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...But then when I got home I found my wife had endured a rude bus driver (who was also running late...maybe some connection there?) while juggling two wriggly children en route to an athletics class. And I figured she'd had the tougher day. It was good to get home and feed the goldfish - which is still alive a month after we got her! And - bonus! - there was still a bit of noodle stew left for tea.
That was probably just amazement that I'd spring for it... Got that just-been-paid nonchalance that, a week down the line, gives way to the where-on-earth-did-it-all-go-already blues.
Discovered for the first time today that my dad was born in the (soon come) Year of the Tiger.
Bit of hand-washing and online Scrabble and I'll call it a day I reckon. Peace out from Mr Saturday Night.
- Music:Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Finished day feeling very grateful for my general good health.
Got home to discover someone had made a cake.
This was a good day.
IT can be tricky for the picky parent to negotiate their way through the veritable glut of children's books now on the market as they search for the good stuff. With book tokens still kicking around from the festive season, here's a selection of titles recently published by children's specialist, Walker Books.
Let's face it, the younger generation have never been better served when it comes to enjoyable and educational reading matter: there's simply tons of it out there.
TO begin on familiar ground, you could do a lot worse for the pre-schooler in your life than pick up a copy of A Walk Down Sesame Street: Pop-up Book (Walker Books/ hardback / £9.99) which celebrates the 40th anniversary of the popular American TV show. Elmo, The Count, Big Bird and co are all waiting to pop out and greet you!
Sesame Street has been a major part of the first step on the road to literacy and numeracy for generations of children around the world. The Pop-up book is packed with plenty to fire the imagination of little ones. The beauty of the TV show was the way in which it introduced letters, numbers and words without children really knowing it was happening. Sometimes, the old ones really are the best...
by
Milo Armadillo by Jan Fearnley (Walker/ Hardback / £10.99) is an absolute gem of a picture book that will appeal to adults, children...and knitters!
It's the story of a little girl, Tallulah, who wanted a pink rabbit more than anything - but ended up with something very different. Tallulah's knacky granny is prepared to step in and make a pink, fluffy rabbit when it turns out none of the shops have what the little girl is looking for. Only she runs out of the appropriate wool and ends up producing something rather different - Milo Armadillo!
This has been a huge hit with my own six-year-old daughter who formed quite an emotional attachment to the little fella. Good job then that I happen to know a very talented knitter and that the pattern for Milo can be found online. Nice story, nice touch.
WITHOUT wishing to stereotype, chances are that Cars: A Pop-up Book of Automobiles (Walker/hardback/£12.99) will appeal to the little (and perhaps not so little) boy in your life...
From the first carriages through to cars that travel faster than the speed of sound, the book offers an attractively presented history of the development of the automobile. It doesn't skimp on facts - lots and lots of them - and is most suitable for the mid-primary age child upwards.
In Rocket to the Moon (Walker/Hardback/£5.99), Lerryn Korda shows that with a little imagination, anything is possible - and that includes space travel!
The author/ illustrator favours vibrant, retro-style illustrations and bold, colourful characters in the shape of Nye, Gracie, Lester and Nella.
Gazing out at the moon, Little Nye decides - and why not? - that he'd like to travel there. Looking around the house, he finds what he needs and soon he and his friends are headed to Outer Space... But will they be back in time for tea?
ANYONE looking for the perfect bedtime story (and what parent of young children isn't?) might find Goodnight Tiptoe (Walker Books/Hardback/£9.99) by Polly Dunbar just the job.
The latest in the Tilly and Friends series, it introduces Tumpty, Hector, Pru and the rest of the gang to a toddler audience.
The sweet story leads inexorably up the apples and pears towards bedfordshire and the land of nod. A useful ally to have in the book case...
FAMILIAR stories vibrantly repackaged for a new generation is what Yummy: My Favourite Nursery Stories (Walker/Hardback/£14.99) is all about.
Lucy Cousins' colourful, childish (in the best sense of the word!) illustrations leap off the page to brathe fresh life into Little Red Riding Hood, The Musicians of Bremen, The Three Little Pigs, The Enormous Turnip, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Billy Goats Gruff amongst others.
