Visiting

We visited Chris and Stacey last week in their beautiful home near Ochiltree in Ayrshire. As well as seeing this lovely young couple we were keen to meet their two wee boys, Rory and Jamie. Rory is three now and was at our house last summer when Jamie and Kerry were in Scotland, but we were out and missed seeing him. So now that Jamie has been born (he’s three months old) we decided that it was high time to meet them both. And what a beautiful family they are. It reminded me a bit of ourselves with little boys and our lives in front of us. They made us very welcome and we had a good chat.
Jennifer came to visit us on Wednesday for a few days and we had such a lovely time. She arrived on the day that I was hosting my EK Book Club and she helped me with the teas and coffees and joined in with all the chat. It was a convivial evening and the book club girls loved Jennifer. I felt very proud of her!
We visited Janet McDougall, the first time that Jennifer has met her. We had lunch at the Chapterhouse café and Janet told us lots of stories about the family. We walked Vinnie the dog twice and I found it very reassuring to have an experienced dog person with me. It built my confidence let him off the lead a bit more in the park. Despite a poor weather forecast we had lovely weather both times although our feet got muddy in the field which was quite waterlogged. We also had the opportunity for some good chat while we were walking. We went over to David Lloyd for a swim and a spa too.
Then on the Friday a group of Jennifer’s friends came round for supper, and what a nice group they were! I knew Alison and Elspeth already and I enjoyed getting to know Julie. It was another lovely evening, the culmination of a great visit. 

We love Lucy!

Lucy Worsley had the whole audience eating out of her hand during her talk on Agatha Christie at the Pavilion. We have a joke that James has a crush on her, in fact it’s not just a joke; he really does have a big crush on her! So I got tickets for the event ages ago and we had excellent tickets in the front row! Lucy came out onto the stage wearing a gorgeous long green tulle dress with flowers embroidered onto it, and proceed to hold us spellbound for the next couple of hours. Her talk was technically a PowerPoint presentation because she illustrated her speech with lots of photos but her skill as a speaker elevated it to another level. She was funny and witty and very knowledgeable. In the second half (now wearing a lovely golden dress) she took questions and again it was a pleasure to hear her talking about her career and her interests in history. She kept hinting that she would like to act as Miss Marple in a film! And when an audience member asked her which era of history she would like to live in, she said “I will tell you about a time I was told I should live in” and told us that she had been using a parasol to protect her fair skin on the way to buy her lunch one day, when a passing van halted and the driver wound down his window to shout “Oi you from the telly! Why don’t you f*** off back to 1905?” Lucy said that far from being offended, she was amazed and impressed that he had correctly identified the age of her Edwardian parasol! She finished the talk by complimenting us all on being historians, which made our hearts swell with pride and with love for Lucy! 

Shania

I have loved Shania Twain since I first heard of her, around the time that her third album came out in the 1990s. So did a lot of my pupils in Coatbridge. During a hilarious end of class chat one boy said “She’s beautiful, she’s a great singer, and she’s minted!” I saw his point; what’s not to like? However last night at the Hydro it was the first time that I have ever seen her live, and she certainly didn’t disappoint! What a fantastic voice she has! And an amazing stage presence, and she is still very beautiful. It was a very joyful experience. I was at the concert on my own because I had gone ahead and booked my ticket under the impression that James didn’t want to go. It turned out that although he had said that he wasn’t keen, he would have been willing to come with me, but by that time it was too late and any remaining available seats would have been miles away from me, which defeated the purpose. Heather and Ewan were at the concert and I paid them a brief visit at their seats before the concert began. 
I had noticed that the exit behind me was right beside the bridge to Exhibition Centre Station, so I left sharp after the encores and successfully beat the majority  of the crowds heading for the station, and got on to the first train that arrived. An excellent evening. 

Wild weather

I’m tucked up in bed in Ullapool listening to the rain and wind buffeting the cottage. It’s rather cosy, especially with Flora snuggling in at my side (on top of the duvet, she refuses to go under it) and Tom curled up at my ankles. However the reason that the wild weather is noteworthy is that James and I spent the whole afternoon outdoors in the garden, accompanied by our feline chums. The sun was shining and although there were clouds it was quite warm; certainly warm enough for me to sit on the bench with Flora and do some admin and emails. James was working hard in the garden, assisted by Tom keeping an eye on him, preparing the ground for the next batch of heathers that he will be planting soon. We went indoors at about 5 p.m. and I was about to start making tea while James had a shower, when I noticed that I couldn’t see across the loch because of the sheets of rain and that the wind was whipping the branches of the trees so hard that twigs and leaves were breaking off them. And thus it has continued all evening. In fact when we were watching yet another episode of Black Mirror we had to turn up the sound on the television because the wind was howling down the chimney so loudly!

