TURNING 50 HAS BEEN A BLAST

Those of you familiar with the nonsense posted on the old blog will be all too aware that I turned 50 years of age a couple of months back.  It’s an event that I’ve marked in a number of ways, including a couple of firsts such as a trip to see El Clasico and a short break with Mrs V to Berlin.

Tomorrow marks the start of a trip that has been a year in the planning and the one geared towards the centrepiece of the birthday celebrations.  I’m off again to Toronto….

My love for the city began six years ago when I went to work there for a number of months on a secondment.  I met loads of great people and I’ve kept in touch with them ever since.  I’ve been back very briefly just the once but this time it is planned to be a bit special.  I’ll be taking off from Glasgow in the company of my dear friends Jacques the Kipper and Aldo and we will be joined in Canada by my young brother SC who is flying up from his home in Florida.  Over the weekend, we are taking in baseball and football with the best seats in the house(s) and meeting up with a crowd of the boys I used to work with for some drinking, eating and sightseeing.  Come Monday morning, I set out on a 10-day golfing holiday in Canada, all of which has been put together by friends based over there and which promises to be memorable.  All told, I’m away for more than 2 weeks…..and I can’t wait.

T(n) VV won’t quite be put into cold storage but what I am going to do is a series of posts looking back at the historical stuff on the old blog as well as the efforts to try and catch-up with the Saturday singles series.  I hope you’ll find enough of interest to keep dropping by while I’m away…..if possible I will pop in every now again and respond if there’s any comments left behind.

I’m hoping also that I will get to catch some live music while I’m away.  Toronto was the scene of a number of great gigs in 2008, none more so than seeing Maximo Park play a blinding gig at a venue around one-fifth of the size they were then selling out back home in the UK. Seems appropriate today to feature some of the material played that night:-

mp3 : Maximo Park – Graffiti

mp3 : Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure

mp3 : Maximo Park – Going Missing

mp3 : Maximo Park – Books From Boxes

mp3 : Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars

Enjoy!!