One man show

Last night we went to see Jack Docherty at Eastwood Theatre. It was good but a bit intense, as one man shows often are. I think he’s very talented and his monologue about a chance that he missed in his life and his efforts to recapture it was very good. But it was short of being brilliant. He had aimed high and didn’t quite get what he was aiming for I think. Nevertheless it was a fun and interesting evening. I was very surprised that James said that it was his first time at the Eastwood Theatre. I have certainly been there a few times, once with Ally W’s book club to see a Margaret Atwood documentary, and a couple of Am Dram performances. It’s very handy for us, only 15 minutes by car. 

We were home nice and early because there was no interval, and had a cup of tea while watching the latest episode of Peaky Blinders. This is the final series, and so far they are keeping up their high standard. Each scene is shot so artistically that it looks like a painting. Still, all things must come to an end and it’s probably about time that Tommy Shelby hangs up his razor-lined flat cap. 

Films and photos

Last night we had an absolute film fest. By which I mean that we watched two full length films in a row. The first one was a French film, Le Jeu. It was a quirky drama about a dinner party where the participants decide to play a bizarre game. It was actually very good and we both enjoyed it. Since we had started watching it quite early, James proposed watching a Marvel Movie, and we watched Spider-Man: Far from Home. It couldn’t have been more different from the French film, which was a witty comedy of manners whereas this was a full on action film. However it was also extremely good, exciting and very funny in places. 
Today was a bit rainy so we decided to resume our much neglected project to put James’ parents’ photos in albums. It must be a year since we last worked on it! Today James started putting the photos in albums, with me as his assistant in identifying family members, dating the photos etc. We worked on it for about six hours and managed to file all the photos from the early 1900s to the 1930s. It was very satisfying. Only eight decades to go! 

Back in time in Jordanhill

After a lovely lunch at the Three Craws with Carolyn and baby Harris - he is such a gorgeous wee boy! - I found myself driving around the streets of Jordanhill early this afternoon. I do this from time to time and invariably find myself parked outside the house in Borden Road that I lived in between the ages of seven and thirteen. I could picture myself and my sister and parents coming and going through the front door and I wondered who lives there now. I noticed that the old wooden storm doors at the front have been replaced with modern glass and pvc doors, but apart from that it looked just the same. I noticed that all of the houses on one side of the road (ours) were built with red sandstone and the opposite side were all blonde sandstone. Perhaps they were designed by different architects, or perhaps the price of one kind of sandstone got cheaper than the other.

Then I drove up Munro Road to retrace (in reverse) the route that I used to walk home from hockey after games afternoons at school. Two strange things happened. Firstly I remembered a particular thought that I had one day walking down the road about forty-five years ago. I could remember thinking about symmetry just as I passed where I was when I was thinking about it, almost as if I had gone back in time. And secondly when I reached the school playing fields - they were gone! The space where they were is now a housing estate. 

The lark did not ascend for us

I booked tickets a while ago to Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending at the City Halls, which I thought would be a nice evening out for James and me. Unfortunately I wrongly wrote on the calendar that the venue would be the Royal Concert Hall. So this evening we went for a pre-theatre dinner to Ask Italian in Renfrew Street before our concert, but as we crossed the road at twenty past seven James commented that the Royal Concert Hall looked very quiet; in fact there were no people going into it or hanging about outside it at all. I checked the tickets and realised my mistake. Oh dear, and by now it was twenty-five past; there was no way we were going to get there in time for the 7.30 p.m. start. We briefly debated heading to the City Halls for a drink and then going in to the concert after the interval, but then decided to cut our losses and go to the cinema instead since we were right beside Cineworld. We got tickets for The Batman, and treated ourselves to a 4XD showing, which meant that we were thrown around in our seats during the many action scenes, rather like our recent dune-bashing experience! The film was very long; nearly three hours, but it did hold my attention and I quite liked the slight change of attitude that Batman learned by the end. However Robert Pattinson was an awfully sullen Batman, and the film was so dark as to be almost dreary - James commented that each film incarnation of Batman seems to be more downbeat and despairing than the last!  

Nearly Spring

We are having a pleasant couple of weeks at home before our next trip to Ullapool. The weather feels cold compared to lovely Dubai but actually it’s probably average for early March. I’ve been doing a lot of swimming at David Lloyd and some days it has been beautifully sunny. I feel that we are in the cusp of Spring. 

Alison and Hugh came to spend a night with us before their holiday to Gran Canaria, and we had a very pleasant catch up over a tagine that was, frankly, disappointing. It was too sweet (it had honey and chopped apricots in it) and was not up to my usual standard. In the morning when they got up to get ready for the airport Flora and Tom were very amazed that they were still here and Flora was shouting loudly at them in the hall! 

