Total Chill-out Day

Despite a busy and at times alarming week, I feel as relaxed as I have for a long time. I have a feeling that my work situation is going to be clarified soon and I'm more philosophical about it - what will be will be! And the weather is getting warm and summery; this is my favourite time of year. Today I took Grandma shopping for clothes; she was looking for an outfit for Jamie's graduation and also for Ally's Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Presentation at Holyrood Palace. After much searching around John Lewis we found a really nice dress; white with blue flowers and she bought it although I think she has some doubts about it because it's quite bright. We then saw another lovely dress in Jacques Vert which was pink and grey, so we will have another shopping trip next week, because by this time Grandma was tired and we headed home for a cup of tea.
James cleaned the slabs ALL day - for EIGHT hours - a worthy endeavour that it would be churlish to criticise - but it would have been nice to have his company some of the time! It reminded me of when Jamie was newly born and James spent the whole of the week that he took off work digging a drainage system in the garden. I stood at the window with Jamie in my arms watching him and feeling very sad that we were not spending the time together with our baby.
However I sat outside today and enjoyed the sunshine while reading my book, which was very pleasant. David is nearly packed for his holiday to Prague, I will miss him. Later on we got a curry (I was careful not to over eat) and watched Anchorman 2 which was the biggest load of rubbish ever.

Stolen goods

I was supposed to be out at Carolyn's race night tonight but I'm feeling very tired after my sore tummy yesterday so I am having a quiet evening at home. 

James and I had an interesting encounter with the police earlier this week. There have been a group of children running through the back of the garden, in fact through all the gardens in our part of the street. I think they're just having fun but they are damaging the hedges and trampling plants, and annoying the more elderly neighbours. So James went up to the top of the garden to survey the damage and decide how to secure the garden. When he was looking behind the shed he found two bags lying there - one ladies handbag and one satchel with what looked like work papers in it. Now, there have been a lot of break ins recently around the area (nothing to do with the school children) so we wondered if they had been stolen from someone's house. I carefully opened the bags while wearing a pair of rubber gloves - I felt as if I was Kay Scarpetta (fictional Medical examiner in the Patricia Cornwell novels!) There were no wallets or purses but lots of other stuff which the owners might want back, like make up and documents. We called the police and about an hour later two handsome police officers arrived to pick up the bags and take a statement. Let's hope they catch the burglars soon.

By the way when I told my colleagues today about my hospital visit and I told them that I was shouting in pain in the waiting room of A & E, they were kidding me on that I had been shouting "Get me out of here, take me to Ross Hall!" which I thought was very funny! 

A trip to A & E

About two hours ago I was writhing about in pain in hospital. Now I am fine.

To backtrack a bit, this evening Jack had a check up at the vet. He is doing really well and has put on a whole pound in weight. He had some blood tests to check how his kidneys are coping, and we set off home in good spirits. However my tummy was cramping a bit, on and off. Here's where I made my mistake; I ignored the pains and ate a hearty dinner of pasta with tomato and basil sauce. Almost immediately the pains got a lot worse until the pain was severe and constant. I thought that I knew what had happened - very occasionally my gut seems to get blocked and similar pain has ensued. I remember one time when I was at Vindolanda at Hadrian's Wall with my Mum and the boys about twelve years ago, and I had terrible stomach pains which really annoyed me because I had really looked forward to the day. 

So this evening I ran a hot bath and jumped in, that usually helps. But no, the pain got worse and my back was in agony too, I felt as if I was being stabbed with knives right through me. James (who had been cutting the grass) found me rolling around on the bathroom floor shouting for my Mum! It seems quite funny now but at the time I was actually very frightened so I obeyed James when he decided on a trip to A & E. I arrived in the (busy) waiting room doubled up and groaning and shouting - how embarrassing especially as the hospital is very near my place of work and the chances are that I was spotted by a colleague or pupil! I didn't care at the time and soon some nurses came through with a wheelchair and I was taken into a consulting room. The pain was terrible but luckily nature took it's course and I vomited copiously. The nurse was impressed - three sick bowls! My gut was still sore but much better and by the time the doctor came to see me I knew that the worst was over. He was very friendly and I told him about Jamie being about to graduate. He said that he has been a doctor for ten years and has never stopped studying but he loves it. He thinks I was dehydrated and that I need to drink a lot more water during the day. So home we went, and it was such a pleasure not to be in pain! I feel a bit silly for going to hospital, but my stomach and back were in absolute agony. I will try to keep myself hydrated this summer!

