Insurance

Insurance, don't you love that time of year when it needs renewed? Especially if there are changes to your circumstances or to the details of what you want covered.

I've been with my current car insurer/broker for a few years now. I went to them initially because my ex-wife was about to learn to drive and I'd been phoning around getting lots and lots of quotes, all of which were in the region of £1000 pa for the Rover 416 we had at the time (see photo, although that isn't the actual car).

To put that in context, the insurance for me on my own to drive that vehicle was in the region of £200, but put a learner driver on the policy and the insurers want to screw you!

I eventually phoned this broker, who were actually to do with the staff federation (sort of a union) of my employer, and when I gave them all the details they quoted about £200. I patiently repeated that my wife was a learner, to which they replied, yes sir, £200. I explained, in case they hadn't fully understood, that my wife hadn't even yet applied for her provisional licence, and they sighed, and repeated, yes sir, we understand that, the price is £200. So the gist of it is that as long as it was my spouse, and she lived at the same address, then there was no change to the cost of the premium. Needless to say I immediately became their customer and have been for the past several years. I even insure my house and contents through them now.

Now wind forward dear friend, and if you are a regular reader of this Blog then first of all God help you, have you nothing better to do, and secondly you may realise that I passed my Advanced Driving test in January of this year. Membership of the Institute of Advanced Motorists costs £18 per year plus £10 per year if you want to be a member of a local group (in my case the Glasgow North Group) although local membership is not obligatory. But there is the carrot of cheaper insurance for Advanced Drivers (and Advanced Motorcyclists too, but I've that to look forward to later this year). You see where this is going don't you?

My car insurance is due for renewal. The quote from my current insurer was £285 pa to renew with no changes. That's including 6 years (protected) no claims bonus.

I called IAM Surety, the people who provide motoring insurance for the IAM (via the broker Adelaide). Their first quote was £245, a saving of £40. The annual IAM membership fee looks to be worth it then!

But wait! I've decided to add an extra named driver to my policy. Better get alternative quotes from them both. And I should mention that bizarrely, but coincidentally, both brokers are quoting only for policies via Royal and Sun Alliance!

With the new driver's details added, current broker, £338, IAM Surety £313. IAM win again!

But to be honest, £20 isn't really enough of a difference to make me change. I can't be bothered with the hassle of providing proof of no claims bonus etc, so I decide to stick with the current broker.

So, a call to the current broker to take them up on their quote of £338, and I find I have to give them all the details of the extra named driver again. When I do so they regenerate the quote and it's £370 pa! Hang on here, it has been a matter of 4 days since I was told it'd be £338. Why the difference? Sadly, because I'm in the "renewal" period they couldn't save the quote from 4 days previously, and they didn't know why there was a difference this time. But wait! There is one person who could explain it, and maybe sort it. The person who manages the database. But sadly she's on holiday. Perhaps I might want them to ask her to have a look at it when she returns in a couple of weeks? No thanks, perhaps I'll just go elsewhere! So I have to send back the new insurance certificate they sent me for next year. Yes, no problem.

So, at £57 cheaper, IAM Surety wins after all!

So I call them to take out the policy, and find that this was for a single payment of £313. I had already, in my initial enquiry, told them I wanted to spread this out and pay by monthly Direct Debit, but they seem to have forgotten to add the surcharge for this. OK, what's the new quote then? There's a 10% surcharge plus a £10 fee, bringing the new correct total to about £351. Still only £20 cheaper than the current broker's newly inflated quote. Hmmm, what to do?

I am pissed off by this point. Not with the individuals to whom I'm speaking, but with the whole setup.

Thanking the very helpful chap from IAM Surety for all the calls between us, I regretfully tell him he's lost out. I've already told the current broker they've lost out.

I look online at Money Supermarket, and enter all my details. Let's see if there's anyone else in the ballpark then.

Holy Shit, what's that? Admiral are quoting £161 based on exactly the same details. That can't be right surely? I look more closely. Yes, under "protected no claims discount" it says "check with insurer" so that's clearly going to up the cost. Similarly for monthly payments. Oh well, nothing to lose, I'll call them.

The extra cost involved in having protected no claims discount will be £5. The new total cost for fully comprehensive insurance with an extra named driver, is £166. If I want to pay monthly it'd be a total of £195. Woohoo! At these prices I decide to pay it all at once.

So, to cut a long story short (is there anyone still reading this far?) my quote to renew with no change was £285, to add an extra driver and take advantage of IAM membership would have been £351, but I have actually paid only £166.

A few days of hassle, and to be frank if it hadn't been a hassle I would just have chosen one or other of my current broker or IAM Surety, and I have saved myself £185.

So, just the bike insurance to look forward to in a couple of months!

How did YOU get here?

One of the spinoffs from having the Feedjit Widget in the sidebar showing where visitors to this Blog are from, is that it shows how they actually got here. You can tell whether they landed directly (suggesting they've got it bookmarked or they have manually typed in the known URL), followed a link from an email (could have been from my signature on the bottom of my emails), or much more interestingly if they have arrived via a search engine what search terms they used.

Some of the things people have searched for, and ended up on this Blog (and where they were from) are:

• The Straw Locomotive (Macau, Ilhas)
• Catriona Hetherington (Melbourne, Victoria and Brooklyn, New York)
• Buckfast.ch (Neftenbach, Zurich)
• Condescending phrases (Molalla, Oregon)
  
• Louise Jolly (Columbus, Ohio)
• Advanced (United States)
• Jonathan Cohen +Piano (Andover, Hampshire)
• Telemann Ensemble Glasgow (Glasgow)
• Choir Greenock (Faroe Islands)
• Famous buildings of Millport (United Kingdom)
• The Cathedral end Blog (Adelaide, South Australia)

The mind boggles at some of these. Why might someone in the Faroe Islands be interested in Greenock choirs? How many famous buildings are in Millport? Is Buckfast as big a seller in Zurich as it is in Lanarkshire?

As an aside it's amazing how many people search the terms condescending phrases or useful condescending phrases, and strangely they mostly seem to be from the USA!

I think I may make this a recurring theme, if there are interesting ones.

If we pull the shutter half down no one will see the cigarettes!

If we pull the shutter half down no one will see us smoking!, originally uploaded by Lay Clerk.

I couldn't resist taking this last night on the way to the pub to celebrate RE's birthday with friends.

It just looked so strange, three people standing in a doorway, with the door behind them closed, and the shutter pulled down, in an apparent attempt at hiding the smoking! Well OK that probably wasn't what they were actually trying to do, but that was what it looked like to me!

It's also a rather interesting selection of footwear.

Perspective

And just to put the previous post into perspective, the image on the right is of St Mary's Cathedral and the red arrow points at the corner of the parapet where I was standing looking up to take the photo earlier that same day.

You can see the statue of St George in its niche just above the arrowhead. I guess it's probably more or less life size.

The parapet is about three feet high or so, pretty much waist height, and it looks a longer way down when you're up there than it looks from the ground!

