Apologies to my blog followers for the silence this week. Three days teaching, 12+ hours of rehearsals, preparations and deliveries of 200 senior citizens Christmas dinner invites, a few (but not enough) hours on the writing of Peter Pan's 21st century sequel, and a fun Saturday and Sunday in Aberdeen with Irene took up all my time. As I am teaching again on Monday and Tuesday look for a full report on ALL activities on Wednesday.
Have patience, will talk soon.
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Play, pickle and print
Looking at how busy the week ahead might be I thought I would just write a short blog now to keep everybody up to date. No need to mention the weather....no change there! Pitlochry Theatre was a real treat. The play was very funny and the Atholl players did a fantastic job. I would have to rate them as very professional indeed. The Christmas shopping was a bit of a non-starter though. A lot of the shops are the same or a variation of the same....Edinburgh Woollen Mill type. Any shops that were different went from the cheapest of cheap poundstretcher to the '£500 for a cashmere dressing gown' at the House of Bruar. We did manage to find some useful bits in the poundstretcher and lunch at the House of Bruar was as usual excellent. While there we bought several kgs of apples. Why? It was the end of the day and the young man was selling them cheap just to get rid of them.
The bulk buy of apples led me to making a batch of chutney last night. I had half an eye on the WRI March competition anyway which is for chutney. My recipe calls for it to mature for two or three months. For once I am organised ahead of time.
Today has been all about Peter Pan. Not the panto but the children's novel which Sheila and I are working on. I spent quite a few hours today...not really writing anything new but getting familiar again with what we had done before, rearranging it according to the competition rules, scanning and copying, taking stuff off the old computer to get it on the new, and thinking...yes thinking! (while ironing!) I wish I didn't have to go to school tomorrow and Tuesday as I am really getting back into it and would rather be doing that than teaching. I have promised myself though, (and Sheila) that I will do at least a couple of hours each day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.
Might manage a blog too, of course.
The bulk buy of apples led me to making a batch of chutney last night. I had half an eye on the WRI March competition anyway which is for chutney. My recipe calls for it to mature for two or three months. For once I am organised ahead of time.
Today has been all about Peter Pan. Not the panto but the children's novel which Sheila and I are working on. I spent quite a few hours today...not really writing anything new but getting familiar again with what we had done before, rearranging it according to the competition rules, scanning and copying, taking stuff off the old computer to get it on the new, and thinking...yes thinking! (while ironing!) I wish I didn't have to go to school tomorrow and Tuesday as I am really getting back into it and would rather be doing that than teaching. I have promised myself though, (and Sheila) that I will do at least a couple of hours each day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.
Might manage a blog too, of course.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Le Chien has French Lessons
Coolie is off to stay with Michel and Magali for 24 hours just to brush up his French while son mere et pere are going to Pitlochry. (Again?) This is an early birthday treat for me. We are heading for House of Bruar for a bit of Christmas shopping and lunch before checking into the B&B. Tonight's theatre experience will be vastly different from last week's. It is a Scottish play, called 'Paras o'er the Barras', done by the Vale of Atholl Players, an amateur dramatics group. It will be interesting to see the standard as we have no idea really how good or awful our dinner theatre group and panto players really are when compared to other amateurs. We shall do some more Christmas shopping in Pitlochry tomorrow and then back home.
The floods in the lake district of England and south of Scotland are being described as of 'biblical proportions'. We have had a lot of rain here too...seems like it has been every day for more than 40 days and nights....but at least we have had no flooding in our area and none forecast. It continues to be very mild for the time of year, though we did have cold spell two weeks ago and the mornings were frosty when I was driving to Ballater school. Talking of which they have asked me to go in for two more days next week. That will be 5 this month in total and I will be happy to stop at that...a nice bit of pocket money for Christmas.
To be truthful, I don't have time to work, and I cannot imagine how I had time before. Between the panto, the Murder mystery, the secretarial load of the WRI, the Jacobite project and the rewriting of Peter Pan my days are filled before I even think about housework, shopping and cooking! And therein lies some good news. Remember the chocolate cake that cost me a small fortune to make last month? The one that I kept in the freezer for the WRI competition? Well the cakes were judged last night and I have been told that mine was 1st. Yahoo!(I couldn't stay for the judging as I had to go and be Tinkerbell.)With two firsts and a third so far this season, I am getting quite competitive and already planning next month's entry which is a Christmas table decoration. You will find out in due course about that.
Au revoir.
The floods in the lake district of England and south of Scotland are being described as of 'biblical proportions'. We have had a lot of rain here too...seems like it has been every day for more than 40 days and nights....but at least we have had no flooding in our area and none forecast. It continues to be very mild for the time of year, though we did have cold spell two weeks ago and the mornings were frosty when I was driving to Ballater school. Talking of which they have asked me to go in for two more days next week. That will be 5 this month in total and I will be happy to stop at that...a nice bit of pocket money for Christmas.
