Lorelei

I have been enjoying my twice (and often thrice!) weekly swim sessions. I swim about 1.3 km in an hour; this is woefully slow compared to my younger self. So I'm trying to improve my speed but I think it will take a while. I have found out that I need to get to the pool early to avoid the school swimming lessons which block off half of the swimming area.  Worse still is the Tuesday morning aqua aerobics class, which is very busy and annoys me because I can't help noticing that quite a lot of the participants are hardly partaking at all. Last week as I swam up and down the paltry fifteen metres remaining for swimmers while the class was on, I was watching two ladies who didn't stop talking at all throughout their class and barely joined in the actions.
If I can't go down to the pool early, it's better to wait until midday when it quietens off for a while. On Tuesday I was happily ploughing up and down, thinking pleasant thoughts, when an elderly gentleman accosted me to ask if I had been humming a tune as I swam. I had to admit that this was indeed the case. He then told me that I reminded him of the Lorelei and described them as lovely water spirits who lured sailors to their deaths with their beautiful singing. I rather liked the comparison! However James later pointed out that Lorelei are nasty, murderous creatures!

Urban Exploration

Today has been a really beautiful sunny day. James and I decided to go out for a walk in the morning, along the River Clyde to Blantyre and Bothwell Castle. However we ended up on the wrong side of the river (it was my fault needless to say, because I assumed there would be another bridge after Carmyle, but the one we could see on the map was blocked off).  Nothing daunted, we continued along the north side of the Clyde, past the lovely curved weir at Carmyle, and ended up making our way up through a new plantation of trees where we saw three roe deer running along. That part of the walk was rather picturesque, but the next part skirted closely past the sewage works and continued along above the motorway embankment.  Although admittedly this bit was not so pretty, it was extremely interesting to walk through an area which I have previously only driven past on the motorway. It was a proper walkway, complete with benches upon which to rest, although strangely it was divided by fences with padlocked gates in two places. This didn't hold James and me back; we simply climbed over the fences and continued on our way. Eventually, we crossed over the motorway and walked along the road into Uddingston, from where we got the train home to Cambuslang. So it wasn't the walk that we had planned but it was fascinating nonetheless.
Later on Grandma came round for dinner as usual, and Ally and Cat arrived back from their Winter Skills training course at Glenmore Lodge. They showed us their photos, which were beautiful and very sunny and snowy, and they told us about their adventures, and all the things that they had learnt on the course. It sounded great.

The Mystery of the Missing Waterproof Trousers

James has been looking for his missing waterproof trousers for a couple of weeks now. They are rather nice new ones that I gave him for Christmas. He has searched the house and garage high and low, and has speculated on where he might have left them.  He was beginning to think that he must have left them in some hostel or car park, when hillwalking. However this morning, I suddenly had an inspiration  and the mystery was solved. It occurred to me that I keep my waterproof trousers in my rucksack, ready to go hillwalking at a moment's notice.  Could I possibly have accidentally put James's trousers in there too? And indeed it was so. Upon investigation, the rucksack did contain two pairs of waterproof trousers. James was torn between delight that his trousers have turned up and irritation that I have had them the whole time. When I said to him, "Isn't that great that I found your trousers?" he replied, "Well, that's one way of looking at it ..." and gave me a very ambiguous stare.
It has been a very pleasant weekend. Last night Heather and Ewan came round for dinner, and inspired by a Mexican meal that we had with them recently, I decided to make Mexican chicken for the main course. This involved  much chopping and marinating; in addition to the chicken there were many constituent parts to the meal including salsa, soured cream, and refried beans. However it all came together and turned out well, or so our guests assured us. We were all reminiscing  about our recent fabulous holiday to the Dolomites, and after dinner we looked at our photos on the television screen. What beautiful weather and snow and scenery! It was a very friendly and relaxing evening, rounded off with an "assemble it yourself" dessert involving Wensleydale cheese and fruit cake (which we brought back from Yorkshire last weekend) and assorted exotic fruits.

Nearly Spring

It's all go at Casa Anderson as spring time approaches. Last week Ally left us to go on his six month placement to London, leaving our nest properly empty for the first time in twenty-eight years. It was strange and a bit sad not to have him, or indeed any boys, in the house. However he was back home, albeit briefly, on Thursday evening because this weekend he and Cat will be attending a winter skills training course at Glenmore Lodge. It was great to see them both when I picked them up from the airport; Ally's London adventure seems to be going very well so far. I'm looking forward to being shown around London by Ally and Cat when we go down in March - Ally sent us photos from a rooftop bar near St Paul's which looks fantastic.
Mid week film night is going really well, although last week's film as not a huge success, especially for James. Phantom Thread is about an eccentric couturier in the 1950s and his strange and (literally) unhealthy mrelationship with one of his models. It stars Daniel Day Lewis in what he says is his final film. The trouble is, all of the characters are very unpleasant in their own way so it's difficult to identify with or even sympathise with them much. The plot was all over the place and it went on and on .... I had no idea how it was going to conclude until suddenly it was over. I did enjoy the beautiful dresses a bit but I'm afraid that it had no redeeming feature for James!
The Shape of Water this week was much better for both of us. Sally Hawkins is such a good actress and she was wonderful in this Cold War fairytale, as were the supporting actors. It is strange and other-worldly, but also has a good story with a proper villain. Its themes included love, loyalty, and lots and lots of water, which saturated the whole film. I loved it.
Meanwhile, Grandma is doing well and even managed to walk along to our house for dinner on Sunday instead of being collected by car. We have been going out for coffee on my days off and even doing a wee bit of shopping together in Marks and Spencer's - Grandma loves to get out of the house. It's so very nearly spring time, however the weather forecast is warning that we have a cold snap to get through this weekend.

