Splashing about

So here we are on the last day of March. Only twenty-six days until a lot of the current restrictions will be lifted (if all goes well) and we should be allowed to travel to Ullapool. But meanwhile I’m enjoying the gradual advent of spring. I have been swimming at the outdoor pool most weekdays, and I really enjoy it. Today I took part in an Aquafit class which was good fun. The last time I regularly went to aqua classes they were very gentle, and when I once was too enthusiastic and accidentally splashed another lady’s hair, she turned round and gave me a look of indignation. Today’s class was very different and the instructor described it at HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training.) She exhorted us to move faster and faster, and splashing was very much encouraged! 

Ally’s 2nd Birthday in lockdown

A year ago Alasdair had what must have been one of the earliest lockdown birthdays, being only five days after we were all told to stay at home. Who would have thought then that today he would have a second birthday in lockdown? I think that despite the current restrictions, and the dreich weather today, Ally has had a good 27th birthday. 

David has arrived to visit; this is now permitted because although he lives in Dundee he is classed as an “extended family” member. We had an Easter egg hunt in the morning, a week early this year so that David could take part. Ally opened his pressies at lunchtime and was very happy with them; Rangers and the Marvel Universe featured heavily. One of his gifts was a board game called Scotland Yard, and we played it during the afternoon, it was great fun once we got the hang of it. Cat had ordered his birthday cake from the same place that she got Davie’s in the autumn, Cake Box; it was decorated in red, white and blue with a Rangers 55 Champions logo and “Happy Birthday Ally” piped on to it. It looked and tasted great. 

After a birthday curry we watched “Thor: The Dark World” which is the eighth Marvel Universe movie out of (currently) twenty-three. As I mentioned on 7th March, Alasdair has decided that we are going to watch them all in order. Ally and Davie have seen them all, and James, Cat and I have seen some of them - but not the same as each other. I think I have already seen about half of them. I’m enjoying our trip through the Marvel Universe. 

Weather and Rugby

What a mixed up day of weather we have had today! It was rainy in the morning but I headed over to Rouken Glen for my swim anyway; my virtue was rewarded by the clouds rolling away to reveal blue skies and sunshine while I did my swim and then had a cup of tea at the poolside. And then shortly after I arrived home at lunchtime there was hail and heavy rain. 

Talking of heavy rain, it was very wet at the Stade de France in Paris where Scotland were playing rugby with France this evening. I watched the match with Cat, and she kept me informed about the rules and what was happening - because I think that this was the first rugby match that I have ever watched all the way through! I once bought tickets for the family to watch Scotland play Australia at Murrayfield many years ago, because I wanted the boys to have that rugby experience as well as football, but I had to leave the match before half time because I got a phone call from my Mum who had taken ill. James and the boys stayed on until the end and I think that they enjoyed it. The boys that is, not James, who doesn’t like rugby.

I really enjoyed the match and found it to be very exciting, especially the nail-biting last two minutes when Scotland doggedly pushed and pushed until they got a touchdown which won them the match. Cat and I were shouting with joy at the end! 

Swimming and Smoke

I have been swimming at the outdoor pool at Rouken Glen a few times over the past week and I have been loving it. The pool is heated so it doesn’t matter what the weather is like when I’m swimming, and so far it has been fairly mild anyway, although a keen March wind has sent me hurrying to wrap myself in my towel when I exit the water. I swim my 1000 metres and then get changed under my towelling poncho at the poolside (there are no changing facilities until the sports centre reopens properly at the end of April) and read my book while enjoying a cup of tea from my Chilly flask with a biscuit. How very pleasant.

On Monday Heather came with me as my guest as she is also an enthusiastic swimmer. While the air temperature and surroundings didn’t quite live up to the outdoor swim that we enjoyed in Monaco in 2017, it was still good fun. We had met up with James and Ewan for a stroll round Rouken Glen Park earlier, and then the boys went for a walk at Cathkin Braes during our swim and we all met up back at the house. We are still not allowed to have guests indoors, so we lit the fire pit (for the first time this year!) and had a light lunch followed by coffee and lovely salted caramel cake brought by our guests. James was burning wood from various tree branches that he has trimmed such as the flowering cherry and the last of the Christmas tree. This produced huge plumes of smoke which leaned this way and that, unpredictably due to the lively breeze. We all got pretty smoky and our clothes were absolutely saturated with the rather aromatic smoke. We washed our clothes, but the next day when I went to put on my mask, which had been in one of my pockets, I noticed that it still smelled strongly of the fire pit. 

