Carless weekend

On Friday evening I was back at Aye Write, this time with Heather, to hear Liz Lochhead speak about books that have influenced her. I really enjoyed it; she is a very good speaker and I found her talk to be both fascinating and even inspiring. I had read almost all of the books that she quoted, and shared her opinion of them, especially Wuthering Heights, which I read through one night as a teenager, finishing just as dawn started brightening my bedroom.
On Saturday James and I went to Play, Pie and a Pint to see the play about Chic Murray, entitled “A Funny Place for a Window.” I saw the play last May and I have been looking forward to taking James to see it, because I knew that it would appeal to his sense of humour. And so it did, he was laughing throughout. Even though I have seen it before I thought it was excellent and Dave Anderson was great as Chic Murray. We emerged from Oran Mor into a lovely sunny afternoon, and went for a walk through the Botanic Gardens and along the banks of the Kelvin to Kelvinbridge Underground Station below Great Western Road. The reason for this rare foray onto public transport (for me - James stalwartly takes the train to work every day) was necessitated by Alasdair borrowing the car for the weekend, as he and Cat were heading north for some hill-walking. We managed fine without the car all weekend; on Saturday evening we travelled by train to Heather and Ewan’s where we had a very pleasant evening (which included a delicious tagine) and then later took a taxi home. We were gratified that travelling by taxi from Lenzie to Cambuslang cost only the very reasonable price of £14 - the occasional taxi ride like this and using public transport when necessary is going to be much cheaper than running two cars, so our recent one car experiment * seems to be turning out well so far.

* When Jamie’s Volvo’s lease - taken on by us when he moved to New Zealand - expired, we decided not to replace it, to see how we get on with one car. 

Get busy with the fizzy

In the late 1970s my parents bought themselves a SodaStream, which they absolutely loved. They used it to make carbonated drinks with various flavours by adding concentrated syrups, and also to make mixers for their gin. They exulted in its ease of use and alleged money saving. The juddering sound of escaping carbon dioxide as the SodaStream’s process completed was part of the sound track of my teenage years.
Little did I know that James felt nostalgic for a similar but even more retro device - the Soda Syphon. This elegant bottle works in a similar way, with small carbon dioxide capsules, and you can’t add syrups to it during the process; only after you have produced the sparkling water. James ordered a vintage crimson coloured soda syphon from eBay a few days ago and I have to admit that it is very aesthetically pleasing. We have used it quite a lot already and I have designed my own passion fruit and lime drink using the carbonated water. Great fun! 

Flaming onions

It was Alasdair’s 25th birthday yesterday and when we asked him where he would like to go for his birthday meal he opted for Benihana, a branch of which has recently opened in Glasgow. I had never heard of it, but apparently it’s an American-Japanese restaurant which is well known around the world (except to me!) and first opened in New York as far back as 1964. The western-influenced Japanese meals are theatrically prepared in front of the guests by a knife-wielding chef who tells jokes and throws his knives about alarmingly while producing delicious food. He does much chopping and grilling at a “teppanyaki” table (a very hot steel plate) and then passes the food over to the eating surface which surrounds the grill. It was great fun and very entertaining. One of the chef’s best tricks was to slice an onion and arrange it into a volcano shape, which he then set alight so that flames and smoke shot out of it. 
Just after we arrived at the restaurant, Cat also arrived. She had travelled by train up from London a day early so that she could surprise Alasdair on his birthday. He was so delighted, it was really sweet. He had asked me the previous day if she might be coming but I successfully feigned ignorance. So when she did arrive we asked Ally how much he had suspected that she might surprise him. He replied, “I didn’t suspect but I hoped!” Ah, young love! 

Oh the tension

James and I have just finished watching last year’s popular six part thriller, The Bodyguard. We are perhaps the last people in the world to watch it, and we finally did so because so many people have told us that it’s fantastic. I have to admit that it did not disappoint. I had a few issues with believing some of the plot, for example the police allowing a potential suicide bomber to walk through central London, however this was more than made up for by the amazing tension when our hero attempted to defuse the bomb. It felt like I held my breath for about ten minutes during that scene!
Meanwhile there is a lot of tension in the UK as the mess that Brexit has become stumbles along. Today MPs voted on eight different options regarding Brexit and rejected all of them. Meanwhile Theresa May has promised Tory MPs that she will resign if they back her deal. Nothing is settled and who knows what will happen next. Grandma says that she is sick of hearing about it on the news and I don’t blame her. 

