Jonathan Trew: Weekend Life

Cheap, short-haul flights have not been the best news for passenger ships. Even Ryanair's constant bombardment with annoying announcements looks positively benign compared with the misery of a rough sea crossing. However, crossing the North Sea by boat is the subject of a new exhibition at the Aberdeen Maritime Museum this weekend.

It's called North Sea Passenger Lines and, thanks to contributions from the museums of ten different countries from around the North Sea, it looks at the people and cargoes that have crossed back and forth between Scotland's east coast and mainland Europe over the past 150 years. Having once attended a stag party that mainly took place in and around Aberdeen docks, it seems safe to assume that the curators wouldn't have had any trouble finding colourful stories to illuminate the exhibits.

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall is another place that won't be short of tall tales and twinkly-eyed reminiscing as Tony Bennett performs a concert there tomorrow evening. After overcoming childhood poverty, surviving the Second World War, beating a drug habit and managing to outlast more musical styles than Meatloaf has had hot dinners, Anthony Benedetto has plenty to sing about and still has the lung capacity to do it convincingly. Almost unbelievably, he will be 83 when he takes to the stage tomorrow.

If Bennett represents an age of celebrity that has almost passed, then chef Gino D'Acampo, chief attraction at today's Perthshire on a Plate event, is emblematic of fame's new school. D'Acampo, you may recall, shot into the nation's consciousness when he caught, cooked and ate a rat on I'm A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here.

It seems safe to assume that he won't be called upon to repeat the feat at today's celebration of Perthshire's produce in the city's Concert Hall. His deft way with a rodent, however, would probably win him many admirers at this weekend's Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace.

Some 36,000 people attended last year and the organisers hope to attract even more this weekend with a mix of entertainment which includes falconry, archery, ferrets and a tug o' war.

Perhaps of more specialist interest is the Sheep Show, which is taking place at the Game Fair. Promising education and entertainment, the organisers will take a humorous and informative look at nine different breeds of sheep and their wools. The grand finale is said to feature dancing sheep.

The programme doesn't reveal if they will be hoofing through the tango, shimmying to some salsa or even dressing up as chorus girls for an unforgettable version of the can-can. Get them in front of Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent and Susan Boyle's days as the nation's most popular performer will surely be numbered.

For more information, visit, www.aagm.co.uk; www.glasgowconcerthalls.com; www.perthshireonaplate.co.uk; www.scottishfair.com

• This article was first published in The Scotsman, Saturday July 3, 2010