Nova Scotia – Slab Boys 4

I never know if it is fair to comment on a preview performance, but as long as it is clear that it is a preview, then I think it is probably OK.
This was the first preview – the first time the long-awaited new part of the Slab Boys Trilogy had ever been seen in public.    [...]

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Essential Ensemble – Scottish Ensemble

The Scottish Ensemble played the last concert of the season in Perth, and it was the last date of the current tour.    At 3pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon in April, it was actually a big ask to get people to come along, and I could not have bought a ticket in advance confidently.    But [...]

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Megabus

I have had to travel to Edinburgh for each of the past two days, and luckily, what I was doing fitted in with the Megabus service timetable.     Perth is a Megabus hub where busses cross over and meet, providing express bus services to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness.    The busses are large single deckers, [...]

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Fuel Shortages

Ineos, the people who run the large oil refinery at Grangemouth are in a dispute with the Unite union over pension rights.    The Union have called a two day strike next week, but the problem is (so the employer says) that you can’t just turn a refinery off for two days – it takes a [...]

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Swallows and Geese

 Just for a few days each year, our two most visible migratory birds cross over:   in mid-April the geese are still leaving in their great V shaped skeins heading north to Greenland, and the first swallows have started arriving from Africa.
Swallows are a mixed blessing:   they nest in buildings leaving piles of mess just where [...]

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Critics vs Bloggers

An interesting piece on Radio Scotland Cafe programme this evening about who to trust when reading a review of a performance?     The professional critic, or the bloggers?
It is a good question.    I do read what critics say, and some I trust more than others.   It is a long-term relationship that one builds:   if you find [...]

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Free Bottle of Wine? That’s £753 to you, sir.

New licensing regulations have been introduced into Scotland, and they are going down like a lead balloon, particularly in the tourism sector.     The smallest businesses are being hit inappropriately hard by a whole raft of stupid and pointless regulations.
Everywhere that sells alcohol now comes under the new licensing scheme.   The scheme is extremely expensive to comply [...]

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Scottish Opera – Traviata – again!

Scottish Opera announced that international opera director David McVicar is to return to Scotland to direct a new production of La Traviata.    The company are asking for specific sponsorship from the public for this.    Wonderful news to have David McVicar back – but why does it have to be Traviata?
Scottish Opera demonstrated how innovative they [...]

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Stones

Every year they come up, and every year they get removed – for future use.
This farm has been  under cultivation for centuries.   The modern tractor-drawn ploughs do go deeper than the old horse-drawn variery, and every year produces a crop of stones.   Today was spent picking stones off the winter crops, or perhaps small boulders [...]

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It’s mowing time again

First grass cut today, and possibly a week later than it should have been.    Lawnmower seems to have survived the winter OK.
Snow forecast for Sunday – that should slow things up a bit.

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