I took some time to write down some childhood memories of my brother Brian, below, and also some info from my journals of the '80's and 90's.

We just had a family gathering to remember him. He passed away a few months ago, late last year

Here are some memories:

Brian

I am on the plane, and wanted to take some time to jot down some memories of Brian… ( Read more... )

In the end, Jenny and Andy made it OK to Amsterdam, after their earlier flight was cancelled. They got to the Queen concert but missed the first part. They sent video messages to us during some of the songs ... Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions... So it turned out OK in the end.

Today they say they are enjoying Amsterdam, but they wanted to go ( Read more... )

Jenny and Andy are going to Amsterdam this weekend... It was a 40th birthday present for Andy. Unfortunately, this morning word has come through about the flight getting cancelled. New flight arrangements are being made at the moment but it means they may miss the concert they have tickets for in Amsterdam... To see Queen. Terrible news if they ( Read more... )

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I thought this was a bit interesting....  if the population of Europe was proportionally moved into North America, it might end up looking like this....


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I consider myself knowledgeable about some things... the Beach Boys being one of those things... but it always amazes me when I learn something new which I hadn't thought of before.

For instance..... today I heard the song "Sail On Sailor" and it had occurred to me that it didn't really sound like a "normal" Beach Boy singing it... but I guess I ( Read more... )

Well, right now, Jenny and her family are on a little holiday get-away to Ambleside in the Lake District... As for us, I don't have very much holiday time left but we've thought of going away for a long weekend somewhere. Now that Tess is gone, we are more able to do that if we want... whereas before we would either bring Tess with us somewhere ( Read more... )

My thoughts on Paris, from my journal 30 years ago, September 1986:

"I went to Paris 3 summers ago." ...so, summer of 1983...

"... my favorite city of my European vacation (with my parents). We also went to London, Rome, Munich, Amsterdam, and lesser places, in the space of 2 weeks. I really liked Paris. It's great. Jim Morrison is buried ( Read more... )

I came across an article from the BBC contemplating what MIGHT be possible for Scotland to stay in both EU and UK... here's a bit of it:

"What might be possible? Could Scotland gain a distinctive status as, in reverse, is the case with Greenland and the Faroes which are parts of the Kingdom of Denmark, yet not in membership of the EU?

Well, ( Read more... )

So, my Dad and Darlene are visiting us here for a few days. We've taken a few day trips out and about. Here's a run down...

They arrived via train on Wednesday evening, having travelled from the Netherlands in the morning via channel tunnel to London and on up to Dumfries. A pretty long train journey for one day. We met them at the station and ( Read more... )