Marathon Man

It has been a relaxing and fun weekend. On Saturday evening we went to Gamba to celebrate our 29th Wedding Anniversary with Heather and Ewan. Any excuse for a nice meal with friends.
And it was indeed a delicious meal although my tummy had only just recovered from my previous night's curry. I had salmon teriyaki which was perfectly cooked and the others all enjoyed their turbot with ginger and asparagus (which was the special). Afterwards we all repaired to a nearby bar for drinks and chat. I impressed everyone with my encyclopaedic and useless knowledge of celebrity trivia (specialising in celebrity relationships). I am just kidding that it is impressive but it certainly is encyclopaedic and I wonder how my brain can remember such trivia while not absorbing important things like politics etc. 

On Sunday we went through to Longniddry to watch Jamie running in the Edinburgh Marathon. We collected Aisling (now Dr Aisling!) from Wallyford train station because she had seen Jamie set off at the beginning of the race in Edinburgh, and after much driving around we walked to a good vantage point to watch Jamie running eastwards at about 16 miles and then westwards towards the finish at about 20 miles. He looked so sweet and brave. Then it was back to the car and we dropped off Aisling and David near the finish line to meet Jamie; James and I went off to have a snack lunch and picked them up later. Jamie was exhausted but very pleased; his time was 4 hours 32 minutes which was good for a first marathon, especially when his training schedule was interrupted when he hurt his hip a couple of weeks ago. As for spectating a marathon - well, without in any way wishing to sound disloyal to my dear son, it was one of the most boring experiences of my life! The couple of minutes when we actually saw him were great, but the rest of the day consisted of driving about and hanging about. Home we all went for a Chinese meal with Grandma (who is very proud of Jamie) and a pleasant Skype with Ally and Cat who are having a great time in Lithuania.

friends!

Our son the doctor!

Jamie's results came through at lunch time - he passed his viva! He has done it and is now a doctor - or at least he will be when he graduates on 20th June. I am so proud of him. Aisling has passed her viva too and they are both very happy.
In other highlights of this holiday Friday, I hung out my washing in the warm spring breeze, I had egg in a cup for lunch (my Dad's recipe), did some useful admin, collected Jack's meds and got my eyes tested. "Have your eyes been checked?" "No they have always been this lovely green colour!" ha ha. I am now looking forward to a Friday night curry. What a great day! Well done Jamie!

Goodbye Mario

Mario is no more. After seventeen years of faithful service, first as my Mum's car and then as Jamie's, the plucky little Nissan Micra has failed his last MOT and has gone to the scrapyard. It's the end of an era, Mario (so named by Jamie) was a great wee car. Apparently Jamie's Facebook page is full of tributes to him!

Jamie is lucky that the car lasted right until the end of his degree. 

Jamie's viva was on Tuesday and he's not at all sure how he got on; the questions were not what he expected. He is so near to finishing!

... I shall wear purple

With our tickets to see Prince in concert this evening came a request for the audience to wear purple. So I wore a lilac coloured t-shirt and James wore a shirt that had some purple stripes. When we were on the train travelling towards Exhibition Centre, more and more purple hued people boarded - scarves, shirts, dresses - and it was a colourfully attired crowd who arrived at the Hydro.

Prince was great - what a showman! My favourite was Kiss and James says his favourite was When Doves Cry, but it was all good. When we set off home there was a warm summery feel to the air.

Bambi and friends

Our third day of navigating around Perthshire and it was another beautiful day. We had plenty of time so we had a pleasantly leisurely start to the morning and Jennifer cooked up a hearty breakfast of sausages, bacon and eggs for everyone. Then Jennifer walked behind the group as they set off and I moved the car then walked in from the other end of our route to meet them. Yesterday Jennifer and I saw a deer near Rotmell Farm but the pupils were walking ahead and didn't spot it. Today I reminded them to look out for deer and when I met them they couldn't wait to tell me that not one but THIRTEEN deer had run right across the path in front of them! They were so excited and they have also enjoyed seeing sheep with little lambs and the gorgeous countryside - it's the kind of thing that they will always remember from their D of E expeditions! After some celebratory cakes and drinks we set off homewards. It has been such fun.

