odds and ends

Well, I got home again from the weekend in Inverness on the Monday, feeling pretty exhausted, but things kept happening through the next couple of weeks.  I  managed to catch up with Ian and Berny, two of my Aussie cousins  at  Queensferry one day.    There was a huge cruise liner in the Forth, so car parking alongside the waterside was restricted, but we found spaces, had lunch and a long blether about their trip, and the family back in Aus, before I had to head for North Berwick for teatime. My great friend Edwina was up from the south of England with her husband, staying with her sister – also my friend - Jean.   We had to get together!   I went down to visit at Jean’s house , and we had a lovely evening.

 We even played a game of Trivial Pursuits – my first ever game of TP!   How come you somehow know the answers but they just won’t come out from the recesses of your mind?  Well, so it was in my case, and Barney, Ween’s husband, was very funny the way he pretended he knew an answer, sounding like he was just prevaricating , when he actually couldn’t think of the right words either.  Anyway, Jean won in the end!   Clever Clogs!!!! 

Ween and I met way back in the early ‘70s, and have been great friends ever since.  It’s just a shame she and Barney don’t live a lot nearer. We used to go down to Jean’s at weekends sometimes, and I’ve watched her family growing up – remember Mandy’s wedding not that long ago?  Mandy is Jean’s and Cyril’s elder daughter.

One evening last week I went up to Edinburgh to hear the Gaelic choir sing in an Edinburgh Festival Fringe concert.  I don’t know the songs well enough yet so didn’t join in!  Besides, I don’t have a uniform yet!  There was also a group of clarsach players – the clarsach is a Scottish harp – and a solo player who wrote her own  music and was accompanied by a friend playing either guitar or double bass.  It was  a good night, especially as we repaired to the pub later for a wee glass of rosso!

We had a meeting of the U3A gardening group one afternoon.  It was held at Morna’s house, and as well as enjoying her garden we learned about taking cuttings!  I had some pieces of fuchsia, philadelphus, weigela,  and potentilla.  So, having cut the right bits of the plants and potted them in compost and sharp sand, I came home with two pots of cuttings in plastic bags – to make up for not having a greenhouse.   Let’s hope they take, and I can increase my plant stock in the garden.

On Thursday afternoon I drove down to Galashiels to pay my garage bill and to say that the car was still not right – what a pain – when the sales director collared me.  “We’ll have to sell you a new car,” he said, “It’s a while since you got your present one. “  About 8 years!  He indicated the model in the showroom, so I took a look at it, and quite nice it was too.  I didn’t intend getting a new car, but I thought about the idea overnight, talked about it to Linda and Colin, and decided to go for a test drive the next day!  Linda came with me, and we took the car round a few country roads and through Galashiels back to the garage.  Well, the long and the short of that was that I signed on the dotted line for a 5-door zircon grey (silver) Peugeot 107 Urban, to be collected on 8th September!  I do hope I’ve done the right thing!  It certainly will cost less to run, and less on the road tax and insurance – and there won’t  be hefty repair bills like the one I just paid, well, not for a long while anyway!

Talk again soon.