Not all by myself

Book club was at my house this evening and I thought for a while that it would be book club for one! Several people had sent their apologies and the others hadn't confirmed. However, one by one, my chums arrived and soon we were a convivial group of five. We discussed the crime novels of Val McDermid. Ruth had suggested this after hearing a radio interview with McDermid which sounded interesting. We were unanimous in our enthusiasm for the different books we had read, although there were one or two wee issues regarding plot that we all noticed. But they are good crime novels. It was a very pleasant evening in great company.

Strange dreams

It's wild and windy outside but I'm cosy in my bed. I am still feeling in a positive mood about taking more exercise, although today I didn't manage much more than 10000 steps. My excuse for this is that I had a nightmare last night that I was booked in for surgery to get my arm amputated. Being too busy at work for the operation, I was desperately trying to look up the phone number of the hospital to postpone it - but my phone got hotter and hotter in my hand until the screen blanked out. It would not require a team of psychologists to work that out - I have just finished reading a book featuring a one-armed serial killer. And being too busy and trying to rearrange things is a feeling that I am all too familiar with. This resulted in me feeling tired all day.

Dreams are funny things. I have a recurring dream that I find out that my Mum and Dad (who have been dead for six and nearly twenty years respectively) are still alive but have moved away and are running a bed and breakfast without telling me where they are! So weird. When I wake up I feel quite annoyed with them! 

Fun September Weekend

Well it has been an excellent September weekend in all sorts of ways, despite the mixed weather. It was nice to meet up with the hill walking club for drinks and dinner on Friday and Saturday, and also to go out for a really lovely dinner at the Crannog in Fort William on Sunday evening with Heather and Ewan. I went swimming on Saturday and walking on Sunday and Monday, along canals and rivers and through forests. I had some important discussions with James about the future, which is now looking a great deal clearer (and brighter.) I had some very interesting discussions with Heather and Ewan about fitness and exercise and have started using my Fitbit again in earnest. Today while James went off to climb a Corbett I went for another boat trip - a cruise in the sunshine along Loch Linnhe on the Souters Lass. It has been a fun and inspiring weekend in the company of good friends.

Abyssal Plain

While James was climbing a hill near Fort Augustus I took the opportunity to go on a boat trip on Loch Ness. I do love a boat trip and the beautiful scenery of the loch did not disappoint. The weather was dry and warm (unlike later on when we were treated to torrential rain!) so we had amazing views. The boat trip was only an hour long so we didn't get very far down the loch but we saw wild goats grazing on a very steep hillside. As we headed back to the canal one of the crew gave us a really interesting talk about the loch and how deep it is, formed by glaciers that gouged out a trench as deep as the mountains around it are high. He showed us this using a sonic display that showed us that the loch is very deep; the mountains continue more or less straight down below the water. Where we were sailing the water was about 600 feet / 183 metres deep. He explained that Loch Ness used to be an inland sea and that fish like the Arctic char have lived there since the last ice age. We could see the dots on the sonar that show it is teeming with many other fish such as giant trout, sturgeon and pike. His point was that there could be all sorts of other creatures lurking deep down on the abyssal plain .... perhaps including Nessie!

The Scary Stairs

Heather and I went to see a play at The Tron last night and it was a great evening. We had a drink in Metropolitan then dinner at Café Gandolfi, which was quiet when we went in but filled up fast. The theatre was only five minutes walk away. When we arrived we scrutinised our tickets then followed the sign that we thought led towards our section. The stairwell was very dark as we ascended, and one of the theatre people came rushing after us to say that we should have gone through the main doors - in fact she told us that they call that way the "scary stairs!"

Redirected, we soon found our seats. They play had only two actors and it was about two American policemen who are also close friends, and their reaction to some traumatic events in their lives. They actors took turns telling the story - it was very intense and absolutely compelling. We both enjoyed it very much. 

A very satisfactory weekend

It has been a good weekend, with the highlight being Ally and Cat's return home from their two month holiday in South America. It was absolutely brilliant to see them and hear about some of their adventures- although we haven't seen any photos yet as these are still being edited. So we spent quite a lot of the weekend just chilling out with Ally and Cat and it was great. 

Other weekend activities included the purchase of James' new car on Saturday, which involved a very lengthy and boring final visit to the car showroom. Honestly I was so bored that I could have wept as James and the salesman went through their negotiations in fine detail. When they were bargaining over the last couple of hundred pounds I told the salesman that if he threw in some roof bars I would make James sign the contract then and there - and he did! James was very pleased with his deal. When we got home I climbed into the hammock for a well deserved rest and James brought me a cool drink, it was very pleasant to be home.

Today we went for a walk to Rouken Glen park which was looking very autumnal with lots of leaves on the ground already. I have so many lovely memories of my children's childhoods that took place at Rouken Glen, and a favourite was always what the boys called "scooshing through the leaves" in the autumn.

A visit from Jennifer

I have just had a splendid evening with my dear sister. Jennifer is paying a flying visit to Scotland to visit friends, family and to view her current exhibition of work in the Porty Light Box (in Portobello) in collaboration with her friend Jon. For the last year Jennifer has been sending Jon a poem and he in turns sends her a photograph, creating two creative ‘strands’, each poem inspiring a photograph, each photograph inspiring a poem. A selection of these are now on display and I am very proud of her, as I know our Mum and Dad would have been. 

Jennifer treated James and me to a meal in our local Wetherspoons and then we had a lovely evening, setting the world to rights - including the world of our beloved Bake Off, during which we enjoyed accurately predicting both who would be Star Baker and who would be sent home. Great fun!