This is one of those solid, hardbacks that tend to become much-loved well-thumbed family favourites for years to come.
THE overtime I've clocked up this week is going to be a big help in tiding us over the post-Christmas spendathon when the next paycheck comes through. Oh, hang on a minute - I don't get paid overtime. D'oh! Ah well, lunch/supper is for wimps anyway, right? (Sadly instead of lunch I've consumed about 8 billion calories-worth of Cadbury Roses in front of the computer. The tin is empty. And I am a bad dieter. Possibly the worst that ever existed.)
How can I put this? For a week in the year that's supposed to be quieter than a Trappist monk's tea party, it's been non-stop from one end to the next. And I haven't even got to the end yet. Such is the delicately poised staffing complement at the RSJ (three of us in at best) that being one down can leave you a tad exposed. That said, I'm chuffed with the 16-pager we got out this week. It pays due deference to the impact of the weather whilst finding room for £1 bikinis and champion grandmothers. Value for money in any language I'd argue.
With my dad in the PM, watched a fascinating documentary by a writer trying to track down Neil Armstrong for an interview. He failed but got some nice emails from the moonwalker instead, producing a very watchable piece of documentary in the process. Has made me ponder who I'd really like to interview?
Watch this space...
Tons of snow still around, rumours of councils running out of grit and plenty of evidence of people slip-sliding on pavements and roads wherever I look. So I take off my New York Yankees beanie hat to former Ross-shire Journal editor Davie Watt for making it in today to produce his eagerly anticipated Reflections column (which he does, by the way, free of charge). I'd told him not to bother when I heard he was to all intents and purposes snowed in, but turn up he did. Now that's dedication.
After a very deep breath, scales were broached today and, what can I say, it could be worse! Given the freeform gorging that has been going on in my life for the past two months (peaking last night during the truly awful Celebrity Big Brother), I thought I'd be back up above the 15 stone mark (which is where I was this time last year). Not quite that bad. I'll probably be disowned by fitness guru Linda Bailey, who has taken an eager bunch of Ross-shire Journal readers under her wing.
In my defence, I made it to Dingwall Leisure Centre at lunchtime for my first visit of the year. A hard-fought three-mile run (okay - gentle jog) at least set the ball rolling. I think I need a training partner to spark me on.
A half-finished box of Roses, chocolate biscuits and assorted sweeties lying about the office don't help - but I've just about got through the day without touching any of them...
With lush, deep snow beautifully carpeting the world beyond the doorstep and the rest of the household otherwise occupied for an hour or two, I was able to finish the magnificent The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson.
The Swedish writer has become a sensation after his death and, after finishing the first part of his Millennium trilogy, I can see why. I requested this one from the library (gotta love that service!), soon realised there was quite the queue of folk waiting to get their hands on it after me and then dived in. It's a bit like those M&S chocolate mint rolls: thoroughly addictive and ridiculously more-ish. The only pity is that I've already spent my Waterstone's book voucher on something else...
The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked Over the Hornets' Nest are still to come for me...plus, of course, the film of TGWTDT.
Happy New Year!
If someone was to offer me an unspecified amount of cash to spend as I chose right now, it would almost certainly be invested in a wood-burning stove and a thorough review of cavity wall and loft insulation.
Since when did energy-efficiency become so appealing to me? The penny first dropped around this time last year, truth be told. Round about the time the thermometer started dropping into the red. You can keep your iPods and Wiis and whatever else set the cash tills ringing this Christmas: I just want to be warm. Preferably without paying through the nose for it and eating into a finite source of energy. Not much to ask, surely? I really feel for anyone struggling to keep warm on limited means at a time when the temperature is dropping to -7C and further.
Bed must be the most energy-efficient place to be at the moment, though sadly the children don't see it that way. Before 8am this morning I had already been pressed to explain why dinosaurs became extinct, played several rounds of hide and seek (and I really hoped I would never be found under the duvet) and stalled on heading out to the pet shop for the promised goldfish.
