Love In Hard Places

This is Carson in Love in Hard Places, I dig it.

‘…serious Christians must re-capture the Bible reading habits of some earlier generations. No longer should we be happy with slogans such as “A verse a day keeps the devil away”; still less should we be happy with whatever spiritual nourishment we receive from public meetings while we ourselves do not transform our minds (Rom 12:1) with the Word of God. Even within the church, there is rising biblical illiteracy. The impact of the cultural pressures upon us, not least from the media, is so devastatingly great that only a mind steeped in thinking God’s thoughts after him will begin to withstand the onslaught.’

I dig it a lot.

A.

Fantasy Footie Kick Off

It’s that time of year again! The Premiership kicks off tomorrow, which means one thing - Fantasy Football! The league I’m in has been running for a few seasons now, with the guys taking the opportunity to be childishly competitive and of course to find the best name for our teams. A couple of seasons ago Catherine went for ‘Paris Hilton St Germain’, which was inspired. This year, my team is called Fiorentina Turner XI, which surely means I’ll win, being that I’m ‘Simply The Best’?!

If you’d like to join the league go to HERE and pick your team. When you’re asked the number of the league you want to join, just type in 115375-29279 and get ready for battle!

A.

Covers

I can’t believe how many cover versions there are on youtube! There are just countless videos of dudes holed up in their bedrooms murdering classic songs hoping to be discovered. I’ve found a couple that are worth posting, one because it is a nice version of a great song, and the other because it is almost unbelievably atrocious.

This is the good one…..

Ol’55

This, the not so good…..

The Final Countdown

At least they got a good crowd for it!

A.

Scran, Books and a Grumping Hamish

I’m off work for a few days, so since Catherine had to go into the office to check Monthly Record proofs, I decided to go in with her and browse the FC bookshop. As always I ended up buying a couple of things. (As an aside, Catherine claims to have often ’stalked’ me many years ago, when I worked in Wesley Owen in Inverness, popping in frequently pretending to need books. If you ever read this Charles, be assured that my interest in the FC bookshop is purely to do with buying books!)

I bought the following which look interesting: The Schaeffer one is a present for my Dad.

After my shopping spree, we stopped in at the Haugh Inn in South Queensferry for lunch. The food’s good in there and cheaper than most other places in the town. Catherine had a bacon cheeseburger, whilst I munched my way through scampi and chips.

The Haugh Inn

Now we’re home, I intend to chill out and read this afternoon. There were so many books lying around the house that Catherine allowed me to buy some more bookcases to house them all in.

New Bookshelves!

Hamish looks at home, doesn’t he? He’s in a grump though, after reading Driscoll - too liberal and ‘far-out’ for any teuchtar gorrilla apparently!

Hamish In A Driscoll-inspired Grump

A.

Glasgae

As Andy was writing sermons today, I decided to head to Glasgow and do some visiting. First on the list were my lovely Grannie and Grandad who live in Cardonald (and you can see Tommy Sheridan’s house from their kitchen window!) The journey normally takes about 50 minutes, but today there was loads of traffic and it actually took an hour and forty. Still, it meant that I got to listen to Queen’s Greatest Hits II all the way through (with plenty time for repeating my favourite tracks) which always makes for a good sing-a-long.

Once I was there, I enjoyed a couple of hours chatting, showing off holiday photos, and munching on homemade pancakes (with the butter spread 6 inches thick - just the way that most old people and I seem to like them!) As I was leaving, the rain stopped long enough for me to get this picture of Grannie and Grandad with the very large hanging basket currently blooming at their front door.

No Grannie is not on steroids, Grandad is just standing on a lower step!

Grannie had told me when I arrived that the man next door had been taking pictures of the basket, and I had assumed it was because he was so impressed by it. Conversation later revealed that he simply had a new camera which he was testing out, and he had even been taking photographs of the other neighbours putting out their rubbish bins! Still, he gave Grannie the resulting prints so I think she was chuffed.

Next I went on a little adventure to East Kilbride using the directions which I got from the AA route finder website. Anyone who has used AA route finder in the past will know that the directions are not always accurate so I had no idea where I would end up. I saw parts of the world I did not know existed, and passed by places I had always heard of but never been to eg. Rouken Glen and Giffnock. Still, I reached my destination (Michelle and Dave’s flat) without any problems although I obviously went wrong somewhere as I approached their street from the left when according to my directions it should have been on the right.

Michelle and Dave (at a wedding - not dressed up for my arrival!)

A cup of coffee and a good chat later, and I was back on the road to Fife. This time my tunes of choice were from The Bodyguard soundtrack. One word = amazing.

Catherine

Rotten Egg

This evening I did some baking for the church cafe which is on every Saturday morning. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, some cherry and marshmallow and coconut slice (aka 14s) and a chocolate traybake which I like to refer to as chocolate chunk.

14s

I saved the cookies until last as they are the most time consuming. I don’t have electric beaters so it takes a while to cream the butter and sugar together, especially when I forget to leave the butter out of the fridge so it’s as hard as a brick. Still, they didn’t have electric beaters in the olden days and people baked back then so I battle on!

