Last Monday a friend from Preston and his young son made an impromptu visit to my flat in Worcester on their way back from holidays on the Channel Islands. I quickly realised how little I had in my home to amuse a 7-year-old boy. Braille playing cards, the Franklin Language Master talking dictionary including ten word games and the BBC kids TV channels all held limited appeal. Most excitement seemed to be derived from the front door intercom system which I usually use to talk to taxi drivers and pizza delivery people. There was lots of pressing of buzzers and running in and out of doors. Not sure what my neighbours made of it all? However, it was good to catch up with friends, have an excuse to go out of a meal and watch a DVD of their holiday.
Tuesday I had my first guitar lesson. I learnt half a dozen chords and that changing between them is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I may take up the Arts councel offer of help with buying a Guitar. Take it away is an Arts Council initiative designed to help more people get involved
in learning and playing music by offering interest free credit on the purchase of musical instrements.
At short notice Martin showed up on Wednesday. We made lite work of a few pints in my fave Worcester pub before inflicting our selvs on an unsuspecting curry house at stupid o’clock.
During Martin’s visit we hatched a plan for me to join him on a spectacular trip to Islay next month. If you want to know more about this Hebridean island you could do worse than starting at the Islay blog. There is a strong possibility we could be doing a podcast or two from a distillery next month. Watch this space!
Over the weekend I have been trying to get through some of my reading list which as well as a slew of political biographies now includes a couple of titles to get me in the mood for Islay.
- PeSmokan Spirit- A portrait of Islay and its whiskeys by Andrew Jefford.
- Raw spirit; in search of the perfect dram by Ian Banks.
- Whisky galore by Compton MacKenzie Sir and Ken Stott.