Last day of winter?

I'm very excited at the prospect of Spring being just round the corner. It definitely seems a little milder and the crocuses and daffodils are beginning to bloom. This morning Jack and I enjoyed watching two squirrels on the bird table eating bread that James had put out onto the bird table, and nuts from the feeder. When one of the squirrels dropped some bread, a wee bird hopped past and picked it up off the ground; it was very sweet. One of the funniest things I saw at the weekend was Ally and Davie chasing the squirrels up the garden, the squirrels were far too fast for them! Jack is too wise even to try. Davie phoned me at lunch time to say that his interview at Riding for the Disabled went well; the next step is an induction. Most importantly he enjoyed it and wants to go back. I read on the Internet this evening that Davy Jones of the Monkees died today aged 66. Another part of my youth gone; Jennifer and I used to watch the television series in the seventies (repeats I assume) and James and I went to one of the reunion concerts in the 1980s. However my favourite Monkee, Mike Nesmith, did not take part in the tour because he was so rich; he inherited millions from his mother who invented one of the earliest forms of correction fluid. He was also the best looking (in my opinion) and wrote some great songs. Anyway Davy Jones was my second favourite Monkee because although tiny, he was cute. 

A fine walk by the sea

Back down to the Ayrshire coastal path today; we are getting to know the A77 very well! We were walking from Girvan to Maidens with my school walking club and had a great time. It was cool but dry and although we have walked that section before it was very enjoyable. What surprised me most was that I was actually looking forward to it beforehand. This may seem strange, but I tend to worry before I take exercise because I feel that I won't be up to it. I worry in case I won't reach the top of a hill, or get to the end of a walk, and I worry that I will hold up the other people I am with. This is not my imagination - I take exercise very sporadically so I really can be much less fit than the rest of the group. I have trailed behind the rest on many an occasion. So quite often I will lie awake the night before a trip, hoping that bad weather will result in it being cancelled. It never is! Once I get going on my walk I usually relax and enjoy myself; if it's a hill walk I don't really relax until I reach the top. Anyway, maybe it's the familiarity of Ayrshire, or the fact that I have been walking with James fairly regularly over the last six months, but last night I felt none of the usual dread, and in fact I was raring to go this morning! Now I had better not get too excited about this, because I knew it was going to be a very easy walk, but my optimism must be a positive thing! 

On the train with David

Davie and I are on the train testing out his journey for a job interview on Wednesday; I want to make sure that he knows the way. We have had a busy weekend so far; I was at book club last night and today we went to get Ally fitted for the kilt that Grandma is giving him for his 18th birthday at the end of March - a very generous present. We had some errands in the west end so we took Grandma for lunch in Oran Mor. Talking of birthdays, it was Jamie's 22nd birthday yesterday - I can hardly believe that is the age of the tiny baby who stared at me so intently and alertly with his big blue eyes just after he was born. It seems like yesterday. Jamie hasn't decided what he wants for his birthday, and we won't be seeing him this weekend because he is in Aberdeen rowing today and then having a massive party tonight, to which we are not invited. In fact the only reason that I know about the party is that Ally has been invited! He is delighted and is getting a lift to Dundee with the women's rowing team (I bet he's delighted about that too!) I have been reflecting about how all three boys are turning out to have many of James' annoying traits:
1. Quoting obscure song lyrics.
2. Singing to the cat.
3. Quite grumpy if contradicted.
4. Disproportionate love of science and technology.
5. Rude about my driving and skiing.
6. Dogmatic.
7. Bizarre sense of humour.
8. Rarely show remorse.
9. Strange taste in music.
10. Unwilling to answer phone.
The boys don't have all of these behaviours in the same proportion; for example Ally is definitely the grumpiest, Davie talks the most in song lyrics, Jamie has the strangest tastes in music, but they all display these traits to some extent and I find it quite unnerving. On the other hand, all three boys share James' good qualities too; loyal, generous, and loving. And I have grown to quite like their bizarre sense of humour. 