One year on

A year ago today I wrote in this blog, “So now the UK is in lockdown” and here we are a year later still in lockdown (although there have been many variations and levels in between.) It felt surreal then and to a certain extent it still does. When 2020 started Covid-19 didn’t even have a name yet, and I don’t think any of us in Europe anticipated a pandemic. The first cases were reported in China, and that’s where many of us assumed it would stay, a bit like Ebola (mainly) remained in West Africa. 

Covid spread so very quickly, and we watched the news with growing alarm from our holiday in New Zealand. It has been the strangest twelve months of our lives. So many people have died of Coronavirus around the world, some known to us personally, it has been so sad. The changes to our lives have made many people including myself reflect on what is really important to us. And although the vaccines are hopefully showing us a way out of lockdown, it’s not over yet. 

More litter picking

I went out litter picking again with Suzy on Friday, but this time I was no longer a mere spectator. Suzy had got me a litter grabber from the council as well as some capacious refuse bags. I had also purchased a hoop with a handle which holds the bag open, making it easier to insert the litter.

We headed down Bridge Street and along the river picking up litter on our way. There was so much litter! Lots of paper bags and food trays and plastic bottles and cans and, rather disgustingly, dog poo bags. Why do people carefully scoop the poop and then throw it into the bushes at the side of the path instead of carrying it to the next bin? Suzy is much more skilled at the art of litter picking than me and she filled a huge bag very quickly. Then she assisted me with filling the rest of my bag as we walked up Clydeford Road. We tied up the bags securely and deposited them beside a bin for collection. 

This is all part of a Cleaning Up Cambuslang initiative by the Community Council. I joined the Facebook page and there were lots of photos of people litter picking enthusiastically, many of the faces very familiar to me! Needless to say I quickly posted the photo that Suzy had taken of me during our outing, and my hoop for the bag was much admired in the comments section!

Today when James and I went out for a walk after the Old Firm game, we noticed that there was no litter at all in Cambuslang Park and Holmhills Park. The area looks noticeably tidier, let’s hope that the initiative will make people take more of a pride in our community. 

First vaccination

Half of the adult population of the UK has now had at least their first vaccination, and as of yesterday afternoon, I am one of them.

My appointment was at the Alistair McCoist sports centre in East Kilbride. The car park was quite busy but the young stewards guided everyone quickly to a space. The process was very efficient; as soon as my details were checked I was ushered to a a seat where two elderly gentlemen were waiting for me. Well, not that elderly, maybe in their sixties. Still, I felt uneasy. I wanted my jag to be given to me by a proper nurse, not some unqualified volunteer from the local bowling club. I asked the two men what were their qualifications, and they explained that they were retired surgeons, which I decided was ok, although I would really have preferred a capable nurse. One of the doctors asked me questions about allergies and so on, and the other one gave me the jag (Astra Zeneca). It didn’t hurt at all. Soon I was driving home in the sunshine.

When I woke up this morning I didn’t feel tip top. My left arm, where I got the jag, is quite achey and I have had a headache all morning, which is very unusual for me these days so I presume that it’s a result of the vaccination. 

I felt a bit better after my shower, and after we have finished watching the Old Firm game I will go for a walk to clear my head. 

Sunshine and swimming

The weather has continued to be very mild and sunny this week, which is just lovely. Coincidentally I joined a sports centre on Tuesday and have been swimming every day since. 

But how can I have joined a sports centre when they are still closed just now, and will remain closed until at least the 26th April? 

Well, I had been thinking about my fitness (as usual) and decided to look at the David Lloyd Club over at Rouken Glen Park, with a view to joining it after lockdown. I booked a tour and persuaded James to come with me, in the hope that he would join too. The main reason that I was keen on this particular sports centre is that it has a decent sized outdoor pool (25 metres). It also has a state of the art gym, which I would hope to use, and tennis and golf which I wouldn’t use. But for me it’s all about the swimming. I love swimming, especially outdoors. So we had our tour and I had already decided that I wanted to join, when our guide mentioned that the outdoor pool is already open, because outdoor exercise is permitted. The changing rooms are closed but you can get changed in the toilet or at the poolside. And because the rest of the sports centre will not reopen until the end of April, the first six weeks would be free. I was thrilled that I could start swimming immediately and signed up straight away.

