OFF to the village for a much-needed haircut then back home for breakfast.
First job of the day is dismantle the semi-trashed fruit cage to prevent any more damage. I’ll repair and rebuild when summer comes.
I mess about with more brass guitar pendant/pin prototypes then head up the lochside for a walk. The first in ages.
Refreshed after my walk I spend some time in the studio and finish setting up the Kickstarter project for my new album. Approval is a faster than I expect and I manage to get a pre-launch page up to try and attract some traction before I launch on Thursday 6 February.
I cure out some info and links round my socials and to my email list then retire to the house.
I WAKE up before my alarm…it’s the sound of the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) in the hall bleeping to say there’s a power outage.
Fuck. That’s a pain – but given the high winds it’s expected and we’re reasonably well prepared.
I dig out an old cafetière and make coffee on a camp stove then check the diary.
My 10am online meeting with fellow board members of the local community hydro society will no doubt be scuppered. I make a phone call and we decide best to rearrange.
The power comes back on at 10.30pm. For about 15 minutes. Then it’s off again.
I head to the studio and run through some of the songs I plan to include in my set list for the upcoming Aberdeen and Edinburgh shows.
When I go back to the house the winds are playing havoc in the garden and there’s driving rain. I spend the next hour or so going in and out to rescue various things from loss or destruction.
Despite not having any ‘wind catching’ parts, the fruit cage is totalled (again) then a tree comes down and hits the smoker/grill shelter taking part of the roof with it. Not much I can do about it just now.
We get the wood burner lit and I sit and mess around with the guitar until after dark.
Margaret lights some candles and we enjoy a glass of wine and a few games of backgammon before I make dinner.
Camp stove pasta with cherry tomatoes – and it’s surprisingly good. Good enough that Margaret reckons it’s better than any of the pasta she had while we were in Venice!
Prototype brass guitar for necklace…needs a bit more work!
AFTER breakfast I hit the office and start making some of the goodie-bag items for next week’s guitar workshop.
After re-jigging the workshop logo I add each participant’s name and engrave an insulated cup for each of them.
As well as personalising the cups, having their names on them will stop folks getting their coffee/whatever mixed up during the event!
The cups turn out really nice…then I turn my attention to dye-subbing the workshop logo on the canvas tote bags.
This is more challenging as ghosting is an issue and the whole process is, let’s say, temperamental! I get two done then decide to give it a rest.
I do, however, try a prototype of a brass guitar but my design and process need a bit of fine tuning. It’s not terrible, but could be a lot better….
In the studio I do a little more work on the Kickstarter, getting a little closer to completing the reward packages and images. I need to get it finished over the weekend and submit it for approval on Monday if I wanna have any chance of a launch on 5 or 6 February.
Margaret’s made Kung Pao tofu for dinner and it’s really, really good.
We chill in front of the telly for the rest of the night and watch the last few episodes of Patience.
Great to see our pals Robin and Greta at the Voodoo Rooms
UP early to get some stuff done before a 9am online guitar session.
I’m only halfway through the lesson when another guitar student arrives – she’s asked to come a little earlier today, so I said to go to the house and Margaret’s have a cuppa ready for her.
I have an hour or so before I need to head off for a session with kids at the school in Balloch and get a little more work done on the Kickstarter.
After the school session I get an eNewsletter out then we jump in the car and make for Edinburgh. We’re off to see our pals Robin and Greta with their band Beaux Gris Gris at the Voodoo Rooms – the first date of their UK tour.
We park up at Ingliston and get the tram into town. At the venue we bump into Belfast photographer and journalist Gerry and his wife Judith who are over for the gig…and a venue owner from Belgium who had me play a few years ago.
The gig is amazing. Robin and Greta are based in California but have a UK band behind them inducing our pal Kev Hickman. Great to catch up with everyone.
EASING myself back into things slowly, so first online guitar session isn’t ’til mid morning.
Next job is setting up a video for my upcoming Kickstarter campaign.
I get some prep done before lunch then after my early afternoon guitar student leaves the studio I get busy filming a piece to camera.
It all takes a little longer than I planned and I’m onl’y just starting the edit when there’s a knock on the studio door. It’s my final guitar student of the day who’s arrive half-an-hour early.
We head across to the house and have a good wee picking session then I finish off the video edit in the studio.
Margaret arrives back with some shopping then we wander along to see Betty for a late aperitif.