Catching up at Piccolo Mondo

I had a lovely meal tonight with Kari at Piccolo Mondo, where there was an excellent "5 pm" offer of just £10 for two courses, as long as you book for between 5.30 and 6. This suited us very nicely for an early meal together, and the price also included an aperitif and either a liqueur or a coffee! I have been there once before, with James, Kathryn and Alan, and once again the food was delicious in very nice, traditional surroundings. However the best thing about the evening was catching up with Kari. We have kept in fairly good touch over the years and our boys get on very well when they see each other. Months can go by, but when we do meet up we resume the conversation as if we had seen each other the day before! How nice that a cousin has become such a good friend. 

A house full of boys

I dearly love my husband and three sons, and I feel so lucky to have them in my life. However there are occasions when I feel a bit outnumbered by men, and tonight is a good example. After a long day at work culminating in a training course from 5.30 until 7.30, I made the dinner and was looking forward to a well earned rest, watching an episode of Mad Men. However when I sat down I found that James, Ally and Davie had just started watching a programme called "How to Build a Jumbo Jet Engine". Imagine my dismay. The programme turned out to be just as boring as I feared, featuring various (no doubt very skilled) workers describing how they make their own particular component of a Rolls Royce engine. However when I pointed out to the boys how dull this was, I was rudely advised to "Shut up Mum", and told in no uncertain terms that they would not be changing channels. The programme is still dragging on, and the workers are now slowly assembling an engine, in front of the fascinated eyes of my husband and offspring. The only interesting thing that has happened in the last hour is that a frog is looking in through the French windows at us, it has been doing this for the past few evenings, I wonder why. David has named it Freddo. Back to the programme; a very senior engineer is now checking an engine using a long stick with a light on the end of it, so I have high hopes that it will end soon. 

Having a laugh

I found something that I thought was funny on the Internet on Monday and I showed it to Alasdair after tea.

http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html (about a missing cat poster by David Thorne - he kept wilfully misunderstanding what sort of poster the lady with the missing cat wanted, and the artwork that he came up with is very amusing!)

Ally laughed and laughed. It was lovely to see! He laughed so much that he was wiping tears from his eyes. David also thought it was funny and fell on the floor laughing at one point. And James enjoyed it too. I think it is the cat theme which we all liked. It set the mood for a relaxing evening watching a programme about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and then an episode of Mad Men - we are nearing the end of the second series. Jamie phoned later and was telling me how much he enjoyed his rowing weekend in Peterborough, which had 150 boats, more boats than he has ever seen! His poor hands are a mess from all the rowing; David told us proudly that "Jamie's hands are like other peoples' feet!" (because of the hard skin! Yeuch!). I also phoned Jennifer and we had a good chat. And David told me he has started his own blog - I read it and it's great, I'm so proud! 

Snowdrops at Skelmorlie

It has been a very nice weekend. A curry on Friday, a lovely evening with Caroline and Jamie on Saturday, and today another section of the Ayrshire Coastal Path with James. This time we walked from Largs to Skelmorlie. We parked the car at the beautiful Victorian Wemyss Bay Station with its sweeping curves of glass roof, and got a taxi to Largs. As James pointed out, it was very rural for a coastal walk! The route took us inland for a lot of the way, through farmland (where we encountered three angry geese) and across hillsides up to Knock Hill where we got great views back to Largs and way down the coast to the south, and also across the Firth of Clyde to Bute, and north to the Inverkip power station with the Greenock hills beyond. We were so lucky with the weather; it was sunny the whole way (about 13 km - 4 hours including the diversion up Knock Hill where we had a stop for lunch). We could see that there was rain coming in from the Cowal Peninsula across the Clyde Estuary, but it stayed dry for us and it started raining in Skelmorlie about thirty seconds after we got back into the car! A highlight of the route was all the snowdrops that we passed on our way. We're on our way home now and I can't wait to get into a hot bath! Update at bed time: there was not enough hot water for my bath so it was lukewarm, and as I disappointedly got out of it I knocked over my mug of coffee which broke on the bathroom floor! What a mess! Davie offered to clear it up for £5 and he made a lovely job of it. Later we had a jolly evening with Grandma watching the last episode of "Call the Midwife", which was very good. 

More culture!

