Groovy Little Numbers

Apologies to Librarywebbie but my trip to Avalanche bore fruit in terms of a complete collection of The Groovy Little Numbers singles on 53rd & 3rd on a single CD which I'm currently plugged in, nice sound and as I'm always a sucker for a well placed horn section combined with indie sensibilities I'm in janglers heaven and also the complete works of The Vaselines. Dragged Tom, Margaret and Ashleigh of to the Museum of Scottish Country Life a cool and relaxing time had by all. Pleasant social history and a quiz completed by Ashleigh and myself. As usual horrified the attendant with talk of rook pie etc. Still if these townies want to play at being culchies..... Well worth a visit. Then dropped those folks home and into Glasgow to pick up Monst. Apart from the trip to Avalanche launched into a pint of 70/ at Dows an anonymous place that could easily have been in Reading. Then home and prepare for Laurence's gig. Yesterday was also the day of Laurence's first night at the Edinburgh festival. Having tripped over on the M8 past three heads do nothing other than sitting atop a column or three (in some sort of fractal sculpture like thang). Parked at Haymarket and trekked to the Theatre Workshop cool accessible venue. We were there way early so nipped into grab a beer and an Irn Bru (mind you it took a second morthgage for the Pilsner Urquell alone). On the way over we noticed the festival goers and began to feel well underdressed. What we didn't notice was the sort of grim smoky boozing ken I tend to inhabit given half a chance. Given we had some time before curtain up post drink we went to find a proper pub and ended up in Clark's Bar a reasonable victorian place serving reasonable beer (a pint of McEwan's 80/ the Caledonian was off) but with a strange shorts thing happening amongst the blokes. Back to the gig and grabbing one of Laurence's publicity flyers that are like large postcards duly wrote work another card much to Tom's amusement. Audience was unfortunately small, the intent of the performance to suggest that equity and equality of opportunity are the only way forward for people with disability was both funny and to the point. Nice to see Laurence and Adele (sad to here that the house move fell trhough, promised them some boxes - Tracy please read this bit....). Good night. We then came out to find that Edinburgh was auditioning for a Basil Rathbone movie. Armed with a map and dangerous we stomped off to the car, keeping a close eye out for geezers in frock coats, with toppers and carrying Gladstone bags. Drive back was consequently bloody horrible. Today dominated by the need to get Monst into Glasgow to get to work tonight, the need to get some photos developed and the need to get Tom to the opticians. Once there he proceeded to try and pull Geraldine's sister (sorry a very in joke).

Coat 2

A trip to Coatbridge to take Tom to the opticians and to post a postcard to work. Then on to Bothwell Castle a 13th Century gaff where once again I find myself cast as a baddie, a Rank Bajin no less because I'm from south of the border. Still that's cool with me because baddies always get the best parts. Then back here for coat two on the painting front. Not helped by more sweat dripping from me. Still I was giggling as I did it remembering a conversation while I was at UUC between a geezer called Mark and a girl I kew Kelly who was a bit of a hippy. He was desperate to get into her knickers and was suggesting they go out and pick some mushrooms and then paint a window white to see the different shades of white. All the time Kelly was indicating she wanted to vomit..... Bought the tickets to Laurence's gig. I'm really looking forward to it, it'll be cool to see the geezer doing something he enjoys at the Edinburgh festival. New library blog from Librarywebbie, Miles Davis, humour, cycling and lycra..... who kindly left a comment yesterday. Sorry but I'm off to Avalanche tomorrow again, yay! more dodgy sounds....

Coat 1

So with the sweat dripping off me, coat 1 of the gloss is on the window. Forgot last night a couple of mooners serenaded the Arsenal end much to everyone's amusement. Plans for the day to find out about tickets to Laurence's gig tomorrow night. I've a bottle of Fraoch heather ale chilling for later. Looks like it'll be a welcome bottle.

Stripping and Paddy

The former I must hastily add refers to me and a bathroom window. Monst volunteereed me to paint the bathroom window and yesterday I attacked it with a tin of paint stripper. Today I attack it with sandpaper, then paint.... Paddy came through 60 minutes last night and played well. Edu had a good game and Kolo Toure seems to have stepped upa gear. Rangers dressed as Southampton for the occaision and apart from the first 15 minutes posed no real threat. First goal was extremely soft, Sol nodded one in and we had a penalty. The Sun report on it here as do the Daily Ranger sorry Record. A good time indeed. Mind you I think there were very few happy folk round about me. to there credit they were very polite, one woman shouting 'You Silly'at Rangers players she considered not to be showing the right spirit (about 10 of them by my count, Barry Ferguson seemed to want to get stuck in but that was about it). This was a bit of a refreshing change from the usual invective laden yells I'm used to. Mind you we did get one round of 'The Referee's a Fenian' on the award of the second penalty (missed by the way). Er... 19th century political movements and referees discuss..... Got to say I enjoyed it and it did somewhat transform my view of Rangers, who I will now have more time for. The Blue Order are an interesting idea but there band need to spend less time drinking the rider and more time playing. Maybe they were just depressed.

