Books and Clay

Happy New Year!

2012-01-24T21:14:00.006Z

Well, my resolution for this year obviously has to be to update the blog at least more than once a year! I'm suffering at the moment with tenosynovitis in my wrist so I'll be updating it bit by bit as typing is difficult, as is writing, reading, cleaning, cooking, washing the car etc or basically anything the wrist objects to doing really. Driving isn't too bad though cycling is out as I can't brake let alone hold the handle. It's quite annoying as the weather's been ok for cycling too. I'm waiting to start physiotherapy in 3 weeks time though.

I decided to replace my car in the autumn as the foam gasket leaked (more like gushed really) which meant the floor of the car was constantly soaking particulary after any amount of rain. The garage did try to sort it but some water was still getting through so thought I'd better bite the bullet and get a new one. I've got a brand new Corsa which had to be built as there were none left in stock so it's built to the 2012 specification instead of 2011. It meant waiting a couple of months and praying the weather held and luckily I picked it up the day before the first major frost arrived. Just as well, I would have had to de-ice the inside as well as the outside of the old one!

Never had a brand new car before, the Corsa I replaced was a year old when I got it but bizarrely it worked out cheaper to get a new one once all the discounts had been applied. The last one did really well in snow, floods, parking etc so that and the fact that the bike had to fit in it were my only criteria. It's very red, has a/c since there's no sunroof, is slightly larger than the last one (6 inches), has heated wing mirrors but handles very well though it's still being run in. I tried going up a brae in 5th gear as I usually did but nope, 3rd gear and that was flooring it! It's much happier now thankfully and certainly moves when you need it. It's better on the fuel as well - I've certainly noticed it's not guzzling as much which is great since I'm now skint as replacing the car wasn't on the list for 2011! I also had to replace the washer/dryer since it died in the summer and of course, mine's integrated into the kitchen which means extra costs of course. I'm praying the 2012 has no big outgoings and nothing else decides to die on me :)

Update

2011-03-06T14:40:00.004Z

Oops, hadn't realised I hadn't updated this since August!! So in a nutshell......

I'm still at College though I've got my HNC in Computing. I needed to do another 3 modules to be able to go on and do the HND in the future. Block (term) 3 starts this week and I've only 1 module to do which is building a network - quite looking forward to that.

I've also been to another 2 author events. Stuart MacBride writes a crime series set in Aberdeen featuring DS Logan McRae and manages to combine some humour with the gory descriptions. He was really good, chatted for ages and had a good banter going with the audience. The other author was Alexander MacGregor who is a Dundee author. Funny thing was he turned up at the Rotary Club a couple of weeks after! So, another 2 signatures in my autograph book.

I'm still cycling though I stopped during the winter. I had intended trying to cycling through winter but gave up with all the snow and ice we had. I dug the bike out a couple of weeks ago and managed to get out for a long run yesterday. Reckoned we cycled around 15 miles which was good.

I went down to London in September and stayed with family. First time I'd ever been on a sleeper and would certainly do it again. Gained a couple days by travelling overnight which was even better. By the time I'd left, I was quite jealous of their transport system. Folk were complaining that the trains weren't running more often - they were every 4 or 5 mins! Up here, the bus to Dundee is every hour and a train is on average every 30 mins.

I went to both the Natural History and British Museums, the Phantom of the Opera, walked alot but didn't go on the cycle tour. I also visited areas outwith London too. All in all, it was really good and I had a great time. Problem now is - where to go this year?!

So, I'm still trying to keep up with my reading (not doing well with that) and I've just finished another blanket for a friend who's living in Belgium. Photo will appear shortly once I've taken the picture. I was in the wool shop yesterday and noticed there's a knitting club running so I thought I'd give it a shot and see what it's like. I can't knit well - for some reason I increase the number of stitches on each row!

Author Event

2010-08-23T21:45:00.004+01:00

I heard Christopher Brookmyre speak tonight - very entertaining guy, had us all in stitches. I've been listening to "Pandemonium" on CD though I'm only half way through it and it's very funny. The first disk had me worried to begin with - I thought the CDs were in the wrong box as I couldn't figure what on earth the story was about! Words we used at school like "boufin" and "barkit" came flooding back (no idea if that's how to spell them!). I got my autograph book signed as well as buying "Be my Enemy".

I got the autography book as a present about 6 years ago and it's fairly filling up with author signatures. When I used to run children's reading groups and events, we'd have competitions to see how many and which authors had signed our books. I also decided a few years ago to only buy books that I either would read over and over again (something I rarely do) or if I got them signed by the author. This is mainly because my bookcase is severely sagging in the middle and I've nowhere else to put them! I also prefer to borrow books from the library as it's free. So now all I need to do is find time to read them all :))

Holiday Countdown

2010-08-22T21:51:00.004+01:00

I’m off to London for a week in September and I’m going by sleeper which I've been dying to do since I was a child. Because I'm going by sleeper it actually works out a longer stay as I gain two days by travelling overnight.

I’m staying with my aunt and uncle and I’ve been trying to narrow down things to do. I looked on the Visit London site and within a couple of minutes found cycle tours – fantastic idea! I vaguely remember taking an open top tour on a bus the last time I was down but the bikes sound more fun.

I’ll either go to the British Museum or Natural History Museum (I keep swithering) and the London Eye is a must. Apart from that, I’m not sure what else I’ll be doing. I want to spend time with my aunt and uncle as well as pounding the pavements so I’ll probably just wait and see how the week pans out (especially the weather!).

Before London though, I'm due to go to the Scottish mobilemeet in Kilmarnock on 11th September which will mean an early start especially if we take one of the library vans. We'd probably have to leave about 5am to get there! The mobilemeets are great fun though and I love seeing the other vans. Of course, it's under the guise of a conference but everyone goes for a nosey at all the vans!

At long last.....

2010-08-22T21:17:00.004+01:00

Yikes, didn't realise it had been ages since I've updated the blog! This is my third attempt to try and update and no wonder it takes me forever as it doesn’t always save properly or there’s a problem with the editing and you’ve to re-type everything!