Still, there's always a silver lining: the temperature has already risen to a balmy -4C since then...
There's a question I hate being asked this time of year.
"Are you all organized for Christmas?"
No I'm not. I never am. So please don't ask. Ever.
I always get asked that. For the record, I was first asked that depressing question on December 10 this year.
I know we're all supposed to object to the commercial hijacking of Christmas as we get older. I think I first started getting uncomfortable twinges about it by the age of 12. I love the time of year and especially now enjoy seeing it through the eyes of little people.
I was supposed to have a half day today and that was a time when quality thought-that-counts type gifts would have been picked up/created. It didn't quite work out that way and I am, quite frankly, pretty hacked off. Mostly it was due to snow. The silver lining was I got through loads at work as the office was blissfully quiet. The people who usually inundate us with useless emails appear to have gone on holiday already. I hope they take nice long ones too.
What I need is a personal shopper. And I think I might have found one in my younger sister. She doesn't know how to upload pictures to her computer yet. But boy does she know how to shop online. And it's quirky little things like the T-shirt above that you can find online. I had never heard of Zazzle before but chances are I'll be shopping there very soon. Or rather my sister will be.
I also feel guilty about not returning the Christmas cards sent to the office by contacts at work. We used to be able to requisition a fixed amount for business use but the cutbacks that have affected so many firms have knocked that on the head. Like many others, our lot don't even do Christmas parties anymore. For someone who struggles to organise the modest number of cards required for personal use, it's too much to expect I'll cope with work-related ones too. Silver lining? A few trees - okay, twigs - are saved.
Beautiful moon last night I noticed. It prompted me to dig out the brilliant Barefoot Books title, The Tear Thief, which delights both my children. As does the snow that knocked my half day on head.
Funny old world.
WITH a blockbuster Sherlock Holmes film good to go, chances are more than a few fans of the super-sleuth will be encouraged back to the books.
Running to a cool 1,122 pages, the paperback version on The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes (£18.99) has got the lot, straight from the pen of one of Scotland's most famous literary sons, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930).
Ironically Conan Doyle didn't, towards the end, have all that much time for the believable yet hugely unconventional detective he created, at one point notoriously trying to kill him off (before relenting to overwhelming public demand).
Crime writer Ruth Rendell admits in a level-headed introduction that at the time Sherlock Holmes "was as a famous as Queen Victoria". Rendell at one time lived near Baker Street herself and was often asked by tourists where he lived. This she put down to the sheer credibility of the character created by Conan Doyle, himself a doctor who used to scribble whilst waiting for patients.
Stephen Fry also ranks amongst fans of the writer, arguing that his brilliance gives him a unique place in English letters. Fry's memorable soundbite on the subject is that "I'd walk a million miles in tight boots just to read his letters to the milkman".
I'm not so sure about that, but certainly the good doctor had a way with words and knew how to construct a good pot-boiler. Yarns such as The Hound of the Baskervilles have been watched by millions and yet are far more chilling in printed form.
Many fairweather fans have vague recollections of Holmes' tussles with the master of evil, Professor Moriarty, a villain who always seemed able to cheat death. But how many know the name of the only adversary who ever out-witted the heroin-taking, violin-playing sleuth?
"Aha! The game is afoot", as Holmes himself was often heard to declare...
The story so far.... the Ross-shire Journal had teamed up with Black Isle-based personal trainer Linda Bailey to offer two lucky readers the chance to be trained on a one-to-one basis for a period of 12 weeks. The idea is that other readers may be inspired to make changes for the better themselves, should they so wish.
Linda, bless her, has taken it a step further and has agreed to train seven Ross-shire readers fired up to make changes and keen for a bit of guidance. The group met together for the first time on Saturday afternoon for a wee photoshoot and a bit of a natter. The setting was the rather pleasant Eilean Dubh Restaurant in Fortrose and it proved to be a useful and enjoyable gathering, giving everyone a chance to put names to faces and exchange experiences.
