April/May 2009


April

Well, you can imagine, all this sunshine and me, watering my garden! How cool - if a little weird - does that sound?

Anyway, April wasn't quite so cool - or weird, no, it was just cold and wet! So much so that it felt like winter!

A bit of heat though, came when I went to see Jackson Browne.

Anyone ever seen him?

Well I wasn't too bothered because I didn't really know many of his songs, well, hardly any, except for 'Stay' of course. Ah well, all would be great if I heard him sing that...

And, as you can imagine, he didn't sing it...in fact, that great institution called the Glasgow Audience didn't even ask for it (me included!!) Mind you, for someone who didn't know the songs, I managed to sing along with a hell of a lot of them.

I also believe that he was an imposter...that is because he hasn't changed one iota since he brought out 'Stay'! Bit like me and 'Still' really????

And, the similarities don't end there: I remember thinking how much he looked like Iggy Pop and then I remembered a magazine once comparing me to Iggy Pop in a photograph! Problem is though, that like JB, I did look remarkably like him in that particular photo!

Anyway, onto other matters...

Started the 'One of oor ain' tour this month - that was a real toughie!

I know I spoke about it last diary, so wont go into it much here, except to say that it was really tough and sad and hard to watch night after night.

I had to go on after Sandra's play and try to cheers everyone up - INCLUDING ME. And for those of you who have been to a CL gig, you'll know how difficult it is for me to cheer ANYONE up!

Not to worry though...we mostly had great houses and played to a lot of new friends.

Plus we had a lot of laughs on the way.

In amongst all that, we had family visits as it was Keeley's Christening - SO the beautiful Hartlepool niece came up.

She's just getting funnier and funnier.

Looking at my diary for April though, I see that I did manage to have a good few fires in the back garden so maybe my addled brain is allowing me to forget all that lovely weather we had - mind you, I should realise that I always manage to have a fire, no matter what the weather!

One night, after my show, I drove down the back lane and look lovingly into my gorgeous back garden...there it was, all strung in fairy lights, loads of flowers, a fire and a glass of red wine waiting for me...the summer fairy had been!

Another wee bit of sunshine in April - a new wee baby - MATTHEW was born to my nephew and his gal - a wee bundle of happiness and really the first boy in the family for four years and the second for about thirty years - but, as the Jersey Princesses will tell you... 'girls are better than boys, girls are better than boys...'

April also saw the coming together of something that has been bubbling under for years...

I'm sure most of you will know the writer, Liz Lochhead?

Well a few years ago, she and I did a Valentine's Day show where we put together a collection of our work based around love.

Well, we've put together a show for the Edinburgh Festival called Lochhead & Laula: Love, Love, Love. It runs for ten days from 6-16th August (not 8th) at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh at the Fringe.

As a great fan of Liz Lochhead I am really excited about this - come along and see it, it will be fun, fun, fun!


May

It must have been pure culture this past few months because in May, I went to see the writer Monica Ali, reading from her new book.

What a cool woman she was. Very funky, very pretty and very passionate about her writing.

There was a question and answer thing afterwards and everyone was being very polite and asking very literary questions...me? Well, I was right in there, the wee glesga hairy, asking all about her characters and whether she was using them to hide behind and - wow, very cool - and very NOSEY!

She answered very gracefully though and the graceful answer was 'no'. but I bought her new book anyway - literary critique to follow!!

This month I was also chosen for Jury Duty. No probs though, because every time I've been chosen, I've managed to get out of it...either because of my self-employed status or just because we haven't been chosen...

Well, why would this time be any different right?

Wrong!

Of course, I was waiting to make the call and for the recording to say 'no need to turn up...'

And of course, this time the recorded voice said 'see you in the morning at 9am' - or words to that effect!

Well, I went along, no probs, I had nothing on...except that I had to be in Aberdeen on the Thursday and in Krakow the following weekend...

I explained all this to the clerk of the court and she said, 'don't worry, this wont go on after Wednesday if you're chosen, if not, then vague, vague, vague...

So, out of forty or so possibles, I wasn't chosen - PHEW!

Except that the Clerk told me to call up next day and see if I was required - but I couldn't go if I was required and I explained this and she didn't give me any real answer...except that I was to call and 'vague, vague, vague'...

