Not all by myself

Book club was at my house this evening and I thought for a while that it would be book club for one! Several people had sent their apologies and the others hadn't confirmed. However, one by one, my chums arrived and soon we were a convivial group of five. Fortified by Catherine's excellent home baking (although not able to come to book club she kindly donated baking left over from her MacMillan coffee morning) we discussed the crime novels of Val McDermid. Ruth had suggested this after hearing a radio interview with McDermid which sounded interesting. We were unanimous in our enthusiasm for the different books we had read, although there were one or two wee issues regarding plot that we all noticed. But they are good crime novels. It was a very pleasant evening in great company.

Strange dreams

It's wild and windy outside but I'm cosy in my bed. I am still feeling in a positive mood about taking more exercise, although today I didn't manage much more than 10000 steps. My excuse for this is that I had a nightmare last night that I was booked in for surgery to get my arm amputated. Being too busy at work for the operation, I was desperately trying to look up the phone number of the hospital to postpone it - but my phone got hotter and hotter in my hand until the screen blanked out. It would not require a team of psychologists to work that out - I have just finished reading a book featuring a one-armed serial killer. And being too busy and trying to rearrange things is a feeling that I am all too familiar with. This resulted in me feeling tired all day.

Dreams are funny things. I have a recurring dream that I find out that my Mum and Dad (who have been dead for six and nearly twenty years respectively) are still alive but have moved away and are running a bed and breakfast without telling me where they are! So weird. When I wake up I feel quite annoyed with them! 

A turning point?

Well it has been an excellent September weekend in all sorts of ways, despite the mixed weather. It was nice to meet up with the hill walking club for drinks and dinner on Friday and Saturday, and also to go out for a really lovely dinner at the Crannog in Fort William on Sunday evening with Heather and Ewan. I went swimming on Saturday and walking on Sunday and Monday, along canals and rivers and through forests. I had some important discussions with James about the future, which is now looking a great deal clearer (and brighter). I had some very interesting discussions with Heather and Ewan about fitness and exercise and have started using my Fitbit again in earnest. Today while James went off to climb a Corbett I went for another boat trip - a cruise in the sunshine along Loch Linnhe on the Souters Lass. It has been a fun and inspiring weekend in the company of good friends.

Abyssal Plain

While James was climbing a hill near Fort Augustus I took the opportunity to go on a boat trip on Loch Ness. I do love a boat trip and the beautiful scenery of the loch did not disappoint. The weather was dry and warm (unlike later on when we were treated to torrential rain!) so we had amazing views. The boat trip was only an hour long so we didn't get very far down the loch but we saw wild goats grazing on a very steep hillside. As we headed back to the canal one of the crew gave us a really interesting talk about the loch and how deep it is, formed by glaciers that gouged out a trench as deep as the mountains around it are high. He showed us this using a sonic display that showed us that the loch is very deep; the mountains continue more or less straight down below the water. Where we were sailing the water was about 600 feet / 183 metres deep. He explained that Loch Ness used to be an inland sea and that fish like the Arctic char have lived there since the last ice age. We could see the dots on the sonar that show it is teeming with many other fish such as giant trout, sturgeon and pike. His point was that there could be all sorts of other creatures lurking deep down on the abyssal plain .... perhaps including Nessie!

The Scary Stairs

Heather and I went to see a play at The Tron last night and it was a great evening. We had a drink in Metropolitan then dinner at Café Gandolfi, which was quiet when we went in but filled up fast. The theatre was only five minutes walk away. When we arrived we scrutinised our tickets then followed the sign that we thought led towards our section. The stairwell was very dark as we ascended, and one of the theatre people came rushing after us to say that we should have gone through the main doors - in fact she told us that they call that way the "scary stairs!"

Redirected, we soon found our seats. They play had only two actors and it was about two American policemen who are also close friends, and their reaction to some traumatic events in their lives. They actors took turns telling the story - it was very intense and absolutely compelling. We both enjoyed it very much. 

A very satisfactory weekend

It has been a good weekend, with the highlight being Ally and Cat's return home from their two month holiday in South America. It was absolutely brilliant to see them and hear about some of their adventures- although we haven't seen any photos yet as these are still being edited. So we spent quite a lot of the weekend just chilling out with Ally and Cat and it was great. 

Other weekend activities included the purchase of James' new car on Saturday, which involved a very lengthy and boring final visit to the car showroom. Honestly I was so bored that I could have wept as James and the salesman went through their negotiations in fine detail. When they were bargaining over the last couple of hundred pounds I told the salesman that if he threw in some roof bars I would make James sign the contract then and there - and he did! James was very pleased with his deal. When we got home I climbed into the hammock for a well deserved rest and James brought me a cool drink, it was very pleasant to be home.

Today we went for a walk to Rouken Glen park which was looking very autumnal with lots of leaves on the ground already. I have so many lovely memories of my children's childhoods that took place at Rouken Glen, and a favourite was always what the boys called "scooshing through the leaves" in the autumn.

