11 October 2007

September

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Thursday 11 October 2007--An off day in Plockton today--the car doesn't move. I spend the morning online, catching up with email and business. Stroll into town and have a panini at Plockton Shores, and take some photos around the village. It's a lovely sunny day, a good one for playing with the infrared filter. Nap late in the afternoon. Guess I really was pretty beat.

It's session night in the Plockton Inn. Sometimes there are students from the local school playing, but none tonight, just the usual locals, grayheads all, save for the lass on bodhran (who more than likely is cheating). Fiddle, small pipes, guitar, and left-handed mandolin. There's also an outsider with a banjo who sits at another table and plays along quietly. Given a turn, he removes a small beanbag animal from the banjo and plays "My Grandfather's Clock". After, I point at the beanbag and ask what it is, meaning what kind of animal. Not quite understanding, the banjoist's mate says "It's to keep it quiet." "I want one for me wife," I say, getting a cheap laugh. Don't bother to explain that I have no wife (and little wonder).

There's a poster in the pub advertising a CD by the Sensational Jimi Shandrix Experience. For those who might not know, Jimmy Shand was a legendary Scottish accordionist and dance band leader. Photo shows a fellow in huge afro wig, playing accordion, in front of a psuitably psychedelic background. The title of the CD is "Electric Landlady". If you look them up online, you'll find that they are a disappointingly straightforward ceilidh band...no hornpipe or strathspey versions, alas, of Purple Haze or Voodoo Chile.

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