Quintin Jardine's blog

And then there’s this, on the ‘Bloody Scotland’ website:

http://www.bloodyscotland.com/announcements/tickets-on-sale-now/#!prettyPhoto

Be  there; it’s a must.

In a comment on my post ‘One not to miss’, Adrian Dunbar has asked me to post the name of  my favourite restaurant in L’Escala. This is my response:

Are you mad, Adrian???? And upset how many restaurateur friends???? I hope you enjoy your time in L’Escala; while you’re there, you might like to visit, in no particular order, La Clota, L’Esculapi, Mike’s, Can Roura, La Lluna, La Terrassa d’Empuries, 1869, Ca la Chari, El Roser II, Meson del Conde, Can Coll, Casablanca, Sotavent, La Clota, Pizza Pazza, Illa Mateu. It’s up to you to find them all. Oh yes, and if you have room, the best sandwich in and around town is Theresa’s ‘chickenpig’, to be experienced in a xiringuito (beach bar) called Vaive, a little north of St Marti d’Empuries.

My family likes this; I’m not so sure. What do you think?

I am happy to say that I saw very little of the Eurovision Song Contest at the weekend, but enough to know this; there is no longer any excuse for the BBC subsidising an opportunity for the rest of Europe, (and Israel: somebody please tell me how the pluperfect **** that nation falls within our continental boundaries) to demonstrate how much it dislikes the English. I use that national description deliberately, for it is my belief that a Scottish entry would be much better treated. (And almost certainly it would be better!) There are now so many participating nations that there is a semi-final stage, but the BBC entry is granted an exemption from this and goes straight to the final. Why? Because the UK, along with Spain, France and Germany, are the biggest funders of the increasingly futile nonsense. That’s licence payers’ money I’m talking about, yours and mine, going straight down the euro-toilet. 

Cheers. Blanc Pescador was a bit of a trail blazer. It is generally agreed that Emporda whites have improved dramatically in range and quality over the last twenty years, but that one has been there from the start and remains consistent. You might also enjoy its sister, Cresta Rosa. But petillant? Come on, wrong country.

Hey, I have a feeling that Bob S would get on just fine in the Bronx. No, he’s not in the slightest autobiographical. Yes, he is a bugger to live with from time to time.

Of course Funeral Note will be followed up, but not until this time next year, when much will be revealed, and the sea changes in Bob Skinner’s life will continue. Before then, we’ll meet up with Primavera Blackstone, when her third predicament, As Easy as Murder, appears in paperback in August, then agains in January when Deadly Business, is published.

We’re back in L’Escala now, getting ready for the wine fair this weekend. If’ you’re anywhere near St Marti d’Empuries, don’t miss it. If not, you have one day to get there.

http://www.arrelsdelvi.com/Inici.html

You are not along; it seems that many readers of Funeral Note have the same problem. It really is very easy to solve, honest.

It was pretty much impossible to miss the Chelski game, or its outcome. I like di Matteo, and I hope Abramovich doesn’t let his place-men fanny around too long before giving him the job. If he’s not going to get it, they should tell him now, for he would definitely be ‘in the mix’ for other jobs in England and in Italy. As for Torres, who seems to have a petted lip just now, if he isn’t good enough to displace a 34-year old as top striker, he’d be best advised to acknowledge that, and work harder, rather than sending ‘rescue me’ messages to La Liga via Sr. Balague.

All my titles should be available in the US as e-books; if they ain’t they will be very soon. I will rattle some cages. As for the audio versions, 24 titles are available on Audible.co.uk, and most of them on Audible.com. These are downloadable, unabridged and retail for less than US$8, or around GB£4.

My pleasure. AJ thanks you also.

Yes.

Please let me draw breath! We haven’t reached the official publication date for Funeral Note yet. The Skinner books are annual events, so the next will be published in the summer of 2013.

I like to believe that you’re never too old to learn, and every so often I prove it to myself.

Today, for example, thanks to an ad in the Herald, I have discovered that there are entities known as ‘third sector interfaces’. According to Voluntary Action Scotland, which is looking to recruit a chief executive, there are 32 of them. But what are they? I’ve read the ad and I’m still not clear about that, only that they handle an annual £50m in turnover. This takes me back to my Scottish Office days in the 70s, when institutionalised Social Work was in its infancy, but advanced enough to have formed its own cabal of central government advisers, who took themselves very seriously. It was very obvious to me then that those people carried their own secret dictionaries around with them, filled with words and phrases that nobody else understood, a smokescreen of bullshit behind which they could hide. It is obvious to me today that nothing has changed.

Just back from the Bloody Scotland Crime Festival launch. God preserve us all from imaginative photographers. I may not watch BBCtv’s Reporting Scotland tonight, just in case I’m in it, making an arse of myself.

Kenneth Roy concludes his examination of a tragedy and reaches some damning conclusions:

http://www.scottishreview.net/index.shtml

Please support the Scottish Review. It deserves it.

Off to Stirling tomorrow for the launch of Bloody Scotland, our very own crime writing festival, the brainchild of Alex Gray and Lin Anderson, God bless them both. We’re all bidden to a photo-call in the Old Town Jail. That should be fun; hopefully BBC and STV news will be persuaded to take the perilous road out of Glasgow rather than follow their usual practice of ignoring things that don’t actually happen on their own doorsteps. If they do, I will be the guy in the black hat.

Part two of the shameful story of the girls on the bridge, courtesy of Kenneth Roy and the Scottish Review:

http://www.scottishreview.net/index.shtml