Setting off to New Zealand

I had an interview yesterday morning for the Children’s Panel. Ally W is already a panel member and she told me about what it involves, and that sparked my interest. I found out more about it, went to an information evening and duly applied. The interview went well, although I inevitably felt that I could have explained a few things better, and they will let me know if I’ve been successful in November. When I left the Council Offices in Almada Street I felt light-hearted. I had spent quite a bit of time preparing for my interview so now I felt free as a bird. 

After a celebratory lunch of potato scones I did admin, tidying, double-checked the contents of my case, and posted some letters. Flora came up onto the bed so that I could pat her as I went to sleep, I’m sure that both cats knew that we are going away because of the big cases being packed. 

This morning we said goodbye to the cats; Tom made himself scarce after he had his breakfast, no doubt wary in case we intended to take him with us, and Flora accompanied us to the steps outside the front door, did a poo in the flowerbed and watched us leave. I will miss them very much. We are now on the plane about to set off on the first leg of our journey, London to Heathrow on BA. James is doing his sudoku and I’m going to continue reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. 

Blog editing complete

Today I finished the blog editing / proof reading project which I started in March - it has taken me much longer than I thought! I felt a great sense of satisfaction because it has been a lot of work and now my blog can be printed. Just one copy, for my descendants. I have also packed my case for our holiday to New Zealand to see Jamie. We will be setting off on Wednesday morning and I’m getting very excited. In the afternoon I popped over to have a pleasant coffee with Heather in Lenzie. It was a beautiful day with very bright blue skies. 
And in the evening we had a lovely video call with Ally and Cat, who are just back from a long weekend in Prague as part of their project to visit every country in Europe before they turn thirty-one in the spring! This weekend Andrew was with them and they had a great time. 

Birthday shopping and Alex Salmond

Today was a very rainy day but strangely interspersed with blue skies and sunshine. When one of the very heavy bouts of rain came on in the morning, Floof came shooting in through the cat flap; she must have been very nearby because she was hardly wet at all. Then both cats went over to the French windows and stared at the rain in amazement and some alarm. 
Alison T came round for coffee in the morning and it was great to see her. And after lunch we met up with Davie & Chanel at the Outdoor Experience to buy presents for their birthdays, which are both this month while we will be in NZ. Both presents had a hill-walking theme, because Davie and Chanel are going to walk the West Highland Way next week. We had a cup of tea with them and a good chat. Later in the afternoon we heard that Alex Salmond has died at the age of sixty nine. Not very old at all. I remember seeing him outside the Eden Court in Inverness in the late 1980s, not long before he became leader of the SNP for the first time. He was a striking figure, full of the joys, and was enjoying being the centre of attention. 

The River Café Café

James and I went to the recently opened “River Café Café” this morning, a pleasant walk from our Hammersmith Premier Inn. The River Café have opened this bright wee café just across from the restaurant; it has both indoor and outdoor seating and we both enjoyed our breakfasts. Then we walked along the river to Hammersmith Bridge which is being extensively refurbished. It’s still open to pedestrians though so we crossed over and back again. The area is anttractive along beside the river. James set off for the airport to head home, and I set off to Euston Station by underground. My journey went smoothly and I was soon on the train speeding north, however James was not so lucky. Despite arriving at the airport in plenty of time, the queue for security was the longest that he had ever seen, and he ended up missing his flight. He had to rebook for the 4.15 p.m. flight and I actually arrived home about fifteen minutes before him! 

Juno and the Paycock

I had a good sleep in the Hammersmith Premier Inn and headed to Soho for brunch with Gordon in a wee Australian café called Scarlett Green. I was very excited to see Juno and the Paycock at the nearby Gielgud Theatre, and it didn’t disappoint! Mark Rylance was excellent as lazy fantastist “Captain” Jack Boyle, and although the story was tragic in many ways, it had funny moments and a note of hope for the mother and daughter who found strength in each other. J. Smith-Cameron was just as good as the matriarch and the rest of the cast were strong too. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Gordon and I then made our way to the Royal Albert Hall where we met up with James who had flown to London at lunch time. We had dinner at Café Verdi which was very pleasant, and then the boys went to their David Gilmour concert. It’s just as well that I was there because it turned out that one of the concert attendees ID had to match that of the person who booked the tickets, I suppose to make it more difficult to resell the tickets. So Gordon and I had to go over to the box office, who quickly authorised Gordon to go in. I then consulted Google maps and took a bus from right outside the Royal Albert Hall to Hammersmith Bus Station, and walked five minutes to the Premier Inn. I was pleased with my navigation. 

Dinner with Ally

I got comfortably settled in my reserved seat on the 10.38 Tain from Glasgow Central to London Euston this morning. However the train did not set off. Instead there was an announcement that very sadly someone got hit by a train this morning at Preston, which meant that all of the Avanti trains on the west line were delayed indefinitely. We were advised to take a train to Edinburgh and then a LNER train to London Kings Cross. So that’s what I did, and caught the 1 p.m. train at Waverley. One of the other passengers had told me that the LNER trains are nicer than Avanti trains, and this did seem to be the case. It helped that the train wasn’t too busy, and soon I was being treated to sea views as we journeyed down the east coast past Berwick upon Tweed. However there was a further delay; the train stopped because of an unspecified fault just north of Darlington. Luckily it was fixed fairly quickly and we arrived in London just after 6 p.m. 

I no longer had time to go to my Premier Inn in Hammersmith to drop off my rucksack, so I decided put it on my back to walk the forty minutes to St Paul’s to stretch my legs after the long train journey. I arrived in good time at the Ivy Asia and met Ally at the bar. It was very busy considering it’s a Tuesday, I saw several people being turned away. Our meal was absolutely delicious and we had the best table in the restaurant, a wee curved booth at the window with a view of St Paul’s Cathedral. I had a lovely mocktail to start with called Rose of the Orient, made with lychee, rose, raspberry and orange blossom soda. It was bliss. Ally’s cocktail was called the Ohara, made with Ketel One vodka, strawberry, hibiscus, yuzu, elderflower, soda and Prosecco. I think it’s named after the town in Japan rather than the Irish surname! We also had a great chat about anything and everything and it was a splendid evening. In the way to the underground station, Ally showed me a pond which had a perfect reflection of St Paul’s Cathedral in it. 

Peaky Blinders Ballet

I have been having a social time this week; a coffee with Linda P on Wednesday, and lunch with Christine and Gerry and James on Thursday. It’s the first time that we have seen Gerry since he had a stroke, and it was reassuring to see him looking well. It’s probably due to his high level of fitness that the stroke wasn’t even worse. However he has serious issues with his eyesight which he hopes will improve over the next few months. We had a really nice chat. I have also been doing useful stuff like getting the car serviced and some boring admin. 

We went to see the Peaky Blinders ballet this afternoon which I booked impulsively a while ago, because James and I both enjoyed the television series. In fact there is an upcoming film of Peaky Blinders. It was at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh. We took the train through and we had a light lunch in the Costa in Blackwell’s bookshop beforehand. Morag was also going to the ballet with her friend Nicola, and we met up for a coffee in the theatre café beforehand. I have only been to a very few ballets over the years, so I am no expert, but I thought that this one was very good. The dancing and the music were both excellent - they used Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and other music similar to that of the television series. And who could resist their wee razor lined flat caps! James said that he enjoyed it, although ballet isn’t really his thing (or mine, although I enjoy the spectacle of a ballet more than he does.) Morag does know a lot about ballet and she thought that it was great. Back home on the train we went and Davie and Chanel came round for dinner, we had a good chat and a lot of laughter.