May Bank Holiday.

Busy day on Sunday for me.

First off was the (now) annual Doctor Who Event at St Andrews In The Square (http://www.standrewsinthesquare.com/Flash/saints.html). It was my first time there and it’s a very nice venue (much better than the tacky Central Hotel, where it was for the last few years). I got to meet some nice folk connected to Doctor Who including Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Wendy Padbury and Nicholas Briggs. There were a couple of “local” guests too – Andrew Smith (who wrote “Full Circle” in 1980) comes from Rutherglen and Stephen Greenhorn (who wrote “The Doctor’s Daughter” in 2008 as well as creating “River City” for the BBC) who comes from West Lothian.

Met up with a few mates too – Scott, Dierdrie and John so spent sometime in the downstairs bar with them – I was on the coffees, by the way, as I was driving! Nice menu there and very pleasant surroundings.

The trains back home finish early on a Sunday and the reason that I was driving was because I was heading off later in the day to see Blaze Bayley and his band playing at Ivory Blacks (the old Strawberry Fields, for those who know Glasgow) as part of their World Tour to support their “Man Who Would Not Die” album. Seeing Bayley live is always fun – and never predictable – and it’s nice to see him in a small venue close up with deafening sound.

Blaze Bayley's Set list: The Man Who Would Not Die, Blackmailer, Smile Back At Death, The Launch, Lord Of The Flies, Born As A Stranger, The Brave, Tenth Dimension, Identity, Kill And Destroy, Ten Seconds, Alive, Ghost In The Machine, The Clansman, Samurai, Voices From The Past, Stare At The Sun, Futureal, Leap Of Faith, Robot


Waiting for my "Flight666" DVD to arrive! ;)

May Already?

Took a wee trip down to see the parents at the weekend. Nice to see Father P out of hospital and the weather was good enough to sit out the back and have a few glasses of wine. We went to the local Woodland Centre at Winlaton Mill on Sunday afternoon which was quite nice. Lots of child friendly activities and lots of walks to be had – although with a wheelchair, some accesses proved difficult to negotiate. Will head down again in a few weeks if I can manage it.

What is going on with the Ferrari F1 Team, I don’t know. All credit to Jensen Button who’s having a good season so far (despite not knowing if he would ever get an F1 drive again after Honda put the team up for sale), but he’s doing a great job for the Brawn Team in their maiden season. Hopefully Ferrari will be better placed to gain some points in the latter half of the season. World Championship this year for us? Not a chance!


Was planning on getting the grass and the hedge cut last weekend, but the torrential rain on Saturday meant that this wasn’t possible. Really nice weather today, so I’ve decided to leave work early and get it done tonight. I can’t do it this weekend as I’m off to Aberdeen. Finally set about arranging a trip to the Doctor Who exhibition at the Kelvingrove – looks like it’ll be 26th June. That’s the day the school’s break up in Glasgow so hopefully we can be in and out (and on the way to the pub) before the place is invaded by children.

Easter Special - "Planet of the Dead".

Back to work after my long weekend. Had a nice time, the wather and the company was good and I even managed to slip in a few quiet beers in Romas (http://www.romas.co.uk/) on Saturday night. Didn't have the chance to meet up with Mrs Lilly and Mr John as they were having the family round - but maybe next time we can meet up properly.

The Doctor Who Easter Special (the first of Tennant's final stories) was, if truth be told - a tad disappointing. Lee Evans was good (and funny) and Michelle Ryan did a good job too although the story itself was a bit flimsy. Also, I don't see the point of the crew travelling all the way over the Dubai so they could film in a desert - what's the matter with a good old Welsh quarry or somewhere in Wales with a lot of sand?

Currently reading "Black Knight" - the autobiography of Ritchie Blackmore (from Deep Purple and Rainbow). Very interesting read, this one. Didn't know, for example, that he auditioned for a group as did Jimmy Page - only for Blackmore to get the gig. Up to 1964 at the moment with tales of Lord Sutch, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. :)

Montrose Music Festival?

When did this happen – and why didn’t it happen 20 years ago when we lived there:

http://www.montrosemusicfestival.co.uk/

Easter Holidays are approaching, so I’m away for the weekend to Northern Ireland. Nothing planned except for Saturday night when we’re having a “Doctor Who Night” after the broadcast of the first special – “Planet of the Dead”. Matthew asked me to bring a couple of DVDs across, so I asked him which ones he wanted – turns out that he wanted me to bring *all* my Doctor Who DVDs with me!

I’ll be back on Monday and all ready for work on Tuesday.

Almost Famous!

Well, Scotland on Sunday had a rather large piece on Doctor Who fans last weekend, and I even got a name check! I do have a paper copy (thanks to Mary Jo at work!) but for those who missed it, it’s online at the link below. My bit’s in paragraph 13:

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/Tales-from-behind-the-sofa.5094307.jp

Good weekend with Dad’s party. Lots of lovely food (of which I didn’t get much) and lots of wine drunk (which I did do my fair share of drinking!). Petrus the Pirate enjoyed himself, and the weather was good so he even got out into the garden for a while.

Apart from that, it’s a quiet week for me – with the exception of Metallica, Machine Head and The Sword at the SECC on Thursday and The Sword headlining King Tut’s on Friday with support from Diagonal and The Black Cherry Group.

This weekend will mostly be spent watching the Australian Grand Prix qualifying (Saturday) and the actual race on Sunday. It’s the first time for 12 years the BBC have done the coverage so we’ll see how it goes. Thankfully we won’t miss any action due to advert breaks and I’m sure David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan will do a good job with the commentating!

More Doctor Who Nonsense.

Quite an interesting wee night last night as I went for a couple of beers in The Crystal Palace with a couple of mates to meet a journo from Scotland on Sunday who’s writing an article on Doctor Who to tie in with the exhibition of props being held in The Kelvingrove Museum from 28th March 2009 – 4th January 2010.

Good chat was had about Doctor Who in gereral, fandom in Glasgow and the upcoming exhibition as well as the Doctor Who event being held in Glasgow on the 24th May. The article should be published in the 22nd March edition of Scotland on Sunday. The journo had asked us to come dressed up as a Doctor Who character and was quite disappointed that we all turned up in normal clothes. We all had the same reaction when asked to dress up – “We might like the programme, but we’re not sad to dress up as The Doctor or a Cyberman!”.

Apparently the exhibition is still getting set up, but the Face of Boe is there (still under wrapping at the moment) and some Daleks as well as a couple of Weeping Angels from “Blink”. Quite what else is there couldn't be divulged. The Kelvingrove are trying to get “someone” Doctor Who related to open the exhibition as well as try to arrange for Tennant to turn up sometime while it’s on.

Belated Happy Birthday to Simon who turned 37 yesterday and was treated to a meal out with Shirley followed by a visit to His Majesties Theatre to see comedian Al Murray.