I really enjoyed the cycling course the Council ran in April and managed to change my inner tube with help from the tutor. I have 20" wheels which are harder to get the tyre off but much easier to get it back on! We cycled round Forfar mainly practising turns and roundabouts and I was surprised at the abuse we got from some drivers because we were cycling in pairs. Apparently, it's recommended that you cycle in pairs instead on one big line (there were nine of us) as it's much riskier for a driver to overtake and they could knock you off. I’ve also been cycling round Angus, up the Glens and even got more abuse when using a cycle path. I’ll stick to taking my chances with the traffic I think. I was on holiday for a couple weeks a month ago and reckoned I cycled around 60 miles over the fortnight. I even treated my bike to a thorough cleanup which took close to three hours (yes, it's true!) as I had to adjust the brakes. Even my car doesn’t get that much attention!

I hosted a candle party thanks to Shona - she does the demo bit thankfully and I hosted another one with Joe at his house in June. He's staying in the National Trust for Scotland's Mud House at Logie which is lovely and a great setting for loads of candles burning. During study leave, I'd been itching to blitz the house (anything to avoid studying) but didn't. I did blitz it with an inch of its life for the candle party! The car still has stuff in it as I forgot to take half of the junk round to the dump - typical. My house now smells lovely – currently got a chocolate mint one burning which doesn’t help if you’re craving chocolate!

Well, my boss retired in April and I'm now doing his job and mine which makes life a bit hetic. I do more of his than mine though I'm hoping that things will settle down in about a year's time :) I've a massive backlog to get through have asked for training on Horizon (our library system). I quite like the system administration side (so far anyway) but I don’t have much time to concentrate on it having to do my own job as well. I hate to say it as well but last week I managed to buy some books for the first time since April. I seem to spend a lot of time doing pointless paperwork which is daft in this age of technology.

Update

2010-04-06T16:32:00.004+01:00

It's been ages since I've updated so now that I've got a week off, I've time to catch up on things and the blog is one of them. I've been quite busy with, well, everything really.

First of all, work is going ok at the moment though I'm so far behind I doubt I'll ever catch up. Also, my boss is away to retire in a couple of weeks and I don't know if I'm taking over from him or not. No doubt I'll be told eventually but in the meantime he's handing over to me which means I'm constantly taking notes. The day-to-day stuff in the office is fine, it's managing the servers and interrogating the system that I'm more worried about. There are implications whether I move up or leave (I'm still job-hunting) as my post will cease to exist but I don't know what they plan to do about my responsibilities. Still, if I do get moved up, it's a good opportunity and more secure than some positions because it's system admin and IT departments in general won't carry out that type of work beyond making sure the servers are up and running.

Of course, we were just about to start the handover when the Council announced the closure of our part-time libraries so that meant both of us have spent the last three weeks pouring over maps of Angus restructuring the mobile library routes to include the affected villages. Not much fun I can tell you though I'm quite attached to some of the places now!

I've been quite busy at the weekends as well as both mum and I have been taking part in a Women's Spirituality Group. Our minister is working towards her Doctorate and this group is for her thesis. It was over 8 weeks, with 6 group sessions and I must say it was the best thing I've ever done and the first time for ages that I haven't grudged giving up a Sunday.

We looked at different women from the Bible (some of whom I'd never heard of, not that I know it well anyway) and through various methods (dance, meditation, acting) we looked at their stories and talked about what they meant to us. We basically came to the conclusion that the Bible needs to be rewritten! I've always known that the Bible has to read in context with the time it was written but it's amazing how it still affects how we live today. For example, most people know the story of Adam and Eve but folk still assume that Eve is to blame for eating the apple. Well, Adam was standing there - why didn't he say something?! The Bible era was male dominated and we're still a male dominated society today but on a more equal footing thankfully. I could for on for ages but won't except to say that I didn't realise how different the various interpretations of the Bible are.

College. Well, I got an "excellent" for the website I designed for my boss. It's still live at the moment (it's on the college server) so if you want to look at it click here. I think it'll only be up for another month or so but I'm quite pleased with it. When I started writing the report I was having problems with the pages collapsing when I tried to remove some of the images and the tutor couldn't understand why. So in the "what I would do next time" section I basically wrote something like "never again"! On the second edit though I'd decided I quite like website designing and would take it further if I could. I'd need much more patience I think. Part of the problem was that I didn't know Dreamweaver at all so something that was simple took ages to do. Of course, now I have to sit the exam this term - I'm going to study this week as it's mid-May which isn't far away. I haven't sat an exam since Uni. and it's not something I'd go out of my way to do either!

Rotary is coming up to its busy period which is just typical. The new year starts in July which means the handbook needs to be ready in June. No idea where the time for that will come from! Anyway, I'm away to do a 4 week bike course through the Council in Forfar which basically shows you how to take care of your bike, ride it (I can do that bit!) and how to navigate the cycle paths. That's the bit I'm interested in as the Council have designed ours in the weirdest way possible. The path is on the opposite side of the road you'd be on normally - fine. But it then ends and doesn't tell you where to go! So you have to cross the road and cycle on the main road till you see the next sign and cross the road again onto the path! This is then repeated while you're trying to avoid traffic and potholes. So that starts this Thursday. I went out on the bike at the weekend in between the showers and gales and hopefully will get out this weekend as well. In June I'm taking part in a sponsored walk with the Rotary up some hill/mountain in Glen Dye. Hopefully both Kate and James will do it as well. Add to that a candle party, my spring weekends look like they'll be busy.

Well, that's about it really. I'm giving the house some TLC this week, actually, this is the longest time I've seen it since Christmas, so it's certainly needed. I've a book to finish for the book group but it's on a waiting list so I've less than a week to read a 700 page book - no pressure then. It's Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell. The car has taken a battering this winter. The windscreen has loads of these tiny little chips in it thanks to the grit and I'm sure another spring has gone thanks to the roads that are like Swiss cheese. I washed it a couple of weeks ago thoroughly (first time since the floods) instead of chucking a bucket of water over it and my neighbour had to jump start it! Must have been the shock of being clean but it was pointless in freezing temperatures. I think the coldest I drove in was -12 so I'll be glad when the summer arrives this year!

Baby photos

2010-01-10T16:48:00.004Z

I love the stripey mitts but the hospital blankets are hard.

