, broken headphones on the MP3 player, kids voice activated money safes are opening easily these days, not much money in them. Tomorrow’s breakfast.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Wednesday as usual










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Wednesday

In no particular order. The day when the painter didn’t come, for the third time. I dug a hole one-foot square in the garden for the birthday present apple tree (Granny Smiths or Cox?). A familiar Simpsons episode was aired. The queues on the Forth Road Bridge were long in both directions but I sneaked up on the last ramp, stayed on the outside lane and sailed into the Tesco car park. I ate four small chicken drumsticks at lunchtime. I brought together some strands of our BCP and mean to do more work on it next week. I wrote a long report about something and realised that I tend to defend people’s actions even if I dislike them myself. I find it too easy to see the others’ point of view. I skimmed two newspapers. My mother told me that Marks and Spencers were in deep trouble and then I showed her that in fact they’d had their best year in the last three. I felt guilty but right to do it. I let the cat out. I drank two glasses of red wine. I browsed on some employment agency websites in an absentminded kind of way. I tried to figure out a dumb song arrangement for next weeks OOTB (say hello). I heard an old Monkees track on the radio. I bought six white tulips. When driving into work I picked the fastest toll line but switched over from a Spencer Davies track to the news on Radio Scotland. I thought about going out at lunchtime but didn’t bother. I looked back into an old 2002 diary to check some dates and felt odd doing it. If honey is an analgesic how come bees don’t act stoned all the time, or do they. Are bees the hippies of the insect world? I hurried putting the shopping away as it’s something I don’t like doing. Two suits of mine need to go to the cleaners soon. I did the Keith Football Club predictor by email as usual, the jackpot is up, if I win it I’m sharing it with my son. I saw a baby rabbit by the fence and the old tenant of this house in her Citroen 2CV. Tomorrow I have to go into work for 45 minutes. Easter egg selections are dull. I wrote down the email address of the fete de la musique event in June. I ate heated up shrimp stir fry for tea. The sun shone for what some would describe as sunny periods. Usual dial up problems, missing broadband but not Wanadoo.


Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Sponge Cars

















Ali in a non-sponge Chevrolet Whale c/w friendly Trio.

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Sponge cars

Why don’t they make cars out of sponge rubber? Why not keep all the interior, engine and chassis bits but coat the exterior in thick sponge? What an idea. Crashes could be fun – of a kind; pedestrians would be relatively safe, small animals too and parking lot bumps and scrapes would hardly matter and it would wash itself (?). Who has ever been killed by a sponge travelling at 70 miles per hour? Perhaps I am missing some vital thing here in terms of the laws of physics and mechanics (I have some qualifications) but it would hardly be a backward step. The foam could still be sculpted to produce all the pleasing lines and features that the pubic think they want (the car companies decide these things anyway – not us) and let’s face it anything would be better than some of the dumb SUV and saloon designs that litter and pollute the driveways and streets of the nation.

DIY Dentistry










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Do it yourself dentistry.

Over the past few days I’ve struggled with a stubborn crown that has refused, despite all sorts of persuasion to remain in its rightful place, namely in my mouth (upper level). Monday was the last straw as it worked itself loose and fully clear of its gummy metal root while I was enjoying the sinful pleasure of a simple Scottish meat pie. Since we returned from Germany last week (where the hard but tasty bread rolls inflicted untold damage) I have been valiantly sticking the errant crown back in place using the traditional method of super glue and cotton buds. This makeshift and quite pleasing solution does at times result in having a cotton bud stuck to your teeth but still works, for a while. I’d already lost it to a cheese and salami roll that Ali had made on Sunday and also to a vigorous tooth brushing session (which I thought it would appreciate). Anyway I gave up yesterday, went commando and so spent most of my time not smiling, not talking and not showing any significant sign of facial expression. The strain began to tell and I eventually cracked and reached for the phone and called a proper dentist. Today a ten-minute visit to the same dentist solved the problem, for the time being anyway. I have a feeling that, after six years or so my body is rejecting the crown and in a few months time its fate will be sealed and it will be replaced by a bright, shining handsome new bridge, once I can get the funds together.