London Fashion

Today was the last day of our short break to London, and a very nice day it was too. Our Christmas present from Jennifer and Russell was a joint membership of the V&A so after breakfast we set off to the museum district by Tube. We noticed that there were several school parties heading in the same direction as us. One little primary pupil in our carriage looked a bit pallid and I saw his young teachers start scrabbling in their medical rucksack for a sick bag (ah how well I remember carrying one of these rucksacks on school trips, stuffed with medication and epi-pens!) Too late! The young boy vomited copiously down his front and then cheerfully reassured his teachers that he was feeling much better, as they attended to him with handfuls of wet wipes! It made me feel quite nostalgic!
At the V&A we went to the Christian Dior exhibition which is extremely popular. No queues for us; as members we were waved straight through, which was brilliant. The exhibition was interesting. I know nothing of haute couture, but even I could tell that the dresses were absolutely exquisite in their material and design and detail. When James and I discussed it, he pointed out that designer clothes influence what is later sold on the high street, and that fashion design is a strange but historic industry. James was also very interested in the construction of the clothes, after all he is a fan of The Great British Sewing Bee. Jennifer and Russell’s generous gift also entitled us to entry to the members’ lounge, so we went there for coffee and scones and enjoyed the relaxing and luxurious ambience. Hopefully we will be back.
It was another sunny day so we walked through Hyde Park, pausing to visit the Princess Diana memorial fountain on our way. We eventually arrived at Covent Garden where James perused the South American section of the amazing travel book and map shop, Stanfords. I then persuaded James to treat me to a late lunch at the Ivy before heading for London City Airport and it was just delicious; when we got home in the evening neither of us were hungry for dinner! A couple at the next table had a terrible quarrel though, and after telling him that she was tired of everything being about him, she actually walked out. The waiters were discreetly agog, but I thought it was kind of sad. I hope that they made up later. Ally kindly picked us up from the airport and although it has been a marvellous long weekend, it was awfully good to arrive home. There’s no place like it! 

Peals and planes and pasta

As we arrived at Paternoster Square for breakfast at Pret a Manger, the bells of St Paul’s were ringing really loudly, it was very joyful, quite amazing to hear. It was a beautiful day and the streets around the area were cordoned off for the Half Marathon. Many of the runners were dressed up in colourful costumes and so were a lot of the spectators who had gathered to cheer them on. For example the supporters of the runners for Great Ormond Street Hospital were dressed as Dickensian characters and were carrying placards which said “Dickens helped to save GOSH”, which he did - he held fund-raising dinners and performed public readings of “A Christmas Carol”.
James and I took the tube to the RAF Museum at Colindale, which we visited for the first time last year. James had really enjoyed it but felt that he needed more time there because his previous three and a half hour visit just wasn’t enough! This time, although I was happy to be there, I felt that I had seen enough of the planes last time. So I took my Kindle and found a sheltered bench where I relaxed in the sunshine while James visited all the different hangars. Oh my goodness - it’s the first time this year that I have actually felt TOO hot when sitting outside! Brilliant! I read my book happily for a couple of hours until it was time to meet Jennifer and Russell for a convivial lunch at nearby Spaccanapoli, a tiny but excellent South Italian restaurant. The food was authentic and beautifully cooked, and it had a friendly atmosphere. We all had a great chat and a laugh, I was really touched that they had made the journey to meet up with us. 
After they left, James and I spent several more hours at the RAF Museum before travelling back into central London and going for a twilight walk along the riverside. Before returning to our hotel we went for a drink to the Blackfriar pub, a favourite of James that we have been to before. It’s in a narrow wedge shaped building built in 1875, on the site of a medieval monastery. The pub was nearly demolished in the 1960s along with all the surrounding buildings. It was however saved by a public outcry led by public figures such as John Betjeman. Now it stands in incongruous splendour among modern office buildings. The interior is decorated in marble and bronze Art Deco style and the walls are covered with wooden carvings of monks and various mottos such as “Finery is Foolery”; it’s very attractive. It was a very pleasant place to finish our day. 