St George

Statue of St George, on St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, originally uploaded by Lay Clerk.

I like this image. It's one of the statues at the top of the tower, which is the bottom of the spire, of St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow's Great Western Rd. It looks roughly north west I think.

The chance to go up the tower arose unexpectedly the other week when a friend, who happens to be a bellringer, was going up to do some maintenance work, so RE and I, and another two, went up with him, and then continued up past the ringing chamber, up past the bellchamber, and out onto the parapet. Quite a view from up there!

Unfortunately I only had my old wee Olympus Mju camera with me and not my new Finepix one, but I think I managed one or two reasonable shots, of which this is probably my favourite.

When worlds collide

Two separate parts of my life collide in the first video below. Yes folks, it's the Highway Code sung to Anglican Chant! The second one is the weather forecast, similarly sung.

Enjoy!

Concerts on Cumbrae

Passed to me by a friend, here are details of some forthcoming concerts in the smallest cathedral in Britain. Well worth a visit if you're in the west of Scotland, and particularly if there's a concert on. From this point on it's copy and paste from what was sent to me so I take no responsibility for errors or misprints (as if I ever do anyway!)

MUSIC FOR A SUMMER AFTERNOON 2008

CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES

MILLPORT, ISLE OF CUMBRAE

A series of concerts at 3 p.m. throughout the summer.

~~~~~~

July - Sundays at 3 p.m.

6 July

Jane Guy (contralto) Philip Button (violin)

David Mackie (piano)

This opening concert presents a delightful programme of the music of Gerard Francis Cobb (1838 – 1904) who wrote over one hundred songs, as well as church, chamber, choral and piano music.

13 July

Telemann Ensemble

A return visit from this exciting Glasgow-based group playing a varied programme of Baroque music.

20 July

David Hamilton (organ)

One of Scotland’s foremost organists, David Hamilton returns to play a thrilling recital of music by Buxtehude, Bach and Messaien.

27 July

Ronald Stevenson Society Concert

Members of the Society and friends, including Kevin Bowyer (harpsichord) and Jaoa Lima Duque (piano) give an important and extensive concert to celebrate the year of Ronald Stevenson’s 80th birthday.

N.B. This Recital is in two halves, each lasting about an hour, with donation programmes (price £5.00) available at the door.

~~~~~~

August - Sundays at 3 p.m.

3 August

Frevo Quartet

Aisling Agnew (flute) Matthew McAllister (guitar)

Feargus Hetherington (violin) Douglas Whates (double bass)

A stimulating ensemble, playing music with Latin American influence, including Habaneras and Tangos.

10 August

Catriona Hetherington (cello)

An opportunity to hear this fine cellist in repertoire including Cassado and J.S. Bach. Listen to a solo cellist in the Cathedral’s fine acoustic.

17 August

Katharine Laurie Jones (soprano)

One of Scotland’s finest sopranos presents a programme of songs by Vaughan Williams, F.G. Scott and Thea Musgrave. Lots of anniversaries - Thea Musgrave is 80 this year, the other two both died 50 years ago.

24 August

Jonathan Cohen and Alastair Chisholm (2 pianos)

A concert in which Jonathan and Alastair will present a recital of Romantic 2-piano music, including works by Dvorak, Rachmaninoff and Barber.

31 August

Telemann Ensemble

A second concert by the Ensemble who will present cello and piano works by Beethoven and Brahms.

~~~~~~

September/October - Sundays at 3 p.m.

7 September

Louise Jolly (violin) and Alastair Chisholm (piano)

Louise, an old friend of the Cathedral with a wonderful gift of communication through music, will give a recital of Scottish music including works by J.B. McEwen who was born in 1868 and died in 1948.

14 September

Andrew Johnston (piano)

A piano recital by this fine, young Scottish artist, including Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” in their original solo piano form

21 September

Gracioso String Quartet

A delightful programme of quartets by Beethoven and Dvorak (the ‘American’ quartet) mark the first visit by this splendid ensemble.

28 September

Pure Brass

A varied programme of music for brass performed by a quintet of fine, young musicians from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

5 October

Flaxton Ensemble

A concert of Scottish music for wind quintet, including works by J.B. McEwen and Ronald Stevenson. A suitable concert to end the season, marking two of Scottish anniversaries.

~~~~~~

Other Events

Friday 11 July at 4.00 p.m. (t.b.c.)

Cumbrae Cathedral Choir

Jonathan Cohen (organ)

To mark the arrival of an international group of Bishops to our Diocese, the Cathedral Choir will sing at Choral Evensong. All are welcome to attend this important event in the Cathedral’s life.

Friday 18 July at 7.45 p.m.

Special recital by

Helen Lothian (soprano) Francis Church (baritone)

In the first in our evening performances this season, these two outstanding singers perform a delightful programme of songs and duets.

(n.b. a late ferry returns to Largs after this recital)

Tuesday 26 August at 7.45 p.m.

Vaughan Williams Concert

A concert of music to mark the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, including the song cycle “Songs of Travel”. This runs in conjunction with Vaughan Williams music break, for details apply to the College Warden on 01475 530353 or visit www.island-retreats.org

Thursday 28 August at 7.45 p.m.

1868 - the Scottish miracle year

A concert of music to mark the births of three outstanding musicians born in 1868 - MacCunn, McEwen and Lamond. This runs in conjunction with 1868 - Scottish Miracle Year music break, for details apply to the College Warden on 01475 530353 or visit www.island-retreats.org

Friday 12 September at 7.45 p.m.

James Campbell (violin)

An evening recital for solo violin by this talented young Scots player, including music by Telemann, Prokofiev, Ysaye and Paganini

Sunday 30 November at 3.00 p.m.

Advent Carol Service

Sunday 28 December at 3.00 p.m.

Festival of Lessons and Carols for Christmas

~~~~~~

COLLEGE ACCOMMODATION

After a Cathedral concert, why not stay overnight in the attached College three star accommodation?

We also offer music mid-week breaks. Call for further information on 01475 530353 or visit www.island-retreats.org.

Cathedral of The Isles, College Street, Millport, Isle of Cumbrae, KA28 0HE

~~~~~~

The Cathedral and The Music Resources Fund.

The Cathedral of The Isles, Millport, is Britain’s smallest Cathedral and dates from 1851. It was built on ground owned by the Boyle family, and its founder, George Frederick Boyle, later became 6th Earl of Glasgow. It is one of a group of buildings comprising two residential buildings (colleges) and a collegiate church designed by the famous English architect William Butterfield. Planned as a theological college for the Scottish Episcopal Church, in its early days it was seen as a “new” Iona, and in 1876 it was consecrated Cathedral of the Isles.

From the beginning, music has played an important rôle in worship there, and the Cathedral has a warm, resonant acoustic. Following an extensive fund raising campaign, an 1867 tracker action organ, built for the opening of All Saints’ Episcopal Church Edinburgh by Frederick Holt, was restored and installed into the Cathedral during 2004 by Wood of Huddersfield. Together with the recently restored 1897 Lipp piano and the 1976 “Cumbrae” harpsichord, this has transformed the Cathedral’s music.