After our lovely weekend in Paris another treat was in store this week; a trip to the theatre with Heather to see Zach Braff's "All New People". He is quite a famous television actor from an old favourite of ours (Scrubs) and he has now written this play, which is touring in Glasgow and Manchester before ir starts its London run. It got a dreadful review from the Herald theatre critic which I felt was very unfair, because I liked it. It was about four people who are thrown together by circumstance in a beach house near New York in the winter. I think you would call it a black comedy. Its themes are loneliness, despair and friendship. The cast were great, led by Zach himself (he has terrible posture!) with Eve Morrow of Torchwood fame bravely attempting an English accent rather than her usual Welsh one, Paul Hilton (who played the menacing criminal Rush in Silk) and Susannah Fielding, a very pretty and talented young actress who I think will go far. I'm not saying it was perfect; it started off a bit stilted, and the film flashbacks were a bit weird, but it's nice to see something new and different, which this play certainly was. 

Au revoir Paris!

Our last day in Paris; we effortlessly swapped yesterday's itinerary for today's and the boys set off again for Les Invalides while Heather navigated me expertly on foot to the Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann. Now, I'm not a great shopper - I never feel the desire that some people have to shop as a hobby - but from time to time I like to have a browse around a shop and where better to do this than Paris? Heather and I had a very pleasant time in Galeries Lafayette, where we had a coffee, and then in Au Printemps. We bought hardly anything but I enjoyed the experience. On the rooftop of "Au Printemps Maison" is the best free view in Paris, as James and I accidentally discovered two years ago when buying a suitcase. From there you have great views across the rooftops to the Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, and also to the Eiffel Tower. So we arranged to meet James and Ewan there, and we all had a relaxing lunch in the rooftop cafe (inside rather than outside due to the time of year!) Heather bought us some macarons to try - they seem to be very popular at the moment and I have never eaten one - and I liked them; they were pleasantly chewy. James and Ewan had enjoyed visiting Napoleon's tomb and the military museum where James was very impressed by the moving battle dioramas. After lunch we walked back to St Germain de Pres via the Palais Royal, built in the 17th century for Cardinal Richelieu and then a royal residence steeped in history; it's now mainly government buildings and a designer shopping arcade. Then we had a coffee in Cafe de Flore, which claims to have had all the same famous customers as Cafe des Deux Magots just down the road - these literati and existentialists must have drunk an awful lot of coffee, and also had a lot of time to spend hanging around in cafes! Ewan mentioned that Voltaire used to have forty cups of coffee a day in Cafe Procope; one can only imagine his behaviour after that let alone the tumultuous effect on his innards! Our journey home went smoothly, helped by the fact that I slept for almost all of the boring bus journey from Porte Maillot to Beauvais. Our flight actually left early and I read my current book "Before I Go to Sleep" on the plane, Heather is also reading it and it's very good so far. Ewan and Heather drove us home from Prestwick and here we are back home having a cup of tea! What a great and action-packed weekend we have had! 

A very nice way to spend a Monday

The temperature in Paris shot up today to a balmy 4 degrees and it was noticeably warmer than the below freezing temperatures of the last few days. We had a bit of an adventure in the morning; the boys decided to go to Napoleon's tomb at the military museum at Les Invalides while us girls set off to the Boulevard Haussmann for a bit of French shopping, then we would all meet up later. Our plan was also to visit the Louvre tomorrow. Heather suggested that we walk instead of taking the metro and it's very lucky that she did, because when we were walking past the Louvre I decided to ask a security guard where we could buy tickets for tomorrow. To my surprise he replied, "Le Musee est ferme toute la journee demain!" Turns out we had misread the guide book! So we phoned James and Ewan who were not yet at Les Invalides and they changed their course to join us. The queue moved smartly and soon we were heading in to quickly pay our respects to the inexplicably popular Mona Lisa before visiting the rest of the museum. We were in the Louvre all morning and part of the afternoon because there is so much to see. There were too many highlights to mention them all; Ewan is very knowledgable about History and Art so it was great that he could tell us about the history and symbolism of the paintings. James was pleased to see Delacroix's 1830 painting "Liberty leading the people" and Ewan told us the story of Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa" which was a very political painting because it criticised the restored and incompetent aristocracy, one of whom had been in charge of the doomed ship. Caravaggio's 1606 "Death of the Virgin" was excellent; it was rejected by the parish who commissioned it because they thought that Mary's dead face was too realistic (the model was a drowned prostitute!) Caravaggio had to flee Paris - I love that all those artists and writers were always having to flee the city when they overstepped the mark! Ewan pointed out that there is more humanity in one of Mary's little fingers than in all the early 20th century modernist stuff like Soutine that we saw yesterday.
I enjoyed the flamboyant Rubens series commissioned by Marie de Medici to tell the (very self-praising) story of her life and turbulent relationship with her son Louis XIII - it was hilarious! Needless to say all turned out well for Marie and her boy and they were reconciled by painting number 15!
I loved the tiny and perfect Vermeer painting "La Dentelliere". I think it's the inspiration for Pascal Laine's book of the same name, which was made into a film starring the very young Isabelle Huppert.
Near the end of our visit we were looking at some of Napoleon III's furniture - although we mainly looked at paintings today there is plenty more to see. I was impressed by a very cute Italian 19th century "bureau mecanique"; a bureau that packed away neatly into a table. Heather wondered why they would need something so compact in a palace and Ewan said "...for the space-saving royal!" which made us all laugh! We had a tasty snack lunch in the museum and by about three we set off back to St Germain de Pres, worn out! We stopped for a drink in the famous Cafe des Deux Magots (pronounced with a hard "g" as the waiter pointed out when I got it wrong!
After a well earned rest we all went out to dinner to "Le Christine" and had a delicious but very filling meal. Heather and I put on our dresses and we looked very chic. I was quite full up after my lamb main course but that didn't stop me from ordering a lovely souffle for dessert! Everyone else enjoyed their meals too, I especially liked the look of Heather's scallops which are called Noix St Jacques in French. We ended the evening with a nightcap in "La Rhumerie". 

