Birthdays and Bruce

Friday once again.
Busy weekend ahead with various birthdays and gatherings going on not to mention any painting I can squeeze in. Almost finished the chrysanthemum and have started on the backgrounds of a few new canvases so plenty to keep me going. Looking forward to doing more character pieces like 'The Tortured Man' and 'The Conversation' and having a break from flowers. They are great to do but I'm looking forward to telling a story again with a painting.
I can't believe it's june tomorrow?! Halfway through the year.
Gran Reid is 80 this weekend so best wishes to her on her special birthday. I'm sure we'll all have a great time on Sunday to celebrate. The family is gathering in a local hotel for sunday lunch. Very fancy.
Happy Birthdays also go to Chaz aka Charlie boy! He hits the grand old age of 30 today following Colin who also hit the milestone last weekend. My two buddies ever since the first day of school and hopefully for the next thirty years! Colin was in Dublin seeing Bruce Springsteen for his birthday whom Mum, Dad, Tom and Linda were also seeing on Wednesday in Manchester. Mum summed it up in one word...I think is was tremendous. A few years back I seen Bruce in Crystal Palace in London. He was tremendous there also. I was never particularly into his music until I seen him live. The energy and sheer enthusiasm he has for the live show is brilliant. I hope I get the chance to catch him live again.
A belated Happy Birthday should also go to my Dad who also had his birthday last weekend but was away sunning himself somewhere in Spain at the time... alright for some.

A couple of pints

A week off.

On holiday from work last week so had time to chill, watch a few movies, enjoy the sunshine, do some painting and hit the town and have a couple of pints. As we arrived in Glasgow's town centre at half nine on Wednesday night the pubs had been emptying with many a drunk, disappointed looking person. No violent scenes fortunately unlike the horrible films we seen on the news the next day from Manchester. What a bloody disaster... makes you ashamed to be Scottish. Anyway, Glasgow thankfully had none of that and we ended up in Bunker which is a cool bar on Bath Street with cool music. Cool all over really. Woke up on Thursday feeling a bit rough mind you. Maybe indulged in too many cheap vodkas. The movies I watched over the week were pretty mediocre all over really - "The Cottage", a vaguely amusing brit-comedy horror probably better watched with a

 couple of pints, "Black Sheep", an vaguely entertaining gorey horror, again probably better with a couple of pints, 'Shrooms', yet another horror about teens getting lost in a forest type location and slowly getting killed off in horribly horrible ways, and 'The Nines' a weird mystery centering on a guy with a supposed personality crisis. Again probably better with a couple of pints.

Here's the latest painting so far:

Have been working on this since this last shot was taken so it has improved, honest! Then again, looking at this after a couple of pints...

BBQs and Granpa Reid the wasp killer

Barbeque city this weekend. 

Two BBQ's two nights in a row. Last night we were at Tommy and Tricia's place and tonight my Mum and Dad's. I have barely been in the kitchen all weekend...except just there, to pour myself a double vodka - just a night cap you must understand. Yes, last night Ka and myself were invited along to my Aunt Tricia's and Uncle Tommy's for a BBQ in the glorious... thunderstorm. Half six we had to be there but at approximately 16.45 a terrible rumble echoed through the air above our wee flat and then a flash of lightening shot down over Calderglen opposite, briefly illuminating the cloud filled humid skies. We were worried the BBQ would be off, but of course we had no need to be. This is Scotland for gawd's sake. A little bit of thunder and lightening is not going to put us scots off a decent BBQ! The weather has been kind of weird the past few days. We had the blistering sunshine during the week but then clouds piled in overhead on Friday for the weekend and although the humidity and warmth has remained there has been a definite lack of long lasting sunlight. The same happened tonight. Once we'd finished eating in the Reid back garden hail started falling from the skies! We took cover in the conservatory and the wasps in their old hideout in the back room's roof. 

The appearance of the retreating wasps kind of concerned my Dad as he thought he'd seen the back of those stripey little varmints when the Kenny boy and Granpa Reid destroyed their last nest with a bit of DIY insect extermination in the same place around a decade ago. Granpa had expertly co-ordinated the extermination. He was in no way a exterminating kind of guy but he knew how to handle a pest when he seen them. He told Kenny to stand on a stool so he could get right up close to the hive entrance (a small hole where the wall met the roof) and blast it with insect killer spray. After a few moments of spraying, stop, jump down from the stool and basically run away, fast. Kenny did all this precisely to the instructions given, especially the 'run away' bit and we all took cover in the conservatory as Chapelton's wasp factory emptied itself out into the Reid back garden, spinning, falling and crawling to their deaths. Kenny and Granpa surveyed the dying army, quite pleased with themselves. Granpa giving Kenny an approving nod. "Good Kenneth".

It was the 1st anniversary of Granpa Reid's passing this week. So wherever you are Granpa, don't worry, we'll get Kenny back up to Chapelton since he done such a great job the first time.

Crosswords in the sun

Great weather this week. It really makes a change sitting out in the blazing sunshine on work lunchtimes. Instead of sitting at the round tables of the production centre's kitchen, Andy, John, Ian, Gareth and myself have been sitting out in the blazing sunshine doing our usual crosswords, codewords and sudoku, putting the world to rights with our conversations with occasional contributions from Shirley-Ann and Mary. In fact we're trying to not let Shirley-Ann give too many contributions any more as it would seem she merely has to look at a crossword to complete it! Some people are just too bloody clever for their own good. The actual seating area outside the office is not actually all that glamorous. It's a small square of that shredded bark with two rotten, rickety picnic benches and a twenty year old sun lounger (which people strangely fight over) in the middle of the car park. No, it does not sound glamorous but it is a bit of a sun trap. Our lunch break is only a half hour long but I do think my face did start to burn. Plus the heat puts you off your crosswords a little. After saying all this I bet I wake up tomorrow morning and the rain is pissing down. That would be typical Scotland. However it's also Scottish to be pessimistic so let's keep our fingers crossed for the weekend eh? Nobody's still not getting the hang of the Sudoku though...

Filling in

Went to the dentist yesterday to get another filling. Not because of tooth decay I must point out but because of receding gums. Receding gums...as if a receding hairline wasn't enough?! Also it was as if the dentist knew I had just hit the afore mentioned age last week she went on to explain that receding gums are a natural part of your gums and mouth aging and getting old! Getting old?! I've seen those adverts! All those smiley folk in white shirts going on about their gums and biting into apples are all going into their fifties?! Fifty is not old of course (I'd better point that out quick!) but I'm only 30 for gawds sake?! Then, to make me even more paranoid, when I went out to book another appointment for six months time the waiting room was full of ancient people - some of them with wheels - whom all moved slowly round to watch me approach the desk. It was like Dentist of the Living Dead! I quickly paid my money and left, every yellowed eyeball in the room rolling in their sockets, watching me move for the door. Getting out I realised I could then breath another sigh of relief, the important thing to remember is I survived the dentist once more. Until October...