What I have to gab about is my 38th Wedding Anniversary (a surprise even to myself that I could even remember the number!), but what a day it was. Read on:
Meditation at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre (Metta to you all) with long conversation with my friends on how it is possible to express emotion in paint (Buddha alone knows), followed by lunch at my very favourite Italian Ristorante (Topolino's) my absolutely favourite restaurant in Glasgow (it's impossible to eat anywhere else without making unfavouable comparisons), and the reasons will become clear even if the link doesn't. We (my darling wife and I) have been having lunch there for two years now every Thursday immediately after the going to the Buddhist Centre and have never yet had a poor meal. Quite the contrary, it is incomparable - and we have great patter with Ricardo (il cameriere extrordanaire [a bit o' French there just to show how cosmopolitan I can be] who is mad keen, not only with our mutual reverence for the Glasgow Rangers, but also his deep and passionate love for Andy Murray, our rising star (No3) in the tennis world (Ricky has the 't' shirt and the shoes (how sad is he?) but also, presently helping with the service, a lovely cameriere lass called Diane (love the hairstyle D!).
Many, many, thanks to Ricardo for waving the cost of the lunch on our anniversary day.
But the day didn't end there, Oh no:
Two hours at the Glasgow School of Art Degree Show (crap Fine Art [NONE of them can paint as far as I'm concerned!], but beautiful Silversmithing and Textile Design, as usual, as well as what they now call "Visual Communication" (Graphic Art to oldies like me).
But, La Piece de la Resistance:
I managed to get two tickets for a concert (for FREE [no cheapskate me - just canny])at the Glasgow City Halls to hear the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra who play a mixed bag of fantastic music starting with the most sublime excerpt from Mendelssohn's Hebridean Suite, "Fingal's Cave" (I have to admit I felt very emotional with the opening bars but instead of wallowing in it I observe the effect for my Grande Projet); then Hydyn's Trumpet Concerto; and pieces from Handel's "Water Music"; including the "Bouree" (which we play in Mandolin Class), finishing with the "Overture: Beatrice and Benedict" by Berlioz; and, finally, "The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra" by Benjamin Britten (they put that one in especially for me :o)
And just to finish off the evening...a bit of Jazz. Right next door to the City Halls was a small cafe-bar with a live jazz band - the Michael Deans Quintet - with a friend from the Buddhist Center, John-Paul, playing fantastic bass guitar.
I didn't make any sketches from the SSO concert (miles too far away) but I did get some sketches in the more intimate atmosphere of the cafe:
Michael Deans playing Saxaphone.
The Drummer.
John-Paul on Bass.
Trumpet 1.
Trumpet 2.
Hope you also enjoyed the show :o)
