First chill of autumn

When we woke up on Thursday, James announced that it was 3°C outside, the lowest this autumn so far. And sure enough it really did feel quite autumnal when I got outside. It was beautiful too, with blue skies and the leaves on the trees just turning to gold and red. After nipping out to do a few errands I spent the morning doing a training course about the new children’s legislation for older children. Heavy stuff. 
I had a lovely catch up with Ally Walker over lunch at the museum of rural life in East Kilbride, we both had lots of news to share. She invited me to a Café Litteraire at the Alliance Française at the end of November; the book to be discussed is “L’heure des prédateurs” by Giuliano da Empoli so I will need to read it. I feel excited but rather daunted at the prospect! 
Then James made delicious asparagus risotto for dinner and even made our old favourite of Angel Delight poured onto tinned pears for dessert. He is definitely in my good books for that! 
Later on I hosted book club; we were discussing the Nightingale by Kristen Hannah and our discussion of the book led on to the French Resistance and the Second World War. It was a really good chat. 

Royal Philosophical Society

What a laugh we had on Monday at our ladies lunch in Il Pavone. There were only three of us because Maggie was in London to see her new grandson, and Helen couldn’t make it because of a tyre puncture, so Libby, Wendy and I decided to ask the waiter to take a photograph of us looking sad without the others. The photograph was hilarious. I was staring gloomily into my coffee cup , Wendy was making a sad face at the camera, and Libby was attempting to pout but trying not to laugh which resulted in a very strange expression. We immediately sent it to our absent friends who thought it was very funny but both wanted us to arrange another meet up before Christmas so that we can all be reunited! James and I were back at our art history class on Tuesday; this week we were looking at the use of perspective in the Italian Renaissance. I found it a bit dry and it doesn’t help that the room that we meet in it’s so warm. It’s in the James Black building in the university, and there is nowhere nearby to get a coffee at break time, so James and I go for a walk up and down the corridor and look at the science posters. Later I went to Pickleball coaching, which I really enjoy. The proof of this is how quickly the hour flies past.
Today I had lunch at the Burrell Collection with Hilary, we parked at the old cricket club and walked the short distance through the park to the museum. It was very beautiful with the leaves just turning golden, and Hilary suddenly said “how lucky we are!” And I have to say that I agree with her! We had a lovely lunch and talked, among many other things, about grandchildren. Hilary has four much loved four grandchildren and they are all very different from one another.
Talking of grandchildren, I popped round to see Jessica and Chanel later in the afternoon. Jessica was very cute, moving and stretching in her comfy pram and definitely looking right at me when she opened her eyes. Davie arrived in from work and was telling us about his day.
In the evening James and I went to our first lecture at the Royal Philosophical Society in the Dir Charles Wilson building at Glasgow University. It was about the Chemistry of life and death. There was a lot about mitochondria and the Krebs cycle. The speaker was called Nick Lane from UCL. He was immensely popular, it was standing room only at the back but luckily we got two of the last seats available. He was very personable and a good speaker, and James enjoyed it very much, however the science was way over my head and I really felt as if I must have looked like a dog watching a card trick! 

A pleasant autumnal week

Tuesday was a sunny and breezy morning and we played Pickleball outdoors, it was excellent fun as always. Then James picked me up and we went straight to Italian Renaissance Art, following the same routine as last week. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi wasn’t working in the dilapidated Sir James Black building, so Sybren had to carry his laptop around the room to show us the slides. It must’ve been exhausting for him. Luckily for me, I had already printed out the slides so James and me were able to have a closer look at them. This week we were learning about the many artists who were involved in creating Florence’s Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral; builders, sculptors, painters and more. Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello were the big hitters in the early 15th century. 
We had dinner at Heather and Ewan’s, the veg lasagne was delicious and so was the apple and blackberry crumble. We had a nice chat and heard about their holiday in Croatia. 
On Friday we caught up with Stuart and Anne for the first time in ages, it was really great to see them and hear all of their news. And on Saturday night we had Gordon and Morag round for dinner with Cornel and Heather. They hadn’t met before, however they all got on extremely well and we had a good laugh. I was gratified at how well the meal was received. Tom and Flora were enjoying the chat and sat in the lounge with us looking around at everyone and being admired (but not jumping up in anyone except James and me.) I’m so proud of how social they are! 

Talking of cats, I was cat-sitting Skye and Harris this weekend; Davie, Chanel and Jessica went to Warrington to visit Chanel’s Grandma who is very ill in hospital. The good news is that she is doing much better and is expected to get out of the ICU tomorrow.

Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks

Our guests left us on Saturday morning to catch the 10.30 ferry to Stornoway where they were going to attend a family party. They will return to the cottage on Wednesday evening and, depending on the weather, may stay for a few days. 
However we won’t be able to join them because today we have headed down the road to rejoin the cats and to go to various events over the next few days. We were unlucky in the way down the A9 to get stuck behind a traffic accident, and we were sent on a long diversion via Dunkeld. * 
It was really tedious. 
We barely had an hour in the house before we needed to set off to see Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks at GRCH. We parked at Cowcaddens and hurried along the road to the concert hall. But when we arrived I realised that I had left my phone at home. My phone had the tickets in it and I couldn’t log into the ticket website from James’ phone because the password was randomly generated and is saved in my phone. We went to ask for help at the box office but there seemed to be no way to retrieve the tickets. 
James immediately plunged into the five stages of grief, but got stuck at number two - anger! Then one of the people at the help desk said that he had the list of tickets bought via ticketmaster and he was able to find our names and reissue our tickets. We got to our seats just as the concert was starting - phew! 
I enjoyed the concert more than I thought I would. The psychedelic music of Jon Anderson is more James’ taste than mine however his voice is still good and I enjoyed the concert. The concert was sold out and the partisan audience loved every minute of it. No one of course loved it more than Jon Anderson himself, who was clearly enjoying the adulation of his fans. It’s hard to believe that he is nearly 82 years old.
* Three people were taken to hospital but no fatalities I’m glad to say. 

The “Lost” Cat

Tom climbed in the kitchen window of 10 Cadzow Drive at some point today. The inhabitants must have assumed that he was a stray, closed the window, fed him a can of tuna and put the word out that they had a lost cat in their house. Christine next door phoned me at about 6 p.m. to tell me that no. 10 had told Brian about it when he was out walking Bailey. I phoned Angela who went round and chapped the door of no. 10. The first thing she saw when they opened the door was Tom, rolling about happily on his back on the hall carpet. The people who live there were very nice, and told her that when they searched Facebook to see if there were any reports of a missing cat, they found a post from Cat five years ago about Tom being lost! He did have a collar on but it may have had the old house phone number on it. Angela had a look but she didn’t have her reading glasses with her so she couldn’t read the number. So we will have a look when we get home and make sure that he has an up to date tag on his collar with my mobile number on it. Tom returned home with Angela unrepentant and I have a bad feeling that he may visit number 10 again! Anyway all’s well that ends well but we will be having some stern words with Tom on our return home! Not that he will either understand or care! 

Autumn Visitors

We have had a really lovely autumnal weekend in Ullapool with Christine and Gerry. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, without the cats this time, and the Reids arrived a few hours later. We had a pleasant dinner and evening in the cottage, and then introduced Christine and Gerry to our favourite game of the summer; Sequence. They seemed to enjoy it and Christine and I beat the boys. On Friday James and Gerry went for a walk up the quarry road to Loch Achall. Christine and I strolled into town and had a look round the shops, something I don’t do very often so it was good fun. We had a good chat too. We got a message from James to say that he and Gerry were back in the village so we all met at Cult Café for lunch. After a relaxing afternoon we had some really delicious handmade pizzas at Oak and Grain in the village before heading down to Rhidorroch Distillery for drinks and to listen to some traditional music. Back at the cottage our convivial evening continued with much chat and laughter. 

Farewell to Ally until January

A pleasant and social day. We had brunch with Janis and Gerry at our old favourite All Bar One. It was, as ever, lovely to see them and there was much talk of grandchildren; their wee grandson Rory is nearly two and is a handsome wee fellow. Alasdair was in town getting an inoculation for his travels, so he came to join us afterwards; he has known Janis and Gerry since he was a student. 
My next stop in today’s social whirl was coffee with my once-upon-a-time job sharer, Margaret N. We job-shared for eight-and-a-half years in the 1990s into the early 2000s and she was excellent; always very organised and a great teacher. We had a good catch up in Margaret’s beautiful home, lots of family news and some interesting news of former colleagues. 
And then James, Ally and I went over to Uddingston to visit beautiful Jessica - and Davie and Chanel of course. Jessica had just been fed and was quite sleepy, it was lovely to hold her. Davie and Chanel were in good spirits, parenthood suits them. 
Back home we had a farewell curry with Ally. Tomorrow he will drive back to London, then next week he and Cat will travel to Barbados for a holiday together as Ally starts his travels around the world. We won’t see Ally until we all meet in New Zealand for Jamie and Kerry’s wedding - we will miss him.