I forgot to tell you that Gary Barlow and Leona Lewis were coming to P&J Live in Aberdeen this week but I’m sure many of you were there on Tuesday night, singing along.
Leona texted me just before she went on, to check she had her Doric greeting correct.
She said the crowd loved it. And my friends Martin and Marion from Turriff texted me afterwards, impressed with her Doric!
Leona is such a special lady. I’m so proud of everything she does. I think the whole of the UK feels like that about her because we were all there with her at the start.
It’s lovely that we have such a great concert venue up in Aberdeen now. It’s been a strange time to open a new venue, with most of the time since it opened having been affected by Covid.
I’m sure though that it will mean that so many major tours come up our way over the next few years, which may have only gone as far as Glasgow or Edinburgh previously.
It’s so handy for the airport for artists who want to jet in and out again on the same day and it’s actually so easy for people to access from the town and the countryside around.
I say this as I’m heading to the O2 for a gig this week and it’s about as far to the other side of London from where I live as it possibly could be.
I’m envious of you with your lovely local venue.
I’m quite happy to stay at home and not go to many gigs but Gordon loves going to see bands and we have been going to see one of my singers perform most weeks now. I suppose you could call it a date night.
This week we went to see a Romanian singer I work with called Loredana Groza. She is a huge star in her country and is a judge on their version of The X Factor.
It was lovely to see her perform in her native language in a venue in London and to see the audience of London-based Romanians having a wonderful time dancing to every song.
Loredana is a pop singer but there is definitely a folk feel to what she does and the audience were dancing round the venue as if they were doing the Gay Gordons or the Eightsome Reel.
It made me miss a good old Scottish ceilidh. It’s a very long time since I’ve done a Boston Two Step or a Dashing White Sergeant.
One of my fondest memories was when we took my mum to the Crieff Hydro for Hogmanay. The children were of an age to enjoy the dancing too and as Hogmanay was my mum’s birthday it was lovely to celebrate it in such a posh place.
It even snowed, so the children were able to go out on sledges.
I know you were all quite badly affected by snow and wind this week with Storm Arwen. Our friends in Ythanbank were without power for most of the week so I hope that those of you affected are all OK.
Apart from the garden furniture ending up on the lawn we were fine, thankfully.
But oh dear, what a disaster it was for I’m A Celebrity. Three days of no live shows and lots of their backstage set-up destroyed.
I’m confused about whether the celebrities were allowed to eat as normal when they were evacuated from the castle?
There is some snow forecast for next week so will they be able to stay put? I think they will be hoping to be back in the sunny jungle where they belong by next year.
I must say it was lovely to see a little dusting of snow while I was decorating the house. It definitely made me feel quite festive.
The tree is up, the fire is lit and I’ve put garlands and fairy lights on every surface.
Gordon is the big 60 next week so I thought it would be nice to have the house decorated for the day.
We aren’t having a real party because with this new variant around it would be a bit silly.
We are having a few friends and family over though, and everyone is doing a lateral flow test on the day.
I’m sure I will have photos and lots of things to tell you about it next week.
In the meantime I’m getting out my recipe books, and if any of you have any fabulous ideas for nibbles please send me a message.
Have a good week,
Yvie x