After I had successfully creamed the butter and sugar, I added the vanilla essence and then started to mix in the egg. Suddenly the delicious smelling mixture did not smell so delicious - in fact it smelt absolutely disgusting! I sniffed the remainder of the egg which I had beaten in another bowl and sure enough there was a very suspicious odour emanating from it. I checked the egg box and confirmed that the use by date was 17 August so I cracked open another egg and it seemed to be absolutely fine. Typical. I had cracked open (what I hope is) the only rotten egg in the box and chucked it straight into my cookie mixture. I had to start the whole creaming process over again - and I now have the arm muscles to prove it!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anyway, I have learnt my lesson and will now always smell the egg before I go adding it to any other ingredients. I have also tested the finished results of all of tonight’s baking (just to make sure) and can confirm that they are fit for public consumption tomorrow.

Chocolate Chunk

(By the way, I am aware that some of these photographs have appeared on our blog before. Don’t worry, I am not serving up 8 month old cakes! I just didn’t bother taking photographs of tonight’s efforts seeing as they look pretty much the same.)

Catherine

Weekend Film Review

Last night we watched this:

I quite enjoyed it. Anything fast paced and ridiculous with a Jerry Bruckheimer type feel always makes a good film as far as I’m concerned! Andy didn’t enjoy it quite as much. In fact I don’t think he enjoyed it at all, having practically worked out the entire plot within the first 10 minutes.

On Saturday night we watched this:

(Oooops - I forgot to warn you about the bare bottoms.) I think we recommended it on here before and if you still haven’t watched it then you really should. It’s in French, but luckily there are subtitles.

And finally … on Friday night we watched this:

It’s another one we’d seen before and really enjoyed. It’s quite brutal so if you can’t stomach blood and guts then it’s not for you. It’s dialogue is done entirely in the Yucatec Maya language - but luckily there are subtitles in this one too!

Catherine

Big Phil

Tonight, as we went to buy our tea, we bumped into a celebrity! Normally I couldn’t give a monkey’s about famous people, but this one is different, it was Big Phil!

Phil Scolari

No, not that one!! This one:

Big Phil Cunningham

He was in Tesco shopping for his chopped tomatoes - what exciting lives celebrity lead eh?

Andy

Florence and Fiesole

Half way through our holiday in Lucca we took a day trip to Florence. This involved a slightly earlier start than usual so that we could catch a train at about 8.30am. (Fortunately there was a little cafe stand at the station where I was able to get my daily custard cream croissant!)

The train journey took about an hour and forty minutes. I’d love to say that I spent the trip soaking in the Tuscan countryside, but that would be a lie as I fell asleep shortly after pulling out of Lucca station, and only woke up when my head slipped from my chair and onto the window frame – ouch.

David

Having arrived in Florence, we headed straight for the Uffizi for which Mr P, in his wisdom, had booked tickets in advance so that we would not have to queue for over an hour to gain entry to the art gallery. Tickets collected, we wove our way through the corridors and rooms full of paintings. Unfortunately, one of the Rembrandts that Andy had wanted to see had been removed, and in it’s place there was just an empty space. However, there was plenty more to see and after a couple of hours we met up with Mr & Mrs P again and spent some time admiring the statues of David, Perseus and Medusa etc which are outside the gallery.

Ponte Vecchio

After a quick sandwich lunch, Andy and I headed towards the Ponte Vecchio which we had got a glimpse of from the museum. We battled against the crowds and made our way along the banks of the river towards the ramshackle bridge. Once there we ambled across it, admiring the views in both directions and trying not to be blinded by the sparkling, gold contents of the many jewellery shops which line both sides of the street.

Duomo

By this point in the day it was starting to get really hot – and we were feeling it. Reunited with Andy’s parents again, we headed to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (also known as the Duomo – or cathedral if you prefer) which we had passed quickly on route to pick up our tickets that morning. This time around we were able to get closer and walk around it completely. It is so brilliantly patterned that it actually looks more like a model than a building.

We were all starting to feel the heat and beginning to flag when we were not even half way round the Duomo and so the decision was made to jump on board the next City Sightseeing bus that we spotted. It didn’t take long for one to appear so we all chose our seats on the open roof and enjoyed the cool breeze as we were driven past all the crowds and had the important sights pointed out to us through our trendy earphones.

Me & Mrs P in Fiesole

Gradually the bus moved away from the centre of the city and took us up into the surrounding hillside to a beautiful, peaceful little town called Fiesolo. The impression was given that this is where those with money choose to live – and I can see why! After having some drinks and food in the picturesque town square, we followed a sign which took us up a windy little street to the most amazing, panoramic view right across the city of Florence. It was absolutely spectacular and probably my favourite thing about the day.

View across Florence

Florence was an amazing place, but I’m really glad that we stumbled across Fiesole. It was nice just to get away from the crowds for a little while and it was certainly much cooler up in the hills. If you’re ever going to Florence (and I know that my mum and dad are soon!) then you should definitely take a trip there.

Catherine

Panorama Amphitheatre

This took me AGES! It’s three photos of the Roman amphitheatre in the centre of Lucca ‘glued’ together. If you click on the above image you should get a larger view.

Andy