- Traffic stopping sunset
I’m heading up there for my Uncle Frank’s funeral on Thursday. It’s one of my favourite places anywhere and I suppose if you must die (as we all will, I suppose) it’s as good a place as any to finish-off your wee bit of time on Planet Earth. Frank was a diamond geezer. A bit of a maverick, a bit of a man’s man and someone who definitely had an over-fondness for fags and and big dram…but he made me laugh a lot. That’s about the highest compliment I could pay anyone. He was a bin man at one stage in his life and his run was round the most beautiful and mystical bits of Scotland…Arisaig, Glenfinnan, Mallaig, Ardnamurchan…what a job! Carlsberg don’t do bin runs but if they did, it would probably be the best bin run in the World. When we walked the West Highland Way, we finished it, in the garden of his house in Coul, just outside Fort William. I drank-in a dram and the quite amazing scenery, with Ben Nevis towering over the end of his street and finished off with some more drams in Frank’s local boozer. One of the most momorable days I’ve ever had in Scotland. Again, a Carslberg job, 19 Erracht Drive has easily the best view of any cooncil hoose in Europe (although I had an argument with a guy called Fraz in Glenuig, who said his cooncil hoose was better and proceeded to take me in, to show me it…we’ll call it a draw then, Fraz).
Uncle Frank. I’ll miss ‘im and his unique humour, he was a bloody great guy. God bless you Guvnor!
P.S. Pauline, my missus, took this photo, it’s rather good!
By the time you read this it’ll be Friday and as I’m out and about today, here’s a link to the rather wonderful www.lastfm.com to the even more wonderful Frank Sinatra. People go on about Spotify for free sounds. Sure it’s good, but you’ve got to download it and with Last FM it’s like it can read your mind. It’s remarkable. If you’ve got a big bit of work to do, plug in and get Frank Sinatra Radio on in the background. Let the music take you there…man.
We’re creating something new, and whilst the idea of munro bagging is established Castle Bagging, and Whisky Bagging aren’t, We’ll be changing this. We’re undertaking a lot of research and we’ve been engaging with a number of tourism organisations, so please feel free to comment, if you think you can help us!
Scott Seeley and the Digital Partners dudes, who I’ll be working with in the future. They’ve save me a lot of time here and made sure the CullenSkink look and feel has been carried through.
Ramsay MacFarlane. who’s going to be ‘Bagging’ with me. He’s been keeping it all ‘on brand’ and has even chosen the correct pint for us to use.
Credit where credit’s due, so I’ll be mentioning all of the happy gang as they get involved.
Our Bagging continues! We’re getting evangelical about Scottish Tourism and we’re going to be making Castles, Distilleries and Scottish Islands a lot more interesting. Shortly this blog will be linking up to the CullenSkink website and we’ve been getting twitter and all that jazz up and running. Watch out for more Pink things!
Right, you’ve asked for it. Until now my opinions, hilarious anecdotes and ramblings have been limited to Facebook and could be sometimes consumed by occasional readers of marvellous The Drum Magazine. Not any more! I’ve been blogging everywhere without having a blog of my own! Madness. As I’m fast becoming a digital luminary and a number of ‘digerati’ (thanks Tim) hang on my every word, they now have one place to digest my life-changing cogitations. A big thanks to Scott Sealy and his merry gang for doing their bit here.
When I figure out how to link this into everything, I’ll be taking over the World! Fabulously simple so a big shout out to those clever Wordpress dudes.