Incommunicado

Got back home last night from a short break with Ciaran in Dublin.
The parents' lack of wifi afforded a welcome break from most of my electronic communication - only texts from Fiona were read. I found it quite refreshing but I think the electronic silence was a bit much for Ciaran. He was booting the laptop before he got his coat off last night when we got back in.

We had a pleasant time in Dublin. I finally sent my American passport in for renewal. It's only 3 years expired now. We also headed into Dublin castle but spent much of the day looking at music shops.

Ciaran is "working that whole rockabilly look" at the moment and obsessed with guitars. Fortunately he does seem to be able to play and is taking lessons. So we spent a good chunk of time window shopping for guitars.

When I was talking to my brother he said that Ciaran was described as a 'bagel'. He wasn't sure what it meant but didn't think it was too good. There was no wifi but there was broadband so we did find out an urban definition and we all learned a new word.

On our final day my niece and 2 of my nephews were visiting Grandma.While we were messing about I warned Jack that i could see what he was doing because I had eyes in the back of my head. When he scoffed Ava warned him "He does! All grownups have eyes in the back of their heads to watch kids!" It seems the message we got as kids is passing down the generation.

So three communication points - I can survive without the incessant beeping of emails and reminders; a bagel is not just for breakfast; and selection of the fittest evolves parental rear view eyes.

Out Dancing

Fiona and I were out at a birthday Ceilidh last night. I do enjoy these events although not knowing the dances makes it awkward, especially when Fiona explains that she (and therefore most everyone else) was taught them at school. The steps were explained at the start of each dance, but I had Fiona telling me she knew them better. I have previously commented on Fiona's tutoring and I'm not yet ready to change that opinion. The problem last night was the small number of dancers. Know knowing them and being on display is not for me especially when I'm driving.

Since the ceilidh was out in Airdrie Fiona collected me from work so we had to head back to the office to collect my car. The light snow of all day started to settle during the dance but the trip back to East Kilbride was not particularly difficult. Until we got to the NEL site. Which wasn't plowed or gritted. And is down a hill. We got down all right and Fiona turned her car while I cleared the snow off mine. She headed out the gate while I followed. I tried to leave a gap so I could get a run at the hill. Despite fitting new tyres that day I knew the car is light and thought slow and steady may not be the best approach. For some reason though Fiona was waiting for me at the bottom of the hill. I moved forward a bit more, so did she and then stopped again. Finally she opened her door and said she was getting no traction. So, at a quarter past midnight, in light snow, I am pushing her car up a hill towards a roundabout where I'm hoping she can wait til I can get up the hill. We finally got her there with me pushing all the way and then gunning my engine I went sliding back and forth, melting just enough snow to get up the hill.
The drive home was a real nail biter. Since my spin I have been very nervous driving in snow since there is just no weight in my car. I was really surprised about how poor the roads in East Kilbride were cleared. We didn't get a clear lane until we were on the motorway and even then it was single file most of he way. No one was even in the other lane until we passed Fenwick.
Finally got back to Ayr at nearly 1:30

A shifting wind

What a cycle!
Its quite breezy so I checked wunderground.com for the wind info. It was north of east and 20ish km/hr
I knew this would make the last bit harder than usual, but I would reap the wind on my back for the only 'climb' which is over a hump back bridge. The rest being mostly north/south I headed out
And so it was. The wind was on my left shoulder, and despite almost pushing me off a few time, it was neither helping nor hindering too much. Apart from wind chill. And I got the push up and over the bridge.
Coming past the marina I was almost stationary with a killer head wind. By now I had realised that more than just the last bit was going to be tough.
I was a full 4.5 minutes slower than my best time and at least 3 minutes slower than what I was expecting.
I've got to remember that this is not a circle, but more of a triangle.

And keep a closer eye on the forecast.

Instability

Managed to get back out on the bike today.

As part of my 'Lessening myself' I have been doing my best to get out on the bike on Tuesday and Friday lunchtime when I work form home.
So far I've not been that bad - I've been hitting about half of them.
Apart from weather - my conservatory, where the pc is and from where I work on these days, has  a poly-carbonate roof. This amplifies the sound of any rain making a slight shower sound like a thunderstorm. Its not easy to leave the warm room with that noise and go out onto the bike. Scotland and winter (summer too for that matter) means rain but I have been reasonable lucky so far. I don't mind getting wet if I'm out but it takes a certain mentality to actually go out when its raining.