Present-day musical activities in the Cathedral receive no subsidies, and the Cathedral Music Resources Fund has been established by the congregational Vestry to support the Cathedral’s music. The Fund’s main source of income is the retiring collection after each concert. Please give generously - the musical artists already have.

Millport, Isle of Cumbrae…

is easily reached from Largs. Take the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry from Largs Pier to Cumbrae Slip, then board the connecting bus to Millport. For the Cathedral, ask to be set down at College Street.

How to find the Cathedral

Many visitors seem unaware of the existence of our little Cathedral because it is situated among trees behind the town. To make your way there, find College Street, which runs at right angles to the seashore, between the Newton Bar and the Garrison grounds. Follow College Street up the gentle hill, past George Street (Church of Our Lady), and a little further on, you will find the entrance to the Cathedral grounds through an elaborate gateway on your right. If you need to bring a vehicle close to the Cathedral, ask directions from one of the shopkeepers.

Retiring collection at each concert in aid of the Cathedral Music Resources Fund

Sunset over Glasgow

Isn't this a lovely colour of sky? No Photoshop or any other image altering software involved. Just a natural sunset. That's how it looked a couple of weeks ago looking out of RE's window over the top of the building opposite.

I like it!

Requiescat in Pace (again, or rather, still)

The concert went very well last night. Very well indeed. And I got the top A flat! I think. And we get to do it all again in a few hours at 6pm in Hyndland Parish Church in Glasgow. Do come along if you can.

Today though I am on a bit of a downer. I just don't feel as upbeat as I have done recently. The reason is that today is the 12th anniversary of my mum's sudden, unexpected, untimely and early death aged 56. I've blogged about it previously, so I won't dwell on it too much now. Well, I won't dwell on it here anyway, but I just can't seem to get it out of my mind today. Since last night at midnight in the taxi back home after the post concert drink in The Primary pub in Glasgow's Woodlands Rd in fact. Friends are a help though. Particularly RE. Thanks. And sorry for being somewhat distracted and grumpy looking this morning. I'll try to be better this evening.

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them. Rest eternal grant unto her O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her.

Franz Joseph

Today at 7pm I will be in St Ninian's Cathedral in Perth, with the rest of Glasgow Chamber Choir, performing stuff by Haydn. Rather nice stuff as it happens. His Missa Cellensis in Honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae, or the St Cecilia Mass as it's more often known, and also his Salve Regina in which, God help us all, I have a whole two lines to myself including a top A flat. Fingers crossed for the top note then!

Tomorrow, as part of Glasgow's West End Festival we are performing the same concert in Hyndland Parish Church at 6pm, which happens to clash with St Mary's cathedral choir performing a big Evensong at 6:30pm as part of the festival, as they do every year. The chamber choir's director of music, Michael, checked with the festival organisers when deciding upon dates and times, and was told it wouldn't clash with anything, and in fact I think he said they'd actually asked for it to be brought forward to 6pm. Not ideal for either choir since the venues are only a mile or so apart and the target audience is pretty much the same.

So come along to either (or indeed both) of the Chamber Choir's concerts. If you come to Perth today you can go to St Mary's tomorrow! St Mary's, as always, will doubtless be nothing less than very very good, so while GCC needs your support (i.e. your ticket money) more than St Mary's do, I wouldn't try to persuade you either way. Both will be similar standard. Oh all right then, off the fence with me. Come to GCC. There will be a bar!

Off to start getting ready to head up to Perth now. AD has borrowed a minibus which is leaving from the west end of Glasgow at 1pm, so I need to get there by public transport so I can have a drink there when we return after 10pm tonight. Better get my skates on.

Superstition

Friday 13th today. Probably best just to stay in bed.

But work calls, and I don't think superstition would be reason enough for them to allow me the time off!

The image? I just think it's funny in a thought provoking way, and it was the closest I could find on my hard drive to the theme of superstition! If that makes sense.

Can't remember where I got the image, it was somewhere random on t'InterWeb, so I can't credit it properly, sorry.

Second Sunday

Second Sunday of the month today. That means that this morning I turned up at PC World car park in Glasgow and joined seven other members of Glasgow North group of the Institute of Advanced Motorists for a nice long run.

We headed off for Oban, via a quick stop at Inveraray (see photo) then down to Lochgilphead and up the A816 to Oban for a lunch of (tasty but slightly greasy) fish & chips. Off again along the A85 and a quick stop at Tyndrum for coffee and ice cream, although at this point I didn't wait as I wanted to get back home earlier than I would have been if I'd waited for the rest.

A nice sunny day, and glorious scenery, but to be honest I was fairly bored. Can't quite put my finger on why, it was just a tedious run playing follow my leader at a fairly sedate pace with, for me anyway, nothing to commend itself to me.

Ah well, I suppose it can't hit the spot every time!

The Straw Locomotive

The Straw Locomotive, originally uploaded by Lay Clerk.

I've just discovered that I can post to my Blog directly from Flickr, so this post is really just to try that out, although it does happen to be a favourite photo of mine. I took it around 1989, just before moving away from Glasgow to live and work in the north east of England for a while.

The straw locomotive was an art installation to celebrate Glasgow's history in relation to train building. It was a locomotive, funnily enough, built of straw, funnily enough, and was hanging from the Finnieston crane which is about the sole surviving crane of its type on this part of the river Clyde, and used to load the real thing onto ships for export all over the world.

Happy birthday to Layclerk

Today it has been two whole years since I started Blogging! Count them. Two.

I started Blogging because what was happening in my life at that time was preventing me from regularly updating my Website and I felt I needed some outlet for (alleged) creativity. I've enjoyed Blogging, but I wish I could get back into doing it every day or every other day. Life gets in the way sometimes though although I suppose that's good because you need to do things and have experiences before you can Blog about them!

Life is good just now, and I am a happy bunny.

Albarone

I've had a good weekend, thanks very much for asking.

Finished a three day course in Edinburgh on Friday and had a quick drink in All Bar One in Glasgow city centre en route home, then a mixture of lounging about doing very little (very enjoyable) and spending time with RE (even more enjoyable) who has been rehabilitated and allowed back into normal society after spending lots of time over the past weeks and weeks studying for an exam which happened last Tuesday. In truth we didn't do all that much, apart from a good walk along the Forth & Clyde canal which passes close to where I live, but being again able to spend time in each other's company was great.

Evensong tonight was pretty good, with the full choir including adults and the relatively recently formed trebles choir participating, and FW conducting (best conductor I know) with OR on the organ. OR is a fantastic organist, and his psalm (and hymn) accompaniments are, for me, pretty much on a par with those of BP when he was at the cathedral. Those who know the organist emeritus of the cathedral, BP, will realise that this is intended as very high praise of OR, who due to work commitments is sadly leaving his post as assistant organist at the cathedral at the end of this term. He will be missed, but at least he's not leaving Glasgow, so I look forward to our paths crossing in the future on a hopefully regular basis, both musically and socially.