Crashed out after a feed!

I went up to see Kate and Georgie on Tuesday and Wednesday. They didn't get discharged until Wednesday night as Georgie's blood sugar was too low so the poor bairn had her feet pricked every couple of hours or so from birth to discharge. Not a great start but she's fine. They reckon the cause was a drug Kate was given in labour. So they're home now and Georgie's beginning to settle which is great though I doubt Kate will be sleeping much for the moment!

We've had a bit of a thaw today though it's still icy and slippy. At the moment, it's blowing a gale which is better than last night with snow. I slid down in Montrose as the snow was freezing straight away. Of course on Friday, I left home and it was -8 and by the time I got to work in Forfar it was -12. Talk about cold, the steps and path into work have massive cracks in them now. We've not had it as bad as Abderdeenshire and other parts of the country thankfully. I like snow but not the ice and as I now have to commute, it means I have to get to work somehow whereas I've always lived in the area I worked in and would have just walked to work. It's lovely driving just after the snow's stopped and the trees, buildings etc. are tipped with snow.

3rd baby has arrived!

2010-01-03T10:23:00.002Z

My new niece, Georgie Hazel, was born this morning at 2.11am, 8lb 8oz. Mum and baby are fine and are hoping to get home today. Dad and her 2 sisters have gone up to see them and I'll go down once they are home. Apparently the snow's causing problems in Dundee at the moment but it's fine here, just hail that's been iced over making walking dangerous but otherwise it's fine.

Third blanket is finished!

2009-12-31T16:01:00.005Z

I had Christmas day on my own for the first time as Mum and James were stranded as their street is on a hill. They watched a car try to come up and it just slid all the way back down so we postphoned everything until Sunday. It didn't bother me so much being on my own as it was due to the weather, besides I managed to make headway with the blanket for my new niece who was due on 29th (still no appearance at the time of writing!). Anyway, it's finished and as it had to be different from my other 2 nieces blankets, I did it in squares and stitched them together which took most of a day to do. The squares that are one colour are actually sewn sideways to make it look different. I'm just waiting for the bairn to make her appearance and I'll let my wrist recover before starting another one. I'm thinking about doing a non-baby for a change, at least until the next baby comes around!

Happy New Year to all!

Christmas

2009-12-31T15:39:00.011Z

Road going towards the direction of the lighthouse. I didn't notice the bird until today!
View of the Glens
Going up towards Boddin and Usan
View of Montrose and Dun, the train just happened to appear.

Although we didn't have as much snow as some parts of the country, we did have several inches. I'm off work on holiday at the moment so thankfully didn't have to drive through it but the snow certainly brightened up the landscape. I've posted some photos taken round Ferryden. We were bothered more by ice which was lethal. We usually get gritted in Ferryden but after Christmas Eve, we didn't see them till about the Tuesday. I was through in Arbroath for the Watchnight service only because the singing group were singing - I usually go to the local kirk which is about 5 mins away. Our organist was playing otherwise, I wouldn't have gone as I got a lift from him but I walked down with mum and the whole journey was a nightmare as the roads and pavements were just pure ice.

We had a takeaway for Christmas (don't think my Aunt was too happy with that) but it worked out really well, especially since they deliver. I've found out I go into control freak mode if having to cook Christmas lunch though I'm fine any other time of the year! This year was much better, my stress levels were fairly normal. One of my colleagues had mentioned having a takeaway and I must admit that it had never occured to me but I'd certainly do it again.

I've finally managed to sit down and sort through all the photos on the pc as I keep forgetting to delete the photos from the camera once I've uploaded and this morning was presented with 4 identical copies of some pictures (in various folders naturally)! Of course, I then ended up deleting the wrong ones etc. so had to restore them but I've now tagged them and sorted them out. One task can now be crossed off my list though I must look into using something like flickr.

Snow Galore!

2009-12-19T19:01:00.005Z

This is proof that we had snow on Thursday! More fell later, in fact, the car still has some on it's roof. It's been on and off since then but I'd rather have snow and floods. So, now been at the Panto three times! I went with my nieces this morning as mum got free tickets via her work. I'm getting to know the lines quite well though and it's nice to see how the actors have changed things. I met Joelle for lunch afterwards and caught up on the news which was great. It's hard to meet up as we both work different hours but we more than make up for it in the end.

I went back to work on Tuesday to discover that I was being sent to Hamilton (round trip of 230 miles) for a meeting as the director and libraries manager couldn't go so off I toddled in the car on Wednesday and the journey was fine. There's alot of work on the M80, M73, M74 but got through that with no problem. However, I did get hopelessly lost in Hamilton! I was on the correct street but I couldn't get off and on their one way system but managed it eventually thanks to a chap washing cars. Managed to get out with no difficulty though!

I'm now on holiday apart from being at College on Monday afternoon and I'm then going through to work as it's our staff night out which should be good. I'm not back at work until 7th January so I'll have to get cracking this weekend on the last blanket as the baby's due in 10 days time - so no pressure!

Happy Christmas to all!

Showtime!

2009-12-14T10:30:00.003Z

At the end of November I went through to Edinburgh to see "We Will Rock You" at the Playhouse and it was an excellent show. My one criticism is that the band were a tad too loud and drowned out some of the singing but apart from that, it was great. The cast were strong and you could see Ben Elton's humour in the dialog. I recommend it to everyone. We had some Glasweigians behind us who were spoiling for a fight, one woman ended up in tears just as we arrived and a couple of rows behind, at least half a dozen folk were thrown out after the interval. There were alot of folk constantly moving around which seems to be the thing these days but to be honest, it annoyed me and it must annoy the cast. The Playhouse also have binoculars at every second seat or so for folk to use (after paying £1).

I went through the mum and some of her work colleagues, we got a minibus and stayed the George Hotel which was lovely. We were booked into another hotel but some idiot had left his bath running and flooded the whole floor so were moved and actually upgraded so we weren't complaining. We did some shopping, saw the German/Scottish market and generally wandered around. It'd been a while since I'd been in Edinburgh but it was nice being able to stroll along Princess Street without any cars. They're currently putting in the tram lines they took out some years ago!

