Friends and family

I met up with a few old friends last week. Old in length of friendship rather than in age I hasten to say. I had a very pleasant coffee with Jennifer H in Starbucks at Kingsgate on Wednesday and we had a good chat and caught up on lots of news. Then on Thursday I met up with my lovely school friends in Zizzi’s as usual. Now that we are all in our sixties some of the chat is about engagements and marriages of our children, and even grandchildren - Wendy has a grandchild and another on the way, and Libby has a grandchild on the way. How our lives move on. 

On Friday I had lunch with Philippa at the Dandelion Café. It was great to see her and she was telling me all about Mhairi’s wedding. It sounded like a wonderful day for Mhairi, I had already seen a lot of the photos online and she was a beautiful bride. 

And then on Sunday it was family time; Davie and Chanel came for lunch. James decided to make roast beef with all the trimmings and he made a lovely job of it; he even made his own Yorkshire pudding and horseradish sauce. The horseradish sauce was so hot that it nearly took the top of our heads off! It was a happy and convivial afternoon. 

Northern Renaissance Art Course

Back in Scotland the first thing we noticed was that the temperature was about 12 degrees cooler. However the heavy rain and flooding that we had accidentally avoided by going to London for the weekend was gone, replaced by pale blue skies and sunshine. On Wednesday we went to our art class; Northern Renaissance Art. I love it but am finding it rather hard to get my head around. Every time I think that I have a grasp of it, the keen young lecturer throws in a fact that contradicts my impressions. I suppose that it’s more complex than I thought! Our first class was in the Boyd Orr building but we have now been moved to the St Andrews Building, which I like because it has many happy teaching course memories for me. I’m not kidding, I met some lovely people there. There are some lovely wee cafés around there, the best known of which is the Eusebi Deli. I used to go there with Jackie, so I felt a bit sad at first when we went in there for an early lunch on Wednesday. She loved it there; Jackie really enjoyed finding new places to eat but she will never have the leisure of retirement to explore more. Lunch was delicious and so handy to nip across the road for our art course. We’re beginning to get to know the faces; some people are very knowledgeable already and have visited most if not of all the art galleries and churches in Europe containing Northern Renaissance Art. My favourite classmate is Bruce, a very clever elderly man who asks lots of questions but in such a mumble (could be for medical reasons) that our poor lecturer struggles to understand him. The look on his face is priceless as he tries to pick out words from Bruce’s lengthy questions. Then he says “Good point, yes we’re going to cover that shortly!” 

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms

We were due at the Tate Modern at 12.45 today, so we decided that we had plenty of time to walk the 7 km from Westferry. I was finding it a bit hot for walking so I suggested that we cross to the south side of the river, which is more shady in the morning. My timing was good because we were just approaching Wapping Underground Station, so we took the tube under the river to Rotherhithe. What a beautiful (and pleasingly shady) walk we had along the river to Southwark. There were some pretty little pubs and historic places, such as the poignant statues of “Dr Salter’s Daydream” which featured a realistic cat. I have never walked along that stretch of the river before. Eventually we arrived into familiar and busy territory at the Golden Hind and Clink Street, and continued past the Globe to the Tate Modern. We were just in nice time for our time slot to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms. No spoilers for anyone going to see them, but if you like mirrors and lights you will love this exhibition! And I did like it, although I was somewhat bemused by it too. Our tickets included lunch in the Bar & Kitchen on the 6th floor and, since I hadn’t really cooled down yet from my walk, I was absolutely delighted that the restaurant was air-conditioned. It also had splendid views across the river to St Paul’s Cathedral. We relaxed over a delicious lunch and I gradually cooled down until I felt completely comfortable. 
And then it was time to start on our journey home. We took a river ferry all the way back to Canary Wharf; the journey was really lovely in the sunshine. We only had a short journey to City Airport which was nice and quiet, as was the plane. We arrived home to a very rainy Glasgow, however it was great to see the kitties. Flora seems very well after being looked after by Davie, Chanel and Angela. 

Chanel and Abba

We arrived bright and early at the V&A just after 9 a.m. this morning. A bit too early in fact, because the museum didn’t open until 10 a.m! Nothing daunted, we had coffee and pastries at a nice wee café just along the road. At 10 we joined the short queue and on admission we went straight to the Chanel exhibition. I had cleverly booked this months ago, and this was confirmed by overhearing a lady asking a museum official about it and being told that the exhibition is fully booked until the end of its run. We both enjoyed the exhibition, the dresses were beautiful, and due to watching many seasons of The Great British Sewing Bee we also appreciated the skill of the design and the precision of the sewing. 
We met up with Gordon, Sheena and Peter at Figo, an Italian restaurant in Stratford shopping centre and had a very nice meal and chat. Then it was on to the show, Abba Voyage. I had heard good things about this concert, with the members of Abba represented by avatars. It surpassed all of my expectations. At first I wasn’t sure if the figures on the stage were avatars, because they looked so realistic. It was surreal! The technology is absolutely amazing. Only in close up on the big screens did I notice, and then only a little bit, that the expressions on the faces were maybe a little too smooth and perfect. But it was at least 99% realistic. The audience, who were very much of our own demographic, were extremely enthusiastic, and the concert was sold out. In fact Sheena said that she heard it is sold out until at least Christmas. The whole experience was fantastic and I think that all five of us felt the same; at the end we were discussing it in amazement. What a great evening. As a bonus we had a very short journey back to the Premier Inn at Westferry. 