North Yorkshire Limestone Pavements

 On Sunday morning, after another hearty breakfast, James and I said farewell to the rest of the group and headed towards Ingleton, about twenty minutes by car from Hawes.  On the way, we saw the impressive Ribblehead viaduct, and also several minibuses from which people dressed in caving equipment were emerging.  Caving is an activity which has never interested me; in fact I think it would be quite horrible. I hate the idea of getting trapped underground, and although I'm not claustrophobic, I don't like the idea of  squeezing through very small spaces.
We parked the car at Chapel-le-Dale, and went for a pleasant, although inevitably muddy, 5 km walk around the Southerscales moors which took us past several amazing limestone pavements. James (whose wide-ranging knowledge never ceases to amaze me), explained their formation to me. These bands of limestone have been scraped and exposed by retreating glaciers, and then the slightly soluble rock has been pitted by acid rain. These may look a bit like raised, flat pavements from a distance, but you wouldn't want to walk on them, because their surfaces are very rough and covered with deep fissures, in which scrubby little plants grow. They are spectacular.
There are also lots of collapsed caves, and the streams have a habit of suddenly disappearing underground. We climbed down into a large hole called the Great Douk, which had a waterfall gushing into it which vanished into the stones after a few feet. James noticed a round wooden cover on the ground, and when we lifted it up to peek inside, we realised that it was the entrance to an underground cave system.
James brought a wee bit of limestone home with us and when we poured vinegar over it, we could see it start to fizz as the stone began to dissolve.

North Yorkshire weekend walking

We went to Yorkshire at the weekend with the hill-walking club. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to going, because I hadn't really planned what I was going to do or done any research into the area. I also had to make arrangements for Ally to look after the cats until he left for London on Sunday morning, and since Floof is still not allowed into the back of the house unaccompanied because of her recently developed escape skills, he would have to be extra vigilant. And with Ally leaving on Sunday without us being able to see him off, the prospective weekend felt a bit hassling before we even set off. 

However as with many things that I haven't looked forward to,  it turned out to be a tremendous experience! We arrived at our hotel in Hawes on Friday evening and met up with the rest of the group. What a lovely village! We went out for a wee walk before bedtime and saw lots of lovely shops and cafés as well, and the houses are very quaint and traditional with a river rushing through the middle of the village.

The next day, after a hearty breakfast, I joined Susan and Debbie for a walk to nearby Dod Fell on the Pennine Way. We had such a fun time. Very near the start of the walk we took a wrong turning and walked up an adjoining valley instead of getting onto the way-marked path. It really didn't matter because we had a great walk anyway, of about 9 km, although we found ourselves having to climb over a lot of gates and wade through many muddy puddles. As we got higher there was quite a bit of snow on the ground on top of the mud! We decided to leave Great Dod for another day.

We made our way back to the road and were on our way back to the village when a police car approached and stopped beside us. My first thought was that we had been seen trespassing on a nearby farm - which we probably had been! However it turned out that the police officers were representing "Operation Owl" which is a campaign to prevent illegal trapping of birds of prey in North Yorkshire. They give us leaflets and chatted away - they were very friendly and even offered us a lift back to the village in the police car! We thanked them but declined, because we didn't want to cut our walk short. However just after they left it started to rain quite heavily. And then, to our surprise, along came ANOTHER police car! This time the police officer was accompanied by someone from the R.S.P.B. and again they were very friendly and offered us a lift - and this time we said yes! 

So we arrived at the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes by police car, which was very exciting, and we were even asked to pose for an "Operation Owl" photograph for the R.S.P.B. website!  The Creamery was fantastic and Iris arrived just as we were sitting down in the café to eat some delicious scones made with Wensleydale cheese. There was a cheese-tasting room as well, with loads of samples. Later on, when we related our adventures to the others in the bar back at the hotel, Bob quipped "They went for Great Dod but they got Great Plod!" which I thought was very funny.

Overheard at the Swimming Pool

I overheard this exchange in the swimming pool changing room this morning.
"I heard that they're using they drones to smuggle drugs into the Bar-L these days"
"Well, that makes a change. They used to kill and gut seagulls, fill their body cavities full of smack and throw them over the wall."
Ah, the banter.

