All by myself

Actually I haven't had much time to be lonely yet, because since my boys went away on Thursday morning, I have been busy at work, I have enjoyed a lovely curry at Rasoi with Heather, Ewan and Andrew and today I met a beautiful wee baby.

It was great to see Andrew as well as his mum and dad last night, and it was a fitting occasion for a celebratory curry because Andrew has just heard the news that he has also been successful in getting a traineeship in a law firm for when he completes his Diploma. So that's him and Ally both set up with their first law jobs! It was a jolly evening and back at the house we had a great chat and a laugh about books and blogging.

Today I went round to meet two and a half week old Eva Park, daughter of my friend and colleague Shona. She is an absolutely beautiful little girl with such a sweet face. It was really great to hold a new baby, so soft and warm. Shona looks fantastic and seems to be a natural at becoming a mum.

And at home I have my cats to keep me company; they are definitely aware that there are some people missing from the house and have become unusually affectionate towards me.

I have heard several times from the intrepid hill walkers in France. First from Val d'Isere and secondly from Tignes. They have great weather and have been enjoying their big hill walking days. I do miss them but I'm so glad that the boys are having fun with their Dad.

At your age?

At the end of the school day I mentioned that I was going to a concert tonight; FFS at the Barrowlands. One of my pupils overheard and commented, "A concert - at your age Mrs Anderson?", which I thought was very funny! 

Anyway the concert was very good - Franz Ferdinand and Sparks have teamed up to make an album together. An unlikely combination but it worked - they sang a mixture of new and old music. So we heard both "Take me out" and "This town ain't big enough for the both of us" at the same concert! I would have enjoyed it even more if it hadn't been standing only because I was quite tired (I have always preferred to have a seat at a concert to relax in when I'm not jigging about). It was also crowded and very hot. The feeling of sweat trickling down my back is not one that I relish under any circumstances. 

Back home there is frantic last minute packing going on as my four boys get ready for their hill-walking holiday in the French Alps. They will be leaving early tomorrow morning.

Shopping trip nostalgia

I had a sense of déjà vu when James and I took Davie over to IKEA on Saturday to choose his cookware, dishes and cutlery for his student flat in Dundee. Eight years ago we made the same trip for Jamie, who was also going to university in Dundee. Davie made sensible decisions on what he would need and we also got him a new cactus to keep the cactus that Cat gave him company. His current cactus is called Bear Grylls but David says that the new one will not receive a name until it survives a year in his care! When that time comes he says that it will probably be called Ray Mears.

Whenever I think of Bear Grylls I tend to be preoccupied, not by his many daring exploits, but by the fact that when he proposed to his girlfriend he hid the ring up his butt while they were skinny dipping, so that he could surprise her. I would certainly have been surprised if James had produced a ring out of his butt. Anyway she must have appreciated the unusual gesture because she married him.

Anyway, I digress. After a slap up lunch in the IKEA cafe, our next destination was John Lewis where we bought David a duvet, pillows and a nice navy striped duvet cover, fitted sheet and pillow covers. And finally we arrived at The Outdoor Experience where I swear that James spent longer over choosing a new pair of climbing trousers than the rest of the shopping trip put together! 

David seemed to enjoy his shopping trip. I'm so glad for him, going to study his dream course of Biochemistry at university, but I will miss him so much.

Fun, fit and food

We have just had a brilliant weekend at Boat of Garten. We rushed up after work on Friday and Alison had prepared a delicious dinner - I was very impressed all weekend at how much of the food was grown in their garden; beetroot, raspberries and blueberries. On Saturday the weather forecast was much better for the west, so Hugh very kindly drove us eighty miles westwards and James and Alison went to walk a 20 km section of the West Highland Way from Strathfillan to Fort William. It also had about 700 metres of ascent so was quite a big walk. Meanwhile Hugh and I went for a walk at Glen Nevis, from the very end of the road to the "hidden valley" where the wire bridge is. It was lovely, I really like the way the path opens out into the valley and I have fond memories of going there when the boys were wee. Back up near the visitors' centre we had time for a very pleasant lunch at the Glen Nevis Restaurant before meeting James and Alison at the end of their walk. Cakes and coffee all round!

We went to our favourite restaurant - Anderson's - on Saturday evening and it was great - I was glad of the walk back to the cottage so that I could digest all the gorgeous food including the home made ice creams. I'm not usually a fan of ice cream but this is exceptional! 

On Sunday we went clay pigeon shooting at Rothiemurchus; great fun although I wasn't on top form - my first, more instinctive shot at each section was usually the best and then I would think about it too much and miss the rest. Then we went on "the triangle"walk before ending up at the Rothiemurchus café where I had beautiful Cullen skink. What a great weekend.

Curry on a school night

I'm so tired tonight, probably because I was up late last night putting the finishing touches to the timetable. So after six long days at work, today was my first official day back! It was nice to see everyone over the summer and to give them the good news about SQA results and leavers' college places, and the day flew past.

It's so cold in our part of the school this week that when I left the building to go home I was amazed to find that it was much warmer outside than inside! I had a yearning for a curry on the way home which I now regret because I feel really full and the curry is burning the lining of my tummy.

Summer weekend in Perthshire

I have had a busy weekend checkpointing our Duke of Edinburgh Gold group in Perthshire. Their pace was a bit slow yesterday but has picked up today I'm glad to say. James went on a big hill walk yesterday and then joined me later at Creagan House in Strathyre for dinner, bed and breakfast; it was only a couple of miles from where the pupils were camping so I could be on hand in case of emergencies. The hotel was lovely and dinner was very traditional and delicious. 