Salmon ladder!

After another splendid walk in the beautiful Perthshire countryside we decided to spend the afternoon in Pitlochry. Coffee and cakes at Hetty's tearoom was great fun, but the highlight had to be the salmon ladder. It was amazing! We walked across the dam in lovely weather and saw three salmon going up the ladder via a tunnel. A man told me that they have come all the way from Dundee and go on from here to Loch Faskally and Loch Tummel. Here is a photo of one of the salmon as it swam past the glass in the viewing room before disappearing up the tunnel. Brilliant!

A really good day in Perthshire

I'm sitting in the Prince of India Tandoori Reataurant in Pitlochry waiting for a takeaway curry for me and my colleague Jennifer. We have had a great walk to Loch Ordie with a D of E group and the weather was warm and dry all day. I couldn't wait to show off my one of my favourite walking places to Jennifer, and gratifyingly she loved it! Two D of E expeditions back to back means four days of walking in a row which has to be good!

Meanwhile I have heard from Ally and Cat who are in Lithuania. They are having a great time and when they arrived in Kaunis they found that there is a festival so they went straight out to enjoy the music and the street performers. Davie is chilling out at home, delighted that his exams are over at last, and Jamie's viva is tomorrow - he has worked so hard for this and I hope with all my heart that it goes well.

Breezy at Bavelaw

Back to the Pentlands this weekend for a Bronze D of E expedition. It was great to get two good walks and the weather was dry, although a little grey. I had hired a

"yurt" for the staff to sleep in. It's new to Bonaly this season and I eagerly anticipated its delights. However I was a bit disappointed. It has been erected on a bit of a slope, and was rather dirty and full of flies. It also had some junk stored in it like wellies and children's toys. To look on the bright side, once we had got rid of the flies it was a good size to eat our fish suppers in and have a pleasant evening out of the wind. Shona, Carolyn and I slept there but the boys preferred the comforts of their own tents. The expedition went very well although the pupils do have to work on their camp craft skills. On the second day I parked at Thriepmur and walked in to meet the groups, then we had lunch outside the Harlaw Visitor Centre. The sun finally came out although it was still quite windy. And now I have arrived back at school where I am waiting for the bus to arrive. It has been a good weekend. 

Exams and good weather

James got an early flight home from Warwick today so by the time I got home he was outside cutting the grass. It was a lovely sunny day all day; why is is always good weather during exam times? James then started pruning the plum tree and Ally and Davie went out to help him. I noticed that they had lifted Jack up onto a branch of the tree and he was sitting there so happy, washing his face and looking all around. I'm so glad that he is well and enjoying the Spring time.
The boys then built a small fire in the fine Anderson tradition and they also looked very happy as they stood around it chatting. Ally and Davie are such fine young men now, both taller than their Dad. Exams are continuing with mixed success. Davie was not at all happy with his Advanced Higher Chemistry on Monday; I hope than he has done better than he thinks. Chris was round this evening tutoring him for Biology on Friday. Ally had another Law exam today; when I went downstairs at 7 a.m. he was already pacing around the living room muttering his notes aloud. He said one question went fine and the other was disappointing, however he has already accrued enough points to get into the Honours course which is great. In Dundee, Jamie is preparing for his viva on Tuesday 20th. So the boys' exams will be over on Thursday (Ally), Friday (Davie) and Tuesday (Jamie) and they can start to enjoy the summer.

Jamie buys a suit

Jamie has now handed in his final portfolio of work for his medical degree, and all that remains is for him to present it and answer questions about it at an oral exam, which is called a viva, on Tuesday 20th May. If he is successful he will be a doctor. Words cannot express how proud I am and how happy I am for him. Jamie has wanted to be a doctor since he was about four years old, and he told me then "I want to make people better". 

Anyway he needs a suit to wear to his viva, and so we sent him some funds to buy a suit and new shoes as his graduation present. He's going to get a rucksack too, for his holidays, but he's not setting off until the end of June so it's not so urgent. He ordered the suit in Dundee today with the help of Aisling, and says its a dark charcoal blue. He sounds very happy with it. I so hope that his viva goes well.