Polite Parisians

Parisians have a reputation for being a bit rude or at least abrupt to tourists, or so I have heard and read. However this could not be further from our experience this weekend so far! Our concierge, Sanjay, is very helpful and considerate; he chatted to us about what we planned to do today and gave us advice. Every Parisian we have met in cafes and restaurants has been lovely and as we left La Rhumerie this evening (I think we consider it to be our "local"), the waiter called after us,
"Au revoir! Enjoy Paris!"
Anyway, back to this morning; after a pleasant breakfast in the hotel, we spent the morning at Musee d'Orsay and had a fantastic time.
We looked at hundreds of paintings; some I liked, some I didn't like, and two I fell in love with. Both are extremely well known paintings but I found standing in front of them very different from seeing prints of them in books. The first was "Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre" by Renoir. It was amazing; I felt as if I could almost step into the painting. The whole scene was full of life and I loved the dappled light. The second painting that really spoke to me was "La Chambre de Van Gogh a Arles", by Van Gogh of course. I loved its bright colours and bold brush strokes. Again, I almost felt as if I was right there. I bought postcards of both paintings in the museum shop. It was really interesting talking on the way round about the paintings we liked or didn't like. We had lunch in the 5th floor Cafe Campana, which was right behind one of the big clock faces of this former railway station. The lights were in the shape of bells. Heather and I enjoyed our croque monsieurs which had an extra wedge of Brie melted on top. Then we walked to the Orangerie to see Monet's water lilies, which were pleasant enough but to me not very striking. James' comment on examining one of them closely was "He used a big brush" which showed that he was rather underwhelmed. Downstairs at the Orangerie were more paintings. I quite liked the Cezannes with their bright green foliage, but the Rousseau and Soutine paintings didn't do anything for me - or any of us I think. We then walked through the Tuileries, through the courtyards of the Louvre. It was very, very cold, but dry and it was nice to see the buildings and the river as we headed to the Ile de la Cite where we visited Saint-Chapelle. I had heard that the stained glass was amazing and so it was! The 13th century windows were predominantly blue and red and very beautiful. The fifteenth century rose window was also stunning. All of the windows told stories from different parts of the bible and reminded me of Villon's poem about the old woman looking at the pictures in church who says (in translation!),
"At Mass in church, here, I behold,
A painted Heaven, with harps: a Hell,
Where the damned are boiled, as well.
One gives me joy: one strikes me cold"
Visual images of the bible were so important when most people couldn't read, either Latin or their own language. However Sainte-Chapelle was built in a royal palace for the King, the old illiterate woman (probably Villon's mother) would have been worshipping somewhere less grand.
It was quite cold in the chapel and colder still outside so we started back to the hotel, pausing to have a drink in the Cafe Jade in St Germain de Pres, a warm, modern little cafe very near the hotel. Later we had dinner in another restaurant recommended by one of the concierges at our hotel; La Petite Cour. It was very smart and James and I loved our chestnut soup served with little pieces of toast with a sort of bacon flavoured "foam" on them. All of the dishes were beautifully presented, although the pork main course was a bit fatty (luckily I had the salmon) and my dessert, which was a shortbread tart with a red toffee sauce, was a bit strange and left me very full and heartburny. I am told that the dessert of three sorbets was excellent. All in all it was a good meal with some unusual dishes which made me want to experiment with my cooking a bit more. Then it was time for a nightcap in "La Rhumerie" before bed time. What a satisfying day of culture and good company! 

