pogofish

There was never a Pizza Hut on Union Street.

Yes there was - Their very first outlet in Aberdeen.  Early-mid 1980s IIRC, They moved into the former Kardomah Cafe, which was in that now empty unit between Union Bridge Waterstones and in the entrance to the Trinity Centre.

Takeaway in the downstairs bit and seating upstairs in the double-width restaurant.  Was it Laskey's (electronics/hi-fi) downstairs in part of where Waterstones is now? they remodeled the units/entrance there at some point, around the time when C&A closed and HMV moved down from near the Music Hall.

He's pretty old but I don't know if he's that old. 70s I would have thought.

He was pretty young when he used to sell me my annual set of hideous school PE kit in the Rubber Shop!

Hostile takeover? Leveraged buyout?

More like they took over the day to day running of the shop and bought it up over a number of years.  

Used to be quite a common way of taking-over a business whilst retaining continuity when the original owners wanted to retire/get-out.

This doesn't sound quite right , mckays was open long before the rubber shop closed

Yes - they took-it over when the Rubber Shop closed. 

I love this shop because it has alot of character but does anyone know what the deals is with this place. Does it only have 2 employee's, are they there every day, are they related, is the older downstairs guy still alive, how does it make a profit, can any of you address this mysterious shop once and for all?

Those guys originally worked for The Rubber Shop on George St.  Another of Aberdeen's idiosyncratic shops of yore:

When that sold-up and closed to make way for the Bon Accord Centre (the story about how it was then stiffed-out of a unit in the new centre is another one of Abdn's old shifty tales), the owners did the surprisingly decent thing and saw that the staff losing their jobs were looked after properly - either till retirement for the older ones or in the case of the younger ones, helped to get set-up in new jobs or businesses of their own.

Brechin has at least taken some meaningful steps to make more of its built heritage in the last few years - I've actually been quite surprised the last few times I've been by.

Aberdeen however fully deserves this.  

Its not the fault of one council though.  Years of getting away with fucked-up planning over the life of many councils has brought us to it and that is despite us having some fine advantages in some areas.

Is the award on display anywhere in the city?

Never mind the monorail, what about the moving pavements we were assured were just a couple of years away in the 1960s plans!  

Anyway, they should build a Monorail.  Like we've said all along.

Tampax commercial, apparently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wgHjAi48Fq8

And it happened again:

"Pussy shaver strikes again"

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2013/04/15/319672_ntnews.html

Also:

Hmmm!

I don't know just why I found this so funny but you may want to turn the volume up a bit before you click.

http://grilledcheeseacademy.com/

I actually hope this is a joke!

http://catacombosoundsystem.com/

I'm glad to see Bowie back but kind of stuck between wanting to like the song and knowing exactly what I'd think of it if done by anyone else. Let's hope the album has more to offer.

1-Up must have had an absolue fortune off of me over many years. Very sad to see them go.

The Hells Angels in New York have had to take serious measures to stop non-members from sitting on their precious wee bench.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/02/hells_angels_be.php

They also have CCTV on it, just in case.

Raring to go!

Yes, my TV blew-up a few days ago but I've not missed it since I saw this. Not that I missed it that much before!

Cocktail list from a Scottish theme bar in moscow:

Apparently "Angels Tits" is pretty much Sambuca and Advocaat. Blech!

As the last lot are now off to good homes.

We have more kittens - just over a day old:

https://new.livestream.com/FosterKittenCam/TheSpiceKittens

It goes back further than that - for a good few years up to the mid 80s, Consolidated Pneumatic, who had a substantial factory in Fraserburgh had degenerated into a US Mafia front company (Chicago Syndicate IIRC), used largely for money laundering on a global scale. This only turned-up when the company finally went belly-up after ten years or so of being run into the ground by them.

Dear god!

This beastie is currently trying very hard to ingratiate himself with my two:

To the point where his owner put a "cat missing" leaflet round the doors so I phoned-up to tell him that puss was down socialising with my two.

Two days later he was back!

And if you want some cute overload, check-out this growing kitten stream:

https://new.livestream.com/FosterKittenCam/TheScientistKittens

Three gingers and a dark tabby - Aww...!