I was surprised at just how busy Perthshire is this weekend; I spent a bit of time in Killin today and it was full of cyclists and families enjoying the summer weather. There were lots of people clambering about on the rocks at the Falls of Dochart and the cafés were doing a roaring trade. 

I have now completed my two days of checkpointing - pleasant though it was I was pleased to hand over to the next teachers who will monitor the final two days of the expedition and I headed home, happily playing my music in the car, duty done! Jamie was home for the weekend and he prepared a gorgeous home cooked meal for us and Grandma, and we all swapped stories and had a laugh.

Cooler

That's me back to work now time tabling and getting prepared for the new term which officially starts on 13th August. I never mention any details about work but I have to say that I am absolutely delighted with the great SQA results that our pupils have achieved, often overcoming significant difficulties to do so. It makes it all feel worth while. It's not just about exam results of course, I am also proud of their personal and social development. 

There is no heating on in the school and the weather is cool and wet, so as I work I get colder and colder. At lunch time I went out to pick up a sandwich and deliberately turned up the heating in the car to full blast so that I could get a heat! What a contrast with the gorgeous temperatures in Amsterdam at the weekend. 

Goodbye to sunshine and canals

Our last day in Amsterdam was even warmer than the first two, I hope that I have stored up all of the sunshine to see me through the Scottish winter! We went for a walk along canals and quaint little side streets, including the area near our hotel called The Nine Streets. After a refreshing drink in a café we hopped onto a boat for a canal tour. The tour was ok although a bit impersonal because rather than chat to us, the driver just played us a recording about the highlights as we passed them. It was however relaxing and not too crowded which meant that I could move around to different seats as the boat wound through the canals, so that I was shaded from the direct sunlight and felt quite cool. We had our lunch sitting outside at the Spanier & Van Twist café which was appropriate as we had our Friday evening meal there too. I will always think of it fondly as our Amsterdam "local"! 

Back at the hotel we had coffee and got changed ready for our homeward journey. The coffee was "on the house" which I thought was a really nice gesture - it sums up the atmosphere of the Toren hotel. The rooms are really nice but the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff is what made it special for me. It has been a great weekend with great friends.

Rijstafel

This morning wes even warmer than yesterday; we decided to head for the countryside and took a bus to the quaint village of Edam. So pretty! There we tasted different flavours of Edam in a cheese shop before having coffee at a café in a lovely old square. We watched the canal bridge being raised to let boats pass underneath it, then walked a very pleasant 5 km along the coast to Volendam. Volendam is a very busy little town on the Markensee, and today it was jumping with tourists; it appeared that all of the restaurants were pretty full. Just as we approached a small restaurant beside the pier, a table came free outside it and the man who was leaving said "you have the best seats in the house!" which was correct because we could sit back and watch all the people coming and going along the seafront from a relaxing vantage point. Then we jumped onto the ferry which took us across the Markersee to another picturesque little village, Marken, which has attractive painted wooden houses. It was very hot all day but we kept hydrated with frequent stops in cafés who here we chatted and enjoyed the atmosphere. 

The Dutch arrived in Indonesia in the 16th century in search of spices, and eventually Inonesia became a colony of the Netherlands. I mention this because it explains the Dutch people's love of Indonesian food, and Ewan suggested that we try one of the many Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam. I loved it! We all had Rijstafel which is a large meal to be shared amongst a group, consisting of rice with many small dishes of spiced vegetables and meats. The dishes looked small but they were very filling and the flavours were spicy and unusual. Then our dessert was brought out; again a large sharing platter where the crowning glory was an amazing banana tart surrounded by delicious cakes, sorbets and ice creams. Interestingly, Rijstafel is said to have been influenced by Dutch colonials who asked Indonesian chefs if they could have "a bit of this and a bit of that" so the chefs prepared a variety of small dishes for them to taste and it became a new tradition - so the culinary influence goes both ways. We were so full at the end of this delicious meal that we had to go for an extended walk on the way back to our hotel to aid our digestion!

Den Haag und Leiden

We visited two destinations today by train - Den Haag and Leiden. 

I was very keen to visit the Mauritshuis Museum in Den Haag to see two particular paintings; Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer and The Goldfinch by  Carel Fabritius. I found out about both paintings through the eponymous novels by Tracy Chevalier and Donna Tartt. I very much enjoyed both books so wanted to see the paintings which inspired them. I loved both paintings, they were both so life-like and beautiful, and I enjoyed lots of the other Dutch Golden Age paintings. Highlights that spring to mind include Jan Steen's raucous family party in "As the old sing, so pipe the young" which is meant to give the moral message that a bad example leads to bad conduct but the painting is too much fun to be a grim warning. Also I liked Abercamp's Ice Scene which was full of activity and fun. I think that the genius lies in the details of all of these paintings, like the expression on a child's face, the light on a piece of jewellery, the texture of the paint on the bird's wing. The museum itself is a lovely old house near the parliament buildings, so after our visit we walked around the centre of the city in the warm sunshine, looking at fountains, palaces, churches and having lunch in a picturesque square.

Our next destination was the university town of Leiden. Several friends had recommended it to Heather and it is on the same train line as Den Haag so off we went. It's a vibrant, attractive town with a long history of textiles and publishing. It has a beautiful old quarter with miles of canals which cross cross the town as well as an outer canal. The Old Rhine river is part of the canal system too. We took a canal tour which was a great way to see the sights in comfort; lots of old buildings and parks and very low bridges! There were lots of boats filled with people enjoying the sunshine, and the banks of the canals had lots of open air cafés and restaurants; Leiden has a great atmosphere. We had drinks on the canal side then a delicious dinner in a pescatarian restaurant before hopping back on the train to Amsterdam.

It has been an absolutely fantastic day and it also happens to be Ewan's birthday - we were delighted to celebrate it with him and Heather.