James fixed it for Ally

It has been a pleasant weekend. I got my hair cut on Saturday and didn't hate the experience or the result too much, then I met James for lunch at Prezzo. James has designed a spreadsheet for me where I can record my spending and really know what is in my account; it incorporates all the things I spend every month like music lessons, school fees, contact lenses and many more! The beauty of this is that I can now clearly see what is still to come off my account, whereas if I just look at my balance online it gives me a false optimism. It is going to be very helpful now that I am paid every four weeks, because that has been confusing me - I used to get paid on the last Thursday of every month and then all my standing orders would come off on the 1st of the next month, which would only be a few days away so I knew I would definitely still have money to cover them. With the four weekly pay I find it harder to plan because pay day changes each month. Anyway, it's not like me to get excited over finances but I can see that this spreadsheet is going to help me a lot.
We went over to Heather and Ewan's for a curry in the evening and had a great time; by now they will have arrived in Madrid for their holiday. I'd love to go there one day; James will coincidentally be there this week on business! I would especially like to visit the Prado museum to see the Velazquez paintings among others. 
This morning James decided that we would go to Ikea to buy bookcases for Alasdair; he was delighted because he has been nagging us about getting them for ages. He has already constructed them with much noise and hammering and started to fill them. Then the four of us had a blowy walk at Largs, from Nardini's to the Pencil and marina and back again. The highlight of the evening was watching an episode of the first series of Bergerac with Grandma so that we could look out for places we visited in Jersey! It was good fun, especially as the series is now thirty years old. The island looks very much the same apart from the airport buildings and St Helier. And the plot wasn't too bad either. 
Finally farewell to Sir Jimmy Savile who died yesterday at the age of 84. I loved the television programme Jim'll Fix It in the 1970s and although I always felt that there was something strange and a bit creepy about him, however he seems to have been an eccentric but genuinely well-meaning person who raised a lot of money for charity. James and I once spotted him walking near his house at Glencoe; with the tracksuit and wild hair it was unmistakably him! 

We need to talk about Kevin

This evening I went with my EK book group to see the newly released film of the Lionel Shriver film, We Need to Talk about Kevin. Because I had loved the book and knew it well, it was hard to judge how the film is, because it was impossible not to make comparisons. Some episodes from Kevin's childhood, which I thought helped to build up a picture of Kevin, were left out. The chillingly predictive imagery was a bit heavy-handed. The bloody climax was not shown, just inferred, and although it would have been gory I thought it was very important to the plot. All in all I wish the director, Lynne Ramsay, had allowed the story to tell itself a bit more. Having said all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the film! The actors were all excellent and it made sense to set the film two years after the climax with the main character remembering events in flashbacks. I also enjoyed being at the GFT and going to Fazzi's for a meal with the girls after the film, it was great fun.
The boys had their own fun yesterday. Brian very kindly gave us tickets to see Ayr United play St Mirren in the Scottish cup. James, Ally and Davie went along and met up with Kyle and Christina who were also there. They were delighted when Ayr won 1 - 0 five minutes before full time and came home full of the joys! 

Reflections on Jersey

We are on our way north from Newcastle to home, a journey of just under three hours. It has been a good week in Jersey, it proved to be both picturesque and interesting. The houses are individually designed with beautiful gardens, and they are all freshly painted and maintained. There are lots of sandy beaches so you can choose where suits depending on wind direction. It is supposedly the sunniest place in Britain which I can well believe; we have just had a week of sunshine while most of the country has had rain, especially Scotland. There is lots to see and do; castles, war museums, restaurants, water sports. You can travel from there to the other Channel Islands and even to France. The people seem to be unfailingly polite and friendly. But would I live there? This is a question that I always ask myself when I visit a new place. I wonder if I am looking for somewhere that I might fall in love with and want to move to. When we were in Shetland a couple of years ago I met a lady who had gone there on holiday and had decided to stay there for the rest of her life. I felt quite envious of her because although I have travelled to many beautiful places I have never felt quite like that about any of them. I am fairly contented with where I live, so maybe I'm not really looking, but I do always give some thought to the "liveability" factor of a new place. My criteria are beauty (both house and surroundings and hopefully a view), proximity to wild countryside and some kind of water (river, loch, or sea, and an outdoor swimming pool would be great), accessibility to facilities such as airports, shops and hospitals, hopefully some sense of history, and some undefinable quality that makes me feel that I must be there. Well, Jersey certainly scores highly on beauty and on nearness to water, it has an interesting history and the facilities are fine. However it loses out a bit by being a bit TOO manicured and perfect; it is quite densely populated and even though there are plenty of fields and greenery there is not much wilderness around. Every square foot of the island is used and cultivated, and although it is a lovely holiday destination, it is not the home of my dreams. Never mind, I'll just have to keep travelling! 