As I'd hoped we have a wide range of recruits and I'm really looking forward to getting started.
More about that later. Suffice to say for now everyone left with a good idea of the importance of drinking water...
Game on!
Watch this space - and the pages of the Ross-shire Journal - in the coming weeks and months to see how it all turns out.
Frank Sinatra
Sinatra at the Sands
Reprise
IN 1966, a relaxed-sounding Frank Sinatra cut his first live album, accompanied by the Count Basie Band and conducted by a young Quincy Jones.
He couldn't really go far wrong, could he?
It was the year England won the world cup and, more importantly (to me at least), the year I was born. In swinging form at the Copa Room in the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, Frank jokes with the audience between songs and glides his way through standards including Come Fly With Me, I've Got You Under My Skin and Fly Me to the Moon. Fellow superstars like Elvis would go on to perform lucrative Vegas showcases further down the line but this recording captures the feel of the swinging sixties where anything seemed possible.
Digitally remastered and released through Universal as part of an eight-album re-issue/Christmas cash-in, the album is a fantastic slice of history for any fan of the late legend and shows him very much doing it his way (11 minute-monologue and all).
For those of us not around when he was at his peak, it's as good an introduction as any to his unique phrasing (listen closely to some of those crazy rhyming couplets he gets his tongue around) and a collaboration with Basie that was add fresh meaning to the phrase, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing...
The pair had already collaborated in 1962 for Sinatra Basie, a studio release which has also been dusted down using digital technology undreamt of back then. Sinatra said at the time that he had waited 20 years for the moment the pair collaborated 
and there's no doubting the chemistry that just leaps off the record even now. The album has more punch than Ali at his world-beating best.
ORIGINALLY released the year man first walked on the Moon, My Way is actually an interesting hotch-potch of tracks that includes covers of McCartney's Yesterday and, Paul Simon's Mrs Robinson and Ray Charles' exuberant Hallelujah, I Love Her So.
For the man who took such pride in telling us he did his way, Sinatra had no problems filching material from the best of the bunch and absolutely no qualms about radically reinventing them to make them his own. Sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he doesn't.
A poignant interpretation of Jimmy Webb's Didn't We is so chock-filled with regret it would surely bring a tear to a glass eye. But it's the oddities, like a zippy studio rehearsal of For Once in My Life that are the most interesting inclusions when it comes to catching a glimpse of the man as he most likely really was as opposed to looking through the filter of the myth built up around him.
Other re-releases in the series include Ring A Ding Ding (1960); Sinatra Swings (1961); Concert Sinatra (1963); Sinatra and Company (1971) and Some Nice Things I've Missed (1974).
It's a cash-in perhaps, but still a nice gift for the swinging old geezer in your life - or the young pup yet to be introduced to Sinatra.
Ian Heath's Hearts
(Summersdale) £5.99
CARTOONIST Ian Heath takes the ever-powerful symbol that is the heart and shapes it to 101 romantically inclined sketches which range from the sweet to the saucy.
A nice pocket-sized hardback to help the tongue-tied get their message across to someone they admire...
Quotable Earth by Hilary Brown
(Summersdale) £5.99
WORDS of wisdom from an environmental slant accompany stunning photographs in a gift book that draws on great minds from down the years. Look out for soundbites from everyone from Aristotle to Vincent Van Gogh to environmentalist John Muir.
Overdone though the format may be, there's a little snatch of inspiration on every page.
Love
(Summersdale) £4.99
FIND out why the tomato was once regarded as having aphrodisiac powers and learn from the experience of a diverse range of figures in this little 90-page gift book.
The format centres on attractively presented snippets of text derived from the Bible, William Shakespeare, Greek mythology and Robert Burns amongst others. A little more substantial than the soundbite format of other similar books, this is one from which you're actually liable to learn something you didn't already know.
Quotable Love by Milly Brown
(Summersdale) £5.99
"If I know what love it, it is because of you." Ten simple words that any woman would surely love to hear. Penned by Herman Hesse they are but one of the starry-eyed quotes put togther with suitably sweet photographs.
