Whatever Happened to the Old New Year ?

What a sad state we've come to !

And sadly I'm old enough to tell you this ,.,. Are you even aware ? ... Let me tell you,.,.,.,

New Year Fings, ain't wot they used to be ,,, not in my day !

No more the friendly knock on the door of ( or by ) neighbours .,., No more joyous exclamations of "Happy New Year" & kisses on the doorstep ,, no more lumps of coal, bottles of whisky, boxes of shortbread being brought to Party by friends !

What's happened ? where has our wonderful old Scottish culture gone ? ,,,

We've been Anglicized I fear ,, or could it be worse than that even ? .,., Globalized maybe ???

Even the slightly less old, but at the time pretty good, Hogmanay TV offerings were great fun ,,,

Duncan McRae, Rikki ( I.M.Jolly ) Fulton, Jack Milroy, Chic Murray ,, aye even Jimmy Logan ,,, and the rest ,,, Alas no more .,,. even the light entertainment candle has been dimmed !

Youth doesn't party with their elders anymore ,.., no more singalongs around the piano nights ? No more wandering from house to house to return home only when the bottles were all empty ,,,

How can our children then learn for the future continuance of these cultural rituals .,,. ?

Now they gather in City Centres and scream & dance in a frenzy of drunken debauchery .,.,

and PAY for the priviledge ! Pay to celebrate New Year ?,, now that says it all really !

Local goverment has obviously learned from its elders ,.,. just jumped on the National goverment bandwagon and now taxing us to do anybloodything ,,

Watch out for that "Breathing Tax",.,.., it's bound to be introduced soon ?

No one, it seems, wants the inconvenience of having their home "messed up" and having to sort it all next morning ,, but why ?? It was never a problem 30- years ago ... washing a few extra glasses surely isn't that much of a chore in today's Dishwasher world ?

We did our annual local Pub thing last night .,., and yeah, we too paid for the privilege :-(

Get to the pub around 9pm ,,, buy drinks all night at their inflated prices, DJ in the corner doing his best to drown out all conversation, ( and with a faulty watch so he rung out the old year & in the new fully 4-minutes before the magical midnight !!

And did he end the night with our beloved last dance and Rabbie's hogmanay anthem “Auld Lang Syne” .,,. Did he hell ,, the last we heard from him was a noisy parting shot of New York, New York ,.,. Eh ?

It was all over and we were thrown out at 1.30am !! Just about the time we used to start out !

If this is the best we have on offer I think next Hogmanay I'll go to bed !

And a Smelly New Year !

I told y'all once before about Peter .... a golf buddy ,,, oldish ,, maybe 73 now but fit and a damn good golfer ,, handicap 12 ,.,.
The before story was about his lack of savvy regarding modern day technology ,.,. in fact modern day icons ,,, he doesn't quite know the various makes of Mobile Phones ,,,, ring any bells ??? Hahahaha "I'll have wan o' yon Nookie phones hen "
( See my Blog of Thursday, March 06, 2008 Auld guys don't do Gadgets )
Anyway nor, it seems does he have much of a clue re acceptable Xmas pressies .,,.,.
Peter is youngest of his siblings .,,. he has an older sister ( she's now into her 80's ,,, maybe 82 )
He couldn't decide this year what to buy her for Xmas ,,, so he asked her what she'd like .,,.
He suggested jewellery ( for an 82 year old ? .,,. well who knows, maybe this old bird gets out on the town a bit ? ) She declined ,,,
He offered clothes ? Ok not bad ,, but she declined again ,, telling him he barely passed muster in his own clothes so no thanks, he sure as hell wasn't choosing anything like that for her !
Och ,.,.,. Just surprise me she said ,,, Oh dear ,,,, what a silly thing to say to a Peter type .,.,
He thought and he thought and finally it struck him ,,,
The old lady has a wee plot ( allotment ) up the road from her house and she loves to potter around with her flowers and stuff ,,
You've guesssed it you think ??
He'd buy her some plants ,, or seeds ,, or ,,,
Nah, not Pete .,,.
He bought her ,,, and honest, this is no lie or made up story ,,,
Yep, he bought her ,,, a big bag of ,,,,, MANURE !!!!
So now y'all know what to buy for your nearest and dearest next time they say ,,,
" Och gaun, Surprise Me !! "
And a Shitey Xmas to you too !

