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.
Monday 14 October 2024
Blog editing complete
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.
Saturday 12 October 2024
Birthday shopping and Alex Salmond
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.
Thursday 10 October 2024
The River Café Café
Wednesday 9 October 2024
Juno and the Paycock
Tuesday 8 October 2024
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.
Saturday 5 October 2024
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.
Tuesday 1 October 2024
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
James and I were doing some errands in town this afternoon and decided to go to the cinema. After checking the listings we went to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at the Everyman Cinema, a sequel to the original from 1988, which we both enjoyed. It was good fun, not as edgy and novel as the original but still very funny in places, and Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton had both reprised their roles. So had the excellent Catherine O’Hara, who is a fine comic actress.