A visit from Jennifer

I have just had a splendid evening with my dear sister. Jennifer is paying a flying visit to Scotland to visit friends, family and to view her current exhibition of work in the Porty Light Box (in Portobello) in collaboration with her friend Jon. For the last year Jennifer has been sending Jon a poem and he in turns sends her a photograph, creating two creative ‘strands’, each poem inspiring a photograph, each photograph inspiring a poem. A selection of these are now on display and I am very proud of her, as I know our Mum and Dad would have been. 

Jennifer treated James and me to a meal in our local Wetherspoons and then we had a lovely evening, setting the world to rights - including the world of our beloved Bake Off, during which we enjoyed accurately predicting both who would be Star Baker and who would be sent home. Great fun! 

New beginnings

Well I didn't expect to find myself leading a Duke of Edinburgh expedition this last weekend so soon after moving schools! In fact I had thought that I would possibly start being involved with the D of E Award again next Spring, as a volunteer rather than leader. How wrong I was! It turns out that I am the only qualified leader (for the moment) at my new school and the expeditions had already been arranged...

So that's why I have so far completed eight days of a twelve day working week, and boy am I tired. I also have a rotten cold which I have liberally dosed with anything I could find in Morrison's. It's a long time since I have rubbed Vicks on my chest and I must say I like the smell! 

Moaning aside, it was a great weekend. I walked more than 20,000 steps per day and had some hair-raising experiences reversing a huge minibus through a narrow farm gate into the camp site. Above all the company of my new pupils and colleagues was brilliant. We had some great laughs and the pupils were really polite and several, though exhausted, made a point of thanking us when we dropped them off back at the school. This was all the sweeter since something I had recently looked forward to very much had not turned out well. It's strange that sometimes the things you look forward to least turn out much better than anticipated.

Heartburn

It's officially Autumn but still lovely and warm I'm glad to say. In fact when I stepped outside yesterday to go to work, it felt as humid as being inside one of the greenhouses at the Botanic Gardens. I have been having a rather sociable week catching up with old friends. This has involved trying out some new (to me) restaurants on the south side and beyond. I particularly enjoyed going to Riva in Bothwell with book club, the food was absolutely excellent. And on Monday Jackie made me a delicious roast chicken dinner; she is a really good cook. 

Perhaps as a result of all this eating my heartburn has been dreadful over the last few days, totally burning all the way up my throat at all times of the day or night. My throat is so sore that I can hardly drink my tea! 

All over the world

So I got a text about an hour ago to say that Jamie and Aisling have arrived in Auckland and are waiting for their flight to Dunedin. It was lovely to hear from them. I have also been hearing from Ally and Cat who are having a brilliant time in Peru. They have visited Machu Picchu and sent us some amazing photos from the top of Ally with a llama! This involved thirteen hours of nonstop walking up 46,6000 steps and 613 flights of stairs. They have had all sorts of adventures and are heading to Bolivia next. 

And Davie and Chanel are in Liverpool visiting Chanel's Gran - not quite as far from home admittedly! 

Meanwhile James and I spent today at the Ayr Air Show. It all started so well with dry weather and we sat in the beach on our deckchairs to watch beautiful views of the flying display over the sea. However the rain came on in the early afternoon and despite James' huge umbrella we ended up rather damp in parts. We are made of stern stuff though and stayed until the end of the show to see the Red Arrows display. A horrifically long queue awaited us at the station but  luckily it moved quite fast and of course we had our trusty giant umbrella - unlike some people who looked absolutely drenched. We had parked our car at Barassie Station just ten minutes up the line so we were soon in our own transport which I prefer! (I don't have anything in particular against public transport except that it often goes wrong for me e.g. Delays, cancellations, strange people accosting me). We then had an excellent dinner in the Cochrane Inn where I have had dinner with Christine a couple of times. Lovely day.

Chasing the sun

James and I have been tracking Jamie's journey to New Zealand using the planefinder app. Last night we tracked him as he headed north and crossed Greenland before curving south towards Los Angeles. This morning we saw that his plane had left Los Angeles to head westwards to Auckland. Because he was heading west he kept ahead of the sunset for quite a while. When he crosses the date line as he approaches New Zealand he will suddenly lose a whole day as the clock jumps a whole 24 hours forwards! How weird is that? Then there will be one more change - an hour backwards - so when he is in New Zealand he will be 11 hours ahead of us here in Scotland! 

All change

Lots of changes are going on in my life just now but I feel as if I am coping ok with them so far. The biggest change is of course Jamie moving to New Zealand. He and Aisling are currently on their way back to Aberdeen from their holiday in Turkey, then a mind-boggling eight hours later they will set off on their journey to New Zealand, westwards via London and Los Angeles. Jamie and I will be having a farewell phone call tomorrow afternoon while they are in London.

The other big change is my new job. I'm two weeks in now and still enjoying both the job and the thrilling proximity of my new school to home. I'm still getting to know the pupils and staff and the different ways that things are done, so I'm still quite tired, but it has definitely been a very positive move. 

Then Ally and Cat will be home from South America in a couple of weeks so I'm really looking forward to seeing them, and Davie and Chanel will be home this weekend to see a concert. Life with grown up children seems to be full of comings and goings, but the important thing is that they keep coming back!