The next evening Ruth and Donald came round and we had another convivial catch up; I have seen Ruth a few times over the last couple of years but I haven’t seen Donald since before Covid. Ruth insisted on bringing the dinner because she originally invited us round, but they are having decorating done and it hasn’t been finished on time. So she asked me to provide the oven and she very kindly brought the food! Or maybe she had heard how my latest tagine turned out ha ha! 

I have also been doing useful things like going to the dentist and the jeweller and the post office and the optician. And this evening I went to visit Jenn F; it was the first time that I have seen her since her Mum’s funeral and we had a really good talk.

And the invasion of Ukraine continues, it’s so sad and awful. I wish that the West could go in to help them properly but that would run a real risk that Putin would escalate things yet further. But the Ukrainians really need support. I don’t know what’s going to happen. 

Farewell to Dubai

I felt sad that Tuesday morning was our last breakfast of the holiday, sitting outside on the terrace with bird singing and hopping around us. Ally researched what the most numerous ones were: Laughing Doves (which had rosy pink chests) and White-eared Bul Bul. I went for a swim in the Gulf one more time and then got changed and showered and we set off to airport. It was all very efficient and we were soon on the plane. What a fantastic present from Ally and Cat this has been! I was sad to leave but delighted with the excellent seats on the plane that Cat had reserved for us; two sets of two seats one behind the other so no strangers to have to get past us. The flight went smoothly and we had lovely views crossing the Alps in Austria. When we were going through passport control at Gatwick an official shouted to a young man near us, “No shorts in the airport!” which made him and us laugh. We said our farewells as Ally and Cat headed home and we stayed at the Airport Premier Inn, which is conveniently less than five minutes walk from the terminal. Unlike Dubai it was cold and drizzly back in the UK. Our room was comfy and we were soon fast asleep. 

Midnight at the Oasis

On Monday we were up early to be collected from the hotel by Nabeel in his Toyota Landcruiser for a morning in the desert. We drove for about an hour north and started off with camel-riding. It is possible that I may have ridden on a camel many many years ago in Cyprus (I’m not sure if it was just the boys or me as well) but that in that case there was a ladder and platform to get onto the camel and it walked in a very small circle. The Dubai experience of camel-riding was completely different: the camels were sitting down and you had to swing your leg over to get onto the saddle, and then the camel lumbered to its feet which was very scary! There was much hilarity from Ally and Cat when I couldn’t swing my leg high enough and one of the helpers caught my foot and pulled me on from the other side. And then we went for a proper camel ride into the desert and it was brilliant! I felt like Omar Sharif in Laurence of Arabia! The desert was beautiful, orange but with an almost pink glow. Then we went on to our next destination; Quad-biking. I wimped out of this, not because I was scared (I like quad-biking) but because it was very very hot in the desert and I thought that I would fry on the quad bike. I kind of regretted not going because the others had a fantastic time, but I enjoyed people watching in the large tent where coffee and dates (and a large air-conditioning unit) were provided. Although I was very hot, February is one of the most pleasant months to visit Dubai because the heat is not too unbearable; Nabeel told us that Dubai has two seasons: Hot and Very Hot!
We then got back into the car and Nabeel took us Dune Bashing. This is a form of off-roading done on sand dunes in big 4X4 vehicles, driving fast over and around the dunes at quite alarming angles! It was great fun although I was relieved when we stopped to go sand surfing. Not that I went sand surfing myself, too hot again! As the name suggests you surf down a sand dune on a board like a snow board, with foot straps. All good fun but you then have to walk back up the dune again carrying your board! The intrepid James, Cat and Ally all had a go, and had a great time. The surroundings were so gorgeous, with dunes stretching out into the distance as far as the eye could see. What a morning! Back at the hotel we had a lovely lunch outdoors and then went to the beach and swam in the gulf.
Ally and Cat had arranged one more amazing experience for us later on, and this one was very special indeed. Cat drove us for about an hour to the Bab Al Shams desert resort, which started off as an oasis many years ago, and is now a luxury desert resort. Ally and Cat have been there before and it really is magical, its lights shining in the desert. We had a magnificent dinner where I ate far too much, there was so much choice of amazing middle-eastern dishes. After dinner there was entertainment; singers, a belly dancer, a Whirling Dervish. The audience was made up of lots of locals as well as some tourists and they were singing along to their favourite songs, and also dancing! The culmination of the entertainment was a short dramatisation of the history of the Oasis, complete with horses, sword fighting, a camel train, and even a flock of sheep. It was amazing, I loved it. We went for a stroll through the resort and ended up ordering mint and lemon drinks in a bar that was open to the stars, on this warm desert night. Out came a shisha pipe, of which we all tried a few puffs; of course none of us smoke but it seemed appropriate for the Middle Eastern setting. I felt very happy after such a wonderful day.