Pulley your socks up

I heard from Jamie yesterday by email as follows: 

"HEY!! Sorry it has taken me so long to get back in contact with you, I've been in the outback! Travelling to Ulurru and Kata Tjuta with Groovy Grape, this is me just back in civilization now in Alice. Trying to figure out how I'm going to make my way up to Darwin now . . . How are things at home? So much to tell and show you! onto my second memory card of photos now! so many :) Sorry again for my crap contact, 3 won't let me send any txts from my phone which sucks so I'm kinda out of the loop until I find a wifi spot, gave up this time and had to pay for it :( Love from your very much alive son Jamie, xxx"

It's nice to hear that he is having a great time, although he then emailed me today to say that he has run out of money! Oh dear, we will send him some funds. I was at school today timetabling with Jackie; what a huge task it is! We brought in food and drinks to keep us going and worked for about five hours. Meanwhile Ally and Davie were both in town with groups of friends, it seems that everyone is now coming back from holiday and wanting to meet up. Ally was going on to a party in Dunlop and Davie was at Braehead where he went to see the film "Super 8" which he said was quite good. However the most exciting event of the day for me is that my pulley has been put up in the utility room by Gary and John! It is going to revolutionize our laundry! It looks great and I love it! 

Visiting the Ospreys

We awoke to a rainy day in Boat of Garten; in fact the rain there was light compared to some other parts of Scotland which were being lashed with torrential rain. We all went to the Rothiemurchus Estate where we went clay pigeon shooting. This was a first time experience for me and it was great fun. We got expert instruction from Hugh, who is an expert marksman. Alison sportingly pressed the button to make the clays fly out when Hugh said "Pull!"; I say sportingly because she doesn't enjoy shooting but still goes along on a regular basis to send up the clays for Hugh. Every place that we shot from was a bit different, which made it interesting. For example in some places the clay was projected upwards, in some across the way, all at different speeds and trajectories. With Hugh's patient coaching James and I both managed to hit the clays some of the time - one or two out of five shots - which we were quite pleased with, as novices. The last place we shot from was called "rabbits" because the clay was fired out across the ground and rolled and bounced along at the speed of a rabbit. I really enjoyed it; I would never ever want to shoot a real creature and I have never allowed the boys even to have toy guns (although they made their own out of lego or tree branches!) however this was like developing a skill and challenging yourself to improve. 

Back to the cottage for lunch then we went for a walk in the rain to the Osprey Centre at Loch Garten. It was a forty-five minute walk each way and we got pretty wet, but it was nice to get a walk and lovely to revisit the Osprey Centre. When I was walking up the slope to the visitor centre (a bit behind the others because I had just visited the toilet), a girl on a bicycle stopped beside me to photograph some mushrooms. She is one of the volunteers from the centre and she told me that it is called the Devil's Tooth fungus and it is quite rare. It is edible but has a very peppery taste. I wish I knew all about the things I see on walks like she does, it's so fascinating. There are two Osprey chicks this year called Tore and Boyack, they hatched in May and can now fly. Their Mum EJ was sitting up on a branch and looked rather cross about the wet weather, she kept having to shake her head to get rid of the raindrops! We saw lots of other birds such a blue tits, bullfinches, greenfinches, and a woodpecker. We also saw a red squirrel and even a wee vole scurrying about under a tree. Back at the cottage (where there are also a huge variety of birds at Alison and Hugh's bird feeder) we had coffee and a chat then we said our farewells and set off home. It has been a really lovely weekend. 

Walking (and falling down) at Boat of Garten

We are having a lovely weekend at Alison and Hugh's cottage in Boat of Garten. We having been coming here for about five years and their gorgeous cottage is in a beautiful setting with lots of things to do and see nearby including many walking and cycling routes. We arrived last night in time for a delicious dinner cooked by Alison - smoked haddock pate, chicken with green pepper sauce, followed by white chocolate mousse - mmmm! Today James and Alison set off on their planned route - from the ski centre road to the Chalamain Gap, then up to the summit of the Laraig Gru and back to Loch Morlich via Rothiemurchus Lodge. Most of this is rough going for 18 km. It took them six hours and they very much enjoyed it despite being plagued by midges! Meanwhile Hugh and I decided to go on a low level walk from near the Rothiemurchus Visitor Centre round Loch an Eilean then west to the old logging road and back to Rothiemurchus. It was a very pleasant walk with lovely views of Cairngorm and other mountains and it took us three hours. There were quite a few other people walking or cycling, the weather was very warm. Hugh worked out the distance later and it was 13 km, which I was very pleased with! We went back to the cottage for lunch before picking up James and Alison at four o'clock, then we all went for coffee and scones to the visitor centre. I phoned home to check up on the boys and to remind them that they had been invited to Grandma's for tea. They were fine and told me that Grandma has invited Andrew too! Alison, Hugh, James and I walked the 3 km into Boat of Garten for dinner at Anderson's restaurant, a great treat which we usually visit each year. As usual the food was absolutely excellent, I had a very unusual terrine - duck, cherry and hazelnut - which was very good, then smoked haddock and pea risotto. We had a good chat and a laugh. When we came out of the restaurant it was raining and quite dark once we left Boat of Garten, although James and Hugh had torches which helped! As we approached the cottage there was a car coming, I stepped onto the verge and caught my foot in a wee ditch and took a tumble, I was rolling about the verge and the others told me that the car slowed almost to a halt, the driver must have wondered what on earth had happened! I found it very funny and although I was wet I was fine! The others pointed out that I was the one who fell even though I was the only one who wasn't drinking! (I stopped drinking alcohol in November 2010.) Back to the cottage for drinks and chat, an excellent day. 