So, last Wednesday, I saw Aladdin in Webster's Theatre in Arbroath with some of the staff from work. We had a meal then went across and chatted to the staff as we're in the same department and know most of them. Of course, we had to buy a wand and I must say, I'm impressed with it. Don't really go in for wands but this one is surprisingly bright and has four functions. Jackie was told by an old lady to switch hers off! She was a bit of a grump complaining about the kids in front of her etc., makes you wonder why she went.

Anyway, the show was good, we had good seats near the front but right in the middle. They needed to sort out their sound but it was the preview night. At the end, we were waiting for the encore when this very posh voice said we basically had to leave as the building was being evacuated so two fire engines later and some nice firemen, we saw the cast at the stage door which is also in the car park. Folk were just going home but of course, my car was parked near the stage door so I had to wait a bit for the crowds to disperse but chatted to the staff. It doesn't seem to have been the smoke machines setting of the alarms. I'm back this Thursday with the Rotary so will ask the staff what the cause was. Oh, they also threw sweets which was great as most places have banned it as being "dangerous". Of course, I didn't catch one!

So Panto again on Thursday, exam at College tomorrow, meeting Joelle on Saturday, Sunday is singing in the Church and then a Rotary Christmas afternoon get-together and a week today is the staff night out - can't wait! Then I'm off on holiday and will have to start that blanket......

Christmas is coming oh so fast!

2009-11-26T15:40:00.005Z

I can't believe I've just written my first Christmas card today - where has the year gone? Of course, I'll have to do the rest so this year those abroad may actually get their cards on time for once! Panto season is away to start and it's been a wee while since I last went but I'm going twice to see Aladdin in Arbroath. I'm going to a preview, never been to one of those, with some of my workmates and then with the Rotary. Add into that the Christmas Tree Festival, staff meal, singing group and a show this weekend, December is looking to be fairly busy which is how it should be.

So I've got a couple of days off just now with most of December off. I'm back at College and have to fit my holidays around the classes so I think I'll only be a work for about 4 days in December. I'm currently designing and building a website which is interesting and am using Dreamweaver and Photoshop and trying to learn CSS at same time. Added to that, I'm busy with the Rotary as well though that should slow down over Christmas. You may not know but Rotary is the organisation that is working to eradicate Polio (amongst other things it does) so we're gearing up for an event in February, Thanks for Life.

I haven't started the last blanket yet, something I'll have to crack on with as the baby is due on the 29th December. Maria posted a link showing me holding Owen and his blanket on my blog earlier but in case you missed it I've linked it here as well.

So apart from that, all's well. My car had its service a last week and suffered no problems (thankfully) as a result of the flood water that I keep having to go through to get to work. It also didn't need a new spring as I've gone through 3 in the last year thanks to the awful roads in Angus, particulary Montrose.

Weatherwise at the moment, we have gales but I'd rather have that than the constant heavy rain we've been having. I got a good report re: my balance yesterday which is great. Apparently I've "plateaued" (not sure that's spelt right!) and interestingly enough, the tests I'd had show that I did well in the balance bit but not in controlling balance from my feet and legs which the therapist didn't expect. It's supposed to be vice versa. It's likely that the damage to the knee three years ago is the root of the problem (which I've been saying all along, but then I know nothing!). As far as I'm concerned, so long as I can do everything I want to do then I'm fine and dandy.

Anyway, that's it for now, cup of tea time!

Back to Uni.

2009-11-15T15:53:00.003Z

Well, it's been raining most of last week - again. Today is lovely in comparison. On Wednesday I went back to Uni in Aberdeen for the day on a cataloguing course (of all things!). I must admit I never thought I'd hear the name Lubetzky again. Robert Gordon's (RGU) moved to Garthdee a year or so after I graduated and apart from being at an interview at the time, it was the first time I'd been in the new campus. What a difference. Everything is ID controlled, masses of students everywhere as there are quite a lot of departments under the one roof.

It was nice though, loads of rooms and toilets on every floor and it was spacious. We were linking up via video conferencing with folk in the Islands and the technology didn't work most of the time. The sound failed due to the RGU network apparently so all the folk saw was the tutor waving his arms now and again! It reminded me of the time we spent waiting in primary school for the teacher to figure out how to put the tv onto the video channel! We were just covering the basic of cataloguing (most of which are still buried in my memory, never to reappear I think) and the tutor, Alan MacLennan, recognised me which I was surprised at as it had been 11 years since I left.

It's the first course I've been on that I haven't been able to park at but the walk helped to clear the mind. It's also the first and hopefully last course where the lunch was eaten by the previous class! We saw some of them come out with sandwiches in their hands and thought it was a communal area but no, they'd managed to eat one of two trays of sandwiches and left only two bottles of water. We reckoned they went off with the juice as well so all we got was a couple of inches of water to drink. The afternoon tea was fairly lukewarm and the biscuits all vanished. I must admit I was glad to get home and get the tea on. On a happy note, at least the roads were flood-free.

It's been a busy week and it's not going to slow down much. Apart from recovering from the cold, Rotary is keeping me very busy and trying to juggle that with College is proving to be a challenge. I've to design and build a website for College so am basically doing a crash course is HTML, CSS etc. It's interesting though and I'm doing a Yoga site for my boss which thankfully is much simpler than some of the sites the "youngsters" are designing. They been doing it since first year at High School and I figured I'd have enough trouble trying to do and keep up with the basic stuff!

The car has its service tomorrow which is a bill I could do without and if it needs another spring, I'll scream. The roads are awful here and in the last year, I've had three replaced. None of my other cars ever had theirs replaced. You can tell who's local as they zigzag round the potholes and craters.

I'm going to the panto twice next month which should be fun and in fact, I'll be hardly at work in the run up to Christmas due to College, a trip to Stirling (some meeting thing), other meetings and left over holidays of which I'm trying to figure out how to use up! I've just finished listening to Angels and Demons book on CD and it's worse than the Da Vinci Code. The supposed hero is an idiot, I figured out the plot about a third of the way through and ended up liking the bad guys! So, it's bookgroup next Sunday and we're reading "The Island" by Victoria Hislop except I'm going through a no-reading phase again but I've managed to get it on CD.

