AFTER breakfast I get the Love Balmaha insulated cups in the online store and spread the word at a local level.
Next job is to create another version of the video ad for my upcoming show at The Met in Bury (27 September). The existing ad ‘expired’ last week and had been running a while so I thought I’d run another with a different song behind it.
I’m out of Dave Arcari postcards which we use for upcoming gig listings and also put into online orders so I knock up some artwork using the revamped logotype and get an order off to the printer.
We’ve been dragging our heels a bit with the idea of embroidered shirts/hoodies and I haven’t got back to the folks that we spoke to a few weeks ago. I create a mockup to work out size and email it over so we can start getting quotes/budget/plan together.
Eventually I free up some time and go for a wander up the lochside, stopping in at our pal Liz’s on the way back to pick up Margaret and stopping for a quick drink,
THERE’S an order for some Love Balmaha tote bags so after breakfast I get busy printing them up in the office.
Annoyingly I fuck up a couple of them and throw them on the ‘botched jobs’ pile. It’s amazing how many things can go wrong or adversely affect a seemingly simple process!
Big job today, though, is finishing my tax return which – for various reasons – is frying my brain. A long call to HMRC is really helpful tho’ and puts me on the right track.
I take a break when one of my guitar students rocks up for a lesson then get back on the tax return…and get it finished and submitted, Phew!
Back in the office I parcel up a. Big vinyl order to go to Finland then prototype a Love Balmaha insulated cup. Works out nice.
Betty’s coming for dinner and has arrived when I get back to the house and make some chicken fajitas.
AFTER an early online lesson with one of my guitar students I get back on my accounts.
Actually, the ‘accounts’ part is largely done, there’s a bunch of other stuff on the tax return that I can’t quite get my head around. I look out some files and try and bring some order to my mess.
After lunch we head into Glasgow and Margaret’s drops me at the eye hospital and goes to the supermarket. I’ve an eye assessment for a (not too long in the, I hope) future cataract op.
Once I’m done I walk along Great Western Road and meet Margaret then we head to Costco for supplies for Sunday’s community picnic on the island.
It’s nearly 8pm when we get home and I make some smash burgers on the Ninja Woodfire for the first time. I realized that it was time-consuming – and unnecessarily wasteful – lighting a chimney full of charcoal and using the grill, especially when a big griddle plate on the top eliminates any fallout/benefits of using charcoal.
I found a flat plate for the Woodfire and ordered last week. It works a treat 🙂
WE’RE off for a day in Edinburgh today finishing up with Miriam Margolyes’ Fringe show. A joint birthday treat instead of buying each other presents…my birthday was last week and Margaret’s is on Saturday.
Rather than drive all the way and contend with traffic jams and parking we’ve decided to use our old folks’ bus passes and get the bus from the Park & Ride at Stirling. Free parking, free bus…what’s not to like?!?
The whole process goes to plan and the electric bus is comfy and efficient.
We alight at Haymarket and wander to Vietnam House restaurant for lunch. We share summer spring rolls then Margaret enjoys Co’m Su’o’n – grilled pork loin marinated with lemongrass, garlic and shallots served with salad and steamed rice. With an egg on top!
I have seafood Xao Sa O’t – squid, prawns and mussels stir fired with lemongrass and chilli. Delicious!
Next we have a wander about, stop off for a drink then make our way to Edinburgh International Conference Centre where Margaret has an Aperol spritz and I have a coffee before joining the huge queue to get into the ‘room’ for the show – more like a 1500-seater theatre with comfy seats and great sound. Could be an awesome venue for an acoustic-ish kinda show/festival.
Margolyes is good – my only annoyance was needing a piss and not being able to go during her 70-minute show.
Then it’s back to the bus, a drive home from Stirling and an early-ish night.
THE DAY starts off with a session with one of my regular online guitar students…then I get the next single – MacPherson’s Lament – delivered to my aggregator (digital distributor) ready for release on Friday 26 September.
Next job is to move on with my accounts. Yeuch. Determined not to be leaving my tax return ‘til the last minute this year and get things back on track.
Mid-afternoon I take a bus to the village, pick up my prescription at the pharmacy and walk back home in the sunshine. Listening to some podcast on BBC Sounds.