James however decided that it’s not for him at the moment. He goes on for a long walk every morning and is getting busy with the garden, as well as with his various restoration projects. 

I have enjoyed being back in a swimming pool so much! It’s a whole year since they have been closed. I was lucky to be able to swim in the river and the sea at Ullapool over the summer, but I do love an outdoor pool. I have been swimming along looking at the sky and the trees and the birds flying overhead. From underneath I noticed that pigeons’ wings look iridescent against the light. It has even been warm enough to sit on a sun lounger and read my book for a while after my swim. 

Bobby Liddell

The Head teacher from my first teaching post at Rosehall High School, Bobby Liddell, died peacefully in his sleep last weekend. He was 82. He was a very good headteacher, strong on discipline and supportive of his staff. 

I remember him giving the whole staff a dressing down when we were being a bit rowdy during an In Service day training session and you could have heard a pin drop. 

One of my favourite memories of him is at a staff meeting when he was telling people to be more vigilant in looking after their classroom keys, because quite a few had been stolen by pupils and then used to break in to classrooms. He went on to say that it was mainly the female teachers who were most careless, because they left their keys on their desks whereas the men tended to keep their keys in their trouser pockets. 

He said,

“Even Mrs Jones * has had her keys pinched, and she’s the lady in this school least likely to get something pinched.”

There was a momentary stunned silence from the staff, followed by gales of laughter. Bobby realised what he had said and followed up with,

“I didn’t mean it like that. You’re still a fine looking woman Mrs Jones!” which of course resulted in more gales of laughter.

I have a really nice memory of Bobby which involves Alasdair. I was about eight weeks pregnant and hadn’t yet told any of my colleagues. But then one day at school I had some bleeding and I was really worried that I was going to lose the baby. So I had to tell my colleagues and the school secretary phoned James while Bobby Liddell drove me to Monklands Hospital. He was really pleasant to me and waited with me until James arrived. And of course everything turned out well with Ally who was born safely seven months later. 

* Not her real name! 

Good news and good weather

The good news is that we have been given some dates for the lifting of restrictions in Scotland. Since the weekend we have been allowed to meet outside in groups of four instead of two. 

The big changes will arrive on the 26th April. On that date cafés, pubs and restaurants will reopen (with limited hours and social distancing) and the travel ban will be lifted! We will be allowed to travel throughout Scotland which means we will be able to go to Ullapool! Six people from three households will be allowed to meet outdoors, and all shops will be able to reopen. Of course this could change if the amount of Covid infections increases again, but let’s hope not. After all, a lot of people have now had the vaccine; it has been offered to everyone over 60 as well as all ages of key workers, carers and vulnerable people, and they are now getting to the 55 - 60 year olds. 

This of course includes me, and I have my appointment for my first jag on Saturday afternoon, at the Ally McCoist centre in East Kilbride. 

Then on 17th May, there will be yet more exciting changes. In home socialising for four people from two households, cinemas reopening, and possibly travel abroad will be permitted. The restrictions will continue to be eased throughout June until hopefully we will be at level 0 by July, although I think that there will still be masks to be worn in shops and social distancing for a while. 

As if to reflect this hopeful news, the weather has been really lovely for the last couple of days; warm and springlike with blue skies. It was warm enough for James and I to sit outside and have a drink in the garden this afternoon. 

A funeral in lockdown

Yesterday I went to our family friend John Leslie’s funeral. Currently only 20 people are allowed to attend a funeral, so it is by invitation only. Alison invited me not only on my own behalf but also to represent my Mum and Dad and of course Jennifer, who could not travel here from Buckinghamshire due to lockdown. I was honoured to be asked. 

Alison and Murray had planned a warm and loving farewell to their Dad. They did him proud. Although we were not allowed to sing, the music that they chose was lovely. Instead of the usual rows of seats, the seats were spaced out around the room in ones and twos. The eulogy was very affectionate; John led a good life and had a long and happy retirement with his family. 

At the end we all filed out past the family, and we couldn’t even give them a hug, which was really sad. John was such a well known and liked figure in the community; he deserved a bigger send off. But despite the lockdown Alison and Murray gave him a funeral service which showed that he was very much loved. 

