Mr & Mrs Kerr

Alex and Fiona got married last weekend. It's funny - I don't feel any different.

It was a great day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Fiona looked beautiful in her very sparkly dress and Alex finished the night wearing a red wig. You know what they say, "some people are born ginger while others can only aspire to ginger". I guess I'm just lucky!

The Sherbrooke Castle Hotel in Pollockshields was the venue and it was very nice. The dinner in particular was very good. The hot topic of conversation back at the bar was the gravy that came with the roast beef - it was delicious.

Kenny sang their first song. It was very emotional. Well, I think it was the emotion that was making all the children cry! Just kidding - he did very well.

In summary - it was a great day with good gravy (ha ha "Good Gravy"). AS usual the photos can be found here.

Alex's Stag Night

Aloha!
And so it was that we sent off Alex in style. Well our shirts were certainly very stylish in any case. I dare say we cut quite a dash and turned many a young lady's head during our night on the town. Or maybe it was that we were half cut and turned their stomachs - to be honest I can't really remember.

We went bowling and that was fine and then we headed down Sauchiehall Street towards Jongleurs which was the main event. We went into Driftwood at the top of Sauchiehall Street and met a group of people who were talking to us because the like our snazzy apparel. One girl asked Colin if she could borrow his shirt to which the obvious reply is surely "only if I can borrow yours". Regrettably it was one of those times where you only think of the witty response later! Also I think her boyfriend was there so perhaps it was for the best. See the photos here for a picture of a girl wearing Colin's shirt. Oh yes, and we drank something that came in a shot glass called a Dennis The Menace. Really.

Jongleurs was cool and I think it was during this time that we slipped from drunk to paralytic. I can't remember where we went after Jongleurs , but after that we went to Walkabout. It starts becoming VERY hazy at this point. The next think I remember clearly is it being 14:20 on Sunday and being woken up by Pamela calling me.

The wedding is on August the 4th. Check back in three weeks blog fans to see how that went.

Big Fish, Little Fish, Cardboard Box.

A blog doesn't get updated for months and then two updates come along at once!

Last weekend Colin, Thomas, Hannah, and I went to Rock Ness in Dores about 5 miles outside Inverness and at the North tip of Loch Ness.  As I type this I think there is a good chance that I STILL have more alcohol in my blood stream than actual blood.  It was tremendous.  On Friday we drank cans of Tennents and Blackthorne cider until we couldn't see.  Then we went to watch this band that probably are more used to playing weddings play to a huge tent full of drunken revellers going mental.  They probably couldn't believe their luck.  The whole next day I had a headache surpassed only by Hannah's projectile vomiting.  (For the record I did consider that the gentlemanly thing to do would be not to mention Hannah's calls to Hugh on the porcelain phone in my blog, then I though, bugger it.) 

The weather in Saturday was the hottest it's been all year.  Unbelievable.  How sun burned were we!  The chaffing - oh God the chaffing!!!  On Saturday we saw The Wombats, The Cuban Brothers (AWESOME!!!), The Charlatans, and The Chemical Brothers.  I totally lost everyone during The Chemical Brothers but I made new friends somewhere in the crowd so it was fine in the end.  I remember cool lasers and robots.  I also remember paying £6.50 for cold noodles on the way home.  That was the low point of the weekend. That and losing my Scotland shades, and my rug (stolen), and Colin's £12 hat.  We told him it was cool so he bought it.  How we laughed!

Sunday everyone was a bit down on account of the copious amounts of cheap booze and the sun stroke.  Fair play though, we drank through it.  Well, Hannah and I did.  I would at this point like to show my appreciation for our two designated drivers Colin and Thomas.  Thank you Colin and Thomas.  Sunday was Rob Da Bank, and the Manic Street Preachers.  

A great weekend was had.  I hear on the grape vine that Thomas had to cut his socks off on Sunday night on account of the sun burn.  Poor Thomas!

Pictures are here.

An Island By Any Other Name Would Still Be As Boggy!

I've just come back from Eilean a' Cheo! That's what it's called now you know. Well, not really. The Highland council decided that Skye should in future be known by it's Gaelic name, "Eilean a' Cheo" (Misty Island), but fortunately it was put to a vote by the residents of Skye and it was
overwhelmingly rejected. Suggestions that this is because most people that live in Skye are originally from Middlesborough and can't pronounce the Gaelic alternative are probably not completely without foundation! Anyway, I would suggest that Eilean a' Bogs and Gallus Sheep is probably a more fitting moniker.

So Colin, Al, and I went back to whatever it's called and it was just as great as it always is.  We took a walk on the Saturday to see the Maidens of McLeod, enormous rock pillars sticking out of the water in an Old Man of Hoy type fashion.  Apparently the big one is the mother and the other two are daughters.  whatever - they were spectacular and the weather was fantastic.  We could have sat there all day taking it in but we had to head back before we got stranded in the dark.  It was about a 3 hour forced march on the way home and a forced march it was.  We stopped only to marvel at the natural arches in the cliff face.  Our instructions said that they were only visible from the top of a particular hill.  this was true but regrettably our instructions failed to mention WHICH HILL!!!!  It was third time lucky, it was tiring, and it was worth it.

On Sunday we took a short stroll to the coral beaches.  The pictures speak for themselves.  A beach like that on the mainland would be thick with people every weekend.  Thank God then that it's not.  It was beautiful.  All the pictures are here.

