Wednesday 31 July 2019

Deadbeat copies available by email

Anyone wanting back issues not on the site, let me know.


I've not been too successful at loading all the copies up on this site despite all the help I've received particularly from Gordon at www.retrodundee.blogspot.com, but if anyone wants a copy, not already loaded up I'll try and email one through.

Leave a comment or get in touch via twitter or discogs.

I'm @fatalovinnybee on twitter or just vinnybee on discogs.


I'm away traipsing around Arran and Kintyre, then over Spain soon so will be sending all replies within a month, or two.

Fat Al, aka notso fatso, or vinny bee


Bilbe John opening show @thepleasance 3:50pm July 31 2019

This afternoon sees the opening show for Bible John @thepleasance an a delight to see a homecoming for writer/actor Caitlin McEwan.

Welcome home, thanks for bringing all the girls up.

 Enjoy Edinburgh, the Fringe, the fantastic @thepleasance venue and have a great show.

Oh and if you've time an interview needless to say, and an invite to any after show party!

Sunday 28 July 2019

Annie & Dave interview page 15

Annie Lennox interview #11 page 14

Superb evening's entertainment followed by Fab interview with tequila shots (almost)

Notso Fatso - Fat Al in weight loss shocker

I went for blood tests the other month about a low level pain I'd had all my life and got referred for a endoscopy.

Down the throat they went and gave me lovely pictures of my hiatus hernia, stomach and duodenum.

It looked like my 13year old face, or Edinburgh roads, riddled with pot holes.

As the doc explained after the process, the biopsies would go off to confirm if I was coeliac. 'Wheat free?', I muttered, oh well, I'm a stoic, I'll just change my diet.

As I looked at my diet which involved baking bread and pizza, eating three loaves of bread a week, cereals, pasta oh, um, mac and cheese pies, yeah and lager, looks like my broccoli, brussels sprouts and bananas are fine but everything else is off the menu.

I hear its quite life changing and in my case, 85% of my diet contained gluten, so yes, I did concur, but like with smoking it was obviously just time to move on.

In 2005 when I found I wasn't able to play as much football and started getting lifts between the 2nd and 3rd floor at work I realised the game was a bogey. I started writing "1000 reasons why I love smoking", a cathartic self help book, and decided not to smoke 50g of tobacco every day.

It was shit and I didn't like it but I found my breathing returned within a year, so it was probably the right thing to do. I'm not a reformed smoker, I still tell people how good smoking is for you, but it obviously has some distressing qualities which on balance make it slightly worse than a bar of chocolate, although for those with irritable bowels I'd probably say ditch the chocolate and smoke a fag. I'm not unique, for many, its obesity or emphysema.

Talking of which my weight then proceeded to return to my body at a rate of a stone per annum. When I created longer gaps in my smoking I was 13st and within a short period, 5 years without a fag found me at 17st 10lbs. I suddenly found I was having breathing problems but this time it was just the exercise of inhaling while carrying 2 kegs of beer around my body.

I've had two fags in the last 14 years, one turned out to be a single skinner joint, that I received from a pilgrim in Santiago de Compostela in 2013. As I took a long deep drag, I felt like my lungs had just received 8 Christmas's in one go and I held it so long in my lungs that no smoke came out when  I exhaled. Oh how I laughed, it was even better than I'd imagined. That's when I handed back the dout and said oops sorry that's my first drag of a fag for a while as my head went deliriously dizzy!

The laugh about the gluten free was that you can have as many joints, as you like (boom! boom!) and I suddenly found myself losing a stone in a month. I had to substitute gluten free lager for Tennents, give up bread as the cardboard that masquerades as GF bread is cardboard. I had a soda bread that was ok, but generally speaking it was easier just to not eat bread, or breakfast. A couple of bananas and a melon would suffice.

