The Big Yin Comes Home

Image: BC

I actually forgot to blog on Saturday morning. When I got up, I got tore into my “to-do” list for the day and stayed in the zone all day, and I just forgot to do it. When I first remembered it was mid-afternoon and I was lost in other work so I just left it to the side.

It’s become a bit of a habit over recent weeks. Not every week mind you, but every now and then more often than not, no blog posts have found their way onto the Freedom website. I hope you are not too disappointed, dear readers, and I have promised not to let it happen again, at least, not as much.

As far as weekends go it was a pretty darn good ‘un! On Saturday my beloved St Mirren finally won their first league match at their new home stadium—it’s only been about 10 months!—beating Hearts 2 goals to 1. Watch the Jam Tarts get a trouncing here.

I made a curry on Saturday night; that was a real highlight for those lucky people that got to eat it.

I did a lot of writing and reading over the weekend and the SDR website is now almost ready to re-launch. There’s still a bit of tweaking left to go, but everything has been uploaded into the new format including all the archives, which was the main problem. A lot of the files weren’t complete and the old fiction and poetry isn’t there, but we’re at least ready to start the marketing of it as a new lease of life.

Two competition results were announced—I won neither of them—and I also received a rejection notice from Flash Fiction Online. I was sure they would bite—better luck next time.

The main highlight of my weekend was a trip through to Glasgow last night with my wife. We left the babysitter in the house and made West, arriving in Glasgow the unusual way, i.e., through the bus & taxi lane behind Queen Street Station. My fault entirely, because I couldn’t decide where we should park or go for food. We spotted a place and parked on Bath Street and as luck would have it right opposite The Filling Station bar/restaurant.

Two steak meals and a bottle of red wine were consumed. Very nice. With Gail driving, I had the majority of the wine. Very very nice.

Down then to the Armadillo and we arrived in the auditorium with a couple of minutes to spare. At 8pm precisely on walked the big man, Glasgow’s first son, the Big Yin… Billy Connolly.

For the next two hours the laughter came. Stomachs twisted, tears rolled, chests heaved, and livers were clutched as the big man talked about all manner of things from prostate tickling to fanny kissing, dogs bollocks to dwarves, and fat people in Drumchapel to the plastic ladies of Los Angeles. The guy was hilarious and it was all over before we wanted. I’ll be doing a full review of his gig in the autumn issue of SDR.

I last saw Billy in 1994 when he played the Usher Hall and he was everything I expected then—funny, funny, funny—and nothing has changed. He’s a natural and it was a pleasure to see him playing, not only in his home town of Glasgow, but in the very area he grew up in as a boy.

We managed to get out the infamous SECC car park quite quickly and were back on the M8 just as the main hall of the venue was emptying. If I hadn’t been at the Connolly gig I would most definitely have been at The Pixies who were playing right next door. Shame, but I was lucky to get the Connolly tickets and wasn’t about to turn them down after years of trying for them.

If you’re reading this in the UK and it’s before half past ten, then tune in to This Morning on ITV. Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield are celebrating the show’s 21st birthday this week and today’s special guests are Madness.

Also announced over the weekend was the news that Madness will be the headline act at this year’s Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations. And I’ll miss it as I’ll be away up north for Hogmanay. Drat!

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