A very satisfactory weekend

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

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

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

A visit from Jennifer

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

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

New beginnings

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

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

Moaning aside, it was a great weekend. I walked more than 20,000 steps per day and had some hair-raising experiences reversing a huge minibus through a narrow farm gate into the camp site. Above all the company of my new pupils and colleagues was brilliant. We had some great laughs and the pupils were really polite and several, though exhausted, made a point of thanking us when we dropped them off back at the school. 

Heartburn

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

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

All over the world

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

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

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

Chasing the sun

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

All change

Lots of changes are going on in my life just now but I feel as if I am coping ok with them so far. The biggest change is of course Jamie moving to New Zealand. He will shortly set off on his journey to New Zealand, westwards via London and Los Angeles. Jamie and I will be having a farewell phone call tomorrow afternoon while he is in London.

The other big change is my new job. I'm two weeks in now and still enjoying both the job and the thrilling proximity of my new school to home. I'm still getting to know the pupils and staff and the different ways that things are done, but the people are pleasant.

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