Warm at the Greenock Cut

James and I went for a walk to the Greenock Cut today, and we chose to go in the morning because the weather forecast predicted rain for later. When we arrived it was much warmer than we expected and there was no need for fleeces or jackets. It's a great place for a two hour walk with nice views of the coast and mountains like the Cobbler and Beinn Ime beyond. Although it's about fifty minutes drive from home so not as handy as Strathclyde Park. After about an hour we sat down for a coffee and shortly afterwards there was a light shower which soon stopped, although we could see rain clouds coming in across the water. It was very warm and humid, and after we got back to the car there was quite heavy rain as we drove hone, so we were pleased with the timing of our walk.
We arrived back to a house of much studying; this is a big exam week for Ally, Davie and Cat, and they are all working really hard.

The bearded lady wins

Eurovision evening is one of my favourite evenings of the year but this year I have missed most of it because we went to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2. James wanted to go out because he felt cooped up after being in the house all day while I was in town lunching with my school friends. The film was James' and David's choice but they thought it was just average whereas strangely it was me who enjoyed it the most. I think Andtew Garfield is great as Spider-Man and the whole film was fast-paced and interesting, the characters were believable and had a bit of depth. 

We were home in time for the entertainment during the Eurovision voting, including highlights of the performances and a quite amusing sketch about a "Eurovision museum" featuring Johnny Logan as an exhibit! Then it was time for the results. As usual the voting was very political with most countries voting for their neighbours and historical allies. I felt sorry for the seventeen year old Russian twin singers who were loudly booed every time they got some points, after all it wasn't them personally who annexed the Crimea! For a long time it was was neck and neck between the Netherlands and the beautiful bearded lady from Austria. But in the end Austria were the clear winners and an emotional Conchita was led up to the stage where after a moving plea for freedom in the world she performed her song - Rise Like a Phoenix. In Ally's and Cat's opinion (they watched the whole contest) she was a deserving winner, although their favourite was Denmark. Ah Eurovision, so amazing.

The Hunger Games

Friday night after a busy week, and after dinner we decided to watch a film. After some debate we settled on The Hunger Games, which Ally and Cat have seen before and recommended. I knew that it was about some sort of combat where people had to fight to the death, and I wasn't really very enthusiastic about the subject matter. However it turned out to be better than I expected and I thought the story was quite good and the young actors were excellent, especially the lovely Jennifer Lawrence.
It has been an unsettling sort of week at work, with my future still very much undecided. I'm glad that it's the weekend.

Aberlady to North Berwick

KIt's holiday Monday so James and I decided to go for a walk. The weather was more promising on the east coast so James planned us a nice coastal walk from Aberlady to North Berwick. And very nice it turned out to be! It was near a section of the John Muir way but it wound around roads and country lanes whereas we preferred to stick to the coast and walked along beaches for most of the way. 

As is usual in a walk with the observant James, we saw plenty of wildlife. There were several roe deer on the grass at Gullane Sands, geese, cormorants and eider ducks. It was warm with hardly a breeze so we had a couple of relaxing stops for coffee and snacks while enjoying views of the sea and Fidra lighthouse. We joined the actual John Muir way as we approached North Berwick along the side of the golf course. It was great to see lots of people outside enjoying the good weather. 

James had printed out the bus timetable for our return journey and we had time for a pleasant coffee before catching the bus back to Aberlady. The bus driver dropped us right at our car park and now we are on our way home. An excellent walk of 15 km in about 4 hours including stops.

Noisy at Strathclyde Park

That's two days in a row that I have walked round Strathclyde Park, one of our regular haunts. It's a useful length of walk - almost exactly an hour - which can easily be fitted into a morning or an afternoon. Sometimes when the weather is dreich I call it "Strathbleak Park" but I'm very fond of it really.

Yesterday I walked round it with David while James and Alasdair were away hill climbing. The weather was fine and we had a good chat. He is a lovely person and very good to me.

