Farewell to the wife of the gadget man....

Playlist

Various - Now That's What I Called Music 1959-2018

Anderson/Stolt - Invention of Knowledge

Squarepusher - Ultravisitor

Can - Delay 1968

Can - Rite Time

Hauschka - Snowflakes And Carwrecks

Walton - String Quartet, Piano Quartet

k.d. lang & The Siss Boom Bang - Sing it Loud

Spock's Beard - The Light

Up early...

 
New portrait of the beast...

This morning, a drive to Paisley to say farewell to mum's old pal, Pat, who died on 23 August, just short of her 88th birthday...

It was good to see again my kind of pretend cousins Valerie and Fiona and to see their now extended families, as we gathered at the crematorium, a beautiful, peaceful setting on a hill above the town...

After a short committal service, a drive to Great Western Road to Pat's church, of which she remained a very active member right up until her passing...

The church sits almost directly opposite my old school - although I don't think I ever attended this particular building as I left in primary 3, so probably the other building, now an office, a few yards along to the right from here...

Inside, old chums gathered to pay their last respects and Pat's granddaughter Kimberly, who lives with Valerie in France and whom Pat often visited and vice versa, made a moving tribute to her grandmother...

Then, to the Watermill Hotel and a chance to chat about our experiences of Pat and her husband Charlie, who died in 2005 - they were great friends of my mum and dad after my mum and Pat struck up a friendship when Fiona and I were babies...

Valerie reminded me that she and Fiona used to come to our house every Tuesday after school so the mum's could have a cup of tea and a chat...

Such afternoons of tea and chat ended up being enjoyed by the two ladies over a period of almost 60 years...

We met Valerie and Fiona's cousins, Pamela and Hazel and Charlie's sister for the first time, seen here with Fiona...

A lovely time, sad though it was...

At 1, we said our goodbyes and left...

I wonder if I'll ever visit Paisley again - or see Fiona or Valerie again...

Whenever we took my mum to see Pat, we'd take the train to Glasgow and do some tshopping, leaving the ladies to it...

Today, we drove but would not return to Pat's apartment...

And so, on to Mixed Up...

...for some CD bargains...

Three further "doublers" were also obtained - but those and all of the above were only £1 each so no real harm done...

I think this was around my 12th or 13th visit to the shop since discovering it a few years back...

Over that time, I have purchased almost 250 £1 CDs from the establishment...

Oops...

Then, to the West End to park and to walk down the hill and take the Subway into town...

I left Anne at Frasers...

...and headed to nearby Fopp, where these were acquired at reasonable prices...

 I had them all as downloads but, you know, it's not the same (I told myself as I handed over the cash for, effectively, zero new music)...

Outside, some starlings were having a bath in a puddle on Union Street amongst the traffic...

To Missing, round the corner and under the bridge...

  

...where this tasty jazz fusion disc was snapped up for a couple of quid...

Along to HMV but nothing partaken of and a meet with the EP, she having secured some very nice indeed new apparel...

The weather was picking up...

Back to Byres Road and coffee and chat at Tinderbox...

I am a barista - look at the face I made on my Americano...

Back to the car, noting good stuff on the way...

The drive home wassoundtracked by Messrs Anderson and Stolt...

With another large input of new and not so new music, the evening was spent, as you might imagine, ripping and listening...

There was also some measure of txt correspondence with chum JD, who was undergoing surgery tonight...

I was keeping him entertained, kind of...

Ended the evening downstairs sorting out the CDs on the shelf, not realising my clattering about was interrupting Anne's TV viewing...

My left knee had been threatening to seize up all day so decided to hit the pit early to rest it...

Today's artwork, "Last Respects"...

Highlight of the Day : Seeing Valerie and Fiona again and bidding farewell to my mum's old chum...