Floof grows up

Last week I was very worried about Floof because she started behaving really strangely. She was rolling about on the floor constantly, and walking in a bizarre fashion with her bottom sticking out and her tail held to the side. She was even more desperate than usual to escape out of the cat flap, and she was miaowing really loudly all around the house. I was genuinely worried that she might have a serious neurological disorder. I was about to phone the vet, but I decided to google her symptoms first. To my surprise I found out that every one of her symptoms proved that she was in full heat! To be fair, James had already suggested that she was trying to go outside to look for a boyfriend! This is the first time that I have seen this - our previous two girl cats must have been speyed before they had their first heat. 

We had already planned for Floof to have her operation soon, with a view to being allowed outside in the springtime. I brought this forward to today, mainly because her escape attempts were becoming all too successful. Floof already knew that the cat flap is Tom's magical portal to the outside, however     she does not yet have a collar with a magnet to make it work for her. This has kept her safely indoors for the last few months. But last week, frantic to get outside, she actually managed to work out how to use her claws to manipulate the plastic catch on the cat flap, and escaped several times! 

So this morning I took Floof to the vet's for her operation. I worried about her all morning. By 2 p.m. when I was on my way back from Yoga, I got a phone call to collect her, and she is currently curled up on my lap purring, with her wee plastic protective cone around her neck. She seems remarkably alert and cheery after her ordeal. I'm just glad that it's over and that she's ok. 

A Cinematic Week

James and I both enjoy going to see films on the big screen, but seldom have I visited the cinema so often as I have in the past week.  It all started when we decided to reinstate mid week film night.  This is something that we used to do years ago when I was studying for my diploma in autism. I had to go to a lecture every Thursday night which finished at about 8:30 PM. So James would come into town to meet me and we would go to see a film.  It was great fun but rather late to go to the cinema when we both had work in the morning. I remember that one of the films we saw was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", so it must have been in 2009. This time around, we decided that we would try going to our mid week film immediately after work, and eat later.
And so on Wednesday, we met outside the GFT and watched "The Post", a film about the Washington  Post's bold decision to publish government documents about Vietnam in the early 1970s, and the consequences thereof. It was a good film starring Meryl Streep  and Tom Hanks, and was very watchable considering that due to its subject matter, it was all talking and not much action. We then phoned Alasdair  to ask him to put the tea in the oven. However it turned out that he was still at the office, so he joined us for an impromptu dinner at the Red Onion.  Our first midweek film night was deemed a resounding success.
 I watched the next film by myself. Readers of this blog will know that I love French films, and I saw that "Une Vie"  was on at the GFT on Friday. However my attendance depended on leaving school sharp, and being lucky with both the traffic and parking if I was to make it on time. And indeed I was lucky!  I even got parked right across the road from the door of the GFT, and rushed to get myself a coffee before slipping into my seat just as the film began. Based on a novel by Maupassant, it is simply about the life of a woman. Our heroine, Jeanne, is naive and hopeful at first but becomes disillusioned over time. However it ends on a note of hope, and as her maid tells her, "La vie, voyez-vous, ça n'est jamais si bon ni si mauvais qu'on croit" (Life, after all, is never as good or as bad as we believe it to be.) It was a beautiful wee gem of a film.
Our final film of the week was on Saturday night. I was keen to see the film about Churchill, "Darkest Hour".  I thought it was awfully good. Gary Oldman was fantastic as Churchill, and the uncertainty and tension of the events leading up to Dunkirk in 1940 were very well portrayed. I hadn't realised that there was still a lot of support for appeasing and negotiating Hitler at that time, and it was fascinating.
So it was a very satisfying week of films - we will definitely continue our mid week film night!

Getting fitter

So that's a whole month now that I have been attempting to get fitter. The last time that I got really fit was over the summer of 2013, when I also lost a lot of weight, but over the last three or four years the weight has gradually crept back on. Starting on the 1st of January I have been both calorie counting and taking more exercise. I'm not too strict about the calories - I'm just trying to be more aware of what I'm consuming. Needless to say I ate exactly what I liked on holiday last week! But with the exercise I'm trying really hard. My main methods are swimming and walking; I'm going for a swim about three times a week, and I'm trying to seize any opportunity to walk - the complete opposite of my usual habits!
For example today my car needed to go to Hillington for a service. Ally kindly took it over there in the morning and I took the train to work. Normally I would have taken a taxi to collect it later. However today I walked from school into Glasgow Central Station which took about 40 minutes, took a train to Hillington West, and walked for another 20 minutes to the Volvo Garage. Not only was this good exercise, but I found it very enjoyable. The weather was cold but bright and the city looked fine, with the low sun lighting up the Caledonia Street Church as I passed by, and reflecting on the windows of the office buildings. Hillington Industrial Estate was not so pretty but it was interesting to look at all the different businesses as I strode along in the twilight.
I have a long way to go (literally and metaphorically!) but I'm enjoying the journey so far!