The other problem has been ice.

I run the risk of falling off the bike. This is due to the fact that I am only moderately stable on the bike. This is not a lack of experience. Its due to centres of gravity and big belly. The presence of one affects the location of the other. A moderately stable system will remain in that stable position until something causes it to shift into a more stable position.

Its simple to illustrate - take a standard lollipop and stand it on its end. This is not too difficult to do. It is quite stable in this configuration. You can perturb it - give it a poke - and it will wobble but will return to its stable position. Now turn it upside down and balance it. Its much more difficult but it can be done. It may take a while though and its probably going to fall a few times before you get it done. This is now also stable, but much less so than in many other positions. Its not unstable because you can balance it and it will stay there but it needs much less energy to move it out of this stable region. Give it a poke this time and it will fall into a more stable position.

Now consider me on my bike:

Due to my relatively high centre of gravity I am like the lollipop balancing on its stick. If I keep moving I will keep upright but if I slow down too much or if I lose traction then I'm on a direct course to the ground. That's where the ice comes into it. Tuesday had the remnants of Monday's light dusting of snow down here on the coast. However the fact that it hit -6C on Monday night meant I wasn't going to risk a slip on the now frozen snow. Given that its Scotland and its the coast its always slightly damp at this time so it was quite slippery out there.

Today though no excuse. Its was the first time I've had a wind from the south west. This meant that my first bit was slow and into the wind. It was not looking good as past experience shows that if you need t rely on the wind then it will shift. Today it didn't so managed my second fastest time over the 7 mile course. Max speed was down though because that bit was straight into the wind.

2 Month Update

I have decided to go more public as a means of encouraging me to go through with this.

I’m now 2 months into my campaign to make less of myself. I must be firm in my commitment NOT to call it ‘losing weight’. Losing implies an accident. I knew what I had to do to shift every gram – there’s no accident there!

I’m feeling quite good about my progress so far. I need to drop 30% of my start weight and I've given myself the year (2013 - the year I get lean) to do it all.

I've cut down on the naughty foods. Tough to do with slim people around who can eat those things. And increase the amount of exercise. Despite my size I was always fairly active and enjoyed my exercise – it gave me an appetite! – but last year with buggering my ankle my exercise took a beating. It’s too easy at the end of the day to decide not to go to the gym and head home to the telly and crisps instead. I must be firmer.

It also means regular weigh-ins. That’s where it gets confusing. Being a techie I log and plot all this (and more). I am using an Android app (Libra) which offers a trend function based on the Hacker’s Diet. This places more focus on your ‘trend’ value than the actual weigh value.  This allows for simple smoothing. The original diet was a simple pen and paper one but the method lends itself to low power devices quite well. So, I have a weight which is actually a trend and a measurement which is my weight. The trend value lags behind the actual measurement because it uses a value from a few days earlier. This means that if I have a bad weekend (which normally means having a great weekend) I can forget to record anything for a day or two and then once I get back on track my trend isn't damaged too much.

I’m now 2 months in and I've dropped between 21%(trend) and 23% (measurement)of my target. My 

trend says I should hit my target weight on 13 September 2013, well ahead of my goal date.

I have reached my first milestone which was losing a stone. I was rewarded with a pizza which meant no weigh-ins for a couple of days.

Of course I know the first bits are the easier ones to get rid of so I need to keep at it.

More Curling

Just back in from a weekend in Kinross where Fiona was curling. Its a funny competition where they try to be as good as they can, but not to win it outright since the winners have to organise it for next year.

I was left to my own devices while the curlers were on ice.

I took the opportunity to hire a bike and go for a cycle. I do not recommend cycling in jeans and boots - there is no stretch. I could barely get my leg over the cross bar.

