Friday, July 13, 2007

Arnold, Loch and Palmer

Playlist
Various – Hit after hit in a DJ Mix Stylee (Vols 1-5)

To Loch Lomond today for a wee trip...

First a buffet breakfast then onto the bus and the first couple of the CDs I compiled last night went down well as we drove for around 100 mins before arriving at the loch-side for an hour long cruise around this beautiful stretch of water...

A couple of drinks to keep warm and then it was back on the bus and round to the Cameron House Hotel...

A buffet lunch and another quick drink then on to the nine hole golf course for my first ever game...

The first hole was a par 5 and I took nine shots but didn’t lose any balls in the rough or land in the stream which crosses the fairway...

All in all, over the whole nine holes I took 59 shots and made 11 points (I didn’t quite understand that but I think I got two shots added on to each par for the holes and if I made par on that basis I got a point)...



I even won the last hole...

A shower and then another drink in the bar before getting back on the bus...

The drive back to Edinburgh was a bit more raucous than that I the morning as we were all piling into more drink...

Prizes were given out on the journey home and I was surprised to get one - (a silver hip flask and cup) for best endeavour of the day – i.e. best score for anyone playing their first game (or who wasn’t really a golfer)...

By the time we got to Gordon’s Trattoria on the Royal Mile it was just after 7pm and we enjoyed a rather splendid meal...

I opted for the home made pate followed by special penne with pancetta, chorizo and tomato and cream ace – it was delicious...

I didn’t particularly like the Tiramisu due to the coffee flavour (but Anne advises that’s how it’s supposed to taste)...

And of course this was all accompanied by some lovely red wine...

By this time it was drizzling down outside and a few of our party decided not to venture out for the ghost tour that had been organised...

It was an interesting 45 minutes or so, based mainly around the torture of witches and various stories of unfortunate deaths – the girl who led us round will apparently be appearing as a extra shortly on Scottish soap “River City” – she said she was paid £100 for walking around on set...

The tour ended up in the vaults in Niddry Street, where I used to practise with various bands back in the early 80’s (and there were no ghosts there then)...

Finally, the last few die-hards of the day ended up at Nicol Edwards bar where Out of the Bedroom regular and percussionist extraordinaire, Stuart Clark happened to be playing a set...

I think he got a bit fed up with my cohorts shouting “Davee, Davee” at the end of every song and trying to get me to play some songs – I protested advising that this was Stuart’s set...

However, Mr Clark invited me up to play a couple of songs while he took a break...

By that time, I had drunk the following:-

2 glasses of Champagne
2 bottles of Magners
1 bottle of Beck’s
1 bottle of Isle of Arran Blonde
5 or 6 Bacardi Breezer/Smirnoff Ices
4 or 5 large glasses of Red Wine
1 Pint of Kronenbourg Blanc

Despite this, my renditions of “20/20 Vision” and “This is All There Is” (the latter popularly introduced as “a song about killing children”) seemed to pass off without incident...

I left the bar soon after having thanked Stuart for letting me play, and stotted off into the night to get a bus home...

I got completely soaked in a pelting rainstorm as I waited on a bus, any bus, to take me back to Crispycat Towers...

Got home around one in the morning feeling not too bad considering and looking forward to our trip to Manchester tomorrow to see The Blue Nile...

Highlight of the Day : Winning a prize for my golfing prowess...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well done for winning hip flask (tip: don't put cola in it as a mixer). Sounds like a good day.