Having coffee outdoors in February

Grandma is still very weak after her recent illness but she is a wee trouper and has started to eat and drink a little so we have been tempting her with tasty treats to try to stimulate her appetite. I have also got her some “build-up”drinks which are she is doing her best to quaff. The physiotherapist has given her some exercises so we have been practising them together every day, and quite often she just likes to hold my hand and chat. She is surrounded by family and friends and we are all rooting for her.
I’m still making an effort to walk at least five kilometres a day, and I have had some very pleasant walks in the last few days, because the weather has continued to be unseasonably mild. I visited the cute Dandelion Café in Newlands Park with Jackie and was recognised by a former pupil. This happens to me a lot, but unusually I had taught this pupil more than twenty years ago at Airdrie Academy so I’m surprised that she recognised me! Yesterday I went for a stroll around Queen’s Park. It was absolutely idyllic with not a cloud in the sky, and there were people doing yoga on the grass. And today I went for a brisk walk at Whitelee Wind Farm with Kathryn followed by well-earned scones and coffee, and I was delighted that it was warm enough to sit outside on the terrace of the visitors’ centre in the sunshine without even the need for a jacket. Is it really Spring? 

Downbeat films

It is rather unfortunate that during this difficult time for the family, James and I have unwittingly chosen to watch some films that have been more downbeat that we expected. Last week we went to see the biopic of Laurel and Hardy, entitled “Stan and Ollie.” James had been very keen to see it and we were lucky to catch it at the Fort Vue cinema at the end of its run. However, although the acting by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly was very good, the film was about their final tour in Britain when their glory days were long over, they were hard up because of alimony owed to their ex wives, and Oliver Hardy’s health was suffering. As such, I found it a wee bit depressing, although that could be a reflection of my current frame of mind.
On Friday evening, after Ally and Cat set off northwards for a hill-climbing weekend, James and I decided to watch the recent film about Neil Armstrong’s life in the run up to his famous landing on the moon, “First Man.” This sort of film is right up our streets; science for James and human interest for me. However, guess what, I found it a bit depressing. Neil Armstrong was portrayed as taciturn and deeply affected by both personal and professional tragedies. This may well be spot on, but it all felt a bit bleak; there wasn’t much sense of the excitement of the space race.
Perhaps predictably, I didn’t find our choice of film last night a barrel of laughs either! I had bought the DVD of Dr Zhivago a while ago because I do love Russian literature and also it’s meant to be one of the greatest love stories of all time. It's an old film from 1965 but I have never seen it. We sat down to watch it after dinner. It was extremely good in my opinion, and will definitely stay with me. Omar Sharif was perfect as the good-natured and optimistic Dr Zhivago, and Julie Christie was so beautiful and tragic as Lara. And the music was gorgeous. But it was very long film even though parts of the convoluted plot had been ruthlessly cut to make it simpler, and perhaps because of this some of the characters were underdeveloped and a bit unbelievable. And it was very, very sad.
We really could do with watching a more cheery film next! 

Giant steps are what you take, walking down at Troon

James and I have been spending a lot of time at Grandma’s house over the last couple of weeks, however we are also making sure to go out for a few walks when we have a chance. Healthy mind in a healthy body and all that. Also, the weather has been very mild for February. For this reason I decided that it would be very pleasant to go for a walk on Troon beach on Saturday and then perhaps sit on the beach and read our books. Alas I was way ahead of myself; it is not yet the season for sitting on a beach in Scotland! When we got down to Troon it was extremely windy and as we walked towards the river we were pushing against the wind. However when we turned we were bowled along the beach at a fast clip, with our feet barely touching the sand! We revived ourselves with a tasty brunch at the Venice Café. 

I get some of my mojo back

I have been feeling a bit down over the past week. The reason for that is obvious; I am worried about Grandma’s health problems and about how sad James is. Not that he says much about it but she’s his Mum and he loves her. But I think that I am also reminded of my experiences with my own Mum towards the end of her life and the current situation has brought it all back.
Yesterday Grandma and I had to spend the afternoon at the hospital; Grandma’s back has been very painful and the carers raised the possibility that she might have fractured a vertebra when she had a small fall recently. So the doctor sent us to the hospital for an x-ray. To cut a long story short, there is no fracture and the pain is probably due to being in bed for so long; the doctor and district nurses have put plans in place to ameliorate the situation and have referred her to physio.
You would think that being back at Hairmyres yet again would have made me feel even sadder due to my many visits there with both my Mum and Grandma, but strangely it didn’t have that effect. I felt really focussed on trying to get Grandma’s x-ray arranged quickly, organising her transport to and from the hospital, liaising with the ambulance staff, doctors and nurses to achieve the outcome that Grandma wanted, which was to get back home as soon as possible. And when she was home safe and tucked up in her own wee bed I felt quite euphoric. I’m not kidding myself; I know that she is very frail and unwell, but I was just so relieved to get her home safe. 

Wishing and hoping

We are having a difficult time at Casa Anderson. Grandma is very unwell. She’s a strong and brave lady and we’re hoping that she will recover. So at the moment I’m too sad and preoccupied and busy to blog much. She’s a wee honey. That’s all for now. 

Three mustards Ally

On Saturday morning James and I decided to go over to Ikea at Braehead for a couple of reasons; to have a look at bathroom units and to buy a couple of frames for posters. During our marvellous ski holiday to Arabba I popped into the tourist office, and when I asked about posters was delighted to find that they were free! So we decided to get frames for two of them, one a photograph of the glacier and the other an attractive piste map. Needless to say, when we got to Ikea we not only purchased the frames but also spotted other items that we felt we needed such as a small coffee table, beer glasses, tealights and two bags of frozen meatballs!