Beaches and War

Our last full day in Jersey and it was full of gastronomic delights since we ate out both for lunch and dinner in St Aubin. But first we had a bit of unexpected activity because when I popped across to the hotel after breakfast they reminded me that today is changeover day in the cottage and we were to pack up and move to the hotel for our last night, because new people would be moving into the cottage today! This was all arranged months ago when I booked the accommodation but I had completely forgotten about it. So we packed up as quickly as possible and moved to two very luxurious rooms in the hotel, which means that we will have our breakfast in the hotel tomorrow morning. Mind you, neither of our rooms has as nice a view as Grandma's room! After this excitement we went to the very picturesque east coast Archirondel Beach with its red and White painted Martello tower, had a walk and a coffee in the Driftwood cafe. The beach cafes that we have visited in Jersey are all very pleasant and clean, and it's very nice to be able to sit and have a coffee while looking at the lovely views. Then back to St Aubin where we had a delicious lunch in the Bulwark - I would love to know how they cook their "sticky beef"! St Aubin was busy, and with the sunshine - not a cloud in the sky today - it's hard to believe that it is the end of October, it felt like a summer's day. Then off to the Jersey War Tunnels, which are well worth a visit. The tunnels were in fact an underground hospital built by the Germans during WW2, and they are now a museum about the occupation. It was a very interesting visit and we all learned more about what went on in Jersey during the war. There was an exhibit about Violette Szabo which was very moving, she was so brave and was only 23 when she died. Back to the hotel to chill out then we had dinner at the Salty Dog which was fine but rather noisy. Also the curries that Ally and I had were very very spicy - and Ally and I are not wimps about spicy food. Later we all had cups of tea and hot chocolate back at Grandma's room in the hotel and discussed the holiday, which we have all enjoyed very much. 

Pride Rock Castle

We visited another castle today; Mont Orgeuil Castle which is on the east coast of Jersey. The warden told us that it is only twelve miles from France and in fact my phone changed its clock to French time while we were there! It is a fantastic old castle perched on a rock with gorgeous views of the harbour below and the sea. It all looked particularly stunning because we continue to be very lucky with the weather, and the view was enhanced by blue skies and sunshine. As we made our way up the many steps (Grandma was as plucky as ever, she got right to the top) there were all sorts of passageways leading to rooms and spiral staircases, little gardens, modern sculptures; it's a warren and very interesting. Ally and Davie have always loved exploring castles and it was nice to see that they have not grown out of it, they disappeared off and could be seen appearing on ramparts and running past windows. We had sandwiches in the little cafe before heading into St Helier. As we left there was an unfortunate, allegedly accidental, testicle kicking incident by Ally which left Davie lying on the ground in seemingly extreme pain, I have always wondered whether men exaggerate the pain that this kind of injury can cause. When he recovered enough to limp off, the warden said enigmatically "He'll be all right", which gave me the impression that he has experienced it himself. 
Grandma has fond memories of Howard Davis Park in St Helier, which she and Jimmy visited with James and Forrest in the 1960s, so we had a walk there in the sunshine. It's named after a young soldier who was killed during the Battle of the Somme, and there is a small military graveyard at the edge of it with graves of some of the sailors from the HMS Charybdis, who were washed ashore on Jersey when it was torpedoed In 1943. Some are named and some are "known to God", like many of the war graves that we saw in France two years ago.
We had also had a walk around the centre of St Helier which was pleasant and pedestrianised, we noticed that some of the successful electoral candidates from two days ago had stapled "thank you" notices onto their posters - how polite!
Back to the cottage and saw gory news film of some of Gaddafi's last moments. Yes, I know that, as James always says, if you live by the sword you are very likely to die by the sword, and a gruesome death is an occupational hazard for dictators, and that Gaddafi did many awful things, but I still found it very unpleasant to watch the bloodied but still alive figure being beaten moments before his death. The media have reported the hunt for him as if it was a game, and now they are hypocritically demanding to know if he was killed "legally". I never thought it was a game and I can't take pleasure in death, no matter whose it is. I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels that way. And, as I have already said in my blog, I bet there will be more bloodshed in Libya to come. 

