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Episode 16: The Coffee Song

I was in Auckland, New Zealand, and went into Circus Circus (a cafe there) to order one coffee for me; one for my wife and one for her sister. "Two soy latte and a trim cappuccino" I said. "Two soy latte and a trim cappuccino" said the girl. "Two soy latte and a trim cappuccino" said the boy. By the time I came out I was singing this song...

With Christmas gone and the New Year begun, we can all think of 2012 as a reality and not something that’s always coming, like the Olympic Games in London. My thoughts are now on the Burns shows that will happen during the upcoming Burns season in Dunblane, Alloway, Tarbolton and Glasgow.

Meantime, I can reflect on the successful opening of ‘The Nine Lives of Burns’ painting exhibition.

No 1 Nostalgia Street

'Nostalgia for a Tenement' painted by John Cairney can be seen at Compass Gallery, 178 West Regent Street, Claghow G24RL Tel: 0141 221 6370 email: mail@compassgallery.co.uk www.compassgallery.co.uk Open: Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm

The First Photograph

I’ve spent a lot of my life being photographed. It is part of an actor’s job and I have never enjoyed it, not matter the skill of the excellent photographers who took them. Perhaps this reluctance to pose for a picture comes from the fact that the very first photo I ever had taken was by my uncle on the beach at Ayr. I was trying to get into the awkward swimming costume, a heavy black full body one piece, that I had to pull over my ankles and up over my shoulders. I was very young but old enough to try to be modest about it and was struggling with this when one of my uncles on holiday with us as part of the party got a snap of my bare posterior, much to the amusement of the others around at the time. I was mortified and pursued him along the sands as he ran off laughing with the camera. The resulting still was passed round so many hands that it eventually fell apart, much to my relief.