Navigation fail!

As a trained Duke of Edinburgh leader I pride myself on being able to navigate fairly well. Today however I was rather embarrassed to find myself thoroughly lost very near to home. I had gone for a very pleasant coffee after work to Catherine's. Having walked there from school using the most direct way, I decided to take a slightly circuitous route back to make the walk more interesting. This involved walking a route at Cathkin that I would normally drive, so I was taken by surprise when the pavement ended abruptly, leaving me trudging across some grass. Not at all daunted, I spotted an underpass which took me under the dual carriageway and onto a path towards my destination. I then walked up to join the road, and to my surprise I found myself walking back along the road from whence I had just come. No matter, I attempted to reverse the route - only to find myself at the edge of a small housing estate overlooking the school. I could see my car tantalisingly close by. So I found myself gingerly climbing down a muddy path in the dark to reach the car park. Thank goodness there was nobody around to see my undignified progress! 

Weekend thoughts

It has been a good weekend and we got some useful stuff done, such as ordering a new fireplace for the smaller front room, and doing a wee bit of Christmas shopping. We also had a lovely dinner at Heather and Ewan's on Saturday evening; I was delighted to see how mobile Heather is after her knee operation last week. She is a very fit girl which I'm sure will help her recovery. I enjoyed both the delicious dinner and the relaxed conversation - we always have very interesting discussions with Heather and Ewan - as well as an enjoyable melange of country and rock music! 

Today we had lunch with Alison and Hugh in town, and ended up visiting the craft fair in the old Fruit market, where I ran into Elspeth who had a stall there! Alison and Hugh are full of exciting plans for Alison's impending retirement - I am so pleased for them. They had walked into town along the Clyde Walkway which is pretty impressive - two and a half hours of walking before lunch! My ankle is beginning to feel noticeably better and is less sore, so I need to think about taking more exercise. 

James and Ruby have a falling out!

Ruby was not in the back room with us yesterday evening; James and I both noticed her absence, but both cats are very independent so we just assumed that she was outside on an adventure. There was no sign of her this morning either, and I was beginning to feel a wee bit worried when we heard a faint sound from somewhere in the house. Neither of the cats can miaow properly, unlike their predecessors Jack and Jill, who knew how to sound like proper cats. So what we heard sounded more like a human child wailing. James went downstairs, checking rooms as he went, and then I heard him shouting in a horrified voice, "Oh no, come and look at this!"

I rushed downstairs, thinks no that something terrible had happened to Ruby, only to find James attempting to open the door to the lounge, which was jammed by the carpet. It turned out that Ruby had managed to get herself locked in the lounge overnight, and in her frantic attempts to escape she had ripped the carpet at the door with her claws, and had even managed to lift it up completely at one corner.

James was absolutely furious and had to reach in to pull up the carpet some more in order to open the door. Ruby must have understood from his shouting that he was angry because when I went in she was hiding behind the chair. She cheered up when she ate her breakfast and had a wee drink of milk. James later gave her a pat on the head and they were reconciled. As for the carpet, James has managed to hide the worst of the damage under a new metal door strip, but we are going to have to look for a wider one to hide all of the claw marks! 

Grand Tour

James, Ally and I decided to watch Jeremy Clarkson's new car programme on Amazon Prime this evening. The boys always enjoyed Top Gear, from which Clarkson departed rather hastily after he punched one of the show's producers for not arranging a hot meal for him after a day of filming. His loyal henchmen, Richard Hammond and James May followed him in resigning from the BBC. Top Gear resumed with new presenters, led by Chris Evans, and got roundly criticised for not managing to capture the atmosphere of the old show. 

So we were quite interested to see how Jeremy Clarkson and his chums would fare on their new show.

It got off to a very good start; Clarkson was filmed leaving the BBC sadly in the rain, handing in his security pass on the way out. He then boarded a plane to sunny California where he drove through the desert while the song "I can see clearly now the rain has gone" was played. He was joined by Hammond and May and the show continued at a lively pace with lots of cars, lots of jokes - quite good jokes e.g. Clarkson supposedly tampering with the subtitles so that a French-speaking driver would appear to agree with his views, and a mock fight with his America audience. It was all quite amusing.

Was it better than Chris Evans' version of Top Gear? I'm afraid so. I'm not a great fan of Jeremy Clarkson's rather brash personality, but I have to admit that he knows how to present a car show. 

New Dishwasher

As I blog, James and Ally are attempting to install our new dishwasher. I'm keeping quiet because when the Anderson men are attempting a technical task, tensions can run high. There are pages of detailed instructions laid out on the table and there is a lot of pacing around going on, selecting tools. For some reason they are also wielding torches, and have just started using a drill. I'm not even going to ask what is going on.

Our loyal old dishwasher gave up the ghost very suddenly last week. One day is was swishing away merrily at the dishes, the next it was as dead as a door nail. It was long out of warranty and the cost of repair was ridiculous, so we had to order a new one. It has been quite a novelty to go back to washing dishes by hand for the past week; of course that's what I did for the first twenty-five or so years of my life; we didn't get a dishwasher when we were first married, and I remember it was so exciting to get one when we moved into our present house. I didn't trust it at first, so I used to wash all the dishes before I put them in the dishwasher, which rather defeated the purpose! 

Sunday errands

I woke this morning, refreshed after my lovely spa day, to find Ruby sitting on my chest, waiting for me to feed her. James and Ally were still away for the weekend with Cornel so I decided to treat myself to breakfast at Marks and Spencer, where I needed to do some shopping anyway. How pleasant it was to eat my bloomer with eggs, bacon and cherry tomatoes while drinking a large cup of coffee and reading my Kindle. 

Then I did my shopping, not always my favourite activity, but this morning I was in a tremendously good mood so everything was quite enjoyable. I'm so pleased with the improvement in my eyesight. There is still a very small cloud that sometimes floats across my vision but its hardly noticeable, and the colours all seem brighter. 

My afternoon was spent listening to the radio while tidying the house and making a nice roast dinner for my climbing boys to eat on their return. They arrived weary, sunburned and very hungry, but luckily I had cooked plenty of food. It has been a great weekend.

Jacuzzi day

Saturday has gone exactly to plan and I have had a very pleasant and relaxing day with Jennifer. She joined me for breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Marlow, where I had spent a comfy night. We went for a wee walk to look at the lake beside the hotel in the sunny, crisp morning. Then we headed for the spa where we spent the rest of the day.

We chatted and laughed for about six hours! There is a decent sized swimming pool, sauna, steam room, a jacuzzi beside the pool, and our favourite - a nice wooden jacuzzi just outside in the hotel garden. How lovely it was to look up at the blue sky from the the hot bubbling water. Although it's quite a small spa I would definitely come here again, and it's only twenty-five minutes drive from Jennifer's house. 

I travelled back home in the evening, and guess what, the plane was delayed again! This time there was something wrong with the landing gear and then a problem with someone's biometric security - we had all had our photos taken as we boarded the flight. Never mind, I just read my book (A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler) and relaxed. 

When I arrived home a wee furry brown face was peeking round the front gate; Ruby escorted me into the house and straight to her food bowl! And now I'm tucked into my wee bed all cosy.