Glenelg - New Year2008

At the weekend Pam and I, at the last minute, decided to take a drive up to the lodges in Glenelg where we have booked up for Hogmanay2007\New Year 2008. It's a fair distance away, (it took about four hours), and you have to drive through nowhere for about 45 minutes before you get to the middle of nowhere which is where the lodges are! I will reserve proper judgement until I have discussed it with the Abronhill Massive! On the way up there we were lucky enough to see a couple of wild deer drinking from the river. One of them had enormous antlers - I can't remember ever seeing a deer with antlers in the wild before. I count myself fortunate. I mean how Scottish can you get? I didn't manage to get any good photos because understandably deer don't like people and they took off sharpish when they noticed that I was noticing them! All the pictures can be seen here.

So we drove to Glenelg, stopped, took a look at the lodges, and headed off to the nearest Travel Inn which is in Inverness. The next day we drove back down the back roads passed Loch Ness and Loch Lomond. Loch Ness looked amazing in the morning. There seemed to a cloud actually sitting on it. By the time we got to Loch Lomond it was raining.

That night we went to see Ocean Colour Scene in Stirling. That was my 12th OCS concert and it was as good as the rest have been . When Simon Fowler got hit by a cup of beer. Furious he was. You might even say livid. I don't think it would be a complete exaggeration to say apoplectic. He really had the look that he was going to jump into the crowd and insert his tambourine into the perpetrator. Regrettably, he did not, but made sure we were all made aware of the dangers of beer and electrical equipment on the stage. The boy really fears electrocution by flat lager. He does. He mentioned it at the Carling Academy gig too!

Diamond Wedding Anniversary

Wow! Sixty years. On the 10th of February the Watson family celebrated my Gran and Granda's achievement of being married for sixty years. Imagine it. If I got married tomorrow it would be very unlikely that I would ever make it to my sixtieth anniversary.

It was a good night. They were very surprised and happy to see the whole family there. My Gran and Granda's brother managed to make it along and so they got the chance to catch up with them too. I think they were delighted and we were all happy to see them happy. We all pitched in to get them a holiday to Ireland and a crystal ornament as a souvenier.

Congratulations to my mum for all the hard work. Well done to Uncle Craig and Jill for sharing the back of Pamela's car with 10 fully inflated pink helium balloons. It didn't look very confortable.

Worst Songs in the History of Songs

Today, for your viewing pleasure I have compiled what I believe to be the worst 11songs in the history of songs. I was inspired at the weekend while queuing for popcorn in the cinema. They were playing I Will Always Love You over the tannoy thing and it got me to thinking, "Is that the worst song ever?". Having now deliberated over this for some days I have come to the conclusion that, yes, it probably is the worst song ever. However, here are some others that at least made me think about it for a while and Edwyn Collins ran Whitney really close!

I discounted anything that knows it's rubbish if you know what I mean. For example Mr Blobby, Steps, Black Lace, or Aqua. I only considered songs by misguided, talentless fools who actually believe that they are good.
Hey! Turns out I'm that not into power ballads! Who knew?

If anyone reads this then I would be interested to hear your nominations in the comments...

These are in no particular order apart from 1 and 2.

1. I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
2. Never Known A Girl Like You Before - Edwyn Collins
3. My Heart Will Go on - Celine Dion
4. I'll Do Anything For Love - Meat Loaf
5. Where Is The Love - Black eyed Peas
6. I Love Your Smile - Shanice (A left field choice but I really, really hate it)
7. Flyin' Without Wings - R Kelly
8. She's Electric - Oasis (With the benefit of hindsight, my original antagonism towards Oasis was based predominantly on this "song")
9. Dancing In The Moonlight - Toploader
10. Young At Heart - Bluebells
11. Anything by Mariah Carey
    

Hogmanay 2006 \ Ne'erday 2007

Happy New Year 2007!!!

This year the gang decided to do something a bit different. The last few Hogmanays were a bit uneventful so last January I asked if there was any interest in doing something special for 2007. To my amazement everyone - I mean EVERYONE - agreed to book a few lodges in Lochearnhead to bring in 2007. It was a tremendous success.


The lodges were very welcoming and Lochearnhead was cool. Some of us were there for 3 nights and others could only make it for 1 0r 2 nights. On the first night we had a pub meal and a few drinks in the nice wee pub next door. There was a really old sick dog there. It's probably dead now! Then we went back to the lodges and got drunk.

Next day (Hogmanany) the weather was unbelievable. Typhoon is I imagine the correct meteorological term. Foolishly myself Pam, Thomas, and Hannah went out to the wee shop for a walk. The shop is about 500 meteres away. A 1km round trip probably. And we got drenched. Soaked right through. Really, really wet. The water was running right off our water proof coats straight onto our jeans. Nice. Pamela spent a good deal of time trying to iron my jeans dry so that I wouldn't be forced to go to the pub that night in my pyjamas. Thanks Pam.














The pub was excellent. I think that we took them a bit by surprise as we were after all potentially rowdy...given the right circumstances, but soon enough we were accepted and one particularly excellent (and drunk) local even asked us for requests to dance to. And dance we did. We took in the bells in the pub and then went back to the Party Lodge™ and got drunk. I am sure there was more to it than that but you would really have to ask someone who can remember. Everything between leaving the pub and waking up on New Year's Day is a total blank. I gather from the photos that I was having a good time. Or asleep. It's hard to tell. Most of us spent New Year nursing our hangovers. Some of us went to the far side of the loch to skim stones and throw boulders in the water. Others spent the entire day in a chair moving only periodically to answer the call of nature. That night we got drunk and wrote rude words in wax on a tube of Jaffa Cakes.

The following day we stopped off briefly at the "Falls" of Lenny. It was okay. More fast water than actual falls but there you go.

Big up the feral cats! Screw Loch Lomond Chalets who wouldn't have us because we were too young!

Everyone added their pictures to a communal album which can be seen here.

It's Al's turn to arrange it for next year. Looking forward to it already.