Smile on your face

I recently read Michael Troughton’s biography of his father, Patrick Troughton, the second Dr Who. He was Dr Who from 1966 to 1969, and was the first one that I properly remember, although I have a few hazy memories of the William Hartnell years. Like many children of my generation I watched Dr Who while peeping out from behind the couch, and the monsters were genuinely terrifying to me. I kept watching the programme particularly through the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker years, and they were great, but my favourite was always Patrick Troughton. I still watch Dr Who and have enjoyed its excellent revival in the 2000s. 

Anyway, back to the biography, which was very good. Michael Troughton used many excerpts from his father’s letters and I noticed that Patrick used to sign them off with the phrase “Smile on your face.” I tried to find out if this was a quote or a saying, but could find nothing on the Internet. I know that people often say “That put a smile on my / your face” but the abbreviated version stuck in my mind. 

So I emailed Michael Troughton to ask him where his Dad had got that particular phrase. 

Here is his lovely response.

Good morning Susan,

I am so glad you enjoyed the biography.
’Smile on your face’ was an expression Dad started using during the war. 
When ever he was saying good bye to my mum to go on patrol he said he would think of her smile.
He never stopped using the expression, as many of the letters I have found all have this as a sign off.
It was later a general Dad expression for keep happy and positive.
He would probably be using it a lot during these uncertain times.

Keep well and safe.

’Smile on your Face'

Regards
Michael

She was just walking home

A thirty-three year old woman, Sarah Everard, was abducted last week while walking home in the dark across Clapham Common in London. Her body was found in a wood in Kent a couple of days ago and a man (a serving police officer) has been charged with her kidnapping and murder.

It must be devastating for her family, and there has been a huge outcry across the country; this happens far too often to a woman walking on her own. It makes me very angry; by what right did that man think he was entitled to attack and kill her? I can remember reading in the news about so many similar murders over my lifetime and it’s just sickening. I remember my Mum being upset many years ago when talking about a young woman who disappeared the day she arrived in a new town, it turned out that she had been murdered by the taxi driver who picked her up at the station. And of course in Cambuslang nearly forty years ago a female taxi driver was murdered by her passenger, who had also killed a local nurse. The list goes on and on. 

A lot of news items over the last few days have featured women saying that they are tired of people telling women that they should be careful of where they go or how they dress, as if they are partly responsible for attacks on them. I agree with this. 

It’s not only women who are in danger. I always worried about the safety of my three sons when they were out late when they were younger. I still do. Men are also vulnerable to the kind of person that for some reason feels the right to kill someone. A man on his own or even in a group can often be seen as a challenge. I remember a very upsetting case in the 1980s of a young man walking home on his own in broad daylight and being slaughtered by a group of football supporters who didn’t even know him. They had machetes and had even severed the hand which he had held up to defend himself. And as with women, there are many similar instances of unacceptable violence by men to other men. 

This week however the focus has quite rightly been about the murder of Sarah, and about the attitudes towards women of some men. It needs to change, the trouble is that I don’t know how this will happen. 

Hailstones

The weather has got a bit colder and wetter over the last couple of days but needless to say that hasn’t kept us indoors. Yesterday we went for a walk at the Falls of Clyde at New Lanark, we walked up past Corra Linn to Bonington Linn. The river was high and the waterfalls were crashing down, it was spectacular. We had our cup of tea in a wooden bridge with amazing views of the surging water. When we crossed the river at Bonington Falls we saw a mechanical grabber on a rail being lowered into the water to clear twigs and grass from the grille underneath, they were then dropped into a chute which sent them past the bridge to continue their journey downstream. 

Today it was very rainy and windy so I decided not to join James on his big morning walk (yes, he got very wet), instead I went out by myself for a wee walk in the afternoon when it was almost sunny. I was very happy listening to my audiobook but just as I was coming down the hill the sky darkened and I was pelted by hailstones! I then remembered watching hailstones with Grandma from her lounge window a couple of years ago and I felt a bit sad because I miss her. 

We had some excellent news very early today - at 2 a.m. to be precise. This was 3 p.m. in New Zealand when Jamie’s exam results were due to go online. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about how Jamie must be feeling so I messaged him at five past two and he messaged back immediately to say that he had passed! He is so happy and so am I. 