Who said Retirement was Fun ?

From this, to this in a day!

Well !,.,. that was the week that was ...
( or TW3 for those of you old enough to remember the wonderful original David Frost satirical Sat. nights ?)
My daughter and her beloved bidie-in hit crisis point earlier this week.
They've been working hard over the past several weeks ( or is it months ? ) trying to convert an old dilapidated kitchen into a brand new TV room come visitor bedroom ,,,
I ( no correction, we ), my very own beloved and I, offered to help since time was fast running out before the room's first visitors were due to arrive ,.,. the bidie-in's mum & dad all the way from Denmark.
So I pitched in & helped with new plaster boarding of walls, plastering holes with fresh mortar, sanding said areas etc. all in an effort to get to the painting & wallpapering .,,.., the stuff Phyl thought couldn't possibly now be completed in time ,..,
Well we got there, we started painting Wed. ,.,. 2nd. coat painting Thurs. morning early and at 10 am Thursday morning we started papering ( the guests were due Frid., mid afternoon !! )
However, my beloved & I are long experienced wallpaperers ,,, and work beautifully in team fashion .,,.
I measure, match patterns, cut etc and she pastes .,,. I hang and then we're off at it again ,,, so over the years and the rooms we've become fairly proficient .,,.
We thought we'd break it's back Thurs. & finish Frid morn before the guests arrival.
However at about our planned stopping time Phyl made us a lovely Chilli ,.,.
After the chilli we decided to go for broke and finish the job all in the one day !
So, around 10pm we finally packed up our tools and viewed the finished article .,., with a large G & T in hand ,.,. hic ! Thomas & I then moved in the necessary furniture ,, bed, rug, and temporary wardrobe ,.,. Against all the odds we were ready for the guests ! Phew ,,,
It passed muster and everyone was pleased ,,, well apart from me & my beloved ,, :(
we were too knackered to be pleased or anything else and slept almost 12-straight hours !
Who ever said retirement was easy ? But it can be fun :0)

Pay for What ?

This ,,,,,, or this ?


We have visitors today ,.., they've come to make substantial alterations to Buchanan Towers ! They say we will feel great benefit from their work .,., we will be warmer in summer & cooler in winter ,, and it will take longer to cool down in winter ( & presumably stay cooler longer during the long, hot, summer months we have here in Scotland ! ),,, and best of all, our gas heating bills will be smaller ! What more could we ask ? Well apart from, why didn't you come do this 35-years ago ya bass !!
Anyway, EDF our benevolent Gas supplier ( currently at least ! ) gave us this opportunity to upgrade our home insulation ,, Today then, our cavity is being filled !! Oof-ya ,,
It's not the quietest of jobs ,., In fact it's bloody noisy ! They've drilled about 40 rather large holes in my property ,, so far ! and knocked out all my pretty little red vents all round the house ,.,. I do hope they know what they're about ,,, if not it could be bloody cold in here !
They say it'll take no longer than about 3-hours start to finish so we're in the last hour now !
But it's a strange old job this one ,,,
OK, I know they're doing something out there but how can I really tell what I'm getting for my money ,,, there's nothing to see at the end of it all ,, I only have their word for it that they've filled my cavity :) ,,, and with what ? they could be pumping anything into my holes !! Ouch ... How will I ever know ? Wonder what they'll say when I ask them to PROVE the job's been done ,, and done correctly ?
So I asked them ! .,,. How do I know you've not been pumping any old shite into my holes ?
Oh dear, the workie says to me ,, You can smell it already ,,, ??? It doesn't usually filter thro' 'till long after we've gone !!
Mmmmm ,,, Well would you pay for something you didn't actually know had been done ?
Roll on the next cold spell 'till I see it's been money well spent !
I'll let you know in due course.
TBC .....