Il fait froid...

...mais le soleil brille! I am blogging in our Paris hotel, the Artus, on rue de Buci in St Germain de Pres. It is a nice wee hotel in a great location, with cafes and restaurants all around. We took a taxi from Porte Maillot so that we could see a bit of Paris on the way, and the taxi driver took us round the Arc de Triomphe roundabout (hair-raising!) on the way and then right along the Champs Élysées. Once we had checked into our hotel we went straight back out for a walk, because although it is cold, the sky was blue and we wanted to make the most of the daylight, as it was now mid-afternoon. We stopped at a pharmacy to buy some paracetamol; Heather wanted the generic drug rather than a brand and I was thinking how best to explain this when she just said "generique" which was exactly the right term! So much for my language skills! We went on a lovely walk to the Seine, crossed the river to the Louvre then walked to the Pont Neuf and crossed the river again to the Ile de la Cite before making our way through the Latin Quarter back to our hotel. We stopped on our way at the Pub St Germain for a drink, it was nice and cosy. Later we had dinner at Aux Charpentiers, recommended by our concierge Sanjay. We had asked him to book something reasonably priced and typically French, and it was just what we were looking for. We all had a great meal; James, Heather and I had steaks - beautifully cooked and served simply with fried potatoes - and Ewan chose a Limousin menu that was very rustic and interesting, with duck in a buckwheat pancake and then sausage and cabbage. The waiters and waitress were all very friendly and helpful. We then went for a nightcap to La Rhumerie, which James thought had something to do with catching a cold (la rhume!) but it turned out to be a bar devoted to rum! We all had cocktails; Heather's was the most interesting because it was rum with fresh passion fruit on the side, it looked really cool. It has been such a lovely evening and I have loved the bars and restaurant, it all feels very Parisian! But now I am going to head for bed because I am so tired that I can hardly stay awake! 

Let the Holiday Weekend commence!

After a busy day at work I have rushed to the Rainbow Room to get my hair cut ready for our trip to Paris tomorrow. I am feeling excited and I'm sitting here texting Heather and blogging. There is some sort of police incident going on just up the road with lots of vans with flashing blue lights and one of the hairdressers is heading out to investigate.
James and I are not the only members of the family to be going on holiday. While we are in Paris, Davie will be spending the weekend with Jamie in Dundee, which he is looking forward to, it will be nice for the two of them to spend a bit of time together.
And Alasdair set off last night on his school music trip to Holland, where he will be playing at some concerts and having fun. He bought himself some cans of coke, then drilled holes in them, and drained out the coke. He then filled the cans with rum and soldered them shut. I honestly don't know whether to be amused or appalled. The general opinion at work was that I should be very proud!
Update at midnight from BBC news website: "A man is being held after armed police stormed in to an Italian restaurant in Glasgow city centre, ending a siege that lasted nearly eight hours." It all happened in Amarone, one of our favourite Italian restaurants! The good news is that no one was hurt. 