After a public holiday last Monday (and the preceding Friday which made it a very long holiday weekend), followed by one day, Tuesday, at work then three days at the other side of the country on a course, it's back to reality tomorrow.

It's a Catholic thing

Rip off

I was in Edinburgh yesterday, the great whore of the east, on a training course learning all about GIS mapping systems. Or at least learning about a specific type of software which is a GIS mapping system. I'll be there again today, and tomorrow too.

The return rail fare to Edinburgh is £21.90 from my local station. I would have to catch the 0740hrs train to Glasgow Queen Street, then change onto the Edinburgh train to get to Waverley station in time to walk (10 minutes) to the course venue for 0930hrs, and finishing the course at 1730hrs I would not get home again, or to my local station anyway, until 1930hrs. Total travelling time, about 3 hours.

The journey is 55 miles each way and I could probably do it in a little over an hour on the bike, at a cost of about £10 for the return journey. Total travelling time, about two and a bit hours. Total cost, about half that of the rail journey.

Can't think why I don't use public transport more!

Heroes

Was in the Bier Halle Republic in Great Western Road last night for a wee drink and bit of food prior to attending Evensong. It was £4.15 for a pint of Kronenbourg Blanc. Lovely beer, but outrageous prices!

Evensong was good, with the choir singing Durufle's Ubi Caritas. Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Where charity and love are, God is there.

In the morning, having woken stupidly early for a Sunday, I quit the house and headed towards town carrying my new camera, determined to start playing with it properly and get used to the buttons and dials so that I don't have to think about what to press and when. I got as far as the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the Transport Museum, which are across the road from each other, but since neither opened until about 11am I confined myself to a wander round outside.

I've seen the war memorial outside the Art Gallery a few times, but only from a distance, and I discovered to my surprise that it is actually dedicated to the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) which was a Lanarkshire based regiment, now long disbanded, which my grandfather (see photo below) joined the TA version of on 29th March 1929 as a Rifleman, leaving again on 19th January 1930 before enlisting with the Scots Guards on 11th August 1930 and serving with them for exactly 3 years before being transferred to the Army Reserve on 10th August 1933. His certificate of service book from this time says he was a clean, sober and hard working man who was honest, willing and reliable. It also says he was a good footballer!

In another subsequent certificate of service book for him, he kept the same army number (3242219) and rejoined the Scots Guards upon mobilisation on 1st December 1939, leaving again on 19th September 1944 after 4 years and 293 days. By this time he was a sergeant, his conduct was again listed as very good, and he was described as a clean, honest, sober and hardworking non-commissioned officer who carried out his duties in a satisfactory manner during his service with the colours.

Clearly he was mobilised due to the outbreak of World War II but left before it was finished. The reason given for his discharge was that he ceased to fulfil army physical requirements. I understand that he caught Tuberculosis, and in my lifetime I know he spent some time in Erskine Hospital, which actually isn't too far from where I now live, which is for injured, disabled and ill service personnel. I have a photo of me taken by him when I was a small child lying at the foot of his hospital bed in Erskine.

In total he spent 7 years and 293 days with the colours, and 6 years and 112 days in the reserve, making a total of 14 years and 40 days service. He enlisted with the Cameronians when he was around 22 years old, joined the regular army in the Scots Guards at about 23, was mobilised at the start of the war when he was about 32 and was invalided out when he was about 37. In fact he, and his contemporaries, obviously packed a lot of experiences into a small number of years around that time.

So anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes, the Cameronians memorial. The photo at the top of the page is a part of the memorial.

I've just this minute been contacted via Friends Reunited by a former school mate who I haven't seen since about 1979. He's thinking about arranging a bit of a reunion, which I'd guess will be no more than meeting in a pub rather than hiring a hall etc, and he's looking for email addresses for our contemporaries. Makes me realise that I've lost contact with all of them, although recently through Facebook I've made contact with a couple. So I think I'm now going to go onto Friends Reunited and start messaging people to try to re-establish some contact. It was all such a long time ago!

Even more dubious taste than usual

Been looking for a decent tradesman to do some work in the flat and I came across the guy on the right.

He looks like a nice man who no doubt loves his family, in a very tangible sense.

Feedjit

Since adding the Feedjit widgit on the left showing where visitors are from, and how they got to the site and left again, I keep returning to look at my own Blog to see who's there! How strange.

I've also noticed a few people finding the Blog through a link posted on www.smartdriving.co.uk which is a site aimed at driving instructors. I registered with them (free trial) to see in what context my Blog was linked, and it seems it's actually linked to the new motorcycle test post, which makes sense I suppose. So I tried emailing their webmaster to thank him for linking to this Blog and out of interest to find out how he came across it in the first place, but the email bounced back as undeliverable, despite it being sent via a link on his site. Oh well. So John, if you happen to read this, then thanks for the link, and I hope you enjoy reading other stuff here too.

An important part of the email that didn't get through said:

Thanks for linking from your Website to my Blog at www.thecathedralchoir.blogspot.com and specifically to the posting on the new motorcycle test. I should stress that I don’t claim authorship of that piece, which was passed to me by a work colleague via email, and I don’t know who actually wrote it, as I think I mentioned in a reply to a comment on the post.

My favourite syndrome

I'm thinking of putting in for a transfer to the establishment served by the bus stop on the right! It'd be fucking brilliant. Oops! There I go again! Bollocks!

It was taken in Marseilles the other week, and I couldn't resist it. I promise I'll grow up one of these days. Maybe when I turn 50. Or maybe not.


On an unrelated topic, good luck to all of those running this morning in the Glasgow women's 10k road race, particularly those raising money for charity, and particularly to RE and her colleagues who can be sponsored (it isn't too late folks) by following the link on my previous post about it.

It's turned out to be a nice morning, and although it's a bit chilly it is dry and bright, so conditions look good. He said, never having run competitively (or otherwise, really) since leaving school some several years ago. Or it might have been slightly more than several.

Incidentally, what do you think about the new widgit I've installed on the left giving real time details of who's visiting the Blog? Intrusive eh? I like it! It just utilises what your browser already reveals to the world and looks up a database to work out the city you're in, nothing more. If there's a big wodge of negative comments about it I'll consider removing it again.

On a related topic, take a look at the Centralops Website to see what your browser really reveals! In particular look for the link to the browser mirror, but before you do so, try copying some text to your clipboard, such as your name or something, and then look at the browser mirror and scroll to near the bottom. You might find a surprise because often Internet Explorer is set up to reveal what's on your clipboard to any Website that asks for it. Think about that next time you're copying and pasting private information around Word documents, online banking etc!

It's easy to fix so that it isn't accessible, and if anyone wants the instructions posted, just leave a comment. You can find out how to do it by searching on the Microsoft Windows Website, like I did a few years ago, but I think I've still got them to hand so could post them easily enough. And as far as I know, if you're using Firefox, like wot I am, you're safe, but if for some obscure reason you're still using Internet Explorer, then you may be vulnerable.