South Side Tourists

Having walked just about every inch of Cambuslang, I decided to look for some walks slightly further afield but still within the current legal five miles away. We already have a guide book of walks in the Glasgow area but many of these are north and west of the city and quite far flung. We already know the ones near to us. 

So I did a bit of searching online and managed to find and order a book called “South Glasgow Heritage Trails” which has seven interesting urban walks near us.

We did the first one this morning; “Langside, Mount Florida and Battlefield” I won’t go through the street by street details but I would recommend the book - I learned a lot and walked a respectable 9 km! We found out about some of the old villages which eventually merged into the south side, about notable former residents and the origins of street names, and about historic buildings. We had our cup of tea on a bench up at the flagpole in Queens Park. It was a fascinating and extremely pleasant morning. 

Fireworks all around

We went out for a socially distanced walk with Heather and Ewan today (two by two again - hopefully four people will be allowed to meet up outside soon.) We did an 11 km circuit - through the park, past Gilbertfield, up to Dechmont Farm, on to Dechmont Hill, and back home via the golf course. 

As we were walking along we heard the sound of fireworks from several directions at once. James checked his phone and announced that Celtic had just drawn in their match with Dundee United, which means that Rangers have won the league, breaking Celtic’s run of nine seasons. 

The fireworks continued intermittently for the rest of our walk, from Cambuslang, East Kilbride, Blantyre. Of course we couldn’t really see them because it was broad daylight, just a wee bit of smoke here and there. We had coffee on the summit of Dechmont Hill. 

Later it was Curry Sunday at Casa Anderson, which was delicious at the time but is burning my stomach lining rather uncomfortably just now. Ally has had an idea to watch all of the Marvel Universe films in order (of when the films were made) so we started this evening with “Iron Man” which he informs us is the first one. 

Innominate Hill

Today James and I had an adventure. We took “the road less travelled” and walked down the opposite side of the river from the Clyde Walkway. Our purpose was to see if we could find and ascend a small hill which James has noticed, across the river from his regular walk to Cuningar Loop. He calls it Innominate Hill because on the map it has no name! And also because there is a tarn in the Lake District where Alfred Wainwright's ashes were scattered, called Innominate Tarn.

We set off through the new housing estate which has been (and in fact is still being) built in the site of the old Hoover factory. We picked our way along the bank of the river where wild garlic is already growing in abundance. After a short but alarming climb up by the side of the bridge at Bogleshole Road, we entered into a sort of “industrial archeology” area near the steelworks, which had the ruins of brick constructions and rusting rails and pipes, all long overgrown by grass and brambles. We continued underneath the M74 bridge and finally arrived at our destination, our nameless hill, enclosed by the curve of the river and the motorway. James thinks that it’s probably a heap of industrial waste from the steelworks. From the top we had good panoramic views across to the city centre and the west end, and across the motorway to Rutherglen and the south side. We navigated our way back home via the deserted steelworks and agreed that, whilst no rural idyll, it had been a very interesting 7 km adventure. 

Glasgow, 5 March 1971

Just a quick extra post to note that I happened to realise that it is 50 years today since the events referred to in Edwin Morgan’s Instamatic poem “Glasgow 5 March 1971”. It captures the moment that two opportunistic thieves push a couple through a plate glass window in order to steal the jewellery inside the shop. It captures a single moment in time, as the couple are falling in a shower of shards of glass. 

I like the poem (although there are others I like better), and have always found it very striking and memorable, as well as cold and bleak. 

Edwin Morgan would be 100 years old now (he died when he was 90) and I once saw him in John Smiths book shop in the 1990s. He was still a professor at Glasgow University when I started there, although in my youthful ignorance I didn’t realise it, and he retired shortly thereafter. He wrote about the Glasgow I knew in the late 20th century and about feelings and history and love and death and politics. I feel a fondness and an admiration for him. 

Litter Picking

I went out for a walk with Suzy this morning and she brought a long handled litter picker with her. I was very impressed. On our walk she grabbed bits of litter as she went along and filled two rubbish bags. It’s such a good thing to do for the community. James has always done this; he picks up empty crisp bags or drinks bottles that he sees by the side of the path when he goes hill-walking, and puts them into the side pockets of his rucksack until he can dispose of them properly. 