Fort Isabella Bellissima

Today we went to visit Elizabeth Castle in St Helier, which is at the end of a long causeway. It's possible to walk across but today the tide was in so we had to take one of the amphibious vehicles which go back and forth. When we parked in St Helier we didn't have a parking ticket so we asked a passer by where we could buy them and he very kindly gave us two tickets, further proving my theory that Jersey people are very nice indeed. Across the bay we went on the "Charming Betty", the weather was so warm that we had to take off our jackets. On the way there was music playing which must have been chosen as appropriate: the James Bond theme tune (presumably because of adventurous aspect of being in an amphibious vehicle), the Captain Pugwash theme tune (nautical?) and the theme tune from Jaws (a bit worrying, that one!) We had a stroll around the castle, which dates from the very end of the 16th century; its first governor, Sir Walter Raleigh, called it Isabella Bellissima after Elizabeth the First. We joined a tour by the Master Gunner, who told us some interesting tales of the history of the castle and set off the cannon at 1 p.m. He told us that if Hitler had used all the troops that were pointlessly occupying Jersey and had stationed them on the north coast of France, the defences against the D Day landings would have been doubled and the landings might well have failed, thus prolonging the war. Apparently Rommel tried to persuade Hitler of this but he wouldn't listen. We had lunch in the cafeteria and further explored the castle, you can tell which bits were added by the Nazis in WW2 because they liked to use a lot of concrete! On the way back in the amphibious vehicle we heard a news report on the radio that Colonel Gaddafi has been killed in the town of Sirte in Libya.
We headed back to the hotel in the afternoon and James and I went to Grandma's room for a coffee and we all enjoyed looking at her lovely view of the promenade and beach. Then Ally and I went for a swim and a jacuzzi. The jacuzzi smelled a bit funky, I hate to think what algae have been breeding in there! However we went in anyway and had a really good chat and a laugh, when Ally isn't angry with me I think we really enjoy each other's company! Grandma was waving to us from the window of her room. I had a bath afterwards to make sure that I was properly clean. Dinner with Grandma later and a relaxing evening. 

Finding our way around Jersey

Today was Jersey's Election day and the local news channel said that it is Jersey's first ever general election. This is because Deputies, Senators and Connétables are all being elected on the same day for the first time in order to stop some candidates from having "two bites of the cherry" by standing again for a Deputy post after failing to be elected as a Senator. We have seen all the posters displayed around the island since we arrived and have been impressed by the polite way they are all worded "PLEASE vote for ......." Today we passed a few polling stations on our travels. Our first destination was La Mare Wine Estate which is somewhere in the north of the island, none of can be sure where because the signs were so confusing that we only arrived by good luck. It was worth it though; a really interesting tour from a lovely guide called Iain including wine and liqueur tasting (David and I had apple juice). James, Grandma and Ally only liked one wine out of three and Grandma bought a bottle of it to drink at dinner time. There was also chocolate tasting which we all enjoyed! We had a very pleasant walk through the vineyard before a nice lunch in their restaurant. Ally and Davie had "island platters" which contained lots of local seafood such as smoked salmon, prawns and crab.
James, Ally and Davie then walked from Gifford Bay via Bouley Bay to Rozel Bay, about seven miles. Grandma and I dropped them off at the start point and then got thoroughly lost driving about the narrow Jersey roads. Grandma resourcefully suggested that since we were trying to head north east we should have the sun behind us; this worked very well and soon we saw a sign to Rozel Bay, which is a very picturesque little harbour. We had a walk around then had coffee at a cafe called The Hungry Man. We chatted and Grandma read her newspaper while I read my book ("And the Land Lay Still" by James Robertson, I'm reading it for Cambuslang book club). How lovely to be able to sit outside (wearing jackets) in warm sunshine in October! James, Ally and Davie joined us after their walk which they had all enjoyed, and we headed back to the cottage via Waitrose where we got ingredients for dinner. A relaxing evening ensued.