Adoring fans

It's been so long since my last gig - here's a photo I took from the stage of my last audience.

Dinner with Mrs T

Mrs T and I had a very nice meal last night at a restaurant in the Highlands, not very far from our home.
Baxter was highly delighted with the doggy bag we brought back for him.

Sri Lanka

Looking out of the window at a grey Scottish sky and thinking about Sri Lanka.

I have a great fondness for Sri Lanka, and am shocked by the news and terrible images that have been on TV these past few weeks. The aweful suffering in the north of the country is just beyond words.

I had such a wonderful time there earlier this year, and I hope to go back again next year to see the many Sri Lankan friends that I have made over the past 15 years of visiting the country.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka, and my Sri Lankan friends are very much in my thoughts.

The Beard Has Gone!

Well, after 35 years of having a beard and moustache I decided to shave it all off.

I was a little scared to see who was lurking under there, as the last face I saw was that of a mere youth. It came as a shock to see for the first time the middle aged man that has developed under there during that time, but I'm getting used to it.

Here's a photo with my student Rabo Lueng from Hong Kong. I'm the fresh faced young man on the left.

Elephant Painting

Alison and I were touring Australia, Sri Lanka and Thailand earlier this year.

When we were in Bangkok our promoter took us to a few tourist places on our day off.

We went to a place where an elephant painted a picture of flowers for me. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

Check this photo out!

I'm putting up some older photos at the moment because I'm spending a very quite time at home. It's great for me but pretty boring for you to read about.

Liz and I went to visit our meditation teacher, Venerable K. Rewartha Thero last night.

He's a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk who's been living in Scotland for the past 7 years. He's an excellent teacher. I've been practising Buddhist meditation for over 30 years, but I'm learning so much from him.

My next project for this summer is to build our own wee temple in our garden. It will be a quite corner to got to, and will probably be the smallest temple in Scotland!

I'll start posting photos of it when it's being built. Should be fun.

Paul Merton Show

I'm at home writing music today for my new CD. The process of writing music isn't as interesting as it may sound, just hard work. There's no mystery to it, it's just gathering 40+ years of musical knowledge together and creating something that I'd be happy for people to listen to.

Will take Baxter for a walk later to give my brain a rest, then tonight I'm going to see Paul Merton in his "Silent Clowns" show. I've seen it before and it's wonderful. I'm a big fan of his, but for me the star of this show is the pianist Neil Brand who improvises the music to the film - absolutely brilliant, he's a genius!

The Meaning of Life...and other stuff!

Have been in Dresden, Germany for the past two days. I was a judge at the International Guitar Awards and heard some wonderful young guitarists.

I played a solo concert in the evening in the University concert hall. A great room with a fantastic sound.

I'm back in Scotland for a few days to chill out at home in front of my Japanese Buddha and contemplate the meaning of life.

A dream

I had a dream last night. I was on the beach watching my son Stewart riding his horse on the beach. He had a big smile on his face and was very happy.
It's been over 3 years since he died, but he's never far away from me.
I thought I'd share this photo of him riding on Ayr beach in 2003.

Writing Music

Currently busy writing music for a new project which I'll be recording later in the summer. Will say a little more about it as time goes on but for now all I can say is that it will be very French.

In the meantime check out the news at my website.