It was good fun though. There is a newish path which almost circles the loch (Loch Leven). This is the Loch Levin Heritage Trail and seems to be a locally financed initiative to promote the amenities.
They've done a great job. The path is excellent At the moment it only goes about 3/4 of the way around but plans seem to be in place to complete the ring. At the moment it goes from Kinross pier out to RSPB Vane Farm. I was worried at the very start. I didn't look very closely but the surface was a wooden deck with no-slip strips. It meant the hire bike rumbled as it passed over it. I didn't think I would cope if it was all like that. Luckily for me it wasn't.

The path was in fantastic conditions and despite all the rain was quite dry with only a few small puddles over the entire length. Being on the shore of the lake it was also quite level. There were numerous benches where you could sit and look out over the lake, and there were hides for watching the local wildlife.

It was cold but dry and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I finished my afternoon off with a sauna while waiting for the curlers to return.

Apart for the curling ,the main purpose of these weekends is the food and I have to admit I enjoyed mine. I'm sure the diet has gone to pot though. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's weigh in.

The curlers did quite well - no booby prizes and didn't win outright so they don't have to organise it next year. And Fiona won both her games which she was pleased about.

Dual Use

Just got in from my lunchtime cycle. Its all part of my "2013 - the year I get lean" campaign.

We're lucky here in Troon because national Cycle route 7 passes through the town and a recent initiative has joined up all the local paths between golf courses etc as part of the Local Cycle Network. This means I can do a short 7 mile circular route virtually all off the road on cycle paths. The few bits I am on the road are cul-de-sac with little to no traffic.

One of the things you need to be careful about though is the dual use nature. These routes are not exclusively cycle routes and I don't think they should be. But I do have issue with those people who just have no appreciation that there are other people trying to use them.

In the 30 minutes I was out I had to virtually stop on 3 separate occasions. Once was just timing - I was coming up behind a woman with a push chair just as another push chair was approaching.
The other 2 were just people not considering. The woman stopped in the middle of the hedge lined pathway with her dog sniffing about. I only just managed to stop once I saw the lead. I wonder how far the dog would have been catapulted if I couldn't stop in time?

from Google Maps

The other was a family (its a nice winter's day here today and there seems to be a lot of kids about) walking across the full width of the prom, despite the clearly marked cycle path. And them glaring at me.
This image from Google Maps shows exactly what I mean. The whole esplanade to walk on and they choose to walk in the very obvious cycle path. As do the others further down. The cycle path was put there for a reason - to protect walkers by keeping the bikes in one place.

 Its amazing how those 2 metre strips of non slip surface with the white bike symbol repeated every 50 metres attracts so many walkers.


If nothing else, these stops are affecting my time!

Rant over. Time for a shower.

Music Night

Just back in from the Ayr Town Hall.
The South Ayrshire Schools Orchestra were having their annual concert and Ciaran was playing oboe.
He missed this concert last year as he was away with the Scouts skiing, oops I mean on an cultural exchange, in Kandersteg in Switzerland.

There were three separate orchestra tonight - the Junior (all primary students), the Symphony (all secondary) and the Chamber (not too sure about this but seems to be mostly the older secondary students)
Because of the three groups, with different sizes and structures, each played one after another with a short gap between to change the layout. That kept everything flowing really well.

I have to say it was amazing! You have to give credit to the talent these children have.
For the first time in years the Symphony orchestra had a soloist, who was excellent.

Sadly I couldn't see Ciaran as our seats were just in line with him and the conductor. But I could see his oboe bobbing about.

We were again all caught out by the movements. Not being familiar enough with the music means there is a tendency to applaud whenever they stop playing, even if its between movements. By the middle of the 7 movement piece by the Chamber orchestra I though we had it right but failed again in the last piece. This was despite us being told they were playing the first and third movements, but in our defence they took a long time to start the final movement.

Herding Cats

We took the Cubs and Beavers out 10 pin bowling this evening.
17 under 11's, the vast majority of them under 10.
Add to this mix sweet vending machines, slushies, gum balls machines and too much pocket money.
To cap it off we then fed them too!
Now that I'm home its boots off and something to help me sleep.

