Gold In Them Hills

Scottish hillwalking in February can be a bit hit-or-miss. I've been lucky to catch a few nice patches.


Loch Lomond countryside from the Kilpatrick Hills


Grave of Rob Roy, Balquhidder


View near Kirkton Glen

Cold, windy, often wet, but life affirming.

Tsunami Benefit Concert - SECC, Glasgow

Just got back from my first gig of 2005. And how's this for a line-up?

• Deacon Blue
• Mull Historical Society
• Mogwai
  
• Belle and Sebastian
• Trashcan Sinatras
• Teenage Fanclub
• Travis
• Idlewild
• Franz Ferdinand
• Eddi Reader
  
• Texas
• Snow Patrol

Amazing talent, and all Scottish to boot. Great vibe, great tunes, and all for a great cause.

Tear To A Glass Eye

Overnight I've gone from an old clunker of a PC with Windows 95 and dial-up Internet to a souped-up PC with Broadband. One word: result.

Homecoming

After a read through the blogs of Mike and Drew, I realised I haven’t mentioned my return trip home yet. I don’t suppose there is any point in getting into details as the folk who read this will likely be the same folk who I would have spending the time with anyway. By the way – love the idea of the nostalgia photo album Mike. Alas many of my best pics are back in Burlington, but shall see if I can get someone to scan some for me.

In a nutshell, it was a truly excellent return. Fiona hadn’t been back to Canada for over two years, and in all her time there she had not experienced a proper deep freeze. No longer. Several days of minus 40 with the windchill. The kind of days where you breathe in and your nostrils stick together. All that, plus a few days of freezing rain and some serious snow coverage. Oh Canada!

Caught a brilliant Stars concert. A band so good that they should be huge, but glad they’re not – it’s nice to be part of a sizeable but still exclusive group of fans.

An excellent time spent with family. Great meals, wine and chat with the parents and fun catching up with my two brothers.

Managed to catch up with most (but unfortunately not all) of the Toronto folk. Fun night out at C’est What. Thanks to Steve and Rachel for putting us up (and putting up with us!) while in town.

A great road trip to Ottawa. Excellent to catch up with all the boys, complete with a New Year’s at Mike’s cottage and drinking at Zaphod’s.

All three weeks peppered with a healthy serving of Mom’s home cooking and a more than healthy serving of Keith’s and Moosehead (in bottle, pint and even the much-missed pitcher).

You always know how good a trip is by how hard it is to leave, and while of course it was nice to get back to normalcy, it was tough to say goodbye again. I may be living in Scotland for the time being, but being back home really hammered home the old cliché – “You can take the boy out of Canada, but can’t take the Canada out of the boy”.

On The Road Again

So, I bought a car. My first actually. I'd never had the need for full-time access to a car before. But the time finally came.

When I first started working in Fife, I found that with the hours I was working it would be easier to get a flat near work. And so I lived in Inverkeithing for a full year. No regrets - I've met some great people here and had some great nights out. My PS2 also helped pass the time. But by autumn last year I found I was working normal hours and really didn't need to stay in Fife anymore. Quite frankly, I was getting a bit bored of the same old and decided I would rather commute from Glasgow.

I first had to switch my Canadian licence to a British one. Second, find a used mid-sized car with automatic transmission, something easier said than done since the vast majority of cars here are standard transmission. The hardest part though was getting a loan to buy the car and insurance coverage. My previous credit and driving history don't count here so I was starting from scratch. It is very disheartening getting rejected again and again for loans, and getting quoted exorbitant rates for insurance.

After some perseverance (and with a little help from some good people), I finally managed to get it all sorted. I'm now commuting to work from Glasgow with my first car - a blue Ford Focus (that has yet to be named - suggestions welcome).

And of course I'm driving on the left-hand side of the road. The "drive on the left" song (courtesy Kevin) certainly came in handy the first few days!

Breaking the Routine

While a day of meetings is not normally high on my fun list, this particular day of meetings was held out of the office. More specifically at a small hotel located in the Highland town of Pitlochry. A beautiful drive through some stunning landscape, a bit of business chat for part of the day, and then a nice walk through town. There was even the chance to see the Fish Ladder which was built to allow fish to go around the dam to spawn upriver. Cool concept, but alas no fish climbing this time of year!

Burns Night

Today is the birthday of the legendary Scottish poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796). He wrote poetry by the common man for the common man, and for that reason his work still resonates today. Burns Night commemorates all things Burns, and the highlight for many is the Burns Supper, featuring song, food, drink and poetry. Alas, I won’t be attending a full Burns Supper this evening, but shall be having a traditional haggis meal at home. So, a wee excerpt from Burns’ “Address to a Haggis”:

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

Caledonia Calling?

