The joy of FaceTime

It has been a very pleasant weekend - both fun and useful. After yesterday's Christmas shopping trip with Grandma I survived my hair-raising bus journey home (James had driven Grandma home earlier) and we went over to Heather and Ewan's for dinner. We had such a relaxed evening and chatted about all sorts of things - I was very glad to be there in their beautiful home. They also made us an absolutely delicious dinner, yum.

Today was a whirlwind of housework and admin, which I am usually reluctant to start but find strangely satisfying. Grandma came round for tea and then (after the Strictly Come Dancing results show) we all FaceTimed Ally and Cat, who are spending a week in Gdansk. FaceTime is amazing - Ally and Cat were able to show us around the apartment they have rented and even the view from the window. It was as if we were right there in the room with them! We FaceTime Ally at least weekly and Poland is not by any means the furthest venue from which they have Skyped or FaceTimed but I still find it fascinating. Grandma enjoys it too and was full of questions about what they are up to. They told us that it is extremely cold there just now! They will be visiting churches and a Christmas market tomorrow.  

The devil's own form of transport

I'm on a bus for the second time this year, something of a record for me with my aversion to public transport in general and buses in particular. Our route wound through town for a very long time, down Renfield Street but then along Argyle Street and back UP Queen Street, stopping at every bus stop and traffic light before we finally headed south east. It is dark and I now have no idea where I am because the windows are all greasy and steamed up. It's crowded and the man behind me has his hands over the back of my seat and keeps touching my ponytail, I hope by accident. I don't know how I will know when to get off the bus as it lurches through the streets. At least no one is overtly drunk or vomiting so this is one of my more pleasant bus journeys.

Interstellar

We went to see Interstellar last night at the IMAX. James had booked us seats very near the front so we had to lie our heads back on the seats to avoid craning our necks. It was schmaltzy (for example Anne Hathaway's impassioned speech about love being one of the forces of the universe), the physics became a bit fanciful as the film progressed (although James told me that it was not unreasonable), and it was very, very long.

I loved it! 

St Ninian's Cave

St Ninian's Cave was our destination today on our hill-walking club weekend to Newton Stewart. We drove the two hours down to this area last night after work and enjoyed a hearty pub tea with the other nine in our party. The hotel is really nice with ensuite rooms; I had been expecting a hostel so I was very pleasantly surprised.

This morning six of us went on a circular coastal route starting from the small harbour village of Isle of Whithorn. After a rainy night and a misty start to the day, the weather turned warm and sunny - as we walked along in short sleeves it was hard to believe that we are nearly at the end if November. We made our way along cliff paths with beautiful sea views across to the Isle of Man in the distance. 

Then we descended to a wide stony beach, crossed a small but fast flowing stream, and arrived at St Ninian's Cave. It is indeed a cave and a plaque on the wall informed us that St Ninian (a 5th century Christian missionary to Scotland) used to pray there, so in no way did I feel short changed! In addition there are crosses carved on the walls and people had put little wooden crosses and pictures of saints in the nooks and crannies of the walls. Clearly a spiritual place. We had lunch sitting outside it and James made tea and coffee with his stove. Our way back was mainly by road, which was a bit straight and boring but picturesquely surrounded by fields full of sheep and cows, and luckily it did not have too much traffic. On arriving back in Isle of Whithorn we found that it was standing room only in its tiny village pub, so we decided instead to come back to Newton Stewart for a drink. And after a nice hot bath I am about to join the others in the bar! A good day. 

The amazing Isabelle Huppert

I read La Dentelliere at university in 1979 and then attended a screening of the film which had come out only a couple of years before. I found the book's heroine annoyingly passive (I was less tolerant then) but enjoyed the fine acting of the young, beautiful and red-haired Isabelle Huppert. Twelve years later I took a class of Higher French pupils to see Madame Bovary and Huppert's performance as the self destructive Emma was riveting.

This evening I was at the GFT to watch La Ritournelle starring guess who? This time Isabelle Huppert played a farmer's wife suffering from empty nest syndrome who nips off to Paris for a couple of days. Various adventures ensue. She was as gorgeous as ever and I mused that although she looks distinctly younger than me, the amount of time that she has been acting in films must mean that she and I are about the same age. However when I got home I googled her and found that she is in fact ten years older than me! I was absolutely amazed - she looks way younger than her age. Most importantly though she is a great actress who grips the attention of the audience from start to finish of the film. 

Weekend in Perthshire

I have always loved my occasional weekends at Gleneagles. We used to take the boys with us wen they were little, and they also loved the leisure centre and the outdoors hot tub. Other times we have enjoyed weekends for two with country walks and fine dining.This time it's just the two of us. We had a pleasant autumnal walk yesterday through the grounds where we saw several huge flocks of geese heading noisily south in v formations for the winter. After a delicious dinner last night we are relaxing by the pool on this sunny Sunday morning. 

Gleneagles feels to me like an elegant ship, sailing through the years with an ever changing clientele; a haven of elegance. 

South River Blues in the West End

Jamie is home for the weekend and we are going round some car showrooms with him today - boring but quite relaxing as we are currently having a coffee and watching the Remembrance Day ceremony on a large screen while Jamie is out having a test drive.  

Yesterday was a pleasant day. James was away hill walking and I had a useful morning (housework, admin, carpet fitter, curtain measurer) before heading into town for a shopping trip with Grandma since she enjoyed our trip to Jenners in Edinburgh a few weeks ago. First we went to the interior designer at John Lewis to sign off the orders for the lounge, then we had a browse around the store and Grandma did a wee bit of Christmas shopping. We saw the much talked about new John Lewis Christmas advert which was being broadcast in various screens around the store to smiling crowds of shoppers. After hearing colleagues going on about how great it was I was prepared to be quite cynical and unmoved, however I have to admit that it is very good and the ending brought a tear to my eye - apparently the store has sold out of toy penguins! We had a nice cup if tea in the café and Grandma told me how much she enjoys having someone to go shopping with; we arranged another date in a couple of weeks.

After tea, James, Jamie, Davie and I went to The Dram in Woodlands Road, where a friend of mine was playing with his band, the South River Blues Band. It was great, and David was really brilliant on the saxophone. They played blues but also rock and other stuff - near the end there was a medley of The Doors songs which was excellent. Jamie and Davie enjoyed it too - it was nice going out with our boys!

Talking of our boys, our Oslo boy Ally is horrified by the tartan curtains that I have ordered for the lounge (I emailed him a picture!) heh heh I think it will look great!

Missing Jack

Ironically I am missing Jack on his least favourite night of the year. He hated fireworks - although, strangely, only for the latter half of his life. When he was young he would go out and in the cat flap quite unconcerned on bonfire night. But I can only suppose that something gave him a fright because one year he came in trembling with fear and hid in the hall cupboard, which became his preferred place whenever he heard fireworks. Last November he was an old chap and almost completely deaf, but he could still hear the loudest bangs and was very miserable about it. However by New Year he evidently couldn't hear the fireworks at all. He went strolling out of the cat flap in a relaxed fashion, despite the loud bangs and whooshes of fireworks all around. However once he was outside he must have seen the bright explosions of the fireworks in the sky and came rushing back in, wide eyed and horrified!

He was such a honey, and of course I miss him on bonfire night, because I miss him every day.