Burn the witch

It was Burns night last night and as a local boy done well his birthday is a bit of an event here.
There are poetry recitals, whisky drinking (that's whisky without the e) and haggis eating. I like haggis and I'm OK with the whisky, though I prefer whiskey, but the poetry I can do without.
In school it was all "O my Luve's like a red, red rose / That's newly sprung in June;" and I just couldn't be bothered.

So when Fiona said that we managed to get tickets for the ghost tour in Alloway as part of Alloway 1759 I was in mixed feeling. The company would be good and the walk about would be interesting but I feared the ghosts we would be meeting would be this milk maid who Burns wrote this about [insert recital] or that beastie [add another recital].

I was wrong. There was little Burns at all. The walk was run by Scruffy Dog and was fantastic!

The walk was based around Alloway and as such it had to include mention of Burns, but that just based it. He was a concrete connection from the past that the history were would be told was tied to.

The bulk of the talk was about some of the more gruesome goings on. The bodies that fell into the train tunnel after a cheap contractor tunnelled under the graveyard with out moving the bodies (think 1982's Poletgeist film). Or of the abbot of Crossraguel who was pulled off his horse, tied over another one and then tortured until he signed over the lands.

A hooded figure in the church yard?

We were told about the witch purges - about 4000 Scots who were 'cleansed' by fire or water of witchcraft. One of the group was singled out and used to illustrate the tests - the needle, the thumb screws, the knotted ropes. All very frightening, but more because of how dangerous it became   A witch couldn't be trusted not to lie and a parishioner wouldn't lie

All the while we were walking in the area, and along the path that Tom O'Shanter would have come along. We end up in the old Alloway Kirk, the one made famous by Burns and Tam, and whose graveyard collapsed into the tunnel.
Here we did get a bit of Burns, but it was fitting.

The tour was all done in alight hearted way, but still made you think. Some of the lighter moments was the non traditional Burns supper - we had haggis pakora delivered to us on the walk - and our own personal traffic lights.

After the walk the 6 of us went out for a nice meal. Originally we had tried to get onto the 2130 walk but it was sold out and we had to settle for the 1830 one. At 2145, while our mains were just about finished  we could see the rain bouncing off the street and the wind blowing a gale, so a lucky escape for us.


It seems a bit unfair that Burns gets all the noise. There are plenty of other notable local boys who should get as much adulation. What about John Loudon MacAdam from Ayr and his road making (eventually tarmac), or John Dunlop from Dreghorn who invented pneumatic tyres, or even Alexander Fleming from Darvel for his penicillin? I personally have more interest in solid tarred roads and good rubber tyres than in whether or not "auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind "

The Critics rave

Had a brilliant night out at the Carluke Young Farmer's Concert.
Of course, given how it had been played down I wasn't expecting much. Being the newcomer, I didn't know the politics...
I don't really know what the Young Farmers do, but there is an annual talent and craft programme which contribute to the overall winning group. I've been to a Talent Spot night and see other craft work at the Highland shows. I hadn't really appreciated the competitiveness of this. Of the WOHFTF gang, Fiona and Christine are ex Avondale while the Halls are Carluke. Christine, Fiona and her mum were playing down the concert but that seems is just inter club rivalry.

Last night's show is part of the 70th anniversary, so some former (faded?) stars were invited back. Counting past, present, and future , there were 7 Halls in the show that I knew, and others being pointed out to me all evening.

Some of the material was local in-jokes, some was topical - Gangham Style featured. A lot of it was very funny - Andrew stealing the stage from the rest of the cast had us all in tears of laughter.
Some was typical for the current state of the game - during their performance of Scotland's 1982 world Cup theme, We Have a Dream, Alan's lone voice called for the penalty before the man fell!

An extremely funny piece was based on what the cast would be doing of they weren't on stage. One by one the cast came on stage and sang what tasks they would otherwise be doing, along with the actions. As the rest of the performers came on stage this became an exquisitely synchronised round of voice and actions, with people only getting hit, sprayed and smacked as intended.

Another very funny piece was the spoof VisitScotland video for Carluke, along with translations for common phrases and out takes.

It was a really good night and well done to all involved.

Dreaded time of year...

...the diet starts tomorrow.

We've been running down the Christmas foods and looking at the new cookbooks (I was given the Hairy Dieters).