End of an era

Two relatives of mine died this week. Both were born in the same year of 1918, and were ninety-three years old. One was my Aunt Katy's mum, Gladys. My first memories of Gladys are from the 1960s, probably about 1966, when she made me the bridesmaid's dress that I wore to Bill and Katy's wedding. The fittings must have made a big impression on me because I remember her house and the dress (a beautiful pale blue silk with a sash) very well. Gladys was very elegant and smart, kind and smiling to me (unlike some of the adults I knew in the 1960s!) I saw her at various family gatherings over many years, and the last time I saw her was at Bill and Katy's 40th wedding anniversary a few years ago. She had advanced dementia by that time, but was as elegant as ever and I was impressed by the love and tenderness shown to her by her children and grandchildren.
The other person who died this week was my dear Uncle Dougie, a fine gentleman who was married to my Aunt Jean. He outlived her by about five years even though he was eleven years older than she was. He had been an engineer whose work took him all over the country, until they settled in Surrey, where they brought up their five children. He was always very good-natured and welcoming to me and James, and interested in everything, with a great memory. He managed to live independently in his house until last weekend when he took ill, and died very quickly in hospital. He played golf and was very active all his life; I remember a great speech that he made at his daughter Rona's wedding, about how she had been Miss Whyte until her marriage, and he reminisced about other Miss Whytes that have been in his family, then pointed out that Rona's nieces would carry on the tradition. He and his eldest son Robin visited Mum regularly when they were in Scotland, and he and all his children took the train up from London for my Mum's funeral in 2010, which I found very touching. He was one of the last links to the golden bygone era of my Mum and her sisters when they were all young and poverty-stricken but glamorous blondes being pursued by dashing young men. My Uncle Bill is also of that generation but he was just a teenager in the 1950s.
Anyway both Gladys and Dougie reached a good age, but I am sorry that they are gone. 

Meetings

I am blogging outside David's school because I'm a bit early for his parents' meeting. This will affect the final decision about whether he will change schools.
I was at a different meeting last night; James' hillwalking club AGM at the Boswell Hotel. I have never attended it in all the years that James has been a member, mainly because I used to be at home with the children while he was there, however James enticed me along with the promise of a slap up two course dinner for £9.95. The dinner was fairly nice although the hotel was freezing and I ended up feeling really cold. After dinner James chaired the AGM and he was very good at it, I felt proud of him. Andy gave a great presentation about all the walks last year, he was very humorous; at one point he showed a picture of James standing beside the remains of a crashed plane (there are quite a few of these around the hills), and he said "This is an old wreck! .....and this is a plane!" which we all thought was very funny. Nearly all of the photos were of rainy days with groups of people standing beside cairns with their waterproofs on and hoods up! Cornel was referred to by Andy as "our own rain man" because every outing he was on seemed to have had torrential rain! There was a discussion about this year's trips which was very interesting, there are some good outings coming up this year. It was a good-humoured evening, the club are a pleasant bunch! 

Tuscan Bees

When we were starting our walk through the Galloway Hills yesterday we could hear the sound of engines near Forrest Lodge; it must have been quad bikes or motorbikes. It was quite loud and persistent. Suddenly I remembered what it reminded me of; the loud sound of buzzing bees in a field of sunflowers in Tuscany. In July 2003 we were on holiday in the hamlet of Varna, which was near San Gimignano, that beautiful little town with an unfeasible number of towers. Our villa was called La Pineta and it had stunning views across the Tuscan countryside, of fields and trees and rolling hills. Just below the villa there was a garden with a lovely swimming pool. It was a brilliant holiday; there were nine of us - the Anderson and Black families. Every day the two families would set off to explore different places in Tuscany; San Gimignano, Volterra, Florence, Certaldo Alto, Greve in Chianti, Siena, Monteriggioni - all beautiful and different and interesting. Castles, fortifications, cathedrals, churches, Roman amphitheatres, wine-tasting, great food, and many towers to climb; we all loved it. We had such a great time, the children still talk about all the places we visited. We would usually eat lunch in some little walled town, and make our way back to the villa where both families would meet up to have fun and relax at the pool. The children were so happy playing in the pool, they were all water babies. Later in the afternoon I would be relaxing on a sun lounger when I would hear a familiar clinking sound... It was Ewan or James with a tray carrying a bottle of wine and four glasses. Later we would take turns making dinner using delicious local ingredients, and Heather, Ewan, James and I would chat by the pool in the cool of the evening. Heavenly! Anyway, the particular day that I am thinking about, I decided that I wanted to take some photographs in a field of sunflowers which was just down the hill from the villa. This was in the days before digital photography, so I had no way of reviewing my photos. Instead I extravagantly shot a whole roll of thirty-six exposures! It was so hot in that field, and the bees were so amazingly loud, they really did sound as loud as motorbike engines! Out of the thirty six photos that I took, I got twelve which I thought were good enough to put into my photo album. Out of those twelve photos there is only one that I think is really good, but it was worth it for that one photo. The photos look bright and colourful but one thing they cannot convey is the heat of the day. By the time I got back up to the villa I was so hot that I couldn't bear it; I plunged straight into the pool with my clothes on, but even that wasn't enough to cool me down and I had to go into the villa and run a cold bath to bring down my temperature! How different from the cold of the Galloway Hills yesterday, and yet the droning sound of the motor bikes took me for a moment right back to that field in Tuscany! And that wonderful holiday! I want to go back to Tuscany! 