Grand Day Out

2009-11-08T18:28:00.006Z

On Thursday I got to out of the office (yipee!) to visit Heelix Binders inFalkirk. Pauline, one of our staff, also came with me so after dealing with the mobile drivers we left. I'd packed the flasks and she brought the biscuits (essential!) and we stopped in a layby on the way down and way back. We found a lovely restuarant just 10 mins from Falkirk and also went over the new bridge - there was only us and one other car so it felt a bit strange but you got a good view. We spent three hours in the bindery and were shown everything from start to finish. We even saw some of our books at stage one. I fell in love with the glue machine - it's just a roller with glue constantly moving and the buckrum is rolled between and hey presto! one side is covered in glue! After the visit, we headed straight up the motorway and timed it prefectly by hitting the Broxburn roundabout at Perth at the start of rush hour. I'd visited the bindery 10 years ago but the company has since split so it was really good to see how things have changed.

At the moment, I'm nursing a cold which I'm blaming on wading through all that water last weekend. I'm going up to Robert Gordon's on Wednesday where one of my ex-tutors is giving a refresher course on Marc Cataloguing. Thrilling stuff I know but it should help in my long debates with my boss as to who's correct!

My neighbours, the ones who have wee Rory, moved out yesterday as the new house has a garden for him. Can't blame them really but I'll miss them. The Ferryden Community Council were out planting shrubs yesterday (they're the ones who dug up my piece of land that's now a piece of air!) and they're also putting in a new seat and some other things which is good. Since it was a glorious day, I went walkabout (sneezing and everything) seeing as it's done nothing but rain recently. I gave in last week and put the heating on on Wednesday, just as well since this morning the temperature was 1.5C. Still, I'm much happier with the freezing cold than torents of rain.

Weekend fun - part 2

2009-11-02T14:42:00.009Z

It's commonly known that the British love to chat about the weather - in fact, it rules our lives. Well, this weekend will keep us going for months to come! It started on Friday night when my roof decided it was going to leak again. It's been fine for the last 6 months or so, but not on Friday. It seems that the wind has to be blowing in a certain direction, at a certain speed. Of course, it generally doesn't leak during the day when I'm not there (but the buckets are) but at night, so I spent the night on the sofa bed. I can sleep through many things like fire engines, but not drip, drip, drip.

Saturday was lovely and so warm I actually walked around town with a summer top on and sun glasses. With the clocks going back last weekend, it's dark going to work and dark coming home from work so seeing the sun was nice.

But yesterday was wet. It basically rained from early morning through to early this morning. The roads were fine when I went up to Aberdeen, alot of spray but that was about it. I left Maria's at 4pm and didn't get home until around 6.45pm and I nearly didn't make it either. Where did all the rain come from?!

It was worse south of Stonehaven really but some cars didn't have their lights on, others passed you even when you were ploughing through water and trying to get to the dry side. Some folk are so inconsiderate. I knew the Laurencekirk junction was closed for roadworks so I turned off to go towards Hillside - closed due to flooding. Made it to Brechin through floods, only to discover from the police that the Montrose-Brechin road was shut. Headed off towards Arbroath and debated whether to go via Arbroath or take the B road to Montrose. I chose the latter and got through several floods though strangely enough, the bit I expected to be flooded wasn't that bad. I must admit that along this road I did wonder if the car would make it but all credit to it and several prayers, it did.

I reached the main road and splashed into Montrose only to discover Ferryden was shut!! Talk about feeling thwarted. I basically turned the car around as there were two cars abandoned in the water so kinda reckoned I wouldn't make it and parked at Rossie Island (just before the bridge going into the centre of town) and left the car there. I, of course, had to then get along that flooded street to my house so waded through knee-deep freezing water. Now that stretch of road takes about 15 mins to walk so most of that 15 mins involved wading. I got home dripping and our street was fine as we're higher up and on a slight slope. Once I was in the house, the absolute silence was amazing. I hadn't realised how noisy the wind (which could have been worse), rain and running water had been. I now have no wet-weather footwear as one pair are sopping wet and the others have holes in them!

This morning, I packed my work clothes etc. and popped the wellies on (hate them) but at the bottom of the road, I knew I wouldn't get through. The workmen were there starting to clear up but so was the water. Also, I have to travel to Forfar to work and wasn't sure what the road or car would be like having swum most of it last night. So I've used one of my annual leave days and phoned in and I've spent the day on the PC which is what I'd be doing at work anyway.

At lunchtime, I walked in to see if I could fetch the car and the mud was like melted chocolate. The road was still closed as the men were clearing up the mud and debris. The car was fine, started first time though I wouldn't have blamed it if it didn't. The brakes were a little gritty and the car was filthy but the lights work as far as I can see. I'll need to double-check them tonight in the dark. The last car I had, an Astra, all the lights shorted when I went through a puddle so it wouldn't have made it at all.

Of course, the workmen said the back roads were opened so I took the car that way but no, met another flood! I decided not to chance it and reversed until I could turn (single track road of course). So I headed back into Montrose and went through the closed road signs and got home that way. I decided after subjecting the car to all that water the least I could do was wash it! So it's nice and sparkly clean.

I'm glad I decided to take the B road home as the Montrose to Arbroath road was shut in at least 2 places. If I'd made it to the centre I could have stayed with mum but from the reports, I doubt I'd have got halfway to Arbroath. Angus suffered flooding a couple of months ago but last night was the worst that I've experienced or remember. On the road to the lighthouse, there's been a landslide from the road down to the beach so folk can still walk. Apart from wading through freezing water, I'll remember the startling difference between a quiet house (whose roof was fine by the way!) and the noise from the weather and the running water. Still, it's an experience I'd care not to repeat.

Weekend fun - part 1

2009-11-02T14:15:00.006Z

My friend Joelle and I finally managed to meet up on Saturday so hit the shops in Montrose. I managed to make a good start on my Christmas shopping which was great and then we headed back to mine and walked out to the lighthouse to build up an appeite for tea. We had an Indian takeaway (and alcohol of course) and watched Shrek the Third as she had never seen it. It was a lovely night and nice just to chill. It's hard nowadays to meet up due to the different hours we work.