The exercise routines are being discussed and we went out for a baseline cycle today, just to see how far we had fallen. It was reassuring as we did reasonably well considering its our first cycle of any kind since September. We managed 10 miles in an hour, with an icy cold wind and misty rain.

The exercise last year didn't fare too well. Rupturing my ankle tendons in January kept me sidelined, or at least off the bike, until May. Then in September I put my back out.

Compared to 2011, in 2012 I had 30 hours less direct exercise, and 150km less distance and that even includes 130km, 11 hours while on holiday in Aviemore!

Its not looking good though as I have the Exiles Lunch tomorrow (my roughly monthly lunch with the retired team members) and the Badminton club 'Christmas' dinner on Thursday night...

Loud Dinner

We went out for dinner last night - out to the Maharani for a curry.
I've never been in there before, preferring Chinese, but the Monday night badminton group have had takeout from there back into the hall for our social nights, and its been very good.

I was very pleased with the food last night. Absolutely fantastic, and I'm not that fond of Indian food.

The only real issue was the noise. There was a group of about 12 young people in, spread over 2 tables. I can only presume that they forgot to take their headphones off and felt they had to shout over the loud music. One girl was sitting in the corner of their booth and seemed to want everyone else in the restaurant to hear what she had to bray, and IMHO it really wasn't that interesting, but listen we had to.

Another guy had left his woolly hat on. I am of the opinion that you take your hat off inside, especially one designed to protect from the extremes of cold as this one was. Particularly when sitting down to eat. But disregard the etiquette consider the health issue. He certainly wasn't going to get the benefit once he went back outside. Also, I am convinced his brain was being poached in his skull the entire time. He kept going on, to each and every person in their group, at great volume (his hearing muffled due to the aforementioned woolly hat) that he had commented on a comment about a picture on facebook and not on the picture itself. As if this really matters!

At one point I was going to head over and remind them to use their indoor voices. Or simply STFU.

All in all, a great meal, but a poor night. Next time we go I'll ask not to be sat in the kids area!

New Year's Eve

Finally surfacing after New Years.

The WOHFTF crowd were having a New Years Eve fancy dress party and the theme was 'Song Title'. That sounds like a fantastic theme as there are thousands of options. Then the restrictions start kicking in - Fiona wanted to be more glamorous than last year so no 'Killer Queen' or 'Psycho Killer'. Neither of us wanted to be carrying around cardboard all night so most objects were out so no 'American Pie' or 'Left of Centre'. Fiona wouldn't dress in a school girls uniform for 'Presentation Boarder' because no one has heard of the Saw Doctors. Fiona decided she as going as an angel so I had to find her a song. She wasn't willing to black up for 'Angel of Harlem' and settled on Robbie's 'Angels' with the angel off the tree to go with her wings and halo. Then she noticed 'Blue Angel' by Marillion and thought that would mean she could wear her new jewellery and blue top. She wasn't listening when I explained what the song was about but we didn't expect to be singing it or even hearing it...

I had been swithering with a few ideas. But, primarily because I am lazy and didn't want to go to too much effort, decided on the 'Sweetest Thing' by U2, though it was a close thing with 'N17' by the Saw Doctors. My logic was I could simply list sugars or the distances off the road sign at that left turn in Claregalway.

Of course, it was a lot of effort. All I needed was to get a tee shirt and draw on it. But printing would be better, so all I needed was to get iron on transfers. I actually got them with little effort but they don't work on laser printers, which naturally is what I have. But Fiona has an inkjet. But wasn't that not working? Yup. So can I fix it? No, it looks like it needs a new ink cartridge but the error says the cartridge is not there at all, and if it does think its there, its not the correct one. Back to PC World where we find out that you can only gets the required ink online. Long story short, Fiona now has a new printer and I ironed the transfer onto my tee shirt later that night.

Ciaran was the wild card. Since he was supposed to organising his own costume, we only arranged a backup one. The simplest costume we could come up with, irrespective of what he was wearing, was 'Sunglasses at Night' by Corey Hart. Needless to say Ciaran went as 'Sunglasses at Night'.