Lunch was similarly simple. No more egg, bacon and chicken/avocado rolls, sausage rolls, peanut butter sandwiches. Baked tattie and beans was back on the menu, but no pies. Avocado and chicken wrapped in lettuce leaf worked well too.

The GF diet saw me lose a stone in a fortnight and when I received my diagnosis I was 22lbs lighter, oh, and not coeliac after all. The only difference was that the pain I'd had all my life had disappeared.

I'd had what I used to call the 'stitch you get after eating' not the one you get running since I was a kid. A low level pain that I'd never bothered seeing anyone about, its not returned in 2 months now so that, a the Swing Club used to sing in Dundee, is "Serendipity".

It transpires I'm a wee bit gluten intolerant, so now I dont eat pies, I'm Notso Fatso and a few pounds off 16st not a few pounds off 18st.

It wont work for everyone but if you try the gluten free bread, one loaf could last a fortnight and in that time your 'crass' diet may result in you making permanent changes. If nothing else you will have a new found understanding of what it is like to be a coeliac, a debilitating condition I would not wish on anyone.

Friday 26 July 2019

4% Neanderthal

4% Neanderthal

I've had enough of all the nonsense spoken to divide our society on the many unpopular fronts from sex, race, religion and I'm going for the jugular.

I'm 4% Neanderthal and relaxed. My species were slowly outbred by homo sapien but there still lingers that small nice part of me that believes in a community and a better world for all. You can see why Homo sapiens have been sung about by Pete Shelley and others but my truth is we all need to embrace our inner Neanderthal. Feel the love, lose the hate, don't win the war, put those weapons down, feel the love.

I make an annual pilgrimage to Atapuerca where I identify immediately with my ancestors as they plotted their way out of Africa and headed north. I go to Galicia and see the ginger gadgees.

I'm left handed and proud, not boastful. If I'm meeting a fellow left hander I shake their left hand, but if they're right handed I don't get too worried about using my right hand, it's ok. I know I'm naturally more flexible than a right handed person. It's like speaking Spanish. It's ok. I'm 4% Neanderthal.

See www.fatal-bananas.blogspot.com for lovely pictures on the road to Atapuerca

Sent from my iPhone

Friday 5 July 2019

Views from Prestonfield Golf Club



Cherry Blossom in May with sunsets in July






Delightful dining at Prestonfield Golf Club

Delightful dining at Prestonfield Golf Club

Many locals in Edinburgh know that Swanston golf club offers fantastic food in a lovely environment for walkers over the Pentland Hills

City centre golf club, Prestonfield has recently upped its game and is now serving food from 8am to 8pm


The porridge station for the early morning sofa is an absolute must at 8am.

With all the usual accoutrements of fresh berries yoghurts, apricots, jams, honey and the like your £2 goes a long way.

While a wee Scottish breakfast will only set you back £4.

Some golf clubs are certainly from another century and these Prestonfield prices are, but the attitude from the happy staff was very much 21st-century courteous service.

The golf course is magnificent and in pristine condition. This tough tree lined track applauds every birdie and they're there along with peacocks, pheasants and deer as you stroll in the shadow of Edinburgh's iconic volcano, Arthur's seat. The basalt columns of Samson's ribs tower over the par 5 third, a 550 yard dog leg along the edge of the Queen's Park while the cherry blossom provides a colourful canopy.



The evening bistro menu was quite simply off the clock

I know where I'll watch the Open championship at Royal Portrush, the July promotional Bistro menu has a varied selection for every palate. For Gluten free me, chicken fajitas and the chilli con Carne served in a GF tortilla basket with vegan cheese and sour cream hit the mark. Both plates were £5 proving a visitor to Edinburgh needn't lose their shirt every time they want a meal. Golf clubs are notoriously cheap but rarely accessible.


Prestonfield is friendly, the views are outstanding and it's only 10 minutes to walk to @Summerhall or the @thePleasance.

I know where I'll be dining during the Edinburgh Festival fringe 2019