No more mister nice guy...

Playlist
Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Alice Cooper - No More Mr Nice Guy Setlist pt 1
J S Bach - Orchestral Suites arr. for Guitar Quartet
Lady Antebellum - Lady Antebellum

A particularly disappointing month gone...



A day off today...

Up early and recreating to 2 CDs the likely (indeed actual) setlist from the Alice Cooper performance in Glasgow tonight...

Off down the road but, before heading to the West, handed in a pair of boots for repairs which may cost more than the boots did - but they are comfy...

Five pence pieces set aside for a goodly number of months were taken to the bank and exchanged for a crisp £20 note...

To The White Lady for breakfast - tasty porridge with maple syrup and a couple of slices of toast for the big man, while a sausage with brown sauce roll nourished the Exec Producer...



One last stop before we set off to Glasgow - a bag of "stuff" put together during the recent change around of the computer room was taken to the Cancer research charity shop...

The drive to Glasgow was soundtracked by the Coop...

To Byres Road and parked...

The Oxfam Music shop provided a disc of JS Bach Orchestral Suites arranged for Acoustic Guitar Quartet for just two of your English pounds, while Fopp provided a DVD for Annie and a Roberta Flack CD for me - her debut from 1969 - along with an anthology of the writings of William S Burroughs...

To a pattisserie for a tasty lunch...







...after which we bumped into Anne's step-niece, Rebecca, who studies English Lit at Glasgow University...

She opined the occurence as "random"...

Back to the car and, accompanied by Herr Bach, we drove to the Campanile Hotel by the SECC, where we were to spend the night tonight...

View from the room...



A walk into the town centre past these things...







...and, at Missing, Annie bought a "Dad's Army" DVD for her mum re the new DVD viewing facilities installed last night, along with a Lady Antebellum CD - your correspondent left the shop empty handed...

We never reached the main Fopp though...

Tower's old premises has been taken over by That's Entertainment, selling CDs, DVDs and games at ridiculously low prices - further hammering nails into the coffin of the CD format methinks...

Two Biffy Clyro discs were partaken of...

To The Lighthouse...





...and then, directly opposite,  Bar Ten for drinks...



Then the walk through the much promised but just commenced rain...



...initially past our venue and on to Buddha Bar for considerably cheaper drinks...



..and, finally, to the original Ashoka in Elderslie Street...



Very tasty indeed and our third curry based evening meal in three days...

Then more walking through the rain back to the hotel to dump our purchases before walking over to the Armadillo to find the New York Dolls half way through their set...

Being the support act to Alice Cooper is an unenviable task - as soon as the Coop takes to the stage, you are forgotten...



This year's show was much less theatrical than the "Theater of Death" set we saw at the same venue two years ago - my description of which is the most viewed entry of the 2,500 on the blog...

It being Halloween, there were a goodly number of costumed audients in the hall...

A good set list - with standouts for me being "Halo of Flies" and "Muscle of Love", while Anne particularly enjoyed "We're All Clones"...

The snake performed very well indeed on "Is It My Body" and the 12 foot high monster, which took to the stage during "Feed My Frankenstein", was mightily impressive...

And we finally got to see Alice kill a chicken on stage - albeit a man in a chicken suit being impaled on a mike stand - for which Mr Cooper was inevitably seized and summarily beheaded - before returning for the classic set closing encores of "School's Out" and "Elected"...

All too soon it was over...



...and we emerged into the night - the rain thankfully having stopped...

However, it didn't stop Spiderman getting soaked feet...



Back to the hotel and lights out with the Coop's new, unplayed live (apart from one song) album in the cans...

A good day for a change...

Highlight of the day : Alice Cooper live...

Sleeping and pretending to sleep...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Originals & Covers
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Erstazreal
White Denim - D
Neal Morse - Sola Scriptura
Corelli - Concerti Grossi
Matt Munro - The Singer's Singer
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2011 Instrumentals

Up at 4:15, clocks went back...

Meg the Black Cat found some new places to explore in the re-arranged computer room...









Working on a possible acoustic collection comprising recordings made over the summer and recordings made in preparation for the recently cancelled performance...

Breakfast with Annie around 9:30 then to work with further tidying of the small room...

Meg the Black Cat was, once again, in her element re new places to visit...



A light lunch was accompanied by recently Tivo'd "Frozen Planet", "Fresh Meat" and "Have I Got News For You"...

Then to the hospital, where Pam was still not talking...