James, organising the party, needed the music. 'Sunglasses' was reasonable easy to get but 'Blue Angel' was more complicated. Marillion of course are famed for their concept albums and 'Blue Angel' is more correctly known as 'Bitter Suite III - Blue Angel' and sits 4 minutes into that 8 minute track.

The party was fantastic. The costumes were amazing - some brilliant ideas. Sadly I never got pictures of everyone. We spent ages trying to figure out everyone.

Games had been organised so we were split into teams and sent off to different rooms. A logo quiz, some pretty specific general knowledge "Which 1976 UK number one single had the title of the song which knocked it off the top spot included in its lyrics?" and a music quiz which coincidentally had 19 songs, the same number of unique songs as there were guests.

Later Fiona and I were narrowly beaten in the "Couples Quiz". The couples were made answer questions on either side of an open door using a table tennis bat to indicate him or her. David and MaryAnne also got 5/5 so a series of increasingly difficult tie breakers were carried out. After 4 tie breakers I got Fiona's favourite colour wrong but I did know her eye colour. I think the wrong answers were more fun and the debate about 'who is better in the morning' is sure to run and run. Anyway I felt better when Fiona's mum got it wrong the next day too.

Over the evening the room did polarise into the drivers and the drinkers but that made the games after the Bells more interesting.

All in all a great night and a fantastic way to start the New Year.

What a mug!

Christmas is now almost over. Just the relaxing bits left thankfully.
It was hectic all of December for me due to a scheduling mistake in mid November leaving me with 17 days work to fit into 15 days, with 2 of these days blocked out for training. Plus a project manager having a hissy fit leaving me more to do.
Luckily it was all done on time (more or less) but I just wasn't feeling Christmassy.

Christmas Eve Ciaran arrived and cooked steak for the three of us. Felt a lot better. Then he and I went to midnight Mass with a carol service before hand. Finally I felt in the Christmas spirit.
Christmas morning was quiet. Ciaran is at that age where a lie in is more desirable to opening presents, but we did gather around the tree and then I made French Toast before dropping him off with his mum.
I then spent the rest of Christmas day and Stephen's Day with Fiona at her mum's with her grandad.
Finally got my first games of Rummikub this Christmas! (Didn't win any though)

Amoung the many presents were a total of 4 mugs.
My sister got a Keep Calm You're only 40 in honour of her birthday on Christmas,
Ciaran got Fiona a Keep Calm and Drink Coffee mug, and I got the 2 right most mugs shown below.
The leftmost is my Libra mug, a birthday present from years ago. Its a normal capacity, 250ml, but a little short and wide, like me. The elephant mug is my normaly everyday mug. It holds a manly 400ml. Fiona, her mum and my mum all have special mugs for when I visit all of which hold about the same.
Fiona got me the red one which can hold a hearty mugful at 500ml while Ciaran's gift of the blue mug will hold over 900ml of tea. That's almost 1kg of milky tea goodness, enough to make Mrs Doyle weep.

New Year's Eve now approaches. This years costume theme is Song Titles...

School Concert 2012

Just back in from the school Christmas concert. For the second year Ciaran was performing with the Woodwind Ensemble.
As with most things with a 14 year old boy, it was laden with difficulty.
It seems, for some unknown reason, the school didn't want any one to attend because they never announced the time until this afternoon. At least that's Ciaran's story...

"What time do you have to be there?"
"It starts at half seven so I guess half seven"
"Yes, but do you need to be there early to set up?"
"I don't know"
"Maybe we should get there a little early, to maybe park, and then get in, and so you can find where you're supposed to be"
"OK, I guess we have to be there at 7:15"

Anyway we got there in time.
Bang on time the Youth Choir began to enter. Row upon row. They sang a single song and then filed out. The song was nice though.
Then it was the Guitarists. It seemed to take ages for them t get the kit ready and begin. Sadly there was trouble with the amps so I don't think it sounded right but they enjoyed it.
The senior choir was followed by a lovely duet of "Safe and Sound" from the Hunger Games. I must find out who sings it for real and see if its as good.
Then three more girls were followed by the string orchestra who completed the first half with a slowed down can-can.
The second half started with the brass band doing carols.
Another song by the senior choir led to Ciaran and the rest of the woodwind ensemble.

