I’m in NY for the Tribeca Film Festival. Saw a brilliant movie called “Ondine” by Neil Jordan. It is a wonderful modern fairy tail. Being modern the protagonists are multi-cultural, Irish, Romanian and Scottish. The story is about a Mermaid, or a what they call Silkies on the Hebredian Islands. Generously the Irish director and writers tipped their hat in the direction of their Gaelic cousins in telling the story.
I also saw “The disappearance of Alice Creed.” It’s an exciting three hander with Gemma Arterton, Eddie Marsan and …Scotsman Martin Compston, who is so good in Ken Loach’s “Sweet Sixteen.” The movie is a thriller with more twists and turns than a drunken man’s route home. All the characters are totally horrible and corrupted. Worth a peak for fun.
A small work of art I made for the coffee shop owner
Then last night I was reminiscing about Tunnocks Tea cakes and the Scotland 1978 football strip and I manifested some odd events for today. In the morning I went to a tea shop in Lower East Side. There was a large picture of a Tunnocks Tea cake on the wall. I commented and the owner turns out to be Scottish, from Port Seton. He had the most peaceful, generous energy to him and he gave me and my wife a Tunnocks Tea cake and a Caramel wafer as a present. He also set us up for a fun day.
Later as we sit in the park holding our treats up to the sky, to check they are real. A pretty girl with a Glasgow accent pops her head over the fence to ask where we got them. She turns out to be the actress Kelly Macdonald.
Later my wife heads off to a lunch meeting and I wander the streets. Outside a bar I find a car with a Lion Rampant sticker and my initials on the license plate. I think this is rather a coincidence and possibly a sign. Seeing as the car is outside a bar I decide it is a sign to enter the bar, and do so. Inside, as I order a pint, I look to my left and there, to my surprise is Kenny Dalglish…no only kidding. But there is a guy wearing the 1978 football strip, so we shared a few drinks…
Meanwhile Mrs Beverlyhillsjambo is having lunch somewhere swanky enough for Ted Danson to be sitting opposite (apparently he looks very handsome and very nice) but still neighbourhoody enough to not take credit cards. When it came to paying every one patted their pockets and found no cash (very scottish) But, to their delight, the waitress told them not to worry, it had all been taken cared of. The man at the table beside them had discreetly paid for their meal. It turns out years ago he’d been traveling around Europe and spent his last pennies to go to Fort William, where a kindly old granny had taken pity on him and looked after him. Now the man was repaying her charity. And guess what the old granny fed him with his cup of tea? A tunnocks tea cake of course!
What is the moral of the story? Not sure. But it’s got to be something to do with Tunnocks Tea cakes making you smile and the whole world smiling back.