"Grow old with me, the best is yet to come." Robert Browning may have overlooked a few practicalities of life when he made the giushing declaration but doubtless it made someone happy at the time. Even Albert Einstein rates a mention amidst all the syrupy words.
Scottish Wit: Quips and Quotes by Tom Hay
(Summersdale) £5.99
"Marriage is a wonderful invention: then again, so is a bicycle repair kit."
Comedian Billy Connolly's oft-quoted tongue-in-cheek remark is amongst hundreds gathered together across themes ranging from Love and Marriage, Life, Politics and Work, all uttered by native-born Scots.
It's the sort of item an expat in particular would greatly apreciate. As ever with these compilations, some are funnier than others. The much-married, oft-divorced rocker Rod Stewart observes that "instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, perhaps best respected in his previous job as Chancellor of the Exchequer before the economy went haywire, is quoted as saying, "I did maths for a year at university. I don't think I was very good at it. And some people would say that it shows..."
Brit Wit: The Perfect Ripose for Every Social Occasion by Susie Jones
(Summersdale) £9.99
ONE-liners from Churchill, Michael Caine, William Shakespeare, Victoria Wood, Eddie Izzard and John Lennon are amongst the gems gathered together between the covers of this packed hard back.
The 280-plus page book lays claim to revealing all that makes Britain brilliant and certainly no one could fault Jones in the sheer range of figures quoted.
"I blame myself for my boyfriend's death," admits comedian Jo Brand. "I shot him."
Voted Britain's greatest Briton in a BBC poll, statesman Winston Churchill gives the blurb writers the perfect line - even if it is a rather snooty observation. "It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations." Writer Dorothy L Sayers is more blunt still: "A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought." Ouch!
Celebrities Behaving Badly: Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless by Carol McGriffin and Mark Leigh
(Summersdale) £7.99
THE excesses of pop and film stars and diva-esque behaviour of celebrities old enough to know better litter the pages of this frankly pointless book. Pointless because most of the content is shamelessly filleted/recycled from a celebrity obsessed press and, like it or not, seems instantly familiar. That's doubtless because it has already been rammed down our throats long before the publication of this waste of paper.
Completely Conkers!
What Drives you Nuts about Modern Britain
by Will Jackson
(Summersdale) £9.99
EVERYONE, it seems, has their own story about health and safety protocol or political correctness gone mad.
Self-confessed "grumpy old man in the making" Will Jackson has lots of them and many you will have heard through the pages of your favourite newspaper.
From tales of trapeze artists forced by insurers to wear hard hats to comply with the European Union's Temporary Height at Work directive to the carrer criminal awarded £248,000 compensation after falling in the prison shower, you're guaranteed to find something to make your blood boil.
Like many of the above titles it's the sort of book you'll enjoy picking up and sifting through as nature calls in the smallest room of the house.
All titles are published by Summersdale and available online at www.summersdale.com
SUPERFREAKONOMICS
Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
BY Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
(Allen Lane) £20
THE publication of the original Freakonomics back in 2005 proved to be something of a sensation.
It did something quite remarkable: it made economics really, really interesting; sexy even.
By analyzing and then interpreting cold, hard data with which no one could take issue, economics boffin Prof Levitt and writer Dubner cast a fascinating light on seemingly mundane topics, often turning received wisdom upside down in the process.
That's exactly what they've done with the equally provocative and enormously entertaining follow-up. The book's subtitle alone will probably spark a few heart attacks...
Drawing on vast banks of data, the dynamic duo get their teeth into everything from pimps to estate agents (and it should come as no surprise that pimps come out best) and ask questions as varied as why are doctors so bad at washing their hands to how much good car seats do?
They answer the question as to why a street prostitute is like a department store Santa (the answer centres on seasonal supply and demand) and even offer an educated opinion as to whether people are hard-wired for altruism or selfishness.
Everyone likes a good statistic and Freakonomics contains more than you can shake a very large stick at. America's war on terror understandably informs some of the content and produces the sobering statistic that the average American citizen is 575 times more likely to commit suicide than be killed by a terrorist.