The meatballs were of course for Ally, who had accompanied us to make sure that we didn’t make any bad choices regarding the bathroom units. I find it quite sweet that he feels such a responsibility to look after his ancient parents! He also has a vested interest in the bathroom because Catriona has put a great deal of time and effort into designing it for us, which we very much appreciate. 

On the way out of the store Ally asked if he could have a hot dog from the café, which was so terrifyingly cheap you have to wonder what’s in it. He then proceeded to add not one, not two, but THREE different types of mustard to it and had consumed it by the time he got back to the car! 

Chris Bonington looking good

Last March we had booked to see veteran climber Chris Bonington speaking at the Aye Write festival. Sadly he took ill and was unable to attend. Given that he was eighty-three at the time, I wondered if perhaps he would give up public speaking if his health was precarious. However I’m pleased to say that he was back in Glasgow on Thursday evening to speak about his autobiography “Ascent.” I’m not sure if he was an early booking for this year’s Aye Write or the previous booking rescheduled from last year!
Now aged eighty-four, Chris looked fit and well, and he’s an excellent speaker. He talked about his adventures, how he got into climbing, and his thoughts on leadership and life generally. He was knowledgable, funny, and at times very moving. We had taken Ally along and Gordon and Sue were there too, so afterwards we eschewed the rather long queue for book signing and instead nipped round the corner to have dinner at Horn Please, a modern Indian restaurant which we have visited before and we had a very tasty meal. 

Rubbish on television

This evening I watched a programme “24 Hours in A&E” with Alasdair. It’s one of those dreadful voyeuristic reality television programmes, each episode of which follows the stories of several unfortunate people who end up in A&E. I don’t even really know why we started watching it; Ally had come home quite late and we were chatting and it was on in the background and I suppose it caught our attention. The stories were padded out with lots of unnecessary background information about the patients e.g. “He was a bad boy when he was younger but now he’s a great person.” It also kept cutting to the sombre features of “State the Obvious Nurse” who pronounced banalities such as “If you are stabbed in the chest you may damage a major organ.” or “Becoming a father is a huge step in life.” It was truly a waste of an hour.
It did remind me of a visit to A&E with a pupil a few years ago, who had fallen awkwardly while swinging on a classroom chair. He was a nice lad but not the best behaved. He lay in the cubicle shouting “Where did she put my fags?”*  and I had to reassure the hospital staff that this was normal behaviour for him and not a result of his head injury. Luckily he was not seriously hurt.

* I had confiscated his cigarettes earlier when he tried to light one in the ambulance. 

Under the weather

It has been a funny old weekend. I have felt a bit tired and out of sorts for much of it. I have managed to meet my walking target of 5 km per day, but it has felt like a chore and there has been little spring in my step. It could be that my energy levels have been left a bit depleted by the cold which I developed during our ski holiday, however the cold has been well and truly over for the last several days I’m glad to say, so maybe it’s not that.*
It could be the cold and snowy weather, replaced today by lashing rain, but who knows. When I popped round to see Grandma this afternoon she said that she was feeling out of sorts too, so we both decided that what we really need is Springtime! I have been sleeping a lot. We were very late to bed on Friday evening after a brilliant evening over at Heidi and Alex’s, so we were both tired the next morning. After our walk at Drumpellier I took to my bed mid Saturday afternoon (this is very unusual for me), got up for a few hours in the evening, and then slept right though to the next morning. My Mum would have said that I must have needed it. Sunday has been better but I’m still early to bed, unlike Ally who arrived home from visiting Cat in London at 10 p.m. this evening and then went straight back out again to watch the Super Bowl at a friend’s house! Oh the energy of the young!

* I am however being blamed by James for giving him the cold which he has just started today, and which in my opinion he could have picked up anywhere. In an attempt to clear my name I messaged Jamie in New Zealand to ask about timings, but he replied I could have been contagious for up to a week after developing symptoms, and that the incubation period for most respiratory viruses can be from 24 to 72 hours. Annoyingly, according to those timings I can’t quite prove that James didn’t get it from me! 

Winter walk

Well the snow last night didn’t come to anything but the weather continues to be very cold. The light covering of snow on the ground is quite slippy. Today we went for a walk in Drumpellier Country Park, round the loch and through the woods. The sunlight slanting through the leafless trees onto the snowy path was very pretty, as was the ice covered loch. The area is now part of the recently created Seven Lochs Wetland Park which is an urban park between Glasgow and Coatbridge. Today we only walked about 5 km of it so we will need to go back and explore it further. 

Lisztmania and cold weather

Its very, very cold here in the Glasgow area just now, although the ground is covered with frost rather than the snow that is sweeping through the south of England. This makes it very pretty and I enjoyed going to a walk around Stewartfield Loch this morning with the tree branches all white and frozen, and the sky a pale cloudless blue. The little loch was partly frozen and the ducks were walking around on the ice. The sun was very low in the sky and as I drove up the hill I saw not one but two accidents where three or four cars had all shunted into each other, probably because their drivers were dazzled by the sun - like Prince Philip who was in a scary looking crash last week. He emerged remarkably unscathed and luckily the people that he pulled out in front of weren’t seriously injured either. Probably it's time that he stops driving though!
Yesterday I was in Glasgow for another of the SSO’s afternoon concerts, after a delightful lunch in Café Gandolfi with Ally W. This time the main piece was Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, played by the amazingly talented Stephen Hough. Apparently Liszt was such a superstar in his day that audiences would scream or even faint with excitement when he turned up to play the piano. I enjoyed it very much as well as the Bartók orchestral suites that were also played. The Danish conductor Thomas Dausgard was very lively, leaping about and flicking his beautifully coiffured mop of silver hair. These concerts are such fun and full of energy.
By the way I have just looked out of the window and it is now snowing quite heavily!