Would The Last One Out Turn The Lights off....

Jeez, I think I just woke the neebours! I was sittin surfin the net, and as I do, I picked up the guitar, switched on my amp and started playin with my headphones on. Now of course, with it bein a pre-amp/transistor cabinet combo, the headphone socket isnae a break jack, and you have to turn the volume down completely so that the only output is through the headphones, but dumbass here put the headphones on first, so all I heard was what was coming out the headphones, and I was blissfully jammin away for 20 odd minutes at 1 in the morning not realising that the main volume was still up. OOOpssss. I'm sure I'll not be popular in the morning....Mind you, it somewhat serves them right as I've lost count of the times when I've been on late or night shifts and they play really loud music rediculously early in the morning, or that damn dug of theirs that wont stop barking when it's started, no matter the time. Nevertheless, as much that I feel like a bit of a twat, I'm sure all the bad karma I've just received has already been negated by all that other stuff that's entailed in being their neighbours! That's what I'm hoping anyway........

On another subject, I was really sad to see the end of Top Of The Pops the other night. It's an institution, and whilst I can't say that I've ever religiously watched it, I hate to see the end of institutions. It's like the end of eras. It's only been going since the 1960's and to see it cancelled, no matter how crap it was, or how many kids weren't watching it any more, is a real wrench. Every music artist wanted to appear on TOTP. It was the law. If you wanted a hit, you'd have to go on TOTP. No TOTP, no hit. It's like the grand archive of musical history from the 60's right through till now, and I'm glad that they've got it. I count myself lucky to be able to say that I worked on it for a very brief period of time, but that doesn't counteract the feeling of emptiness that comes with the end of things. Why does it have to be the end?????

Ride Across The River

The story goes like this...At the beginning of 5th Century AD, St Mungo left Culross in the Kingdom of Fife and set out for the West Coast. On his way he met an old man named Fergus, but Fergus was sick and died soon after. Mungo took his body and placed it on a cart pulled by two bulls. He said 'Wherever these bulls should rest, I will build my church.' The bulls stopped by the Molendinar Burn, a tributary of the river Clyde, and Mungo called this place Glasgu, meaning 'The Dear Green Place'. And there he built Glasgow Cathedral, the mediaeval version of which still stands today, with St Mungo's remains laid to rest inside.

Far Be It From Me To Disappoint....

Unfortunately I don't yet have any pictures from the wedding, but this was taken shortly before, and incase anyone thinks I'm about to do a dance or something, I'm not. The neighbour's dug caught a glimpse of me through the hedge and made a snarling run for me, so I'm about to make a sharp exit stage right....

The Old Man And The Sea

I know I've not posted in ages, but it's been a really busy month, and I have a lot to talk about.

The wedding was a fantastic day. It was a really hectic period of time. There were a whole bunch of people of varying nationalities staying at the big yin's flat so she was displaced to mine and there had to be a whipround of everyones spare bedding to make sure the guests were reasonably comfortable in her wee flat. The big yin's new sister in law is Danish so her family had all come over - her dad and stepmum sailed all the way here in their yacht.

I had been asked if I would do the wedding video. When you work in the media, no matter what area of the media you work in, other people always assume that you are an expert at operating a camera. Can i just say that this is a fallacy. I'm a sound mixer. I don't do cameras. However, I obliged, but I have to say, I was really nervous about doing it. I don't really remember a lot about the day as I busied myself running round, getting cutaways, recording messages from tables of guests to the happy couple and basically trying my best to catch everything that moved. Even through the lens though, I could tell that it was turning out to be a fantastic day. The only blip occurred during the ceremony when the registrar asked the groom 'Do you take this man'....whoops. There was much laughter and the groom was heard to ask the bride if there was something she wasn't telling him? It was a scorching day and when we moved inside the hotel for the ceilidh the temperature went through the roof. Between filming and getting dragged up almost constantly to dance I ended up suffering from heatstroke!

The following day the various family members went up to Loch Lomond for a barbeque which I ducked out of as I was still feeling ropy, and the groom managed to lose his wedding ring whilst swimming in the Loch. How unlucky was that????

On Saturday we went back down to Troon to go sailing with the Big Yin's brother and new wife on her dad and stepmum's yacht. We took the boat right out into the firth of Clyde and started fishing. I've never been fishing before, as I'm not really the outdoor adventure type, but I have to say, I found it to be really relaxing. I thought that the chances of us catching anything was really slim, unless we got an old boot/shopping trolley/radio antenna of her majesty's ballistic missile submarine Vanguard.....
We ended up between the five of us that were fishing catching 14 mackerel, and that's not counting the many little ones that we threw back in. Then us boys took turns to pilot the boat back into harbour. It was a fantastic day, made all the more special by seeing seals and porpoises frolicking in the water on the way back to shore, oh, and I got a bit of sunburn for my troubles an all!

After all of this, we've been invited to go to Malaga in Spain with the happy couple and some friends in September, so that the burds can go scuba diving, and me and the big yin's brother can sit in the pub.....Ok, more like outside of the pub.... Sounds like a real plan, but it's gonna be difficult to get the leave from work. I've put it in, but they're procrastinating, which makes me suspect they're gonna turn my request down. I'll be so peeved if they do.

I'm there in my mind already.