Every day's a school day.

Boys' toys

I very recently splashed out on a new compact camera, the Fuji FinePix S5700. With 7.1 Mega Pixies and 10x Optical Zoom (yes, 10!) it's a bit of a step up from the Olympus Mju 400 I've been using for the past few years.

The Mju with its metal body was, and still is, a cracking little go-anywhere camera, but after 4 years of being with me every day it was time for a replacement. Funnily enough I had thought I'd had it for longer but I've just checked Amazon and found that I bought it in May 2004 for £185.24 which was a good price at the time. With 4 Megapixels and 3x Optical Zoom it was not exactly cutting edge, but it wasn't too far behind for the time when I seem to remember 5 Megapixel was about the best you could get without needing a bank loan!

While in Marseilles the other week, the Mju started playing up, with it taking several attempts to shut down almost every time I tried to switch it off unless, curiously enough, I was trying to demonstrate this fault to RE in which case it worked first time every time! A couple of weeks prior to this the latch of the door covering the memory card & USB port had become broken and I had sourced a replacement for £10 and fitted it.

So onto Amazon, and a few searches later I identified the FinePix S5700 as the one for me. It's been replaced by the S5800 but the reviews say there is nothing much to choose between them so the lower price of the older version won. Reduced from Amazon's price of £199 to £104. Not bad. It also seems to be about that price elsewhere too, because I was looking at camera bags in Curry's today and the bloke next to me was also looking for one for his brand new S5700 bought today from Argos for £100! In fact, having just looked up Amazon in order to post a link to the S5700 at the top of this page, I see it's reduced (at the time of typing this) to just over £97!

It's a different style from the Mju, being somewhat larger and therefore not quite as easy to carry about in a pocket everywhere, but the Mju is still working, albeit a bit sick, so I can still carry it with me but use the S5700 for "proper" shots when necessary.

So, potentially there may be more of my own photos uploaded here in due course, or I may just start using Flickr more often and just link to it from a post.

Marseilles 1

TW3.

For the uninitiated, TW3 stands for That Was The Week That Was, a satirical UK TV programme from a long time ago.

OK, so it wasn't quite a week, but I've recently spent five days in the sunny, and I mean very sunny, south of France. In Marseilles in fact. What a city. What fun. What a (nearly) week!

The occasion was the Glasgow Chamber Choir trip, when we visited our twin choir, La Maîtrise Gabriel Fauré, who are from the city of Glasgow's twin city, Marseilles. Or one of Glasgow's twin cities anyway, the others being Turin (Italy), Nuremberg (Germany), Rostov-on-Don (Russia), Dalian (China), Havana (Cuba), Bethlehem (Jerusalem) and Lahore (Pakistan). Perhaps a few of them hark back to Glasgow's traditional left leaning political tendencies, but they're valid connections nonetheless. I have to confess that with the possible exception of Turin, which I've never visited, I can't imagine any of the other cities will be as beautiful or welcoming as Marseilles, the oldest city in France, and the second largest. But I'm prepared to give them a try if anyone wants to fund (and organise) future choir trips!

I started to create this posting on Wednesday 7th May 2008, knowing that it was going to take me a while to finish it because I've got a lot to say on this occasion. It's taken me so long to get round to typing what I've done so far, that I suspect that if I don't start publishing it in smaller chunks I'll never publish any of it! I have in fact two full pages in a notebook of bullet points relating to things I saw, experienced, felt, smelt, touched, heard, and thought on the trip, and quite how I'm going to take them from the notebook, pad them out, change their order, and turn them into something which might be of some interest to anyone except me (in an online diary sort of way) remains to be seen!

Last year, before I rejoined Glasgow Chamber Choir (to which I will refer as GCC from now on), the choir somehow managed to be twinned with La Maîtrise Gabriel Fauré, who are an all female choir based in Marseilles, and to which I will hereafter refer as MGF. I don't know for sure, but I think MGF were looking to exploit the twinning arrangement of their city with Glasgow and make a trip, which I believe they do regularly, so they contacted GCC and the rest is history.

Anyway, last year MGF visited Glasgow and by all accounts the visit was a great success and enjoyed by members of both choirs. Time this year then to return the compliment, and after enormous work by our choir administrator KK, who is stepping down from that position at the end of this season, the trip was arranged and almost 20 choir members committed themselves to going.

Several of us from the start had independently thought that if we were going to travel that far then it'd be a shame just to go for the two nights on which we had concerts planned so had planned on extending the trip a day or two either side. So the outcome was that me, RE, AD, FCC, JG, JB, PH and AD all piled onto a Ryanair flight which left Prestwick at the rather ungodly hour of 0830hrs last Thursday morning, and after a completely straightforward journey lasting less than two and a half hours which left and arrived on time with all baggage intact, we were in the south of France. The photo is from the aircraft (as if that wasn't obvious) on the approach to Marseilles.

PH and AD had booked their rooms earlier and therefore separately from the rest of us, so having arrived at the Gare de St Charles by coach from the airport, we split into two groups and went our respective ways to our respective hotels.

In the case of the 6 of us who had booked kind of at the same time, and who therefore stuck mostly together for the trip, we quickly became the usual suspects who at home tend to often be the ones, sometimes the only ones, socialising. Well, OK, drinking. So the gang of 6 headed to the local Ibis hotel, pretty well next door to the station, and checked into our rooms. Another pain free operation. This whole thing was going far too well!

We met downstairs in the foyer shortly after and set out into the big bad streets of Marseilles, and I had in the back of my mind the undeniable fact that it has been 30 years, yes, count them, 30, since I studied French at school, and it's not entirely inaccurate to say I've not really said a word of it since. In fact I studied O Grade (Ordinary Grade) French (the exam for which I scraped through) in about 1977, and then in 1978 I decided to go on to study it at Higher Grade.

Now I'm going to let you into a little secret here. The way the Scottish exams worked at that time, and it may be the same now but I don't know, is that if you sat a Higher Grade exam but didn't hit the mark then you could be awarded a "comp O" Grade, which although I don't remember exactly what this stood for (perhaps compensatory?) meant that they'd mark it as if it were an O Grade rather than the more difficult Higher Grade. I didn't get a mention when the results were published. In other words, my Higher Grade French wasn't even O Grade standard! Soon after leaving school I had occasion to attend at school show, and as I walked into the venue I saw my French teacher, so being a smartass I said to her "Bonjour Madame Hamilton", at which point she fixed me with a slightly withering look and replied "Bonsoir!". Merde!

Roll on 30 years and yours truly is for the first time in the country of France, walking into the streets of Marseilles, and wondering not whether I'd be embarrassed by my lack of linguistic skills, but just how deeply and how often I was about to be embarrassed! And embarrassed not only by my lack of French, but by the firm grasp of English I was sure would be held by the French themselves. Typical Brit, I am, just speak English slowly and loudly and you'll get by.

Or that's kind of what I was thinking as I walked into the midday sunshine with the rest of the gang of 6.

