| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8406 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's already Christmas Day in New Zealand, and will be in Sydney in 90 minutes, so merry Christmas everyone and all the best for 2018. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1417 Registered: 10-2006 |
Mid-afternoon here, a crisp bright day, had the dogs out after a light lunch, the Christmas Eve feast still to come. Soundtrack mainly classical this time of year… Czech masses, the Russian all-night vigil, at the moment Dvorak’s cello concerto. After all the strangeness of 2017, what on earth is going to happen in 2018? Fingers crossed, anyway. Merry Christmas to you all. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 491 Registered: 08-2005 |
Going to the in-laws tomorrow (25th) so I'll be waited on rather than cooking the lunch, which is just as well as I've got a severe head cold. I think that's probably the result of a stressful few months followed by a week's hard cycling (tested four bikes and eight pairs of shoes. Funny old job...). Have a great Christmas, fellow GBs fans! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3840 Registered: 03-2005 |
Have a great holiday all of you! I will be spending mine with friends, all heathen like myself. Feel better Simon! That IS quite a job you have; it’ll keep you young. Enjoy your elegant Hapsburg style Christmas Stuart! A crisp Italian winter day sounds so good right now. Enjoy your summer Christmas Pádraig! I wonder what that’s like and hope Oz has its own winter festivals to compensate for the antipodean short days. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8407 Registered: 05-2005 |
Sounds good, lads. Randy, I was all set to go for a swim at 7.30 this morning, but it was wet and grey. So we went for a coffee and Nutella doughnut in Manly instead. The temperature dropped dramatically yesterday afternoon with a brief tropical downpour. Christmas in July is a thing here, especially in the Blue Mountains, two hours west of Sydney, where there is a decent chance of snow. Actually, the last time I was in the Blue Mountains it was three or four days before Christmas and it was damn cold then too. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1213 Registered: 08-2004 |
Happy Christmas to all. I'll be at home with the family. Trying to squeeze some unseasonal songs into the sleigh bell heavy mix. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1854 Registered: 08-2006 |
A day late but I hope everyone enjoyed! The temp dropped here in Chicago after a snowfall the 24th left us with a delightfully white Christmas. Today it's just very cold - we woke up to temps barely above 0 F. I have the week off work, so I kept the errands to minimum and did chores around the house. Tomorrow my girlfriend's helping me organize the back closet including the CD wall. She's a gem. I'll be cooking her dinner. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8410 Registered: 05-2005 |
I just googled it to see what that is in Celsius. -17. Brr. If I've ever experienced it that cold, mercifully I've forgotten it. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 492 Registered: 08-2005 |
Yikes. That's nippy! don't think I've experienced anything colder than -7/8C or so... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1855 Registered: 08-2006 |
Well, this morning it was -2 F and now at 10 a.m. it's hovering at 0. It's definitely cold but people go about their business. I'm watching my upstairs neighbor, who is from Wisconsin, wait for an Uber in front of my house without a hat or gloves, seemingly oblivious to the chill. I try to be mindful about being efficient with my errands, not making multiple trips when one will do. It's kind of nice my office is closed this week, so right now I've got a cup of coffee, the Jann Wenner bio and Steve Earle on the stereo and I ain't going anywhere. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3841 Registered: 03-2005 |
Made of tougher stuff, you midwesterners. Rob, you would die of laughter if you saw how I have to dress to keep myself comfortable during this time of the year INSIDE MY OWN HOUSE during the nighttime hours or if you saw how many pounds of blankets i have on my bed. Granted, the house is built like a pup tent with no insulation but the overnight low is something like 48 degrees F, far away from freezing. It sounds like you have a great holiday week plan. Out here I am one of the chumps driving to work on the weirdly empty roads. | ||
| Austin Member Username: Bruegelpie Post Number: 169 Registered: 09-2004 |
Yes, it is a balmy 13 F today in Michigan. Snow stopped earlier, leaving us with 6 inches to shovel. Best wishes for a wonderful 2018 to everyone! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8414 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's a mercifully cool 23C (google it yourself for the neanderthal Farenheit equivalent) in Sydney at the moment, but it has been raining, so it's very humid. Back to work today after five days off. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 495 Registered: 08-2005 |
Ahh, what I'd give for 23C, very pleasantly warm in the yet-to-be-patented 'sfwithers' temperature scale - the perfect temperature being somewhere around 28-30C... | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1418 Registered: 10-2006 |
I lived in central Sweden for two years, and the 86 - 87 winter was particularly cold. One early morning I walked back into town from a party in the countryside, just a few kilometres, slightly drunk and exhilarated by the clear, cold, starlit night. "Jesus Christ," my mate Lars said when I met him next day, "It was -30 last night!" But I never felt cold in Sweden, and never caught a cold either. "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing!" as the locals like to say. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8417 Registered: 05-2005 |
Nice story, Stuart. It rose to 34 in Sydney yesterday. The humidity had eased off by then though, so it didn't feel as bad to me as it did hours earlier when it was 23 with a million percent (or so it seemed) humidity. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8419 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wait a minute - a Scot in Sweden in 86/87: are you the guy who famously played bagpipes on The Church's Under The Milky Way, which was recorded in Stockholm at that time? Steve Kilbey knew he wanted bagpipes on the song, but then thought, where am I going to find a bagpipe player in Stockholm. He went out for a sandwich and there was a Scottish man busking with bagpipes. Kilbey said, right, you're coming back with me. Until I know different, I'm going to assume this was Stuart. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1856 Registered: 08-2006 |
This talk of humidity is causing cognitive dissonance. I know you're a world away, Padraig, but it's hard to imagine it's warm, let alone humid, anywhere. I sure hope it was Stuart on that track, and it's just something he doesn't mention. Or it slipped his mind. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8421 Registered: 05-2005 |
He's a modest one, no doubt. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1419 Registered: 10-2006 |
Dammit, after all this time, finally sussed. Yeah, I was out on the Vasabron bridge, just getting into a good selection of reels, when this rudely good looking, skinny Aussie came skidding to a halt in front of me and, through a mouthful of black bread and prawns, offered me this gig on one of his songs. He said he couldn’t pay cash but he’d make it worth my while. So I toddled along to the studio with my pipes and we hashed up a solo for the tune. All sounded a bit rubbish to me but this Steve guy was all starry-eyed about it. “Thanks, mate, here you are!” And he shoved a bag of various substances under my arm and levered me out the door. Well, I’d had little experience with that sort of stuff, so I thought I might as well try it out. I woke up several days later in the pedestrian precinct outside Solna library with a bunch of heavily-bearded meths drinkers. My sporran, kilt and pipes were all gone. All I was wearing was a tattered and stained Burton overcoat. I could not remember who I was. I couldn’t even remember the most basic finger movements on a chanter. My brain was a burnt-out shred. Teaching English was the only course left to me. Probably explains why I’ve never bought a Church album in my life. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8422 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's good to get to the bottom of a mystery on new year's eve. Stuart, relive your past glories here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is90tEuD WKQ your bit starts at 2.21 | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1858 Registered: 08-2006 |
You know, that story's good enough that someone's gonna stumble across it years from now when this site's part of the great global information dumping ground and it's gonna become fact. I wish I was here to see it. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8424 Registered: 05-2005 |
So that's why the album credits read: Bagpipes - some jakey. (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p hp?term=jakey) |