Busy in London

Alasdair dropped us off at Glasgow Airport bright and early this morning for our flight to London. As we walked into the terminal we noticed a group of skiers dragging their distinctive long ski bags towards the check in desk. It seems so long since our ski holiday that it’s strange to realise that it’s still the ski season! In the BA lounge we spotted Nicola Sturgeon, who looked very smart and much younger than she does on television. Soon we were in the air, flying over Troon on this beautiful morning and then over the Solway Firth into England.
When we were making our way across London towards our hotel in Farringdon, we saw lots of people with European flags and anti-Brexit posters, and we realised that today there was a big anti-Brexit march in London. And of course that’s why Nicola Sturgeon had been on our plane - she was going to be speaking at the rally. I’m glad to say that although London was bustling with protesters - we saw on the news later that there were one million people in the march - the atmosphere was good humoured and we didn’t see or hear any signs of trouble.
James and I had lunch at the gorgeous Wallace Collection. I have been looking forward to showing it to him since Jennifer took me there last year. It’s full of lovely gems of furniture and porcelain dinner sets and French and Dutch paintings, and the restaurant is bright and airy with a high glass ceiling over the courtyard.
We then went to the Harold Pinter Theatre to pick up the extra ticket that I had ordered for the evening’s performance of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (because Cat’s friend Rosa was also coming with us). Disaster! I had accidentally ordered a ticket for the afternoon’s performance which was now finished! To cut a long and anguished story short, I waited to see whether I could get a “returned” ticket and one turned up very quickly and the very kind box office people offered me it at a discount - I think they could see how distressed I was at my genuine mistake. Somewhat calmed, we met up with Cat and Rosa at the Palomar Restaurant, our second visit there because we had liked it so much the first time a few years ago. The meal was delicious, middle eastern fare with unusual ingredients and we all had a nice chat and got to know Rosa, who is just as friendly and charming as I would expect a friend of Cat’s to be. Off we went to the nearby theatre for the play. An added attraction was the fact that it starred Tom Hiddleston, well known for his performances in the acclaimed series “The Night Manager” and also as Loki in the Marvel Universe films. Cat and I both loved it, and Rosa liked it too. James on the other hand could be heard yawning and sighing from time to time as the story slowly marched backwards in time over nine years in a series of flashbacks, covering the story of an extra-marital affair and its associated betrayals (hence the title). I found it fascinating but James did not feel the same way and that is fair enough, it was good that he came along and gave it a chance. After drinks at a nearby pub with Cat and Rosa we walked back to the hotel amidst the Saturday night revellers. What a splendid day. 

A very new baby

For the first time in my life I have become rather unsure of my own age. I’m fifty-six but sometimes I have to think about it, briefly wondering whether I’m fifty-seven. I’m not sure why this has come about, but I do seem to remember my own parents losing track of their ages so I presume that it’s a sign of having racked up so many years that you lose count!
However today I heard about the birth of a baby who is so very new that he is still less than 12 hours old as I write. His name is Harris and he is the second son of my lovely friend Suzy. She sent me a photo of him and oh how sweet he is, a gorgeous wee baby. Suzy told me that he has the same birthday as his Grandpa which reminds me of my sister being born the day after my Dad’s birthday - I know that he found that to be very special so Suzy’s Dad must be delighted.
I have had a very useful day of errands today, the most important of which was ordering our new upstairs bathroom which Cat has very kindly designed for us. Thank goodness that Cat has a talent for interior decoration, because I found the few decisions that I still needed to make about specific units, taps etc. very stressful! However once it was all ordered I started to feel quite excited about it. 

Grandpa’s cufflinks

This evening Ally and I were having dinner at Oran Mor, before going to see the comedian Limmy talking about his autobiography. It’s interview time for the trainees who are looking for permanent posts at Ally’s firm, and he had one of his interviews today, so he was telling us about what questions he had been asked and how he had answered them. James pointed out that Ally was wearing the City of Glasgow cufflinks that had been presented to my Dad on his retiral, and I thought that he would have been quietly pleased that Ally chose to wear those cufflinks to an important interview all these years later. I do wish that my Dad had lived long enough to see his five grandsons grow up; he would have been so proud of all of them. 

Rainy walk at Rouken Glen

Today was a bit rainy and drizzly but that didn’t put Ally W and me off the walk we had planned in Rouken Glen with lovely dog Nell. The water in the boating pond was a beautiful shade of blue-green and the waterfall was crashing down onto the rocks. There were people using the outdoor gym equipment and even a group doing an outdoor fitness class! When we had coffee in the Boathouse Café after our walk I was delighted to find that they serve Portuguese style custard tarts (Pastéis de nata) - so delicious!
Back home, energised by my custard tart, I threw myself vigorously into a bit of housework before going across to visit Grandma. She was in fine spirits after being praised by the physiotherapist for making good progress with her walking, and we had a nice chat. James and I have started watching the BBC television series The Bodyguard, which was a huge hit last year. We have just watched episode 2. So far I’m a bit underwhelmed; the plot seems a bit weak in places. However it is certainly fast-paced and full of action (and love action!) so we will persevere! 