To be truthful, I don't have time to work, and I cannot imagine how I had time before. Between the panto, the Murder mystery, the secretarial load of the WRI, the Jacobite project and the rewriting of Peter Pan my days are filled before I even think about housework, shopping and cooking! And therein lies some good news. Remember the chocolate cake that cost me a small fortune to make last month? The one that I kept in the freezer for the WRI competition? Well the cakes were judged last night and I have been told that mine was 1st. Yahoo!(I couldn't stay for the judging as I had to go and be Tinkerbell.)With two firsts and a third so far this season, I am getting quite competitive and already planning next month's entry which is a Christmas table decoration. You will find out in due course about that.
Au revoir.
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Of pheasant plucking and nut cracking
The week began with two more days at Ballater primary school with 22 primary 2s and 3s. Pleasant enough but it didn't fill my heart with longing to return to the classroom. I know I made the right decision to retire from education when I did while I still have enough energy to do all the things that I didn't have time for during the 40 years in the classroom. I am equally sure that teaching was the right career for me and I have not one single regret about spending my life to date doing that. But now the time has come to move on!
I have made contact with my friend Sheila about the possibility of finishing the cracking children's novel that we half finished 5 years ago. She is keen to go for it too so we will talk later today about how we should proceed. There is a Scottish publishering company - Floris Books - which runs an annual competition for novels for the 9 - 12 age group set mainly in Scotland. Our tale of 21st century Peter Pan fits the criteria and their entry date of late February would give us the much needed deadline to work towards.
Other projects still simmering away in the background of my life at the moment are the drama group's murder mystery coming up in less than 3 weeks, the panto which currently takes up minimum of 9 hours a week, and plans for the Third Jacobite Uprising.....
But what of pheasant plucking? The other day a friend phoned offering free pheasants (her husband is a gamekeeper) as they had more than they could deal with after a successful days' sport (Sport? Not what the birds would call it!) Richard said he was willing and able to do the cleaning and plucking so I agreed to take two brace and planned to add them to the menu for Friday night's dinner for Allan, May, Christopher and Nirit. Nirit is Jewish so I wasn't too sure if the pheasant had been treated in a kosher way??? But that is another story. I was out visiting an old neighbour when the pheasant arrived and I came home to the most awful sights and smells in my kitchen. Richard sitting at the kitchen sink wearing his butcher's apron and up to the elbows in carcasses, feathers, guts and blood while an aroma of foul fowl surrounded him. Coolie was enjoying the scene of course. Once all the nasties were dealt with I was left with the next task of deciding how to cook them. Isn't google a wonderful thing? Google is definitely of minor god status in my opinion. Various recipes came up and in the end I decided casseroling in cider sounded good, and I also decided that getting them into the slow cooker early in the morning on Friday and leaving them to their own devices for the day was the way to go. At least that way they wouldn't interfere with all my other culinary plans for the day and if they didn't work out, well, at least they had cost me nothing in either time or money...although they had cost Richard a fair amount of time. I also decided to only use the breasts and to boil up the legs and other bits for Coolie. The resulting casserole was indeed very tasty and gobbled up by my body building nephew at dinner and then again as a top up supper before he went to bed.
Yesterday evening Richard and I treated ourselves to a night at the ballet. The Moscow Ballet were performing the Nutcracker at Pitlochry Theatre...currently our favourite venue. It was most enjoyable. The costumes were beautiful, the music outstanding (though it wasn't live)and the dancing, especially by the principles was divine. How can they move their bodies like that and yet make it seem so effortless? However, we were disappointed a little in the story side of the show. We were expecting the full story of the Nutcracker, very Christmassy etc, but it wasn't quite the version we had hoped for. The first half seemed to be setting the scene and did have a token Christmas tree as part of the set. There were various 'dolls' dancing, plus we got a glimpse of the menacing mice and the toy soldiers. The second half was filled with various corp de ballet routines which were good but not brilliant, interspersed with excellent performances from each of 4 pairs of principles, and an oustanding duet from the prima ballerina and partner but none of it seemed to be related to the story. During the final dance somebody uncovered a toy nutcracker and held it aloft! Still, it was a lovely evening and a bit of culture for us! We are back to Pitlochry next weekend for something completely different which I will tell you about in due course.
I have made contact with my friend Sheila about the possibility of finishing the cracking children's novel that we half finished 5 years ago. She is keen to go for it too so we will talk later today about how we should proceed. There is a Scottish publishering company - Floris Books - which runs an annual competition for novels for the 9 - 12 age group set mainly in Scotland. Our tale of 21st century Peter Pan fits the criteria and their entry date of late February would give us the much needed deadline to work towards.