I went up to Aberdeen yesterday to give Maria and Bryan the blanket. Owen was awake and is soooo lovely. It's amazing the way babies stare at you - you have to wonder what they are thinking. The cats said hello as well though Benson (the fluffy one) decided to wait until I was leaving - maybe it was cheerio?!

Anway, as promised, I've uploaded the photo of the blanket. You may think it's the same as the last one but it isn't really. It's the same pattern but the colour scheme is different and I think it looks better this way. I now have to psych myself up for the last one as I know it'll be a challenge.

I also decided to try a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies as I'm trying to perfect the recipe. I had run out of chocolate chips which was just as well as the recipe didn't say when to use them! So my workmates got some as did Joelle, Maria and Simon (we car-share to Church, he's the organist). It's shocking the amount of sugar you're supposed to use though, so I generally half the quantity at least.

Baby no.2 has arrived!

2009-10-19T18:19:00.002+01:00

Owen Robertson was born in Aberdeen yesterday at 14.50 and arrived safely. Both him and Maria are fine as is dad Bryan. He's baby no. 2 for getting a blanket which has been finished for a couple of weeks now but I won't put a picture up until I've given it to Maria and Bryan otherwise it'll kinda spoil the surprise! Must admit, Bryan took a lovely photo of Maria holding Owen just after the birth and she looked really good having just gone through a long labour. I'm hoping to go up to see them soon once they're home and settled.

So, one more blanket to do and I really have to do a different pattern as I've done the previous designs for my other nieces. This baby to be is a girl by the way and I've 11 weeks apparently, so no pressure!

I know I'd said I'd upload photos from the weekend away but as usual, the phone rang and 2 hours later, I'd enough of staring at the PC. Hopefully, I'll get them done soon and I reckon I'll have to look at using Flickr since I seem to be accumulating alot of photos!

Life Update

2009-10-04T15:44:00.007+01:00

Where has the time gone?! It's been about six weeks since my last post so here's a brief update.

A couple of weekends ago, Since it was forecasted to be a lovely day, I went round Glen Clova and Glen Doll with Sharon, a colleague from work, on our bikes. We reckon we cycled about 18 miles or so though admittedly I had to walk up a few of the steeper slopes! I get half way up and just grind to a halt. It was a great day and the weather held only deciding to rain when we were leaving. I have noticed a problem with the bike, just a minor one really. The seat has a tendancy to move so I can be pedalling along quite happily then suddenly my knees are up at my chin!! This of course, tends to happen going up a hill making life challenging, so I'll have to figure out someway of tightening it. The bolt is not like a standard bolt either - typical.

I'm now back at College and am having to create a website from scratch which should be interesting since I've never used CSS etc. in my life but hey, good time to start! My boss is a yoga teacher and lecturer so he's kindly volunteered to be a guinea pig and let me create one for him. College is taking up quite a bit of time at the moment but apart from a noisy class, I'm enjoying it.

Blanket two is nearly finished, it just needs its edging so I'm hoping to start that this week. I met up with Maria this week as I had a few days holidays and caught up with her. It was great to see her again, although we only live about an hour away, with family and committments it can be hard to meet. Her baby is due tomorrow (5th) so hopefully everything will go smoothly. Once she's home, I'll go back up and give the baby it's blanket so I'm looking forward to that. Even though I'd lived in Aberdeen for four years, I'd never actually driven (being a poor student and all that) so went armed with my brother's map which wasn't exactly correct, and Maria's instructions, which were perfect!

I also met up with Anthony, a friend who travels quite alot for his work so it was great catching up with him as well especially as he was just back from Poland. He hosted a film evening at his house a couple of days later (he has his own home cinema complete with proper seats - smashing!). The folk who were there are all involved with the Montrose Picture House (not the pub!) so it was really nice spending time with them. What we try to do is bring a film that we haven't seen which can be difficult as I tend to watch the ones I own! Then we whittle them down to those that no-one has seen at all and watch one or two. We started of with A Mighty Wind which was funny then we decided to watch In The Loop as most of us wanted to see it anyway and was hilarious. So a good night was had by all.

Yesterday it was blowing a gale, literally. I went out to Scurdiness with Mum and balancing took on a new meaning! I'm trying not to put the heating on until the end of the month as the storage heaters eat electricity like it's going out of fashion. I had to give in though and put the electric fire on for a bit as bizzarely all the vents in my house are on the living room wall and it doesn't stand a chance in the gales.

That's it in a nutshell - I'll post seperately a bit on the weekend away.

Baby one of three!!

2009-08-27T18:53:00.005+01:00

Well, this is blanket number one and I finished it on the day he was due. It's hard to see but the colour scheme is blue, green, yellow and white. It looks better on the camera though. The body of it only took a couple of weeks to do but Mum thought I should do the edging the way it said in the book. The problem was (and still is) I can't make head or tail of it, so I spent five hours down at my aunt's madly crocheting away. I've only done five out of ten rows as I think that's enough otherwise it'd be overkill.

Anyway, Rory made his entrance on 27th August 2009 and is gorgeous!! He was due the day before and Kathleen went into labour bang on time though she ended up getting a caesarean. Both are doing well.

So now it's on to blanket number two and I've decided to do the same pattern mainly as the baby is due on October 5th. By the time I get to the edging, I'll be back down at my aunt's again as I still don't understand the pattern!!

Edinburgh Book Festival

2009-08-23T16:42:00.003+01:00

I've finally got Michael Morpurgo's signature in my authograph book! I already have a couple of books signed by him but he's now with the rest of the signatures so I'm happy. I went to see him speak yesterday with the Montrose and Forfar children's bookgroup and he was fantastic as usual. I could listen to him talk all day mainly because he's so passionate about reading and storytelling.

In case you don't know, Michael Morpurgo was Britain's children's laureate a few year's ago, is a top children's author and because he's so popular, it's next to impossible to get him to come to a small, local event so we were extrememly lucky to be able to get tickets for his talk this year. Mind you, I did spend over an hour on the phone only to be told that I'd to phone a different number as they dealt with groups!

Anyway, the children did the treasure hunt and got their prize though strangely enough the answers were at the bottom which sort of defeated the point really! They then spent alot of time in the bookshop and one said it "wasn't fair!" as he kept finding loads of books he wanted especially when he found the Doctor Who stand! Of course, I had the child whose bottle leaked into her lunch and we nearly made it home before someone threw up (the joy!).