After a little more work on my accounts I start the edit on the official video for MacPherson’s Lament. It becomes clear I ain’t gettting anywhere close even to a first cut for tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook so I scour some backup drives for some bits and bobs of archive video to spin into the livestream instead.
The livestream goes fine and Margaret’s got dinner ready when I get back to the house shortly after 9pm….
Fiona rocks up and we go for a paddle. The village and bay is busy and suspecting same up the lochside toward Milarrochy we head up past Inchcailloch.
On to Torrinch where we stop at the far end for break from paddling.
It’s windier and we head back and there’s a fair amount of wake from random boats and stuff. I’m having trouble keeping my board straight and on investigating I’ve lost my main fin. 🙁
That makes paddling home a bit of an ordeal but a ‘side by side’ paddling between us helps a lot. We’re both pretty knackered when we get back.
Back out in the garden I get some more work done then make some stuffed burgers (mozzarella inside!) which I grill on the Ninja Woodfire with a touch of smoke. The mince was too lean to make smash burgers so I decided to try something new and different….it worked 🙂
AFTER a relaxing morning I venture onto the loch for a paddle. It’s pretty busy with lot of speedboats and jetskis but I have a nice paddle up to Milarrochy and back regardless.
Margaret’s away to the village hall to set up for a local place plan community engagement event – I have a quick shower then take a walk to the village hall and join her.
I walk back home and set up a website for my Love Balmaha idea. Photos, e-commerce and a Facebook page. I’ll get more socials set up in due course.
I finally get my settings right to make these….on sale soon…
AFTER coffee and emails/socials etc in bed we get up and I spend some time getting Margaret’s new iPad set up so it will work best for her.
In the office I work on a couple more items for my new local gifts idea. I’m planning to launch a small range of standalone local items that I will slowly – and strategically – add to.
The office is a bit of a mess, partly because I attempted to engrave a big 40oz insulated tumbler a few weeks ago and failed miserably. I have some time today so work on my set up and get it locked in.
Before I do a proper engrave I spend some time messing with my new(-ish) logo and trying out different fonts and text for the logotype. Once I’m happy I get busy and am pretty pleased with the results. I’ll likely get ‘em on sale soon.
The sun’s splitting the sky so I take a wander up the lochside and chat to ranger Louise up at Milarrochy.
Matty’s arrived when I get back and we chill the rest of the evening.
CHILL day today…it’s my birthday. Fucking 61. Mental age about 14. Age in my head 22.
I do minor amounts of work to avoid a backlog and kick off some ideas for coming weeks. Mostly, though, I sit the garden, play guitar and sporadically go onto Facebook a nd ‘like’ all the birthday messages.
Betty comes round for dinner and we have a nice evening and then a relatively early night. Be fucking Ovaltine and early bed soon!
FUNNY – used to be Monday that was my busy guitar lesson/workshop day but it’s kinda moved to Wednesday.
I have an online session first thing and my next student arrives just as the online session is winding up.
There’s about 20 minutes between the next two sessions then I get on with some routine admin stuff.
I have to nip into Glasgow and decide to kill two birds with one stone and get one shopping too. I also wanna pick up an iPad for Margaret. Her 10+ year-old MacBook Air is still going but it’s starting to flag a bit – I’ve replaced my laptop with an iPad Pro and (Logitech) keyboard case and haven’t looked back. And iPad OS26 (still in beta) has brought it even closer to a laptop experience.
I reckon the new ‘basic’ iPad with keyboard/trackpad case would not only be a more productive tool for Margaret being faster and more intuitive to use…but also comes in about 40% of the cost of a new laptop!
She’s not been sold on the idea in past chats so I decide to bite the bullet and sort it out to see if it’ll work for her.
I pick up a Logitech keyboard case with trackpad at the Braehead Apple Store and subsequently an iPad A16 at Costco. Total cost is under £400.
I go about my business in Glasgow, pick up some charcoal at Rightway in Polmadie, Costco and Tesco shopping then home.
Fiona’s coming along for dinner later and we’d planned a paddle beforehand…but her B&B guests haven’t arrived and I’m puggled, so instead start configuring the new iPad for Margaret.
Fiona rocks up at dinner time and we have a nice night of food, wine and chat.