The reality is that despite the cruel passage of time I had remembered enough of the basics to get me by with an occasional and wholly unintentional mix of languages known colloquially as Franglais, as popularised by the late and lamented Miles Kington in Punch magazine. That said, I understood more than I could speak and the main difficulty was usually the construction of sentences. But I was very happy with the way it all went, linguistically speaking, and by the Monday at the official reception I even managed to tell Jeanine Imbert, Conseillère Municipale Déléguée au Conservatoire National De Région Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts et Festival de Musique Sacrée, that her English was better than my French, by constructing the sentence in French as I went along (i.e. without planning in advance exactly what I was going to say) just like one does when one actually speaks the language. OK, I know it's not brilliant, but it made me happy!

To be continued .........

Aye Ready

It's a glorious sunny day and it's Wednesday. That means it's the evening for the Glasgow North Group of the IAM to have their weekly bike ride. Yet a few hundred miles from this city the famous Glasgow Rangers football club are playing in the final of the UEFA cup in Manchester, which sounds terribly exciting as it's being touted as the biggest European game the club have had since 1972.

The question therefore is this:

Is there going to be anyone else turning up for the bike ride? All will be revealed within the hour when I get there!

Update Thursday 15th: Yes indeed there were a few there, and more than I had expected. A good run up to Balmaha (near Loch Lomond) but I got very cold on the way back home for some reason, and combined with the previous night (Tuesday) being spent between the bedroom and the toilet (don't ask) and the subsequent (i.e. Wednesday) night being spent in a similar fashion, after having vomited for Britain before I went to bed, I am not a happy bunny today.

Clickety click

Go on, you know you want to!

If you click here, then you can help support the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow to carry on providing specialist palliative care for people with life-limiting illnesses, usually cancer, and support for their families and carers. All care is free, regardless of the patients' circumstances, but the actual cost of Hospice care is some £3 million each year and, despite generous support from NHS Greater Glasgow, two out of every three pounds comes from voluntary contributions and fundraising activities. Donations are therefore crucial for the ongoing provision of care.

I have a friend who is running in the Resolution Asset Management Glasgow Women's 10k this weekend, and she is looking for a bit of support, so please follow the link and you can donate from as little as £5. What can a fiver buy you these days? Not a lot really. But it can make a difference if it's channelled in the right direction and added to lots of other fivers.

Go on. Click it. You know it makes sense!

New motorcycle test

For some years now, since the demise of the old ride-around-the-block test, bikers have had a test roughly on par with the car driving test, with a number of set manoeuvres to carry out before you get the coveted pass slip. In October of this year, however, in an effort to curb alarming increases in the number of motorcycle accidents [1] the scope of the test is widening to encompass many more manoeuvres which are an element of everyday motorcycling. These are listed below:

1. Emergency stop.
As currently the student must bring the bike to a controlled stop from 30 mph. Because, in the last 5 years, only 3 motorcyclists have been failed for running over examiners (2 intentional) in future the examiner will simply pull his Audi out of a junction in front of the candidate. Failure at this stage may lead to the rest of the test being cancelled.

2. Emergency stop (poor conditions).
As above, the candidate is required to bring their bike to a controlled stop from 30mph, but this time on a road surface compromised by rain / gravel / diesel / bits of candidates who failed test 1, etc. Locking either wheel will not automatically fail the candidate, nor will them needing to take a dab or having a bit of a scream. In fact as long as the end result is tidy enough not to be described as "a heap" the test will proceed.

3. Emergency slow (high speed).
A variation of the emergency stop, the candidate will be required to slow as quickly as possible, with the bike under full control, from 70mph to 30mph, as if a small child had just run out in front of them or, more likely, they'd just spotted a camera van in a 30 limit.

4. Emergency swerve (high speed).
The candidate must swerve their bike at 70mph to avoid an obstacle ahead - as if the driver of the Volvo in front of them had just spotted a camera van in a national speed limit zone.

5. Feet up U-turn.
As with the current test the candidate will be required to perform a U-turn in the road without putting their feet down.

6. Dead lift.
The candidate will be expected to show the correct technique to lift a fallen bike by themselves, as if they had, for example, just spectacularly cocked up a feet up U-turn.

7. Filtering.
The candidate will be expected to filter between two lanes of stationary / slow moving traffic showing appropriate observation, respect for other road users, and the courtesy to get the fuck out of the way if somebody filtering faster comes up behind them. The examiner may award bonus marks for imaginative and appropriate use of hatched areas, cycle lanes, pavements and flower beds in order to "make progress".

8. Filtering (part II).
While maintaining full control of the bike the candidate must make use of appropriate thank you / fuck you gestures to traffic on both sides (not simultaneously). Once again, bonus marks are available for candidates showing exceptional imagination.

9. Observation.
At a distance of 400 metres the candidate must decide whether the vehicle ahead is (a) a breakdown truck, (b) a marked police car or (c) a Highways Agency fake-fuzz and, based on their decision, make a controlled deceleration from 150mph ... or not.

10. Communication.
While maintaining a steady speed of 60mph the candidate must make the appropriate hand signals to show (a) they are turning left, (b) they are turning right, (c) they are slowing down, (d) they need petrol, (e) they need a pint, (f) that a member of the group is no longer present after the last series of fast twisties and may have gone for a countryside lie-down, (g) that something has gone wrong with their bike, but they're not sure what, (h) that their mate is fucking mental and (i) to warn on-coming bikers that there is a cop with a hairdryer in wait 1 mile ahead, followed by 3 miles of clear roads and then another 2 cops, on bikes, hiding in the entrance to a field.

11. Parking.
The candidate must demonstrate the correct technique to park, nose out, in a 5 bike bay without needing to occupy the entire bay. Kicking over scooters to clear some space will be overlooked as long as the examiner is happy that it was intentional.

12. Stunts.
The candidate must attempt to wheelie, stoppie or get their knee down (examiner's choice). The candidate will not be penalised for being a ham fisted cunt with no clue as to what they're supposed to be doing as long as they don't actually end up on their arse in the road watching their bike do the cartwheel of death.

Following the practical section of the test there will be an extensive verbal test, one to one with the examiner, where the candidate must demonstrate:

1. That they can discuss the relative merits of the ZX-10R, R1, Fireblade and GSX-1000R despite the fact that they're taking their test on a 125cc, which is the only bike that they've ever ridden, or are ever likely to ride.

2. That they are aware of techniques to improve the performance or aesthetics of their bike, yet unaware that if they do all of the things that they're talking about their bike will end up an unrideable shed that looks like it's been attacked by a chimp dunked in Hammerite and given an anodising gun.

3. That they are capable of planning an elaborate bike related scheme, such as touring Europe, riding "the long way round", taking up amateur racing or building a special from scratch. The candidate should make full use of the back of a cigarette packet to describe their idea, but this may be discarded once the test is complete.

4. That they can make observations and timely judgments sufficiently well to know when it's time for them to go to the bar.