She does a lot of sleeping...



..and smiling...



We are to meet with her doctors on Tuesday to discuss matters...

I'm not going to second guess the experts...

To Anne's mum's for the family tea...

Hard to believe that, just two weeks ago, Pam was here with us enjoying Anne's mum's home made steak pie...

Today it was a full house once again with the kids in top form...









I set up the DVD player we bought for Anne's mum last Saturday and she was delighted with the laid back sounds of Matt Munro...



Kitty enjoyed getting me to pretend to sleep while she photographed me...



...and had me reciprocate...



..while Olly and I enjoyed exploiting the magnetic nature of the new condiment dispensers...





Back home and a visit to next door neighbour Fiona's place for a chat about Pam and about Fiona's own recent troubles, including eye operations to try and restore her sight...

To the PC on our return with Annie catching up on "Strictly" etc...

Created a new soundscape piece based on Wagner's "Lohengrin" prelude, stumbled across on Monday...

A mixed weekend...

Highlight of the Day : Family tea keeping my mind off matters...

Friskzipfleet signed up to...

Playlist
The Yardbirds - Shapes of Things
Roy Orbison - The Essential Roy Orbison
The Who - A Quick One
Rufus Wainwright - Want Two
Brand X - Unorthodox Behaviour
Brand X - Masques
Brand X - Product
Magnus Ostrom - Thread of Life
Serge Gainsbourg - Best of
Gentle Giant - Giant Steps
T Rex - Singles 1972-1977
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Souvenir XIX
Various - Beyond the Last 9 Months on Shuffleplay

Up at 7 to rip the new purchases and add them to the recent acquisitions jukebox whilst bringing this up to date...

At 9 out and over to Loanhead for breakfast with my mum, persuading her to use her zimmer type thing with the wheel rather than her wheelchair when she visits Pam...

Less hassle for sister Sheila and, if mum can walk round Sainsbury holding on to a trolley, she can get from the car park to Pam's bed holding on to this contraption...

Around 10:30 back into Edinburgh, parked in the Saturday place and made my way through the rain...



...to the library to meeet up with Dr Prog...

Borrowed discs by Magnus Ostrom, Serge Gainsbourg and Cambodian guitarist Nguyen Le (this last turned out to have no discs inside)...

On our way to the Turkish coffee shop, we stopped off at the computer supplies shop and I bought a scart lead for Anne's mum's DVD player which I bought last week - even though we must have several lying around in a cupboard somewhere...

Dr Prog won't cross against the Green Man at this crossing...



On to the coffee shop, past the University...



We enjoyed a cafetiere of Colombian and a scone/croissant...



A good chat was had...

Phil headed back to town and I went home, passing the car to Anne to allow her to go and watch Hearts lose 1-0 at home to Kilmarnock (Queens lost 2-0 at home to Livingston - a quarter of the season gone and they are joint bottom)...

I re-arranged the computer room, moving around several wardrobes and a set of shelves creaking under the weight of too many books and too much in the way of "papers we need to keep"...

Strangely, I took no pics...

A link over on Impossible Songs' blog, led me to register for the challenge of writing and recording a new album during November... (the link has been removed as the site was hacked)...



The working title references the speed at which I will have to work...

In the evening, with Anne not 100%, I made my way over to the hospital on my own...

Nephews Andy and Alastair had been in this afternoon but, on finding Pam sleeping, had spent some time creating a makeshift card for her and left without wakening her...

I spent an hour and a half with her and elicited very few words indeed...

By contrast, a visitor at the bed opposite arrived just after half past six and left at eight having hardly drawn breath...

Pam seems to know everything that's going on but just doesn't want to, or can't, comment...

Anne called in the Indian takeaway order and I picked it up on the way home...

Tivo'd "Harry Hill's TV Burp" and "Merlin" entertained as did "Match of the Day", including a 5-3 win for Arsenal at Chelsea...

Despite being granted an extra hour's sleep, to bed at the usual time...

HIghlight of the Day : Re-arranging a room...

Want more but why...

Playlist
Zimmermann - String Quartets
Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Rufus Wainwright - Want Two
The Yardbirds - Shapes of Things
Caravan - Cunning Stunts
Editors - The Back Room
Marilyn Manson - Eat Me Drink Me
Caravan - If I Could Do It All Again
Strawbs - Grave New World

An early breakfast...

To the airport for 7:15 and saw Julie off - she will return in a couple of weeks...