Getting on with useful things

Davie's results arrived today; two B's for Int 2 English and Admin. Well done Davie! He's in a very good position to sit his Highers next year. So the boys are on track to do what they want to do. I'm very proud of all three of them.
Last night I finished an excellent book called "The Return of Captain John Emmett" by Elizabeth Speller. I really enjoyed it and thought it was very well written. I had to re-read the ending to check that I had understood it correctly, it was a very satisfying read. I am now starting "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese and I am planning to slow down my rate of reading a bit - ever since I went full steam ahead on Ulysses (so that I didn't lose interest in it) I have been in reading speed Warp factor 10!
It is grey and damp today but still very warm. Alasdair is visiting Grandma just now and then I will be taking him and David up to pc world to look at computers. I am doing some more admin e.g. booking the car and some jewellery in for repair, bank, estate agent etc., I'm beginning to get a slight sense of urgency because I will soon be back at work and will not have the luxury of time to arrange household things. The linoleum was fitted in the utility room today and my new pulley has arrived! I have returned the broken pulley (which took two weeks to arrive) to the first company (who were very rude to me) and when I ordered an identical one from another company it arrived within 24 hours! Gary will put it up on Tuesday. So, a pleasant and useful day so far. 

Scottish exam results sent early in text blunder

This was the headline on the BBC News Scotland website today! The story went on to explain:-

"Almost 30,000 pupils in Scotland have received their exam results a day early by mistake. The blunder meant youngsters who signed up to get results by text message got an early look at their grades, the Scottish Qualifications Authority said. Opposition politicians branded it a "serious mistake", but the exam body insisted the problem had not put anyone at a disadvantage. Higher and Standard Grade results for 160,000 students come out on Thursday." 

However we already knew about this because when we were in IKEA this afternoon Alasdair received a text from the SQA - he was one of the 30,000! It took us all by surprise and I rushed to phone James with the results. Alasdair has done very well with A's & B's (six highers in total) - an excellent total of 15 points which should be enough for him to do Law. What a relief; his prelim results in January were a mixture of B's & C's and I know that he has worked very hard to improve them. The wee trooper has come up trumps! Next step is the application process. Meanwhile David is still talking about doing Science, possibly Pharmacy or Biochemistry, he loves Science and has been thinking about this for several years now. I think that Biochemistry is currently the front runner because David's two Int 2 exam results will arrive by post tomorrow; his Highers will be next year. Ally didn't seem very excited about his great results (some of his friends have done even better) so James and I had a long talk with him and told him how proud we are of him, and emphasised that he has lots of options. Since his laptop is on its last legs his reward is going to be a really good, up to date laptop. He was very pleased about this, I think that it demonstrated to him just how very well we feel that he has achieved, and he went off to research it! 

Another disturbed night!

After hoping for a more peaceful night's rest it was ironic that James and I were woken at 2 a.m. by the phone ringing! No one was on the other end when I answered and when I checked the number it was from a mobile phone. Needless to say we were a bit alarmed - memories of night time emergencies with my Mum - night time phone calls are not usually good news. In the morning I typed in the number to my iphone because if I do that and it is a number in the memory the name comes up - and so it did - it was Alasdair! When I asked him about it he said that the phone had been under his pillow and he had rolled onto it by accident. Then he had heard it ringing and quickly switched it off! Oh well at least it wasn't something bad.
Today I have set up a "home office" on the dining table and I'm having an admin day. It's a good day for it because it is raining and I have a pile of admin to do. It has not started well because my long-awaited pulley, which I ordered weeks ago and was told was dispatched last week, has arrived dirty and broken - and the delivery man says it was only dispatched yesterday. Grrrr I hate being lied to. I have emailed photos of the broken pulley to the company.
David is chatting to me with a cup of tea and Ally is getting ready to meet friends in town. A good day so far. 

A rude awakening

James had a very restless night last night and at one point he shouted out and lashed out with his arm, waking me up. I asked what was the matter and he said that he had thought that there was a fly in his mouth! He left very early to fly down to London as he often has to, on business. I took my car to the garage when I got up and then walked home. Ally and Davie were still asleep; I made myself some porridge with honey and raspberries and ate it in the garden while drinking a cup of coffee. I have to say that it was absolutely idyllic. The weather was very warm and it had been raining earlier so the garden had an almost tropical feel! James phoned for a quick chat from St James Park where he was sitting in the sunshine before his meeting. Later on Alasdair was telling me about an exciting incident at the barbecue he went to in Ealing. The gas canister under the barbecue caught fire and there were flames everywhere. Alasdair helped to put out the fire and was quite a hero! I was impressed by the sang-froid of his hosts who continued with the barbecue after the fire brigade left! Davie's friend Stuart, aka Stubo, was round all day and the boys had a pleasant time paying computer games and wandering down to the Main Street.

Ally W came round for coffee in the afternoon and we were reminiscing about our lovely time in Singapore. She was telling me about their holiday in Vietnam and Cambodia, it sounded absolutely fascinating and I would love to go there some day. 

In the evening after James arrived home we watched a couple of episodes of "Yes Minister" which Alasdair bought in the BBC shop last week. It is still very good and Alasdair in particular loved it. I'm hoping that my sleep tonight is not disturbed!