The government's stated objective is to make the test last so long that, by the time it is completed, all riders are already at the "old and slow" stage of life and so sick of bikes that they never want to see one again. In an effort to further this the UK is likely to have only one test site, with one examiner, who has been suffering with sciatica since 1987 and frequently has months off work at a time. In addition the test fee is likely to be raised to £15,000.

MAG was quick to denounce the proposal, saying that it would lead to a UK biking population entirely composed of late-middle aged bikers with an excessively cautious approach to bikes and bike riding.

In other news BMW has predicted a 75% increase in sales for the first quarter of 2009 and Honda have announced that they are ceasing production of all of their models except the VFR800.


[1] Last year 99.4% of all motorcyclists were killed or seriously injured[2]

[2] Based on government figures of everybody who has ridden a motorcycle since their invention, in Leicester in 1898, and calculating what percentage of them are now dead or have been seriously[3] injured. Ever. By anything.
[3] Seriously enough to use one of the "big four" swear words.

Catch up

I've again fallen behind on Blogging, despite my best intentions and aims. Oh well. Maybe time for a catch up post then.

I've now had two Wednesdays of being talked to by an IAM senior observer about how to go about observing another motorcyclist and offering them advice on how to improve their riding skills towards passing the IAM advanced test. Then I've had one week where, accompanied by a senior observer, I was let loose with an associate who had no idea it was my first time (and I think I got away with it!).

Initially a bit worried about whether I would be able to spot things to talk about and verbalise what I saw in such a way that it would be constructive, I managed to cover all the pre ride points: introducing myself; checking out the condition of the bike and suitability of the rider's clothing; finding out what experience the rider had both in terms of overall riding and specifically how often he'd been to IAM evenings; ascertaining what things he felt he needed to work on; looking at his progress sheet to see how previous observers had seen him; explaining where we were going, the route we were going to take, and the practicalities of how I was going to follow him; and the very important disclaimer that is a version of

"at all times when we are on the road you are responsible for the control of your own motorcycle and responsible for your own conduct, and you should ride at all times safely and in accordance with the law. If by interpreting my words, actions or signals you believe that I'm asking you to do anything with which you're not happy, then don't do it."

In other words, if it all goes horribly wrong, it isn't the responsibility of the IAM or more importantly of me personally!

So having looked at his bike, a nice looking Honda CBR600 sports bike which I believe does about 160mph (about 40mph more than my comfy big BMW R1100RT Tourer) and gets from 0-60mph in about 3.8 seconds (the BMW does it in about 4.5 seconds) and briefly wondered to myself if I was about to embarrass myself by being left trailing behind him, unable to keep up on the twisty country roads (while of course both sticking to the speed limit), we chatted and identified what the things were that he himself felt he had to work on, which was borne out by the markings on his progress sheet by the previous two observers, this being only the rider's third time out with the IAM.

As an aside, the photo was taken at the recent Easter Egg run and shows my hefty BMW coincidentally parked next to a svelte CBR600 in the car park at the SECC as we were gathering for the run.

So we set off, with the rider leading and mostly taking the correct road position, which is towards the right hand side of the lane, and, other traffic permitting, fairly near the centre white line (on a single carriageway road), and me behind him basically riding in the gutter! Yes, the best position for an observer following a rider is over to the nearside of the road, as this gives the best view of what the rider is doing, and doesn't obstruct the rider's rear view, allowing him to ride as he would normally do. It felt a bit strange at first, but not too bad, and I got used to it quickly. The senior observer followed me, watching what I was doing as I watched what the associate was doing.

As a general rule I have no intention of Blogging in any great detail about IAM associates and their riding (whether good or bad) while being observed by me, because I think that would be creeping towards being overly intrusive into their privacy, so I won't detail anything about the ride that followed, apart from mentioning one instance going round a left hand bend on a country road within the national speed limit (60mph) when the rider correctly stayed out to the right hand side of his lane, near the centre white line, giving the best view as far round the corner as possible so as to see hazards early, but he didn't move to the left, to a safer position, when he saw a transit van coming towards us, and I swear there must have been only a few inches between him and the van's mirror as they passed each other at a combined speed of probably 100mph (we were doing about 50mph and so was the van I'd guess). I took a very big sharp intake of breath as I saw the van approach and pass, although due to the tightness of the bend and the hedges on either side obstructing the view it appeared and disappeared again very quickly and it was all over in a flash. The senior observer, who was riding behind me, summed it up later when he simply said "I shit myself when I saw that". The rider himself knew that this had been a narrow escape, and I suspect and hope it was a valuable lesson on the learning curve! Sacrifice positioning for safety every time!

Twisty road wise I needn't have worried about trying to keep up with the sports bike. The BMW is a big heavy tourer designed for long trips in comfort down relatively straight motorways and autobahns, and sports bikes are light and designed to be flicked round corners easily, with massive acceleration. But when you factor in the 60mph speed limit, and the ability of an advanced rider to ride smoothly round bends without having to use the brakes very often, then the playing field was levelled somewhat and I had no problems keeping up and being in more or less the right viewing position for most of the time.

All in all an enjoyable evening, and I didn't have any problems thinking of things to say and suggest.

That was two Wednesdays ago, and the following Saturday, last Saturday in fact, the bike went to a mechanic for its 6000 mile service. Suffice to say that it was never going to go smoothly, and the £80 I was expecting to pay for the oil change etc has become over £400 due to the wee oil leak which I had noticed over the past few months happening very occasionally and usually only first thing on cold mornings and only a few drips lasting a minute before stopping. This is the fault of the oil cooler, apparently. The BMW is an oil cooled machine, and the little radiator type thing in the front is where the oil from the engine goes to be cooled as it circulates.

The recommendation by the mechanic was not to ride the bike until it was fixed, since he has seen the results when the cooler gives out completely (as it could do at any time apparently), dropping all the oil from the bike in one go over the front wheel onto the road just in time for the back wheel to go over it. If that happens at any sort of speed, leaving aside the fact that the engine is likely to seize causing cripplingly expensive damage, then the combination of tyres, road and oil doesn't exactly enhance grip, and you would be likely to fall off very painfully, perhaps even terminally! So I took his advice and the bike has been lying with him for a week.

So a new one of them costs £167, and there are two hoses connecting it to the system, one of which needs replaced, but to be honest what's the point of only replacing one hose when the other might go soon too, it being the same age. About £35 each hose. And the extra labour involved in removing all of the fairing (or Tupperware as I believe it's sometimes jokingly called) and replacing it again. An extra £100 of labour in fact.

I sourced the parts for the bike from Motorworks, although I couldn't find the oil cooler on their excellent website so had to telephone them and Yvonne in sales proved to be very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, directing me to another website which they use to identify parts because it contains exploded diagrams of bikes. So having ordered the bits on Monday the box arrived at work on Wednesday, and I duly delivered it to the mechanic who will be putting the bike back together again today, I hope! I'm currently waiting on a phone call from him to say it's ready, and then I'll try to arrange a lift the 25 miles to where he has been working on it.