An icy walk in the Galloway Hills

James and I were up early today; we were going with the hill-walking club to the Galloway hills and it's quite a long way. We met some of the others a Cathcart and then travelled by car to Carsphairn where the whole group met up and the nineteen of us squashed into a tiny tearoom for tea and scones. We travelled onwards to St John's Town of Dalry, a small and picturesque village, and after a flurry of moving cars about, we all started our walks a couple of miles west at Forrest Lodge. The majority were in the "high level" group who tackled a Corbett called Corserine, which was very snowy. There were seven of us in the "low level" group and we made our way southwards through the hills until we joined the Southern Uplands way and walked east to St John's Town of Dalry. We were lucky with the weather which stayed dry, but the ground was very icy underfoot in places and I was glad of my walking poles. We all chatted as we walked along and it was a lovely day. We were actually grateful for the ice when we crossed a very muddy area which would have been impassable if it hadn't been frozen! The prettiest part of the walk was near the end when we climbed up and over Waterside Hill, with lovely views of the valley as we went up and of the river and town as we came down the other side. We went to a pub called the Clachan for a drink, it was really nice with a log fire, and the other group soon joined us, it was all very convivial. I was not looking forward to the walk today, mainly because I have not been taking much exercise over the last couple of weeks, but I felt fitter than I expected and I really enjoyed myself. 

A trip into town

I am sitting in the Apple Shop while a pleasant young man at the Genius Bar is trying to make my email work properly on my iPad - at the moment it receives but it will not send. I haven't had the best morning so far. I set off rather late into town by car; James advised me to take the train but I wouldn't listen, and then after going in to a shop to get change for the parking meter, I returned to the car to find that I had got a parking ticket in the few minutes I had been away. Then when I got to the Apple Shop I had missed my appointment and I had to use all my powers of persuasion to get another appointment! My email has now been fixed and James has arrived and is having a technical discussion with the pleasant young man, who has shown us some cool things like creating my own personal wifi hotspot using my iPhone. We are planning to have lunch and then go to see a film so I'm hoping that the afternoon goes more smoothly than the morning!
Update in the evening - well it was a very nice afternoon! We had lunch in Di Maggio's Express where we met an old friend - Fergus! We haven't seen him for years and it was lovely to see him. He was having lunch with his Mum, who used to be the head teacher of the boys' nursery; always very glamorous, she hasn't changed a bit and we all had a chat. Then we went to the UCI to see The Descendants starring George Clooney. James had suggested going to see it, which surprised me because it seemed much more my taste than his. It was a good film although it had an underlying sadness. George C is still gorgeous! So I got my wish; the day improved after my stressful morning! 

Big Freeze

Book club this evening was a good fun as usual; we were discussing Joan Didion's book "The Year of Magical Thinking" and we had a good talk about it and other books, then a nice coffee and chat. I do enjoy both of my book clubs. Nearly everybody had got a Kindle for Christmas so we were talking about their merits and disadvantages compared to traditional books. I love my Kindle and downloaded some more books onto it today. I was saying that it would be good if your Kindle could also be an audio book that you could listen to in the car, picking up from where you had stopped reading it, and someone said that the idea is already in development! The weather is still very cold, we are at the edge of Europe's current "big freeze". It is especially cold in Eastern Europe. Next week we will be going to Paris, which to my dismay is colder than Glasgow at the moment! Never mind, we will be going to lots of museums so we can keep warm there. When I got home James was practising the guitar and the boys were relaxing around the house. Alasdair had his heating turned right up so that his room was like a sauna, and Jack was stretched out very happily on his bed enjoying the heat! No big freeze here, just big fuel bills! 

