Party time...

Up early as usual for Sunday and finish off the Jukebox spring clean. Tracks reduced from 12,906 to 11,559 and spare GBs increased from 0.361 to 6.662...

Anne finally surfaces around 10 and at 11 we’re off out for a late breakfast at Patisserie Florentin...

We are back home by around 12:30 and Anne decides to do some gardening whilst I go to the studio and start writing a new song...

By 1:45 I have the basics of the chord sequences and have “hummed” the melody and some rough guitar onto Cakewalk...

Then to the Queen’s Hall for a concert by “Gael Force”, a quintet comprising members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – flute, oboe/cor anglais, french horn, clarinet and, on bassoon, Anne’s cousin Alison (whose husband, Lawrence plays clarinet in the Orchestra of Scottish Opera)...

Before entering the hall we sit in the car listening to Celtic and Rangers playing out a nil-nil draw. We’d rather Celtic won to help Hearts out...

Anne’s aunt has procured us tickets in the second row and the concert is a good one. The individual sound of each instrument stands out to give an interesting overall sound which isn’t possible with a larger group...

Alison plays on all the pieces which comprise Grieg’s Norwegian Dances, a Wind Trio by Kevin McRae who, until his tragic death death last year, was cellist with the SCO for 18 years, a piece by Sally Beamish “The Naming of Birds” (Sally was in the audience) and, finally, Nielsen’s Wind Quintet....

After the concert we’re off to Jane and Bobby’s for nephew Ollie’s birthday party. It’s a reasonably big family do with around 15 people including the birthday boy. As usual, Jane excels herself with her culinary skills and produces huge dishes of Mexican Chicken and Lasagne. As a starter, Bobby cooks up some cheese, onion and chili tortillas...

Pudding is a choice of Banoffie Pie, Offie Pie (sans bananas for Olllie’s benefit) or Cherry Tart with Ice Cream. Mmm mmm...



The day was finished off with a slice of Scooby Doo birthday cake...



What a polite wee by - although there was rather a distasteful tantrum at one point, due to an inability to properly control Winnie the Pooh's movements in some kind of video game...

Back home at kiddie’s bedtime and I get to work on lyrics for the new song...

By the end of the night I have the makings of my third song of the year – working title “The Luckiest Man Alive” – a version wil be uploaded to Myspace (www.myspace.com/cloudlandbluequartet) as soon as I get a decent version down...

Highlight of the Day : Jane’s Banoffie Pie