Come on in my Kitchen from this week’s Wildcats’ livestream
A RELATIVELY early start. The alarm goes off at 7am to give time for showers and packing before leaving the room and taking the bags downstairs then breakfast.
We bought our waterbus tickets and checked out the stop last night so we just have a five minute walk from the hotel, through St Mark’s square then along the waterside.
The waterbus ride is just over an hour then we breeze through check-in and security in no time.
A changeover at Schiphol then we land in Glasgow late afternoon, pick up the car and get stuck in a monster traffic jam.
WE HAVE a bit of a long lie and only just make it down to breakfast in time.
Back in our room we relax for a while. The weather’s not so great today so we don’t venture far. Margaret’s been looking for a wee leather credit card case and we finally find what she’s looking for then stop for arancini, spritz, cake and coffee a at a place called Pasticceria Mercurie.
We were there the other day and it was good…and we enjoyed it again today.
A wee wander around then back to chill for a while before heading out to see about water bus tickets to get us back to the airport in the morning.
On the hunt for a more economic and honest dinner place tonight we try Trattoria da Gigi. Perfect. Probably the cheapest – but one of the best – meals of the trip!
Off-menu spider crab pasta…expensive, mis-sold and not very good 🙁
ANOTHER nice sunny day. We have no set itinerary so we decide to take a walk eastwards past the Arsenal.
Being Saturday the area around St Marks is mobbed but the crowds thin out the further we go.
We find a nice cafe for a snack – spinach arancini for me and mushroom and sausage lasagne for Margaret…all washed down with Aperol spritz.
It’s late afternoon when we get back to the hotel, have a nap then look for somewhere for dinner.
We trying to watch the dosh and consider pizza – Margaret finds a place called Trattoria Pizzeria da Gioia not far from the hotel.
It’s a nice wee place BUT…the waiter recommends we share an off-menu pasta dish with spider crab which Margaret – knowing I like that kind of thing – suggests we have.
Spectacular, but nothing to write home about and not Margaret’s taste.
When the bill comes we’re in shock. One-hundered-and-sixty euros for the crab pasta and a a total of €250 for the meal (including a bottle of wine). Fuck me gently.
I can’t argue – we stupidly didn’t ask the price. Lesson learned…and although not technically a rip-off, it feels like it to me. When a dish turns out to be three times the price (per person!) of the most expensive item on the menu I’d expect the waiter to be a little more forthcoming and upfront about the price.
Margaret’s upset and furious. I fight the temptation to go back and give the guy a doing and put on a brave face.
We stop at the Bridge of Sighs en route to the water bus
TODAY’S itinerary is to visit Murano island to see the famous glass being made.
It’s another lovely day as we go to get our waterbus tickets. The woman isn’t very clear which one to get or where to get it and by the time we figure things out we miss one by just a minute or two.
That give us a 20-minute wait so we wander off and take some pix at the Bridge of Sighs.
The boat ride to Murano island is a good 45 minutes. We avoid the tourist trap glass places and take a walk and are lucky to come across Simone Cenedese Glass. Beautiful glass on display and the lady is friendly and takes us for a look behind the scenes and shows us some other exclusive pieces.
Next, a focaccia and spritz on the canal side then we have another wander around and stick our heads into another glass place and see some glass blowing.
We get the waterbus back and get off along the Grand Canal by the train station and walk back to the hotel.
After chilling for a while we head out for dinner. I’d spotted a wee back street place just over a mile from the hotel – Trattoria da Ignazio.
It’s a little above our price range but Betty gave us a little gift before we left to put towards a meal out…and this is the place to do it!!!
The waiter, the food, the wine, the atmosphere is amazing…our best meal in Venice so far. Maybe our best meal out ever!
AFTER another ‘all you can eat’ breakfast we venture out.
It’s a nice sunny day and not as cold as yesterday.
We stay close to the hotel and visit the Basilica where we go the full hog and see round all the extra parts including the museum and rooftop.
Next we wander north and find a great wee cafe for arancini, cake and spritz.
Another wander and an ice cream followed by more meanderings and a pit stop for coffee and a – by now urgent – pee.
It’s getting cold as darkness falls and we get back to the hotel where we have a nap before going out in search of dinner.
It’s a little later than we planned and turns out our intended destination is shut off season.
We go into one place but the attitude, prices and poor menu change our mind so we up sticks and find another option nearby.
It’s a fine choice but not as interesting as our last two nights’ dinner experiences. We share an antipasto platter then Margaret has a pork escalope and I have steak…