Today I was back with James; again we were lucky with the weather despite the predicted rain and it was dry almost until we got back to the car. It's a well used park with lots of walkers, cyclists, rowers and sailors, but today it was particularly noisy for two reasons. First of all there were vintage cars revving noisily up and down the road (normally very quiet) and secondly there was a sort of mini festival going on in a fenced off area beside the water sports centre. Enquiries at the snack van (where we treated ourselves to a coffee) revealed that it is called "Stereofunk" and it is made up of various bands and DJs doing club music. The music was booming out across the water and was not unpleasant I suppose. It was a pity that the rain came on as we left although there were plenty of tents to provide shelter for the festival goers.

Feline dementia?

Since Jack's recent serious illness (and before it too) we have noticed some changes in his behaviour which led me to look up the symptoms of old age in cats. Thanks to advances in vet medicine, many domestic cats are living longer now, so they often exhibit symptoms that they would never used to have lived long enough to develop!
Thanks to the joys of google there is plenty of available information. Many of the symptoms of feline dementia I'm glad to say do not seem to affect Jack e.g. loss of appetite, lack of grooming, being irritable, urinating in the house, excessive sleeping (although Jack loves to sleep so that one would be hard to judge!)
But there is one thing that has definitely changed; he now has "increased and excessive vocalisations". Jill was always the talkative one, and had a high, feminine meow - one day when the boys were all jokingly chanting "Mum, Mum, Mum!" I could swear that Jill joined in and meowed her own "Muuuum" as an actual word - we all heard it!
But Jack didn't meow so much, and when he did it was in a gruff little voice. I remember one day one my way out to the car I heard his distinctive voice coming from the garage where he had managed to get himself locked in overnight!
Now however he meows very loudly and plaintively, at random times around the house. It's hard to tell quite why - he is very deaf so maybe he feels disorientated without his former sharp hearing informing him of where we all are. Or maybe he doesn't realise that he is being so loud because of his deafness; the other day he was watching a pigeon through the window and making murderous sounds in his throat that I'm sure he didn't know he was doing out loud. Or maybe he is getting a bit confused? If he finds himself alone in the hall why doesn't he just come in search for us? (He does do that eventually.)
It could of course be pain from his arthritis (I hope not) and the vet mentioned that it might be something to do with his thyroid that she can check out next time we visit.
In the mean time, if I hear my furry boy yowling, I go and get him and give him a cuddle. This usually makes him purr until he gets fed up after a couple of minutes and politely disengages himself from me!

I am validated!

A new month but where has the beautiful spring weather gone? Never mind, it will be back soon I hope.

This week's excitement was my hill validation day on Monday. This has to be done annually in order to be qualified to take pupils out on hill walking expeditions. Right up until Monday morning I wasn't sure if I would be able to go, because it depended on certain arrangements being put in place at work. Lezlee encouraged me to go if I possibly could and that gave me the motivation to come into work optimistically dressed for walking. Everything fell into place and I rushed over to meet the walking group at Hamilton Outdoor Resource Base.

I was just in time because everyone was about to climb onto the bus. All four of my Dukie colleagues from school were there (John met us at the hill). There were also some pleasant folks from other schools and the expedition was led by Derek and my good friend Alasdair. So it was a convivial group that arrived at Dumyat near Bridge of Allan.

We each had to take a turn at navigating as if leading a group of 15 year old pupils. Everyone was very good at pretending to be the pupils, entering into the spirit of the occasion with some hilarious "pupil chat". Therefore the walk demonstrated our navigating skills and hill fitness at the same time. We didn't have to role play a medical scenario because we had a real first aid situation when one of the group fell down on some rocks and we had to clean and bandage her finger! I foolishly made a joke about not having used a compass for a while so I was made to demonstrate compass skills to the group of pretend pupils which luckily I still remembered. We made our way up and around the slopes of Dumyat (although disappointingly not quite to the summit because after our first aid emergency we ran out of time). The views were a bit hazy but still beautiful, and the weather was warm and dry all day. I was extremely gratified to find that my current fitness level was similar to the rest of the group so I didn't feel as if I was lagging behind at all. In fact Carolyn described me as "a gazelle" which was very kind but a huge exaggeration! We walked and chatted and it was all great fun. I was so glad that I went and we all passed our validation! The first time I have been validated in about 4 years - so we now have five fully qualified leaders for this season!