So, I called and they asked me to come along and I didn't go - upshot now is that I am a fugitive - I am on the run. I'm writing this diary from an undisclosed location...

Nah, only joking, but it sounds a wee bit better than not having been chosen - AGAIN!

Still, it means I managed to get on my trip to Krakow.

Wow, what a place...I loved it. Great people, great food, great weather and a great atmosphere. Yes, really loved it! I would recommend it to anyone: young, old, boring, relaxed, do-ers, chillers...

We were there for a whirlwind tour.

Day 1 -
Arrived, dumped our bags, went on a cycle tour of the city! Stunning and very sad...I had no idea it was such a hub of activity during the war. The history and rich culture of a massive Jewish community was really apparent. The Polish people seemed really proud of it and vehemently supported it. Amazing also to consider that up until WWII and the communist regime, there were hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Poland - now in Krakow there are one ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT! That statistic just blew me away.

Day 2 -
Up early and took a trip out to Auswitch. Not really a 'great' day out, but one that I had to go on. This was amazing and oh, so, sad. I would recommend it to anyone who had come all this way. (Our guide said that the more people who see it the better 'it is one less person to deny the holocaust').

Some things are easier if they are sanitised a little I think. That is to say that Auswitch is now a museum; it is no longer a concentration and extermination camp (thank god). But I imagine if it had been left, as it was it would have been even more uncomfortable.

In saying that though...there I was, walking around, feeling claustrophobic with all this history around me and thinking, 'it's not so bad, I can handle it...' And then I went into Bunker 11 where all the horrible stuff happened. It was still museum-like, until I went into the room that housed thousands of prosthetic limbs and thousands of pairs of glasses, all of which were taken from people before they were exterminated. ('Exterminated'? It is such a clean word for simple murder!). But then, in another room, there was a big display of hair...millions and millions of it. I found it really disturbing (and still do). When one was taken into the camp their hair was shorn and kept and sold - it was worth a princely sum! And here it was, the hair that wasn't sold, in Auswitch and it had all turned grey! How is it that it turned grey? I don't understand...but it really was and is horrific. For me even more so than standing in the actual gas chamber...

Day 2 -
After a while, it was too much so our guide took us a trip down the oldest salt mine in the world. Which I'm sure would have been great if we'd managed to get in along with an English-speaking guide...however, we'd missed the last one of the day! 'Not to worry' said Przemek, our guide, 'we'll get a head set'. But we couldn't because we hadn't taken our passports and so the very strict girl wouldn't let us have headsets in case we stole them and took them back to Glasgow. Now they were nice headsets, but not exactly iPod nice!

Still, as you'd expect, we had a laugh and a good time in this mine 365 metres underground...fun, but not as much fun as the Polish Vodka that awaited us in our wee square.

Day 3 -
Well, as you'd expect, we were a bit shattered after all that running around - not to mention a wee bit drained emotionally. So on our last day we wandered around Krakow - I know I said it already, but what an amazing place. You gotta go...

And then, as soon as we'd gone, we were on our way back home: to short. And, at the risk of repeating myself, it was fantastic!

When I got home, I found myself on the net looking for properties to buy in Spain - Krakow was amazing, weather wise too. When we left from Scotland it was raining and when we returned to Scotland it was raining and I was just so fed up with the weather - Spain was the answer...

...and then the sun came out...ah!

As soon as it did, I was out in that garden, before you could say 'sun-cream'.

And add garden landscaping to my domestic goddess duties.

On Sunday, I managed (amazingly) to cut down my eucalyptus tree! How cool eh? It might sound a bit barbaric, but it's one where you blink and then another six inches grow on top so I've been planning to 'get a guy in' for ages. However, a hearty breakfast, some sunshine and two very obliging neighbours helped me cut this sixty-foot beast back down to nothing. Another neighbour, however, suggested that I'd killed it! I hope not, but watch this space.

So, I wish you all the sunshine to get you through June and hope that on the 21st (shortest night) you have a fire out your backdoor that will get you through this summer solstice...and just think, if I was a politician, I could have had that other house in Spain, whilst claiming expenses for my firewood here in Glasgow!

See you in July.

Peace, love and Sunshine!

Carol