First visit to this year’s Aye Write

This evening Susan W and I went to the Mitchell to see Mandy Haggith and Gilbert Markus speaking at Aye Write about “Illuminating the Dark Ages.” Both were excellent speakers; Gilbert Markus is an eminent historian who ably communicated his fascination with the so-called dark ages. I would love to hear him speak more. And Mandy Haggith is the author of one of our recent book club choices, The Walrus Mutterer, which I really enjoyed. She lives in Assynt which is where her books are set, in 360 BC. Assynt is of course one of my favourite places in the world so I love the descriptions of the land and sea. She read from her new book The Amber Seeker which is the second in the trilogy; I can’t wait to read it.
After the talk we went round to get Susan’s book signed (mine will be arriving on my Kindle in a couple of days) and had a wee chat with Mandy. The Mitchell Library was buzzing with lots of events going on, there was a lovely atmosphere. Then we went for an absolutely delicious dinner at Five March. What an excellent start to Aye Write 2019. 

A long day for James

Yesterday Grandma and I made a change from Escape to the Country by watching the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in the afternoon. We both like a bit of Royalty and it was fun looking at all the splendid outfits, and the music was good too. Grandma cracked me up by turning to me as a very posh looking lady walked up the aisle wearing a cloche hat, and commented “I wonder who told her that a hat like that suited her?” In other Grandma news, the physiotherapists are very pleased with the continued improvements in her mobility and she works so hard at her walking, she is a star.
The weather is wild at the moment and as I type, Storm Gareth is whirling around the house. James has had a trying day. He has been working in Warwick for the last two days, and had booked the 3.30 p.m. fight home today; he was looking forward to going to the Rangers vs Aberdeen football match with Ally this evening. But when he arrived at Birmingham Airport he found that not only had his flight been cancelled, the next flight at 5 p.m. was fully booked. Faced with a choice between an 8.55 p.m. flight to Glasgow or a 5 p.m. flight to Edinburgh, he chose the latter. However he then had to get a bus from Edinburgh Airport to Glasgow and another bus for the centre of Glasgow to the airport, where the car was parked. Needless to say, there was no chance that he could get to the football match so Ally invited Sandy instead. It’s now 9 p.m. and he should be arriving home in a few minutes. I had better go and put the kettle on. 

Marvellous

It has been a useful and also enjoyable weekend. Ally was away in Liverpool for the weekend with Cat so James and I were home alone. On Friday we went to the cute wee Everyman Cinema to watch Captain Marvel. I thought that it was excellent; these Marvel films all seem to be of a very high standard and I really enjoy them, even though I wouldn’t think of “superhero movies” as my favourite genre. Maybe I need to rethink that! Then off we trotted to Dakhin for a splendid South Indian meal. The food was great, but I kept wolfing it down even after I was full, and as a result I had a rather wakeful night, one might say a windy night, although not in reference to the weather!

Talking of the weather, this weekend we have had sleet and even a bit of snow, so Spring is slightly postponed. We decided that since the weather was inclement, we would concentrate on getting some useful stuff done. This included visiting bathroom showrooms, and a bit of shopping in John Lewis for such boring items as bed linens and towels. In Tiso I bought some summer walking sandals which are so light that they barely weigh anything at all; I’m sure that I will fairly float up the hills this summer on my winged sandals. Not really! So we got lots done but we also had quite a pleasant time having lunch and chatting, it was very harmonious which cannot always be said for our shopping expeditions. 

A highlight of the weekend was a visit to the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday evening to see Carmina Burana, that old favourite of ours. Such percussion! Such wonderful music and energy. It certainly didn’t disappoint, and the whole audience loved it. We also enjoyed Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 3 in C minor in the first half, the soloist was the amazingly talented and curly-haired young Turkish pianist, Can Çakmur. When we were at John Lewis on Sunday we spotted him walking along Renfrew Street with a group of friends, looking just like any student. 