This was followed by an excellent guy singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis. Absolutely fantastic.
The youth choir filed back in, sang another song and filed back out.
Then, keeping it Scottish, we had pipers and drums.
The brass band then led everyone in "Hark! The Herald"

I got culture me

We were out to see the BBC Symphony Orchestra last night at the Town Hall in Ayr.

The main reason for this is Ciaran's current fascination with guitars and the fact that this was billed with Sean Shibe on guitar.
Like many people I'm really not that well educated about music. I know what I like, quite often don't know what it is or simply know it from TV use. I do have a number of classical albums which I will listen to, and one of my favourite pieces is Pachelbel's Canon. My (limited) interest started when Marillion released a live album back in '88 called The Thieving Magpie which has them play a bit of Rossini's La Gaza Ladra. I then found a copy of Rossini Overtures in HMV which had this track. That's when you realise how much classical music is out there. One of the tracks is "Guglielmo Tell" which contains the Lone Ranger theme. Its also go the music they use in cartoons when there a bad storm and giant waves. Its funny how much was familiar, and how good it sounded.
Last night was different.
I'm not saying it wasn't good, but it was different. Almost all of the new 'classical' music I would hear now is on film score and I think my mind now tunes into that - the idea that the TV can be on in the background and you just hear it.
The first piece last night was a new Scottish composition getting its first performance. There were 3 movements and the story was included in the programme, which I didn't read until after the first movement. The first one started off and I felt it was quite jarring. I felt it was quite similar in style to the music from Ghost, and suddenly I was getting an image of that sort of scene. The second movement started with percussion sounding like drips in a  cave. I connected that since the piece was titled 'Cave'. In this piece I got an image of old 50's B&W drama movies, maybe just continuing the Ghost image from earlier. The final movement had a battle which was easier to distinguish once I had read the programme.
The piece was interesting and full of sound but all three of us didn't think it was great.
The main reason we were there was the second piece was from Rodrigo. Think Spanish guitars. I was thinking spaghetti western. Again technically brilliant but really making no connection to me.
After the interval was came back to the final 2 pieces both by Mozart.
The first was a re-arrangement of a piece for the glass harmonica. Since this instrument is so rare these fays it was re-arranged for woodwind with violins to give the resonance. I though this was a beautiful piece. I've since spent some time on wiki reading about the glass harmonica and listening to the sample piece there. This is one fantastic sounding instrument!
The final piece was all of Symphony 41. This was amazing. I didn't have any images of films while listening - I was just captivated by the music. The sound just filled the room, building upon itself. It all fitted together and I think this was the greatest difference between the brand new modern piece and this 225 year old piece. There was no jarring - it all fitted together.
Knowing nothing about music (much to Ciaran's disgust at times) you could hear why after all this time Mozart is still popular.

Birthdays on Ice

Its Fiona's Birthday today but we have been celebrating all weekend.
We were down in Stranraer for the WOHFTF weekend.
Since Fiona has had her birthday on curling weekends before, I think she knew something would be done, but as most of us were staying Sunday night, and her birthday wasn't until Monday, I suspect she thought there would be a cake on Sunday night.
We were called to a pre-dinner drink on Saturday night where Fiona was in the room before she realised the bunting and pictures on the wall were of her.

The other side of the room had the same for David who celebrates his 50th soon.
After dinner the lounge was also decorated for the birthday pair.

A joint cake was brought in with 40 candles for Fiona and 50 for David (luckily they used number candles or our carbon footprint would have been horrendous)

One half was iced blue and green wishing David a happy Birthday and the other in red and pink for Fiona.
The band played happy birthday and had them do a birthday dance.
Sunday dinner was quiet. The pressure of the eating and the curling wore most of them out so it was just Fiona and I, with Alan and Christine who headed down to the games room for some carpet bowls and to wish Fiona Happy Birthday once the witching hour came.

This morning we found a notice on the hotel bedroom door:

And when we arrived for breakfast the balloons were back.

Another rendition of happy Birthday by the entire dining room, accompanied by the horrible electronic candle Fiona bought for Ciaran's birthday.
To finish off the birthday it was out to dinner with Margaret, Grace, Rachael and Ciaran, before back from more cake and another few verses of Happy birthday.