"The most powerful Atlantic storm to hit Scotland in more than a decade" - The Herald

"The worst sustained two weeks of weather ... seen in 20 years" - The Scotsman

Gales rattling my windows, rains soaking me to the bone, and possibly the worst week of commuting ever with cancelled trains and late buses galore.

It's good to be back!

The Journey Home

After nearly two years, I will shortly be boarding a plane to make my return trip to Canada (after a detour and long layover in Amsterdam). My adrenaline is running high at the moment – mostly from excitement to see friends and family again, but also due to the fact that it has been an extremely eventful last few days.

I’ve now moved out of Inverkeithing and have made a full-time return to living in Glasgow. This means I have committed to purchasing a car sometime in the New Year and start commuting. Currently I’m using a combination of bus, train and lifts from various generous workmates to get to and from work. It takes a long time, and it requires getting up very early. I’m very tired. The 3am rise to get to the airport tomorrow will not help.

I’ve had some serious ups and downs dealing with the British Work Permit and Immigration people. That will be a story for another day. Bottom line is that I will be back to Scotland in 2005 and able to work (eventually...).

I’ve attended my last UK concert for 2004. I went to see Morrissey again, this time at the SECC in Glasgow. I couldn’t resist – he’s the man.

I’m not packed so it will be a stressful scramble to get things sorted tonight. But it won’t be long before I’m sipping a pint of Keith’s and eating KD. It is going to be an eventful 20 days, and I can’t wait. See you on the other side of the ocean!

The Build-Up Lasted For Days

When it comes time to someday leave Scotland, one of the things I will miss the most is the sheer quantity and quality of concerts that can be found at any point throughout the year. The last few months of 2004 have been especially good...

“But I can't stop listening to the sound/Of two soft voices mended in perfection” – Kings Of Convenience, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

Quiet is the New Loud and Riot on an Empty Street are two of the best albums I’ve bought this year. I think we knew from the beginning that this show was going to be special. Eirik from KOC came out first to welcome us and to introduce their support act (Call and Response, a Cocteau-esque band who were quite good) which was refreshingly classy. In the cosy confines of Queen's Hall, KOC’s live interpretation of their music was divine. I mean, it was perfect. The vocal and guitar harmonies were exquisite. The banter between Erlend and Eirik was wonderfully witty (and somewhat unexpected considering the melancholy of their music). And the whole vibe of the show was so warm and fuzzy – I can’t think of another way to describe it. I’ve seen a lot of amazing shows this year, but the boys from Norway put on the concert of the year this night. Sounds like the Scotsman agrees.

Robin Guthrie, The Arches, Glasgow

The Cocteau Twins are one of the all-time greatest bands, and a big part of that can be attributed to the guitar soundscapes created by Robin Guthrie. A shame this show was late Sunday after a long weekend, because my alertness was not quite where it should have been. This was an instrumental set done to film. Probably a wee bit too experimental for my tastes, but great to see the man do his thing in person nonetheless.

“You could have one day of pure and simple happiness” – Scissor Sisters, Barrowlands, Glasgow

Flamboyant costumes, songs about drag queens and “queers on the piers” and two giant dancing scissors on stilts. Not an obvious recipe for one of the most successful bands of the years, but there you have it. And with music sounding like a blender mix of classic Elton John, the Bee Gees and 70’s disco, also not an obvious recipe for music I should like. But I do. And how. To go mainstream and get Glaswegian hardmen dancing to the campiest music I’ve heard – that right there is the epitome of cool.

“It’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans” – Keane, Barrowlands, Glasgow

It may not be cool to say it, but I love Keane. I love the music, the voice, the sentiment of the lyrics. But the fans have changed. To be fair, not changed, but expanded. When last I saw them, it was 500 people who really cared about the music. This time it was 2000+, but many of them seemed to be there for the hits and the pints. They were quite happy to chat and throw said pints over the crowd during the tracks with no radio airplay, pissing the rest of us off in the process. A prime example of a band you wish would be less popular and a show that would have been way more fun without the assholes. But that isn’t Keane’s fault.

“Good evening. We’re the Trills. One, two, tree, four” – The Thrills, The Academy, Glasgow

A band suffering the curse of the follow-up album after a successful debut. That’s not to say the new album is bad, just that their first was that good. I didn’t have high expectations, but a full house and positive vibes made for a great time. I daresay the band was even taken aback at the love they were getting. And you just can’t help but like the sun-shiny tunes and the “oo-wah-oo’s” in the chorus.

“So join us…” – Mull Historical Society, QMU, Glasgow

Quirky in a good way, featuring songs as varied as Tobermory Zoo to an ode to the late Dr. David Kelly. Their albums are great, the live show more so. Good old-fashioned enthusiasm from a distinctly Scottish band that may never be known outside of the UK, and not caring a bit.