After the talk, we rushed outside to queue for the book signing and although we'd allowed an hour for this, we ran out of time. The festival staff weren't helpful and when we asked if we could give them the books for Morpurgo to sign, they said we'd have to collect them later. Exactly when we'd collect them since we'd travelled for two hours to get there was anybody's guess. They also wouldn't let us jump the queue (not that I'd adovcate that normally) as they said the publisher would be against it. Well, it's not just one publisher and it's the children that buy the books. The folk behind us couldn't believe that either. Anyway, we ended up asking the driver to wait 15 mins and we made it by the skin of our teeth though I don't think he was very happy. I do think the festival folk need to realise that people do live outside Edinburgh and do come in large groups as dropping us off is a nightmare and groups of children need to be kept together. It's an old bug bear off mine the whole event so I'd better get off my high horse!

In the end, the children all got their books signed and Morpurgo chatted to each one which they loved. He was just fantastic and I'd certainly go and hear him speak again. I'd also recommend him to everyone as well.

Ferryden Sunset

2009-08-14T16:13:00.005+01:00

We get some fantastic sunsets here and possibly sunrises except I'm not up that early! I took this one a couple of nights ago though the sky was pinkier. I couldn't get the camera on the right setting in time. You can see the outline of the Glens in the background. The harbour's been busy recently, in fact, one ship has just arrived and another has left.

Someone asked why I use the name Spud Murphy. Well, if you read The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer you'll find out why and please, please, please ask for it at your local library first as not only are they free, it's also a children's book and will take you about 20 mins to read. Believe it or not, my street cred actually rose when the kids in the library read it as well - hence the reason I use it!!

Happy holidays

2009-08-14T15:05:00.010+01:00

I'm currently on holiday at the moment and go back to work on Monday so have finally got some time to update the blog. It's raining at the moment (it's true, the British love talking about the weather!) so it's a fine time to work on it. Thanks to the fridge/freezer that decided to die on me just after it's guarantee had run out (naturally), I'm holidaying at home which has turned out really well. The corn lice, of course, came out on the first day and we now have a bird scarer going off literally every two minutes and sounds like a gun.

The Council are also proposing to put double yellow lines starting from my house up to the last house leading to the lighthouse, meaning all and sundry will be parking in front of my house and there will nowhere for the 15 or so cars to go. The car park is full, can't park there and rest of the streets certainly can't take the cars. Needless to say, the majority if not all of the street are objecting and you have to wonder how they think things up like this.

I'm still job hunting, not much on that front at the moment and I'm nearly finished the first of the three baby blankets. I just need to work out the edging preferably before the baby is born! I've spent some of the holidays clearing out the house, giving it some TLC since I've hardly been in recently. I was astounded to find stuff from Wales that I thought I'd gone through when I moved up to Montrose. I'm hoping that's the last of it as my shredder frequently stops working. It's amazing the junk that you accumulate and the stuff you don't use at all. I'm breeding cups by the dozen and our Church supports starter packs so they'll be getting quite a bit from me. I went down the to skip this morning to find it really busy, met my college tutor and returned home to discover that I'd left the bigger items behind!! Not exactly what I had planned to do but there we go.

Because I haven't gone away this year, I've managed to get up the Glens a lot more. I took the bike and cycled round Glen Clova (admittedly walked up a few of the steeper braes, wee wheels etc) and walked in Glen Esk and Prosen. Mum joined me this week and we did most of the Rocks of Solitude in Esk which was lovely then got bitten by the midges further up at Invermark! It was great just to have the time to choose when to go: get up, look at the hills, pack up the cool box and go whereas at the weekends, it depends on the weather and this summer, it's been wet a lot of the weekends. So below are some photos:

This is the road leading to Glen Doll and was taken at Glen Clova. Note the rain in the distance which hit us five minutes later.

This one is taken at Loch Lee, Glen Esk.

This one is looking up the path to the white Caterthun which is the steeper of the two. This link will give you more information about the white and brown Caterthuns.

Scurdie Ness Lighthouse

2009-05-31T14:55:00.006+01:00

I've just realised that I mention the lighthouse and forget most of you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about. This is Scurdie Ness Lighthouse and my house is in the old part of Ferryden and on the the road leading to it. It takes about 15 mins to walk there (unless you meet folk you know and end up talking!), the road has different gradients so is great to walk after work.

It's still a working lighthouse though unmanned like the rest. The house and road are privately owned and the local farmer has a couple of routes for folk to walk. We also have loads of dolphins, the occasional Orca whale and the sea has alot of shipping traffic and as well as the local fishermen.

In the winter you get fantastics waves and can be pretty wild. I'm hoping that this year the corn lice won't put in an appearance as the crawl all over you, get in everywhere and make you itch. Of course, being next to the sea means you get a lot of haar. A couple of summers ago everyone else had great sun, we had haar and couldn't see a thing. Along this road are a couple of wartime lookout posts as well as beacons I think. The are also beaches round this stretch and are popular places to have picnics as well as barbecues on the best days.

New Toy

2009-05-31T14:29:00.004+01:00

I've finally bitten the bullet and got a new bike as my other one resembles a rust bucket and is a nightmare to get in and out of the house. I also need to build up the strength in my knee again as it's been seizing up over the winter. So, I did my research on the web (handy being a librarian and all) and have not got a folding bike as it has be stored either in the car or in the kitchen and for those of you who have seen my house, you know how small it it is.

This bike folds down very easily and certainly takes up a lot less space. I picked it up last night and cycled out to the lighthouse and back and this morning, went through the village, walked up the brae (in my defence, they're pretty steep!) and did a circular route of Usan and Boddin, then back to Ferryden. I forgot how great it is to go downhill at speed with the breeze in front of you. There are alot of steep braes round here so I should get a goood workout so I'll be out on it as much as I can.

The only thing is the state of the roads in Angus mean that the bumps are big and deep and the vibrations go right through me. I haven't been on a bike for at least 15 years and with my balance not always being 100%, meant I wobbled round the shop! It's amazing how much your brain works at keeping you upright so it will help to retrain my brain.