WOHFTF 2012

Just back in from Stranraer where Fiona and the gang were taking part in their annual Curling (and eating) weekend.
This is a serious weekend - dinner Friday night, cooked breakfast Saturday morning, roast meats and salads for lunch (with lots of deserts) and another big dinner Saturday night. Same again on Sunday and this year most of us stayed Sunday night so another cooked breakfast Monday. There's also curling, sponsored by Courvoisier, with the winning team invited back in March for the Winners Weekend.
There also the WOHFTF (We're only here for the food) Challenge Trophy. High stakes indeed!

WOHFTF Challenge Trophy...

...and Runners up Trophy

Started off a bit rough - I was feeling ill most of last week and didn't travel well on Friday evening. I had to skip dinner and retire for the evening, missed breakfast too, only surfacing briefly for lunch.
By the time dinner rolled around I was feeling better and both teams had won all their matches well, so were well placed going into the final day.

Dinner was fabulous. It started out with a pre dinner room party, which was a ruse to remind Fiona, that her 40th, and David, that his 50th, hadn't been overlooked. The dining table had balloons  centrepieces, and handmade cubes of photos going back 20 years. After dinner, it was birthday cake and dancing.

As the final 4 matches were being played Sunday it was clear the David's team had made it through to the semi finals. Now if Alan's team could win 1 more end they were guaranteed a place in the semis even if they didn't win the game. They did win and that set up up both teams for the semi finals after a few anxious moments when it looked like they would have to play each other.
My ability to strategise the game fails to develop. After realising that Alan had deliberately lost an end in order to retain last stone, an advantage,in the next end, I thought I was seeing much more devious playing. After the game Fiona dashed by confidence - " I think he just muffed it" Alan himself later confirmed he made a mistake. I think I'll stick with the food!
Both teams won their semis and a nail biting final was on the cards - or was it? The winning team would be invited back in March but what would the dinner table be like tonight? No one bothered to mention to me that both teams from this weekend would be invited back, so the final became more of a friendly than the chess on ice I was expecting, but everyone was happy and dinner was saved.
750ml bottle of Brandy each to David and his team, and a 1.5l bottle each for Alan and his team.

Alan, Christine, Iain, and Fiona with the WOHFTF Challenge Trophy

David, Drew, MaryAnn and Fiona with the runners up prize

Rooms are already booked for 2013...

Dad's Birthday

We were over in Dublin for the weekend for my dad's 75th birthday.
It was a bit of a laugh.
We flew in late on Friday night, dropped Ciaran at my mum's while Fiona and I stayed in the Travelodge in Swords. The hotel was a direct response to the decision a few years ago to replace the sofa bed with a normal sofa. It also reduced the pressure on the bathrooms...
It was  a bit of an eye opener as the Travelodge seemed to be the party night out meeting point for all the young people. When we headed for breakfast on saturday morning there were abandoned people sleeping in reception, very drunk people staggering through the corridors, a couple of very shaky girls arriving by taxi, still in last nights finest, though no longer that fine.
Saturday night the family headed out for a Chinese meal. The restaurant has changed hands a few times over the years but the food is amazing, and now they have Malaysian food also. The service was a bit less so. I don't think they had ever had to cater for a large group and seemed to struggle.
When we arrived Fiona and I jockeyed for position - she wanted to be near the overhead heater and I wanted to be as far away from it as as she could managed. We found a good compromise until later in the evening the circuit breaker on the heating tripped and the staff had no idea what happened.  All we noticed was that it progressively got colder. Eventually they realised and had Phil stand on his chair to poke the switch with a broom handle to get the heating back. Poor James and William were shattered though. After quickly eating their dinner they put their hoods up and slept for the rest of the night.
After dinner it was back to the house for nightcaps and to be told that our memories of collecting wood for the Halloween bonfires were simply shared delusions because thats not what my dad thought.
Sunday morning had more recovering people at the hotel before we headed back up to my mums.
Another family dinner with mum's lasagna and applesauce cake before Doreen and her boys flew back followed a few hours later by us three.