Memories

Grandma and I have developed a new tradition most weekdays. It is to watch a television programme called “Escape to the Country” at 3 p.m. while having a cup of tea. The format of the programme is that a house-hunting couple are shown three houses in countryside locations according to their budget and area of choice, and then either choose the one that they would most like to proceed with buying, or if none of the houses are quite right, the viewings have at least helped them to find out more about what they are really looking for. We don’t just watch the programme, we discuss the houses and locations in detail, choose our favourites, and criticise the ones we don’t like. This usually leads on to a discussion about places that we have been on holiday in the UK; Grandma has many happy memories of holidays in Devon and Cornwall when her boys were small. She told me today that in those days you could load your car onto a train at Stirling, and travel all the way Newton Abbott near Torquay, so that you could start your holiday in the south of England with your own car packed with your suitcases, and all without having to drive at all until you got there. I wish they still did that nowadays, but the service stopped years ago. It’s lovely having these chats with Grandma. 

Two lunches

On Sunday we celebrated our niece Jenny’s 21st birthday at Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery. Her actual birthday was last Wednesday and I remember the day of her birth very well; I was teaching when the phone call came through to the staff room and one of my colleagues popped into my classroom to announce the news. The class that I was teaching burst into a spontaneous round of applause, which was rather lovely! I haven’t been to the Buttery for a few years and I was delighted with the ambience and food. There were twelve of us at the celebration, all family, and we had a great afternoon.
The Marks and Spencer’s onion and potato tortillas that I gave Heather for lunch today may not have been to the same standard as yesterday’s lunch but they were tasty with houmous and cheesy bread. I really enjoyed our girls’ afternoon, which was only briefly interrupted by a bit of confusion over the replacement of our electricity meter - the electrician didn’t manage to ring our slightly tricky doorbell properly and then I blithely ignored his subsequent phone call because most calls to our landline are sales calls. Only a frantic phone call to my mobile from James alerted me to the situation. All turned out fine and after our coffee we went for a sunny and at times breezy walk around the area (just Heather and me, not the electrician) pausing to admire views across Glasgow to the Campsies. 

Isn’t it romantic?

It has been a good weekend so far. We went out for a curry on Friday evening to Rasoi with Heather and Ewan and had a great evening of excellent food and company. I wish we had an Indian restaurant of that calibre near our house, although going to Rasoi is always a good place to meet up with Heather and Ewan. As a result of the high quality of the food my stomach didn’t complain as much as usual after a curry, and I had a good night’s sleep. James and Ally went climbing on Saturday to the Ochil Hills and I took a taxi to East Kilbride to pick up James’ car, which I unfortunately scraped in a car park last week. I was annoyed with myself but relieved at the very reasonable repair bill of a couple of hundred pounds; the Audi garage had quoted £1300 which had horrified me.
The car looked as good as new and I went to do some grocery shopping in a very jolly mood. Grandma is now able, with assistance, to move from her bed to a chair, and it’s lovely to see her sitting up. I took her a few tasty treats from Marks and Spencer’s, she loves their salmon mousse. The boys appeared back mid-afternoon, soaked to the skin and exhausted. James soaked his weary limbs in a bath and then we had a steak dinner with Ally which was delicious. We decided to watch a film on Netflix, and in light of the rather gloomy offerings that we have watched recently I chose a ridiculous romantic comedy, starring Rebel Wilson, which was good fun and had us all laughing. The twist was that the heroine doesn’t believe in romantic comedies but of course everything turns out very romantically in the end. It pokes fun at all the clichés of the genre and was genuinely amusing, we were all laughing out loud at some of the jokes. 

February book review

Well here we are in March which makes me very excited about spring time, my favourite season. It’s actually late spring that I love most, with the promise of summer stretching ahead, but I’m happy with all the daffodils and crocuses that are suddenly springing up everywhere.
The four books that I read in February were quite varied. I started with Wilding by Isabella Treee, about her family’s rewilding project on their estate in Sussex, which meant they stopped farming and allowed the land to revert to its original state. This was more complex than it sounds because they also reintroduced species which had disappeared from the area, and they have been constantly surprised by what has happened since regarding both flora and fauna. Then for EK Book Club I read Lullaby by Leila Slimani which was both incredibly horrifying and a real page turner. I also read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, recommended by Billy Connolly in a recent documentary about his life. Toole committed suicide in the 1960s when he couldn’t get his book published but his devoted mother touted it about after his death and it eventually earned him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I can see why many people love it and it does have its brilliant moments, but all in all I found it to be very dated and more sad than funny. The characters in it were all horrible without exception, which makes it very difficult to empathise with them. Next, The Man Who Disappeared by Clare Morrall was a straightforward thriller, but had some quite interesting ideas and kept my attention until the end.
I’ve just started Becoming by Michelle Obama and it’s great so far; very well written.