A great concert and great news for Ally

Tonight I went straight from school to a wind and jazz concert at Ally's school at the Fotheringay Centre. James couldn't make it because his plane back from London was delayed, which was a shame because it was the last concert for the 6th years and it was a really good one. The jazz band played "In the mood" and "Beyond the Sea", "Lullaby of Broadway" and even the theme tune from Family Guy! There were lots of other good tunes from the wind band, guitar ensemble and flute group, then Ally was back on with the Jazz Collective which consisted of his jazz quartet, a pianist and two guitarists. they were partly improvising during "Take your Pick" by Hank Mobley and "My Shining Hour" by Harold Arlen, and Ally played several solos. Then everyone was back on stage for the finale which included music from The Blues Brothers and then my favourite "Highland Cathedral", with a bagpiper holding his own ably while playing with the whole concert band. I love that tune, I first heard it at a Scottish Proms concert at the Royal Concert Hall, introduced by Gerard Kelly, about ten years ago, and I have heard it many times since, I like it best when it is played with a concert band as well as bagpipes and it all rises to a crescendo, I don't think it is so stirring with bagpipes alone. It feels so Scottish but was in fact written by two German guys in the 1980s for a Highland games held in Germany! I was sitting with Barbara and Neil and then at the end I went over to speak to Kathryn and her lovely Mum, who was looking very well. Then I found Ally and he told me that he heard this afternoon that he has an unconditional offer to study Law at Glasgow University! Needless to say I was delighted and Ally even let me hug him so I think he is too! We talked about it all the way home in the car; Ally is very pleased but he is keen on History and Classics too, so I think he will wait until he hears about all his applications before he finally decides. How nice for him to have the choice! He also got the results of his LNAT today and he was one of the top in his year group. Ally asked me to let him tell James himself, so I said that he had about thirty seconds when we got home or I would burst with the excitement. So he told James as soon as we arrived and James was very pleased and they had a manly hug. Davie came running downstairs and jumped on Ally with joy, and I screamed with happiness so loudly that poor Jack got a fright and ran out of the cat flap, which made me feel a bit guilty, because he skidded on the tiles on the way and slid against the kitchen unit. He's back inside now but I think he's getting more nervous as he gets older. Ally has had lots of messages on Facebook and he told me that Jamie put a "status" up to congratulate him. What a good day! 

Good companions

In an effort to take James' advice to "lighten up", I arranged today to have lunch with a lovely colleague who was on the Paris trip with me last June. We were only out of school for half an hour but I must say I really enjoyed our chat and it felt good to have a break; we reminisced about how we laughed in Paris and talked about our children, who are the same ages and stages. I felt very energised in the afternoon. Then from five until seven I was at the annual Duke of Edinburgh update meeting where all the leaders go over procedures and hand in our paperwork. I have been going to these meetings for eight years now, and it was great to see all the old familiar faces, many of whom have become friends, even if they are friends that I don't see very often. Many of us have been on adventures together, either qualifying together or going on school expeditions. We all had to sit a test on the operating guidelines, which generated a lot of laughter. Both my lunch date and my Duke of Edinburgh meeting reminded me that over the years I have been fortunate to meet so many good people. I have of course, like everyone, also crossed paths with a few people who have not been so pleasant! But as my Dad used to quote my Grandpa Russell, unpleasant people are usually like because they have their own problems! My Grandpa and my Dad were great at seeing people very clearly and kindly; Dad once met someone that I found very abrasive and said "He is a very insecure person", which made me look at things very differently. That's fifteen years now since my Dad died, I miss him every day. Anyway this post has turned a bit serious, what I am trying to say is that I have been very fortunate in very many ways and James is quite right to tell me to lighten up! Jamie very kindly came all the way from Dundee last night so that he could take Grandma to her hospital appointment this morning at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank. It was her first appointment about getting her cataracts sorted, and neither James nor I could get away from work in the morning. It was really brilliant of Jamie because she was very nervous about it. Also he could explain things to her because she can't hear very well. He stayed with her the whole time and thought the doctors were very thorough, although when Grandma mentioned that he was a medical student they started quizzing him about opthalmology! Her blood pressure was a bit too high so she will go to her GP about that before the operation. James went over to meet them at lunchtime and they all had lunch there before Jamie set off back to Dundee, then James brought Grandma home. I will try to arrange her next appointment so that I can take her; she once went over to the Southern General by taxi to collect my Mum from one of her appointments which was very kind of her.