Other projects still simmering away in the background of my life at the moment are the drama group's murder mystery coming up in less than 3 weeks, the panto which currently takes up minimum of 9 hours a week, and plans for the Third Jacobite Uprising.....
But what of pheasant plucking? The other day a friend phoned offering free pheasants (her husband is a gamekeeper) as they had more than they could deal with after a successful days' sport (Sport? Not what the birds would call it!) Richard said he was willing and able to do the cleaning and plucking so I agreed to take two brace and planned to add them to the menu for Friday night's dinner for Allan, May, Christopher and Nirit. Nirit is Jewish so I wasn't too sure if the pheasant had been treated in a kosher way??? But that is another story. I was out visiting an old neighbour when the pheasant arrived and I came home to the most awful sights and smells in my kitchen. Richard sitting at the kitchen sink wearing his butcher's apron and up to the elbows in carcasses, feathers, guts and blood while an aroma of foul fowl surrounded him. Coolie was enjoying the scene of course. Once all the nasties were dealt with I was left with the next task of deciding how to cook them. Isn't google a wonderful thing? Google is definitely of minor god status in my opinion. Various recipes came up and in the end I decided casseroling in cider sounded good, and I also decided that getting them into the slow cooker early in the morning on Friday and leaving them to their own devices for the day was the way to go. At least that way they wouldn't interfere with all my other culinary plans for the day and if they didn't work out, well, at least they had cost me nothing in either time or money...although they had cost Richard a fair amount of time. I also decided to only use the breasts and to boil up the legs and other bits for Coolie. The resulting casserole was indeed very tasty and gobbled up by my body building nephew at dinner and then again as a top up supper before he went to bed.
Yesterday evening Richard and I treated ourselves to a night at the ballet. The Moscow Ballet were performing the Nutcracker at Pitlochry Theatre...currently our favourite venue. It was most enjoyable. The costumes were beautiful, the music outstanding (though it wasn't live)and the dancing, especially by the principles was divine. How can they move their bodies like that and yet make it seem so effortless? However, we were disappointed a little in the story side of the show. We were expecting the full story of the Nutcracker, very Christmassy etc, but it wasn't quite the version we had hoped for. The first half seemed to be setting the scene and did have a token Christmas tree as part of the set. There were various 'dolls' dancing, plus we got a glimpse of the menacing mice and the toy soldiers. The second half was filled with various corp de ballet routines which were good but not brilliant, interspersed with excellent performances from each of 4 pairs of principles, and an oustanding duet from the prima ballerina and partner but none of it seemed to be related to the story. During the final dance somebody uncovered a toy nutcracker and held it aloft! Still, it was a lovely evening and a bit of culture for us! We are back to Pitlochry next weekend for something completely different which I will tell you about in due course.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
And another thing
I forgot to tell you about a curious incident that happened last week. I awoke with a start one morning, while it was still dark, to the sound of one ring of the front doorbell followed by what sounded like the handle being depressed. My first thought was that it must be Richard coming back after taking Coolie out for a walk, but on turning round I saw Richard fast asleep beside me. I looked at the clock and it was 5.20. Who on earth could be at the door at that time in the morning, and who would try to come straight in? I lay motionless, listening and waiting for the next sound. There was none. 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, and nothing more was heard. Was it a dream?
When I finally awoke properly about two hours later I realised it was 5th November and would have been my Dad's 86th birthday. Dad was a strong spiritualist and after Mum died he was convinced she visited him frequently. His favourite story was always how she warned him one night that he hadn't locked the door. He got out of bed to see and sure enough he hadn't locked the door. Perhaps he was checking that we had locked ours. Who knows? Happy Birthday Dad, wherever you might be now.
When I finally awoke properly about two hours later I realised it was 5th November and would have been my Dad's 86th birthday. Dad was a strong spiritualist and after Mum died he was convinced she visited him frequently. His favourite story was always how she warned him one night that he hadn't locked the door. He got out of bed to see and sure enough he hadn't locked the door. Perhaps he was checking that we had locked ours. Who knows? Happy Birthday Dad, wherever you might be now.
A Hamster in a Wheel
Here we are at the end of another week, another wettish week at that, and not a lot of progress made in any department. I started off the week weighing 54.1kg as reported in my last blog, then dropped a little to 53.8 which pleased me greatly, then went back to 54.1! GRRRR. The weight will start to come off though, of that I am sure as I am controlling my alcohol intake, and my bread intake and I have always found they make a huge difference.