Being a folding bike means I can also pop it in the car for holidays, going to a country park etc. I don't have the staying power yet to cycle all day so this is big advantage. It also means if I stay at Kate's, I can go out with the her and her family. I'm also intending on cycling round Forfar Loch with one of my colleagues next month during lunch so am looking forward to that.

Update

2009-05-05T21:55:00.009+01:00

Well, apologies for not updating sooner. There are several reasons, main one being I need to sleep! Working full-time, studying at College plus being the secretary of the Rotary (and that's just the start) take up quite a bit of time.

Anyway, more photos will go up soon especially as they're a great way of showing everyone what's happening instead of printing them out and posting them (especially the rate my printer seems to go through ink).

I'm quite busy at the moment as I mentioned. I'm trying to read for our bookgroup as well as read for the Angus Book Award longlisting. I've decided to finish with the Boys' Brigade for new as I've done it for 19 years and need a break particulary with studying for college. There are other reasons as well but I will miss the kids.

I don't have a piano at home, just a keyboard which I don't play alot as I end up playing air and the majority of my music isn't suitable for a keyboard. Our Church has recently bought a digital piano so I've been playing around with that and managed to save a couple of songs onto my pendrive for them. I actually cheated with one song and got the organist to play it otherwise I'd never get it recorded :) I then had to download the software to convert them into MP3 files so they could play on cd but only 2 of the 3 transferred. They all converted, so I don't know what happened.

Work is going ok at the moment, a bit swamped as they did a massive order of non-fiction books and guess who gets to classify them? Just finished working through the backlog, then it's straight into the summer reading scheme which means a week counting out bookmarks etc. Oh fun! The job at Mearns Academy has been readvertised so I'm going to go for that again.

It's strange but since I've moved up to Montrose I've been going through a baking fad and I borrowed a book from the mobile library. It's the first book I've used that the receipes work first-time round. I baked for the Rotary coffee morning and it went without a hitch. So these are (right) chocolate chip oat cookies, (left) sugar biscuits and bacon and egg pie (for me!).

Picnics - Fraser Style

2009-04-10T15:19:00.001+01:00

As a family, we always went on loads of picnics and that hasn't really changed. However, we seem to pick days when it's snowing, raining and in this case blowing a gale. On Monday past we went north and this mum and I at a picnic site outside Aboyne freezing to death. The wind is at our backs hence the reason my hair is everywhere. Probably explains why I've now got the cold! My brother James and Aunt Madge were also there but I'm not going to embarrass them - yet!

For Mother's day, we went to Crombie with Kate's family and yes, it was also blowing a gale. We put down a rug on the table and guess who ended up with all the crumbs over her! Picnics are so much fun.....!

More pots and stuff

2009-04-10T15:01:00.003+01:00

This picture was taken for the presentation I made to our Rotary Club last year. The urn on the left was the very first thing I made at pottery when I was in Wales. Believe it or not, it was supposed to be a jug!!

This is the fourth blanket, the one I made for Sally's son James.

This urn was never supposed to be this tall, it just sort of grew and barely fitted into the kiln. The design is an Ancient Greek Octopus and is scratched into the white slip (wet clay that's coloured and painted on).

Crochet

2009-04-04T18:32:00.001+01:00

Another hobby of mine is crochet which my Aunt taught me though I was taught with wool and in straight lines so I find cotton and shapes harder though I've made one or two things that way. I did make a necklace for a friend which worked out well. Anyway, I make tea cosies (bizarre, I know) and baby blankets.

My sister fell pregnant with her first daughter so I had to learn fast to make her one. Each blanket is unique and I improve with every one I may add. So far there are four: first one for Jade (Kate's eldest), Brooke (her second), Jayden (my friend, Jennefer, in America's son) and James (Sally in Wales's son). My neighbour Kathleen at the back of my house is pregnant, due in August so I'm making her one and my friend Maria in Aberdeen is also expecting in October so numbers 5 & 6 will done together which will be a first.

At the moment, my favourite is Brooke's as I couldn't understand the pattern so made up the edging! A bit of blood, sweat and tears went into it hence the favouritism but I do like them all. The hard part is deciding on the pattern. So far, I've only used two but I'm might branch out for 5 & 6 so long as I don't leave it until the last minute.

Anyway, I do have pictures of all four but have only got Brooke's on the pc at the moment. When I get time, I'll upload the other three for you to see. Oh, and if you do fall pregnant and would like one, let me know at least a month before the birth :)!!

2009-03-30T10:48:00.001+01:00

Right, this herd is my pride and joy. I started making them when I stayed in Wales and I was the only Scottish person in the class and couldn't think of anything to make, so thought of highland cows. My favourite and first one is Morag (the brown one on the left with the lovely horns). The wee brown one is Wee Hamish. I moved back to Scotland soon after so they are technically Welsh!

The one at the back left is best forgotten about, more like a sheep than anything else! To his right is Catherine, then Big Angus (created to go with Morag and Wee Hamish) and last but not least is Jock.

2009-03-30T10:32:00.001+01:00

Well, I created this blog two years ago on a course and guess what? I'm on that course again! I'm hoping to keep this blog up and running so as they say, second time lucky. I'm hopeless at coming up with an idea off the top of my head so I orginially thought to show everyone my wonderful pottery creations (orders happily taken!) and to write about books (well, it's my profession after all). I should mention that I'm not taking pottery classes at the moment as I'm now the secretary of the Montrose Rotary Club which is on the same night. I do intend to take it up again in a couple of years though.

Bye for now!

Books and Clay

Happy New Year!

Update

Author Event

Holiday Countdown

At long last.....

Update

Baby photos

3rd baby has arrived!

Third blanket is finished!

Christmas

Snow Galore!

Showtime!

Christmas is coming oh so fast!

Back to Uni.

Grand Day Out

Weekend fun - part 2

Weekend fun - part 1

Baby no.2 has arrived!

Life Update

Baby one of three!!

Sponsored Walk Update

Edinburgh Book Festival

Ferryden Sunset

Sponsored Walk

Happy holidays

Scurdie Ness Lighthouse

New Toy

Update

Picnics - Fraser Style

More pots and stuff

Crochet