In the evening Ally and Cat went to play tennis; they have joined one of our local tennis clubs. James and I watched a couple of episodes of Engrenages which is still brilliant, it has been our winter box set and we are now on Series 6. The acting is so good and I jot down bits of interesting vocabulary that appeal to me. I like all the characters but my favourites are Laure, Gilou, Tintin, and of course Judge Roban, whose quest for justice loses him a lot of friends! 

Walks and Admin

It has been a week of walks and admin. A warm start to the week has now turned a little chilly, but it’s dry and pleasant for walking. Yesterday James and I went back to Chatelherault for our walk; the path down at the Green Bridge was no longer flooded and it was an altogether less muddy experience than last time. We took a flask with us and stopped on our way to enjoy a cup of tea with a snack of Snickers bars, which was delightful.

At risk of sounding boring, I completed two quite tricky admin tasks this week. One was to change our holiday accommodation for the hill-walking club Inverie weekend, which was originally scheduled for Easter 2020, postponed because of Covid to 2021 and now re-postponed to Easter 2022 which feels ridiculously far ahead! James and I are going to stay in a wee studio apartment near the bunkhouse where most of the others will be staying - I must be getting soft in my old age and I am keen to have an en-suite toilet! It took a good bit of research and I’m very happy with what I have booked. The second piece of admin was to sort out my Kindle and Audible apps so that I can share them with James. This was not as straightforward as it sounds because of previous sharing of accounts among family members so there had to be much investigation and footering. But it’s all done, and I have to say I have an immense feeling of satisfaction. 

Wee Covid Update

Well the vaccines (Pfizer and Astra Zeneca) seem to be working. The number of cases of Covid 19 are falling fast and therefore so are the number of deaths. So it looks like the plans for restrictions will be lifted but by bit every few weeks from mid March will go ahead, and England will be more or less back to normal by 21st June (or I should say “new normal” because Covid won’t completely go away in the foreseeable future.) Scotland will probably have similar timescales although Nicola Sturgeon is not yet committing to specific dates. The first change that will affect us personally, will be that instead of only two people being allowed to meet up outside, it will move to four. A year ago who would have thought that meeting up in a group of four would feel like a luxury? Anyway, that gives us something to look forward to. 

On the other hand there’s another new Covid variant from Brazil which is very contagious. There are only a few cases of it in Britain and the authorities are trying hard to contain it, although I think that there is one person who has it that they can’t trace. 

Meanwhile every day is a little bit longer, and it was nice and sunny up at Fernbrae Meadows when I was walking there this afternoon with Ruth W. 

And I have ordered some meals from “Mindful Chef”, and made the first one this evening: Ezme baked trout with baby potatoes and broccoli. I have used the similar “Hello Fresh” a couple of years ago, and although I could easily make something tasty from my many (under-used!) recipe books, the box of food makes things easy by providing all of the ingredients and gives me some new ideas for cooking. 

First Cycle of 2021

James serviced the bicycles yesterday so that they would be ready for the spring. He was out this morning on a walk with a friend so I decided to take my bike for a test run. The weather was perfect; sunny and mild. I cycled to Cuningar Loop and enjoyed seeing buds on the trees and small patches of crocuses in bright yellows and purples. When I arrived a drank my water and had a short rest in the sunshine before cycling home. I thought it was quite a vigorous workout, however when I checked my watch app I was disappointed to see that I had only completed about a third of my targets. 

So later on I went out for a 6 km walk during which I walked down the edge of the golf course. On my way I met one of my ex colleagues who was playing a round of golf after school and we caught up on a bit of news. As I approached home I saw the most amazing fiery sunset, it was really beautiful. 

Good Sunday

Yesterday afternoon Cat introduced me to a film that I have never seen even though it came out in 2004 - Mean Girls. I remember on a school trip to Paris I was taking my turn of supervising the pupils on the top deck of the bus; they were watching Mean Girls and seemed to know it so well that they were reciting a lot of the lines along with the actors! So when Cat found out that I had never watched it she decided that we would have a girls’ afternoon to watch it together. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a teen flick but a cut above others that I have seen, and had some really fun and memorable scenes. 

Cat and I also went out for a walk around the parks and down to Dino’s where we got some sweets, the weather was mild and pleasant and we had a good chat. Then James and I had a pleasant Zoom call with Heather and Ewan, followed by our traditional Sunday evening curry. It was a good Sunday.