I feel a bit like a hamster in a wheel this week, putting a lot of effort and time into I don't know what. Well let's see what I have done. I have written (and read) a large number of emails, ordered several items online...everything from an elf's costume to a hob and oven...(and that's another story), done some research for the Jacobite project, made a poster or two, taught a primary 2/3 class at Ballater for a day, taught a kids' dance class in Braemar, attended two drama rehearsals, went to a meeting with a business mentor as a follow up to the course we did on increasing B&B business,attended a castle meeting, cooked 15 meals for two, cleaned out a kitchen cupboard and the fridge, vacuumed, did laundry, watched TV......ad infinitum. Lots of stuff but nothing creative and I feel that if I haven't created or achieved anything of worth I have wasted my time. So let's see if I can do better tomorrow.
The story surrounding the new hob and oven is somewhat amusing and akin to the crazy beginnings you used to get in the series Six Feet Under, although luckily this one didn't lead to anyone's death....although it could have! When I went to clean the twin room after our guests left last weekend I discovered that bizarrely they had made tea in the kettle, instead of in the cup. Consequently the previously creamy/white kettle was now a dirty grey colour on the inside. Because it has a metal element inside I couldn't use Milton or similar to clean it so I decided to let some water boil in it, leaving the lid off so that it would continue to boil for a while. I left it to go about some other chores. After a time I heard a strange popping/puffing sound coming from the kitchen. The water had boiled over the top of the kettle and down under the hob (bad design) causing a short. Smoke was puffing out from the switches. It was a little scary but thankfully it didn't burst into flames. Richard immediately cut the power and our electrician neighbour came round to see what could be done. We now have only two rings working on the hob, and a long time ago one grill element burned out on the oven so we just decided that it was time to treat the kitchen to a new appliance. It will all be arriving next week sometime.
And by the way, I am doing two more days supply teaching at Ballater next week so I suppose I have at least earned a bit of money if I have done nothing else.
Ciao for now.
I feel a bit like a hamster in a wheel this week, putting a lot of effort and time into I don't know what. Well let's see what I have done. I have written (and read) a large number of emails, ordered several items online...everything from an elf's costume to a hob and oven...(and that's another story), done some research for the Jacobite project, made a poster or two, taught a primary 2/3 class at Ballater for a day, taught a kids' dance class in Braemar, attended two drama rehearsals, went to a meeting with a business mentor as a follow up to the course we did on increasing B&B business,attended a castle meeting, cooked 15 meals for two, cleaned out a kitchen cupboard and the fridge, vacuumed, did laundry, watched TV......ad infinitum. Lots of stuff but nothing creative and I feel that if I haven't created or achieved anything of worth I have wasted my time. So let's see if I can do better tomorrow.
The story surrounding the new hob and oven is somewhat amusing and akin to the crazy beginnings you used to get in the series Six Feet Under, although luckily this one didn't lead to anyone's death....although it could have! When I went to clean the twin room after our guests left last weekend I discovered that bizarrely they had made tea in the kettle, instead of in the cup. Consequently the previously creamy/white kettle was now a dirty grey colour on the inside. Because it has a metal element inside I couldn't use Milton or similar to clean it so I decided to let some water boil in it, leaving the lid off so that it would continue to boil for a while. I left it to go about some other chores. After a time I heard a strange popping/puffing sound coming from the kitchen. The water had boiled over the top of the kettle and down under the hob (bad design) causing a short. Smoke was puffing out from the switches. It was a little scary but thankfully it didn't burst into flames. Richard immediately cut the power and our electrician neighbour came round to see what could be done. We now have only two rings working on the hob, and a long time ago one grill element burned out on the oven so we just decided that it was time to treat the kitchen to a new appliance. It will all be arriving next week sometime.
And by the way, I am doing two more days supply teaching at Ballater next week so I suppose I have at least earned a bit of money if I have done nothing else.
Ciao for now.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Tinks is here
This will be a very quick wee blog as I am off out to panto rehearsals very shortly but I just wanted to tell my followers that the Tinkerbell costume arrived today! The good news is that I can get into it! But it will look better with every kilo I drop. So watch out for a weight confession in my next blog.
Two other things of note that happened today....3 of my premium bonds each won £25, and I started dance classes with the kids at school. It was fun, but I had forgotten how noisy a dozen kids can be at the end of a school day. That was the first time inside the building since I left in July. Nothing much had changed but it felt quite strange.
Still raining here....seems to have been raining for weeks. There is also quite a dusting of snow on the hill tops.
Two other things of note that happened today....3 of my premium bonds each won £25, and I started dance classes with the kids at school. It was fun, but I had forgotten how noisy a dozen kids can be at the end of a school day. That was the first time inside the building since I left in July. Nothing much had changed but it felt quite strange.
Still raining here....seems to have been raining for weeks. There is also quite a dusting of snow on the hill tops.
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