Into town around 8...





...and noted HMV was open so popped in...

Took possession of 2CD compilations of The Yardbirds and Roy Orbison - on the recommendation of various of my admired rock and pop stars...

A walk to Fopp at lunchtime...



....three Brand X titles and a 1966 Who album I used to own on vinyl entered the collection, along with a second hand copy of Rufus Wainwright's "Want Two"...



Headed home past the Cathedral...





Rufus W soundtracked our trip to the hospital tonight but had to be turned off due to its annoyance factor, which was rather high...

I suspected it might languish on the shelves for a few years alongside "Want One" before ending up in a skip upon my demise...

But a further listen later on brought it back from the brink...

Pam was again very tired today and not very talkative...

In the afternoon she'd been visited by our former through-the-wall neighbour from Loanhead, Diane and, tonight, we were joined by Janette and her daughter Suzanne, our once over-the-path neighbours...

Janette's other daughter Debbie is a pain management nurse and takes the opportunity to visit Pam on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays during her rounds at The Western...

Back home to tasty sea bass fillets from the fair hand of the Exec Producer...

Yardbirds in the cans (I can hear their influence on early Alice Cooper) while Annie watched Graham Norton...

Proposed house gig set for early December...

Lights out with the albums relegated from the living room shelf by today's purchases on the cans......

Highlight of the day : Sea Bass...

Ferrying...

Playlist
Various - Beyond 9 Months on Shuffleplay
Cloudland Blue Quartets - Souvenir XIX
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
The Killers - Sam's Town

Lunch with Julie today at La P'tite Folie...



...of course we were supposed to be doing this with Pam but circumstances did not allow...

Julie headed to the hospital for an afternoon visit and reported Pam quite tired and sleepy...

Anne brought Julie home for an hour or so, while I too made my way home...





...before I took Julie back in...

Mum and sister Sheila were also in tonight but, with only two allowed at the bedside at any time, Sheila and Julie both had spells in the day room...

I picked Julie up just after 8 and she reported Pam to be a bit perkier this evening though still quite tired...

Her chemo ended today and she now has a month off...

Let's hope she can recuperate somewhat...

A chinese takeaway sustained us then early to bed for tomorrow's early trip to the airport...

Highlight of the Day : Tasty mussels at a French restaurant...

Visiting time...

Playlist
J S Bach - Six Cello Suites
L'Archibudelli - Selection of Works
Spohr - String Quartets
Webster Young - For Lady
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Souvenir XIX
Various - The Jackie Album
Shawn Colvin - These Four Walls
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
Various - Beyond 9 Months on Shuffleplay

Up at the usual time but pottering around the house and generally tidying...

To the airport around ten to pick up Pam's chum Julie, who is visiting till Friday...

Drove into the town centre, parked...



...and took a long walk in the morning autumn sunshine...

A call came in offering a possible "house gig" in the coming weeks - I await further details but it sounds good...

Through Princes St Gardens...









...and up the Mound to Cafe St Giles for a coffee and a croissant, before heading up to the Castle...









...then down the full length of the Royal Mile, to Holyrood Palace...



...and the Scottish Parliament...







Back up the Mile...



...and down Cockburn St, along George St to the West End and a sandwich based lunch near the car...

Down to the hospital for two for a meet with Pam's doctor - mainly to provide back up info for their files and also to have confirmed what's happening with her right now...

Both Oncoclogy and Neurology will dovetail under the Western (current chemo ends tomorrow till late Nov early Dec)...

In the meantime, steroids were increased on Monday which will, hopefully, reduce some of the swelling...

At three, in to see Pam and no big change since yesterday...

Sadly, much of what was said to her last night seemed to have been been forgotten...

She was so happy to see Julie though, that kind of made up for it...

By 4:30 with Pam tiring, we left and drove home and just had a sit about and a chat before I took Julie back for the evening visit, where she met up with Pam's chum Liz...

Back home leaving the ladies and managed to fix the recently purchased jukebox which seemed to have been frazzled during overnight listening last night - required a reformat and a reboot, wiping all content...

Started the task of refilling it...

Back to the hospital for 8 to bring Julie home - she reported Pam having probably had a sleep between visits, as she was slightly perkier than this afternoon...

Dinner was Anne's excellent Red Thai Chicken Curry - the ladies enjoyed a bottle of wine while I had a couple of beers...

Retired around 11:30...

Highlight of the Day : Pam getting to see her chum again...