A London walk and curry

I woke this morning with a headache at about 6.30 a.m. but luckily that was early enough to take some painkillers and then get another hour’s sleep, after which I felt much better. We had a late breakfast with Ally and Cat at the Two Magpies, then walked along Regent’s Canal towpath, north from Limehouse Basin to Victoria Park. James and I have never been to Victoria Park before and I thought that it was really lovely; it has a little lake at its centre with lots of paths, trees and grass. I had a goodly rest in the shade because I was very hot, while the much fitter James, Ally and Cat circuited round the park and bought my favourite pasteis de nata from a food market. We then walked on to Stratford Stadium where we could hear the roar of the crowd as West Ham were playing Newcastle. I had genuinely enjoyed the canal path walk and the pleasant company, but my old issue with heat was back with a vengeance, so I said farewell to the intrepid walkers and took the DLR from Stratford to Poplar. The only problem was that it was very very busy with football fans who were now streaming from the stadium in all directions, so I had to wait in a big queue.
We met Ally, Cat and Andrew for dinner at Mala in Canary Wharf; the meal was absolutely excellent and we had such a happy, fun evening. After dinner we headed for drinks to the biergarten at the Munich Cricket Club, which I think is James’ new favourite pub in London! 

Still summer in London

James flew down to London on Friday as planned but I booked a new flight for this morning so that I could keep an eye on Floof for a bit longer until our heroes Davie and Chanel arrived to look after her for the weekend. Floof seemed absolutely fine. The weather in Scotland and around Glasgow has been getting increasingly rainy to the point that there are now yellow weather warnings for much of the area. As I set off by taxi to the airport this morning there were huge puddles across the roads, and from what I have seen on news and social media website this continued to become more severe until roads were blocked by floods and there were overflowing rivers and landslips. So it felt particularly strange to arrive in a warm (24 degrees) and sunny London, it was as if I had travelled back in time to summer. Luckily I had checked the weather forecast and I have packed summer dresses! I met up with James, Ally and Cat at the Munich Cricket Club, a German pub and restaurant in Canary Wharf and we had lunch sitting outside. Then we went back to Ally and Cat’s flat where I saw their completed kitchen and living room floor - what a difference! The flat is so very nearly finished and it looks fantastic. We also sat out on their balcony overlooking the river; such amazing views. Later, after a lovely tapas dinner in the little Andalusia Restaurant, we went to the Harold Pinter Theatre to see Mark Rylance in Dr Semmelweis. It was very intense and moving. I really enjoyed it and so did Ally and Cat. James was not so convinced. It happened to be the very last performance of the run and the cast were quite emotional and Mark Rylance made a wee speech thanking everyone. After we left the theatre we walked to Bank Underground Station in the warm evening that was just like summer, I think that it’s unseasonably warm even for London. 

Wee Floof

We have had a frightening cat incident here. Flora got up from a nap yesterday at about tea time and screamed and hissed and then her front legs sort of collapsed and she fell down. She lay on the floor frightened for a couple of minutes then got up and tried to head behind the couch, but her legs collapsed again. 
We scooped her up (James had the presence of mind to grab the cat carrier on our way out) and rushed her up to Taylor Vets at Cathkin and they were great; we were taken straight in and they immediately did tests. The worst case is a neurological issue which would be very bad. Her bloods were fine and her x ray showed no skeletal damage but she was very constipated. So the vet, Elena, gave her painkillers and some sort of laxatives. By the time we got to the car Flora had already done a big poo (in the cat carrier!) I’m really hoping that the pain of severe constipation is what caused her to collapse, because that would rule out more serious issues. When we got home Flora was very agitated and kept chewing and biting at the bandage covering her catheter; she also ran about the house with no collapsing. We set up a litter tray in the kitchen because she was to stay indoors, which did not please her.
Back at the vet’s this morning Flora seemed fine, with no symptoms at all. It’s a mystery. The vet thought that the collapse could have been the pain of severe constipation or possibly she sniffed a toxin e.g. weedkiller which could explain the transient nature of her symptoms.
I was not happy about leaving her unsupervised so Davie and Chanel have very kindly travelled here to cat sit over the weekend so that we could head to London (almost) as planned - I delayed my flight until Saturday. Oh my wee Floof. I hope that she’s ok.