In Her Hair

"You wash that man right out of your hair, but you can't find the right shampoo" Found my kind of record shack in Avalanche just above Queen Street Station. Jangly, I was a bit sneery at first on the basis that it had a lack of Hitchcock (a bit of an acid test for me), but then I found a rich vein of 53rd & 3rd (Library friendly Stephen Pastel label) stuff released under license by the gaff and some Fuzzy Warbles under XTC (I don't own any by the way but was impressed to see it on a rack not purchased via the web). So an evening of acts on 53rd & 3rd, a compilation in Agarr Retro including The Vaselines, Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, BMX Bandits, The Boy Hairdressers a couple I haven't come across in the Househunters and Chin Chin. Then onto BMX Bandits 'The 53rd & 3rd Years'. It's like turning the clock back instantly to my student years in Ulster when this whole scene was blazoning and I was away from it looking on as an observer through the music press and occasional visitor when I was at home or a tape came through the post. I tend to focus on Talulah Gosh as an Oxford band and 'Testcard Girl' still blows me apart now and 'Bringing Up Baby' and 'Beatnik Boy' are still so sweet. If you aren't aware of this whole scene it's jangly the musical equivalent of a tube of love hearts. My mission to find a two legged horse based on a description in Chris Brookmyre's 'A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away' was successful but only after the intervention of some kindly folk at Abacus on Gibson Street, if you're in the area look in they are extremely kind and can sell you all sorts of puzzles and games. They let me know the statue is infact opposite the Halt Bar on Woodlands Road (the bar paid for it a good reason to stop in for a pint of McEwans 80/ which was very refreshing on a hot day). Think I've solved my mobile web problems with a Tiscali disc. At least I can now connect to the rest of the planet and unlike North Lanarkshire and the BT phone box I used earlier it allows me to see the blog of Quickos. Back at the Mother-in-Laws and Kitty the sister-in-law was round with Ashleigh giving poor Katie Cat a hard time. Brief discussion about my former almost Brother-in-Law who is now a leper as far as Kitty is concerned and I'm desperate to stay outside the whole judgment thing. Let them get on with it I say.

Suchiehall Street

In a phone box on above on the lookout for a two legged horse called El Fideldo, Rank Bajin and Lobey Dosser. Big 53rd and 3rd day.

Curses Public Libraries

Just been told I've tried to log into something inapropriate. I go to look at Quickos Daily News and this happens North Lanarkshire Community Services - Internet Facilities ACCESS HAS BEEN DENIED Access to the page: http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/quickos/ ... has been denied for the following reason: Banned site: users.pandora.be You are seeing this error because the page you attempted to access contains, or is labeled as containing, material that has been deemed inappropriate. Powered by DansGuardian What has the poor little fella done to upset them. It isn't even 'My Boyfreind is a Twat' which might be banned because of the use Twat (non existent-deities public libraries can be easily offended).

I'll Take the High Road

...and unless you live up here, I am in Scotland before you (or you've just visited like Val). Journey up a four hour marathon of pleasant scenery, those in the back watching the 'Rugrats in Paris'. Up by 11.00 which wasn't too bad. So what does a librarian do with his time off. In my case spend yseterday trying to work out why my web connection didn't work, only to find BTOpenworld are fussy when it comes to Telewest lines and I'm away from home. Attempt to remedy the situation with a quick nip to Tesco's for a temporary Tesco.net solution while getting the Mother-in-Law (a habit she blames on me incidently, a man who only ever reads the Daily Mail for Fred Bassett and I'm not even certain he's still in it). Unfortunateately they too want a BT line. AOL aren't as fussy but you've got to draw the line somewhere. I'll try scoring a Freeserve Disc somewhere today and see whether they offer a solution. Had to call on plan B. Plan B Peoples Network in a public library (oo er, misus Mr. Blair does summat right, shock horror news). So I'm sat in Coatbridge Library having read (or at least sklimmed an internet policy that ran on for two sides of A4). The library is a magnificent Carnegie affair, and much as I know the man was a vile capitalist, at least he was a philanthropic swine. Blogging against the clock because I need to be back to the Mother-in-Law's by 11 to take Monst and Cal into Glasgow to catch a train. Other jobs I've been assigned include painting a bathroom window, so I'm off to rub my hands raw with sandpaper...... Also asked to findout where we can get a coin collection and stamp collection valued.