Scotland. It’s big, there are mountains and lakes* up there, some crazy ass wildlife, lots of single track roads, heavy metal horses, men in those skirty things and wonderful quiet. I know because I done went on my holidays there for a fortnight and saw absolutely shitloads of it.
First stop was Glasgow for two nights, a wonderful, thrustling metropolis which both of my kids fell in love with instantly and where they both now want to study. I loved it too, partly for the art, architecture, ace fooderterias and shops, but mostly because I was able to secretly convene a summit of three of the most influential internet influencers on the planet.
Meeting at the 13th Note on Wednesday night with no advanced publicity, to avoid the inevitable thong throngs of screaming teenage lovelies, myself, Resurrection Jim and HMO met up, got pretty pished and talked shite for hours; not that I was organised enough to take any photos, or anything useful to commemorate what was basically the G12 of blogging. I can’t speak for the others** but I had a wonderfully entertaining time that I really want to repeat as soon as I can. The fact that one of us fell asleep on the train home and almost ended up in England is a secret I will take to my grave with me^.
Then we took off for the lumpy bumpy wet bits of the country, some of which I have known since I was a teenager and others which were new to me. We trekked around, doing mountains, kayaking and suchlike and then ended up in a cottage on a loch in idyllic Shieldaig. Sea eagles, stags, otters, seals, porpoises, starfish and a golden eagle all made cameos in our holiday too.
More importantly than all the sightseeingy stuff I visited the fabulous Union Vinyl in Inverness adding these goodies to the clear vinyl copy of Terry Riley In C that I bought in Mono in Glasgow:
What a wonderful exciting, beautiful, friendly nation! Ah well, back to reality today (3 sad face emojis followed by a dagger one, followed by an angry emoji, followed by beer emojis etc. etc.)
949 Down (still).
PS; Have I missed anything while I’ve been gone?
*the natives call them ‘lochs’, aren’t they just so cute and adorable?!
**mostly because they have those funny Scottish accents that I can’t even do an impression of.
^wild horses could not drag Jim’s name out of me at this point. No, my lips are sealed.
You are the third guy on these blog things I follow that have headed up there to throw the caber. I guess I will have to go and best you guys.
That’s the spirit CB!
While we’re talking everything Scotts, where the heck is that J guy?
Vinyl Daft Dad? Sleeping on a train?
Yeah. Wake the bugger up!
I can see why you had a case of the mondays yesterday – sounds like a fabulous way to spend a fortnight!
It was a great couple of weeks Geoff. Real life is just rubbish in comparison.
I thought that was you in Glasgow- you were in the chip shop queue, in front of me. Guess what? No deep-fried mars bars when it was my turn!
I’ve just spent three weeks on Shetland Chasing Orca. Victoria’s tea rooms on Unst is very nice. Not sure there’s any record shops… perhaps somewhere for you to go into rehab?
Like the Kelpies. They look great at night.
Can’t beat a good deep-fried orca, I reckon.
Isn’t the Mars bar thing a myth? like King Arthur and Brexit?
Naaay, I also had a deep fried Brexit with a pickled King Arthur (supper) that’s with chips.
Lovely place, where I shall be heading once Trump’s mini-me has turned England into slum. And only the Norwegians and Japanese (mostly) still put whales on their BBQ’s – big fuckers me thinks.
Yup, that’s Norwegians for ya.
How you doing by the way?
That is awesome you guys hung out. Sounds like a blast. And Scotland would be a great place to visit someday. Actually all of Great Britain is on my list.
Come on over some time, there must be KISS bootlegs over here somewhere for you to buy.
That would be awesome! I am sure some store has some. It would be fun finding out which ones.
Was that weirdo in the pub you?! I had no idea.
Pah! I’m glad I only wore my second best Fu Manchu t-shirt now.
Oh, that was you? Who was the other guy again?
I was the no trousers dude.
Wow. I thought that was leather.
Too scaly to be leather.
What a thoroughly enjoyable holithing.
I don’t know PXR5. It’s one of the late 70s, early 80s LPs I think? So more rock/punky/direct than the halcyon days of Space Ritual I imagine. Love that ‘In C’.
But what I most envy is the chance to sink a few bevies and talk shite with some of the, er, locals. Cheers!
Cheers Bruce, it was a real blast, much shite was talked (by me at least).
PXR5 is a bit of a more straightforward Quark, so not as interesting but with a few very good moments on it too. It was good to find a copy with the incorrectly, dangerously, wired plug on the back – before it got censored.
Those OH&S dragons!
No fun.
BTW the Terry Riley is a brilliant pressing too. Have just treated myself to a clear vinyl ‘Rainbow in Curved Air’ too.
Gosh I love Rainbow. One of my more experimental posts (that usually don’t work). Still, the perfect blend of composed (or at least planned) Western Art Music and popular culture influences. If someone produced a rainbow coloured vinyl re-ish, I’d line up for that!
Nice. If I ever get over to Scotland, I’d love to attend the G12 of blogging.
You’d be very welcome too.
I’ll take “Places I’d love to visit” for $2000 Alex.
You’d love it Mike, I have no doubt at all.
Nice, you should have crashed HMO’s Scottish Saxon Shrine!
Crusader Crusader Please Take Me With You…
I’m with Bop!
Keep the kids home means more vinyl in the 1537 Man Cave!
I wouldn’t dare, the man carries a war axe with him everywhere!!
Man, I forgot about that!
So I take it you didn’t see the Lakeness Monster. Speaking as a parent with a daughter in University, you may at least want to try and plug your local school. Less money spent on accommodations is more money for vinyl.
Nice vinyl haul. I have a couple of those, but.not that lovely clear vinyl.
As for getting away from it all, and going back to nature with your family, I completely endorse this.
Finally, it is awesome you 3 guys met up. I think the Richter scale must surely have been set off.
P.S. Did you attend the Teenage Fanclub show?
Cheers Bop, there’s no moving them, they just loved Glasgow. Ah well.
We had no idea Teenage Fanclub were on until we got there. We listened to the last three tracks on our way back to our hotel, they sounded great and it was a lovely moment.