In terms of what they do for their clients, pound for pound pimps offer considerably greater value for money than estate agents, we learn. This is based on hard data gathered from hookers and from an analysis of the cost of marketing property through a middle man.
The authors are fearless in the face of authority and never shy away from pulling uncomfortable facts out of the number-crunching hat. Indeed they positively revel in drawing the totally unexpected conclusion. That is, after all, the raison d'etre of their chosen format.
At the heart of the book is the recurring theme of how we as a race respond to incentives and the laws of supply and demand. They show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the world can be super-freaky when examined from their quirky yet well-researched viewpoint.
A cracking gift for the thinker/rebel in the family.
Hector Mackenzie
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Director: Chris Weitz
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke
Rating: 3/10
STEPHENIE Meyer, who penned the novel which inspired the big screen saga, must be laughing all the way to the bank.
The vampire franchise has already stretched to a trilogy and who would bet against her doing a Harry Potter to the accompaniment of ringing cash tills given a little encouragement from the studios? Judging by the reaction of the predominantly young, teenage, female audience to this one, it has the legs to run a good bit further yet.
DISCLAIMER: This film was not made for old geezers like me!
Ironically the first strong reaction from the audience comes when the ultra-buff Taylor Lautner (pictured) whips off his T-shirt - something he does a lot, regardless the prevailing weather conditions. The wolf whistles are appropriate - turns out he has werewolf tendencies, which at least sets up some entertaining special effects.
We pick up the story as Bella (Kristen Stewart) recovers from the vampire attack that almost claimed her life (you'd need to see the first flick to make sense of that).
She looks to celebrate her birthday with Edward Cullen (Pattinson) and his (vampire) family. However, a minor paper cut accident during the festivities results in Bella's blood being shed, a sight that proves too intense for the Cullens, most of whom seem intent on draining her.
See she should've stuck with jelly and ice cream and party games like everyone else.
The family decide to leave the town of Forks, Washington for Bella and Edward's sake. Initially heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black. Danger in different forms inevitably awaits.
The movie has been described by one critics as "porn for women" - slightly alarming given that it comes marked suitable for 12 year olds. I prefer the observation of another sceptic who pointed out: "He (Edward Cullen) is like a big, glittery mosquito. He doesn't even have any of the cool stuff that Dracula had, like the ability to turn into a bat".
Melodramatic acting and truly shocking dialogue won't stop the demagraphic at which it is targeted turning out in droves – and to be fair, that doesn’t include me. Interestingly, it appears to be widening - although some of that was down to wary parents tagging along with their daughters - something I'd personally recommend.
Hector Mackenzie
The Twilight Saga: New Moon is showing now at Vue Cinema, Inverness. Find full listings online at myvue.com
At the Movies
Law Abiding Citizen
Director: F Gary Gray
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx
Rating: 7/10
RIGHTLY given an 18 certificate for scenes of strong, bloody, brutal violence and torture, Law Abiding Citizen is perhaps not the ideal first date movie.
It will probably also make uncomfortable viewing for solicitors or pretty much anyone involved in the courtroom justice system.
Ten years after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered right in front of his eyes, Clyde Shelton (Paisley-born Butler) returns to extract justice from the assistant district attorney (Nick Rice, played by Foxx) who prosecuted the case against their killers.
Ruthlessly ambitious Rice, who cares more about his conviction rate than raw justice, makes a deal which basically results in the real villain of the piece getting away with murder.
Big mistake.
Shelton, a man with a mysterious past, is something of a high-tech engineering guru who also happens to be a whizz with lethal weapons. His vengeance threatens not only the man who allowed mercy to supersede justice, but also the system and the city that made it so. And, even more chillingly, he seems capable of pulling off a string of vengeance attacks whilsy holed up in solitary confinement...
While the film exposes inconsistencies in the criminal justice system, it wouldn't take a legal genius to spot some of the loopholes in its script and plot. The plot becomes increasingly over-the-top as events unravel - but by then it's all too much fun to matter much anyway.