Singing wise, Glasgow Chamber Choir are about to travel to the south of France, to Marseilles, to perform a couple of concerts, one secular and one sacred.

The concerts are on Saturday and Sunday, but a crowd of us are taking full advantage by travelling out on Thursday and staying until Tuesday. Should be fun, and doubtless will generate one or two posts here in due course! The cats are booked into their regular holiday home from home.

Having taken an extended time out of the choir of St Mary's Cathedral (remember, the reason for this Blog's name!) which has lasted about a year so far, I recently sang there again to help out since they were very short of tenors for an Evensong. I enjoyed it greatly, and although I am not in a position to rejoin full time since they rehearse on the same evening as Glasgow Chamber Choir, I will be happy to help out as an occasional singer which seems to suit all round just now.

It seemed strange putting on a cassock after such a long time away, but it now seems inevitable that it was going to happen at some point, although I can now reveal that for almost all of the past year I have had no intentions of ever returning to St Mary's or to church generally, for reasons I won't go into. I also know that there is someone who, if they knew I was again at St Mary's, would be deeply hurt, and I'm truly sorry about that and genuinely hope that person is doing OK and getting on well with life. I'm sorry I don't know for certain that they are doing well, but I tried to keep in touch but was rebuffed, or my calls were ignored anyway. We all have to make decisions in our lives about what to do, and sometimes the right course of action for one person is absolutely the wrong one for another, and sometimes decisions we make for ourselves hurt other people's feelings. I don't mean to hurt anyone, it's not in my nature, but I need to do what's right for me, and not live my life worried about what others may think. Sorry.

Anyway, moving on.

I've been using Facebook for a while now, and although I'm clearly not in their target age range (!) I'm enjoying it and I think it's a good way of keeping in touch with current friends, and making contact with old friends. I've already added two secondary school contemporaries of mine as friends, and it's great to see how people are doing. I don't use my real name on here, and don't tend to use other people's real names either, instead sticking to their initials, but in the unlikely event that you read this Blog and want to become my Facebook friend (and God help you if you do, there must be something missing in your life!) then if you send me your email address and name I'll go searching for you on Facebook with a view to adding you as a friend. I think I can find you as long as I search for the email address you have registered with them.

I've been looking at Blogger and there doesn't seem to be any way to contact me privately via this Blog (although I do receive an email whenever a comment is posted), and I'm not going to publish my email address and neither do I expect anyone to publish their email address and name on a comment for all to see, so the best I can come up with to avoid nasty people obtaining private data, is that if you go to my Website, and to the My Choirs page, there's a link there at the top right hand side to contact me regarding choirs. It goes to a Webmaster email address which I monitor. That is a bit of a roundabout way of doing it, but it's the only way I can think of that avoids publishing email addresses for every bastard spammer in the world to see!

And in case you're wondering, this "be my friend on Facebook" thing is neither a sad plea for friends nor an attempt to harvest email addresses for nefarious purposes, it's just a wee extension of the Blog, sort of, and is aimed at any regular readers. I will not use your email address for anything other than searching for you on Facebook with a view to adding you as a friend. Promise.

Seven Deadly Sins

Any questions? No? Good. It really works!

I've seen this image on so many sites on t'InterWeb that I have no idea where it originated. If anyone can clarify that I'll be happy to attribute it appropriately.

Isn't it called Snickers now?

That's Cassie Glass in the photo. I work with Cassie.

She ran in the London Marathon last year and raised over £1000 for Cancer Research.

This year, on Sunday 25th May, she will be running in the Edinburgh Marathon, and is aiming to surpass the admirable efforts of 2007 by raising even more for Cancer Research.

Cancer is a nasty thing, and it affects us all. I can't imagine there is one person reading this Blog who hasn't had a friend or relative ill with some form of cancer.

I know I have.

A very close relative died at a very very young age 12 years ago. Three weeks from today she would have been a young woman celebrating her 17th birthday, but she isn't here to do that.

Think about your own friends and relatives, and think about how you could help them through cancer, or help them to avoid cancer, or how you could celebrate their lives by helping defeat this disease.

Click on Cassie's photograph, or here, and donate something towards Cancer Research. OK, it'll help Cassie towards her target, but her target isn't just financial, it's the aim of getting rid of cancer, and YOU can help.

You don't have to donate much, but donate something.

Please.

Thank you.

Don't care in the community

Down to the Scottish borders in the car at the weekend, just for a bit of a drive with RE who hasn't toured the borders too much. It was very snowy, or at least lots of the fields were white, which means the roads were actually fine. Very picturesque run from Glasgow via Carluke, Peebles, Galashiels and Selkirk then down the A708 past the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall to Moffat and a quick'ish blast back up the M74 to Glasgow.

Peebles was an eye opener. Freezing wind and overcast when we parked the car, and less than an hour later wonderful clear blue skies and no wind at all! We had a bite to eat in a cafe in the main street, and I suspect a local mental hospital was closed for the afternoon, because several of the cafe customers (and one of the staff members) surely must reside there normally. I am quite easy going when it comes to being near subjects of care in the community, but usually there isn't such a concentration in one place! Or maybe that's normal for Peebles. Not scary, not offensive, just unusual.

The great find in Peebles was the large Presbyterian church at the end of the main street. We had a bit of a wander round it, and it's well worth a visit if you're there.

The Grey Mare's Tail is a 200 foot hanging valley waterfall, with a viewpoint at the bottom (which we missed until we came back down) and footpaths up either side of it. We walked up the smaller of the two paths (i.e. not the one which goes all the way to the top) and frankly it felt like it was killing me! I really should have an inhaler in my pocket, or at least in the car. D'oh! It was worth doing though, and despite maybe coming across to RE as though I hated it (for which I'm truly sorry!) I didn't really, and I must do more things like that in an effort to get fit and by so doing put back the date of my death a little bit!

This evening the IAM Glasgow North Group (motorcycle section) season started again. Every Wednesday from now until September a big wodge of bikes will converge on the car park at the retail park at Crow Road in Glasgow, before setting off for about an hour of riding to a destination where there will be cups of tea and sandwiches, or plates of chips, or sustenance of some description. Tonight the McDonalds restaurant at Balloch, next to Loch Lomond, was the chosen place. Their hot chocolate is perfectly acceptable, I can now say.

So anyway, as of this evening I am now an IAM trainee observer, and the next while will be spent learning how to observe (funnily enough) and how to offer advice to associate members of the IAM who are training to take, and pass, their advanced motorcycle test, like I did in December. This takes the form of me riding behind an associate and watching what they do, and stopping every so often to offer constructive advice on how to ride better and, more importantly, more safely, with a view to passing the IAM test. All the while, or at least most of the time anyway, while I follow the associate a senior observer will be riding behind me watching what I do, and at the end of the ride, out of earshot of the associate, offering me advice and criticism.

This will lead to another test for me which when I pass will make me a qualified observer, allowed to be with an associate without having a senior observer following me. Apparently the time scale for this is usually 3-6 months, so watch this space!

Squirrel

A good wildlife video