Update just before midnight: I saw on Facebook that one of the lampposts just up the lane from us blew right down into a neighbour’s garden this evening due to the high winds!

Rainy day

I woke at 5 a.m. with my tooth sore, and took ibuprofen which meant that when I woke again a couple of hours later it felt ok. My tooth is definitely getting better, however I really have been taken by surprise at the pain that follows root canal treatment. I don't remember this from my first root canal treatment decades ago. The other thing that I noticed at 5 a.m. was rain battering against the window, and it was still raining when we got up. It was a wet day, with the cloud hanging low over the loch.
However we had some nice plans that were unaffected by the rain; brunch in Inverness with Alison and Hugh. We met in a lovely wee café in the town centre and had a very pleasant chat and catch up over coffee and French toast. It had even temporarily stopped raining by the time we left the café. We stopped at Tesco in the way back to Ullapool and James bought the ingredients for his special sweet potato curry, which was absolutely delicious and we watched another episode of Black Mirror. As rainy days go, it was a rather good one. Although I’m not sure that the cats would agree, they spent quite a lot of time mooching about in the porch looking sadly out at the rain.

A bit of Mahler

Yesterday was quite a rubbish day. My tooth continued to be really sore. James gave me some cocodamol but it didn’t really help so I went back to ibuprofen which gives at least temporary relief. It’s amazing how one tooth being sore has taken over my whole existence, and it made me wonder how people cope with more serious or chronic pain.
I spent most of the afternoon in bed reading and sleeping, and my lovely Flora stayed right beside me most of the time. I know that she had a break while I was asleep because James was outside working in the garden, and he told me that she ventured outside for a little while and sat at the top of the steps, then returned indoors to take care of me. She is such a wee honey. Tom however is a man’s cat and he roamed around his territory, checking on James’ gardening progress from time to time. 
I got up for the evening, James made a delicious asparagus risotto which I ate with the right hand side of my mouth. We watched another episode of Black Mirror. When I was tucked up in bed I noticed that it had just turned midnight so I did my Wordle, which I do every day. I had just been reading an online article about the Righteous Brothers and the word “music” came to me. And amazingly, for the first time ever, I got the word on my first attempt! I was delighted! 
It’s weird that two lovely things have happened (Wordle on first attempt and picture published on BBC Scotland website) just when I’m suffering with this tooth. Life is strange. 
Today my tooth was a bit better, apart from once when I gnashed it together with my upper teeth by accident and it was very sore! We went to Strathpeffer in the afternoon to see a Mahler Players concert; Mahler Symphony no. 6 to be precise. It’s the first time that we’ve been to an event at Strathpeffer Pavilion and it was a nice venue. There was a good turnout and I enjoyed the concert - up to a point; I am not very familiar with Mahler and it kind of sounded like a film score to me. I think I would need to hear more to get more of an idea of it. We had a coffee afterwards in a wee coffee shop that was like an old fashioned American diner complete with a juke box. 
Back in Ullapool we had a relaxing evening and were much amused by Flora who watched a nature programme about birds very intently and then climbed up beside the television to try to catch the birds! 

Ullapool journey with sore tooth

Sadly my tooth has not yet improved and I have had a day of pain, ameliorated partly but not completely by painkillers every four hours. Our plan of packing the car yesterday so that the cats wouldn’t be alarmed when they saw us packing up this morning went well. We set off at about 9.45 a.m. after Flora and then Tom came in from their morning constitutionals. I drove for the first two hours and as the painkillers wore off I started to feel very sore and strangely sleepy. I had to sit up very straight and bite my lip to stay awake. We had a short stop half way around at Ralia and got coffees and then pressed on with James driving, with one more very quick stop at Aviemore where James visited the Cairngorm Brewery for supplies. 
When we got to Ullapool we quickly unloaded the car, the cats went out for some exercise, and I dived into bed for a nap, it was blissful. My caring little cat Flora came upstairs and sat on top of me on the bed, staring into my face. I’m sure that she knew that I wasn’t feeling great. 
In some nice news, I have finally had one of my photographs published in the BBC News website “Your pictures of Scotland” section. I have never been successful before despite several years of trying so I was delighted.
I got up for dinner and watched an episode of “Black Mirror” with James (we have watched a few in the past but decided to watch them all in order. But I was glad to get back to bed. The endodontist told me that my tooth would be sore for about 48 hours so I’m more than half way through that.