The film leaves you thinking about whether justice at any cost is as good as it gets. While it's fun rooting for the 'little' guy fighting the system, you're left in no doubt that no one is all good or all bad.
By Hector Mackenzie
Law Abiding Citizen is screening at Vue Cinema, Inverness. For a full film listing, see www.myvue.com
Juliet, Naked
by Nick Hornby
Penguin Viking £18.99
WHEN we first meet Annie and Duncan, a thirtysomething couple who have a largely platonic but not always peaceful relationship, they are standing in a men's toilet in a pub somewhere in America.
Duncan is obsessed by the work of reclusive rock star, Tucker Crowe, and has dragged the long-suffering Annie on a tour of places of significance in the life of the former musician. This toilet, the anorak explains in reverential tones, was the scene of a mysterious incident which prompted Crowe into a self-imposed 20-year exile.
Crowe's break-up masterpiece, Juliet, was inspired by one of the many women with whom he had relationships during his wild, freewheeling days. Indeed he has four children by four different women. Only one of these children, Jackson, who at six is the youngest, has anything approaching a normal relationship with his father.
Annie and Duncan drifted together in the small, dull, northern town of Gooleness, where they are both academics. Fifteen years down the line, both are left questioning a relationship which has limped on perhaps too long, Annie to such an extent that she secretly visits a hopeless and easily shocked psychiatrist, Malcolm, on a weekly basis.
One day, Annie breaks ranks and posts a scathingly critical review of a recently unearthed Tucker Crowe album on a website dominated by obsessive nerds like Duncan. Her actions, very much out of character, prompt an e-mailed reply from none other than Tucker himself. This sets in motions a correspondence which ultimately results in the pair meeting.
Hornby's sure touch when writing about music - as confirmed by earlier classic High Fidelity and 31 Songs - stand him in good stead here. The meat of the plot though focuses on how characters react on the gradual realisation that they have wasted years of their lives. Hornby's talent in looking at relationships from both male and female perspectives has long since been established in the likes of Fever Pitch.
Juliet, Naked is funny, often poignant and very accessible and leaves you rooting for the lead characters against all the odds.
In short, the sort of hardback you'd like to see stretching your Christmas stocking.
Hector Mackenzie
Highpoint of a long day was watching my daughter take part in a concert involving members of the local Chinese community, pupils from Crown Primary and a professional Chinese singer. Just about brought a tear to the eye. A great showcase for China and hats off to the Chinese singer for having a crack at two Scottish songs, including Loch Lomond. Looking forward to return trip more than ever now!
That gave me time for a cup of tea and the re-heated remnants of last night's supper (rice/cauliflower/a burger) before starting to stroke my chin thoughtfully and turn to the content of NEXT week's paper (which will, scarily, see us into December).
Pay day. It hasn't gone unnoticed by the two of us who cover the courts that half the folk appearing earn more than we do. And that's not even including the drug dealers. Offshore work and trades are often involved. Good lines if you ask me.
Another observation: I did a story recently about the efforts of primary children in Fearn to launch their own school business. It gave us a nice front page story and picture and hopefully provided them with a bit of profile. In return I received a lovely thank-you letter a few days later.
In contrast, it occurs that three calls to the boss of a thriving business not a stone's throw from our front door have gone unreturned over the past fortnight. Perhaps not the best way to win friends and influence people? Or is there something fishy going on? Watch this space...
In the same way that 90 per cent of an iceberg can lie beneath the depths, much of this job can involve legwork that will never be seen - sometimes because it leads to a dead-end. Some people will phone in, seemingly at the end of their tether, take an hour or two of your time in total (plus maybe another hour more making calls on their behalf)...and then fail to respond to follow-up calls. It's an interesting insight on human nature I guess. Social workers, Samaritans and CAB workers may know the feeling, though the end result of their work is doubtless more valuable.
It's Thanksgiving Day in the United States. That immediately makes me think of pumpkin pie, great hospitality and happy times.
