This is Hattie, who’s staying with my Maw and Paw for a couple of weeks while her owner’s on a cooking holiday in India (alright for some!)… At first meeting, Hattie’s a bit crap really, she’s definitely not a dog who’s up for a fight or a chase. But get to know her, and in her own quiet way she’s really pretty cool.
Had a great weekend up with the parents there. My sis was back from Paris with Nico, so I headed up. Had tonsillitis all last week so it was great to get up and relax, I was needing it. Cracking weather for walking on the beach, and loads of sport on TV, so happy days.
I’m going to blog this because it meant the world to me, and it was funny. My gran died on Easter Sunday, in hospital, and it was her funeral yesterday. Dad and I were up in Aviemore for Easter weekend, and we were woken very early on Sunday morning with the news that she was very ill. We rushed down the road to Glasgow, and made it in time for me to have a good wee chat with her, which really, really was brilliant. I’ll never forget her eyes when she saw me come into the room, and she was really happy to have her family around her.
Anyway, to the funny bit. She must’ve lost track of who was all around her bed, and she was still perfectly lucid (dictating funeral requirements and stuff, wow), and she suddenly piped up with… “Ooh, I wish Neil well with his love life” !!!! Genius, I was actually standing right there beside her when she said it, and was just like, “Gran, I’m here!” We all got a good chuckle, her included. So nice to know she was thinking about me.
Went up to Aviemore at the weekend. Still love it up there, as much as ever. Just me and paw, slobbed around, ate lots of nice food, and got out in the snow. Great to see some snow, get my fix for the winter, had barely seen any until this weekend! Anyway, Dad gave me my birthday present (2 months) early, a digital SLR camera, genius! They brought it back from the States. I’m like a wee boy with a new toy at xmas. No excuses for not getting some decent pics up on here now!
Kat eats a chocolate rabbit. JeeI had a funny animated gif of Kat stuffing her face but you can’t put them up here, and the link isn’t working and it’s getting late and I can’t be arsed getting it to work and the touchpad on my laptop drives me nuts so I’m stopping here.
No snow this year unfortunately, but a seriously beautiful, sunny morning with an extremely heavy frost still made for a white Christmas! Went for a walk with my sis, couldn’t resist the photo opportunities.
Been having a great Christmas as usual, always good fun. Sleeping and eating pretty much sums it all up, as it should. Brilliant.
Remember my lookalikes? I looked most like a Bollywood actress, and was judged to be mostly feminine. Well check my bro’s lookalikes out, I can see where all the masculine genes went in my family (seeing as my other sibling is a sister). There must have been only so much to go around, Dad, you’re not man enough!
There is a problem with these lookalikes though, obviously computers can’t get things right ALL the time, because my bro’s mates have done their own version, and it’s a whole lot better…
Looking through my mum and dad’s pictures from the Macca Weekend, loved this one so took a copy of it down from flickr. Lovely picture, until you notice this twat gurning in the background.
When we were clearing out my Gran and Grandpa’s house, when my Grandpa was moving into a care home, we found this nasty looking, grimy thing in the pantry. Which, when cleaned up, turned out to be an authentic Fabergé-school Russian drinking cup, known as a kovsch. It sold for rather a lot of money, some of which we used at the weekend to have a family gathering at Crieff Hydro, which was an amazing weekend. Here’s what the Auction House had to say about it…
In May, an early 20th century Russian silver and cloisonné enamelled Fabergé kovsch sold for £*. Dating from circa 1907-1918, and made by Fedor Ruckert, working at the Moscow branch of Fabergé, this traditional Russian drinking vessel was of unusually large size and decorated with a striking palette of ochre, orange, black, white and olive green. It was discovered during a routine contents valuation in the kitchen of a house in Fife having lain unrecognised for many years.
Quick research (after all, that’s what I get paid to do) throws up a couple of semi-interesting facts. Fedor Ruckert was born in Moscow, but of German origin, and made articles in Moscow in cloissoné enamel. Fabergé’s Moscow signature often obliterates Ruckert’s initials, poor guy, so he doesn’t always get full credit. Cloisonné is the technique used to create the designs like the above (pretty darn ugly if you ask me) kovsch. You solder bent wire onto a metal surface to create “cells” which you then fill with powdered enamel of different colours. On heating you get the effect shown above. Not very pretty (in this case) in my opinion but a hell of a lot of work, so I can see how it could be expensive. Anyway, thankyou Mr Ruckert, and the rich Russian expat who bought the Kovsch, for providing us with the means for a fantastic weekend.
27 Maccas in one hotel for the whole weekend, ranging in age from 3 up to 75. Had a brilliant time, loads of eating, drinking, walking, banter and even a interMacs football game, roughly Stoney against Moffat with a couple of ringers on each team. (Stoney scored the most goals but Moffat scored the “next goal the winner” clincher. There was a ceilidh on each night in the hotel too, which was actually really, really good, especially as we Maccas love a good dance. I properly fell right on my arse during an eightsome reel as well, which was super embarrassing. Another highlight, and always a MacEwen favourite, was, as Dad put it in his wee speech, the Strip the Macca. Good gag.
Tons more photos available here. Will have a video to put up soon hopefully too… here we go, bit of a Macca in-joke in this one…
For my birthday my parents gave me a flying lesson. Did it yesterday from Perth Airport in a wee cessna aeroplane. Great fun, pretty windy but at no point was I scared, which was cool cos I get pretty scared in big jets. Weird. Did a cool loop round T In The Park which was really good to look out over. My brother went up too…
On the way home I had to spend a couple of hours in Perth waiting on a train, which was an arse. Not cos it was in Perth, which seems to be nice enough, but because I missed the Wimbledon final. On the plus side, I did find some more evidence of the sheer genius that is John Smeaton. Seemingly he built a bridge in Perth in 1766. What a man.
Was home in Stonehaven for Saturday with the family, went down to the harbour on Saturday night for a pint, the Folk Festival was on so it was buzzing… I couldn’t believe my eyes when my bro pointed out Bilbo Baggins, walking along the road. How on earth did he get to Stonehaven? Off on another adventure no doubt. Either that or he’s a big folk music fan.
Just in case you weren’t convinced, here he is back in more familiar surroundings.
This is Hattie, who’s staying with my Maw and Paw for a couple of weeks while her owner’s on a cooking holiday in India (alright for some!)… At first meeting, Hattie’s a bit crap really, she’s definitely not a dog who’s up for a fight or a chase. But get to know her, and in her own quiet way she’s really pretty cool.
