Just returned from a lengthy cycle over to the far end of the island, specifically to one of two ruined chapels. It occurred to me that while we can't open our extant church buildings for private prayer just now, we have plenty of others available if we don't mind the rain and mud. There is value for me in going to a place hallowed by centuries of prayer to talk to God. Plus these chapels are sufficiently isolated that I can pray and sing aloud without disturbing anyone else. 15 miles round trip.
The ruined chapels sound lovely, a wonderful place to pray.
Husband and eldest have driven up to York to clear son’s uni accommodation (they were given an appointed time). I’ve just pottered about in the house and garden.
Really makes you wonder what people called them before the invention of said chocolatey-maltey delicacy!
I did try and think of a better description; bigger than a pea, smaller than a grape. Pebble could mean anything.
So glad that I only had to make a short trip out today. It's positively chilly and so changeable. Better to be indoors watching other people in a muddy field (the Glastonbury coverage).
Dinner was scallops topped with bread crumbs and gruyère and grilled, followed by prawn pasta. There are both advantages and disadvantages with a menu like that to the Dragonlets eating just about anything (we had to give them some scallop pieces).
Now it has stopped raining and the sun is out, the weather here is pleasant.
I have an appointment for a haircut
Not until July 14th, but got the first appointment of the day. Could have had one a week earlier, but not until late morning and I prefer to be back indoors by then.
I've had a rather interesting day: I saw a job advertised that looks like almost exactly what I did at Orkney Health Board thirty-mumble years ago, and I think I'd love it. The thing is, it's in an area of Fife that I don't know, and when I mentioned it to my brother and sister-in-law yesterday, they said why don't we take a run out there today and have a look at the place, so we did. The rain came down in stair-rods, but no matter ...
It's in a medium-sized village about an hour from Edinburgh, and there are one or two houses on the market there that I could easily afford (you can get much more house for your money there than in town).
I think I'll apply for the job: as my s-i-l said, I've got nothing to lose, and there probably won't be anything like the competition there would be for a city job. I don't know how well I'd cope with being that far from Edinburgh, but the houses are cheap enough that I might be able to afford a car (a Whole Nother Thing, as I haven't driven in years).
I'm not so sure about Fife, Piglet. It's a wild and dangerous place full of barbarians (except for St Andrew's) over there in the north, furth of the Firth of Forth, and a lot of them don't speak the kind of English (or Scots) you might recognise. We lived there (in another small village) while I commuted to Edinburgh far back in another century. I'm a bit out of date, of course, but bus and train services are far better now than they were in our time, so perhaps there'll be some pleasant surprises for you. We still have friends there, so it's not really all that bad.
And of job hunting, a rejection isn't always a bad thing if it saves you from a bad fit. I once took an aggressive stance with a company that I thought needed me, and convinced them that they should hire me. I lasted three days and was glad to go.
We've found Fife hospitality to be a mixed bag, although we are generally welcomed despite our strange Aussie accents. My dear cousins, whom we would have visited last month but for the virus, reside in Dunfermline and are faithful parishioners of St Andrews Erskine CoS. Their maiden aunt was the first female elder of the church some decades ago, before it relocated out of the city centre, and on one of our previous visits was most incensed, expecting to show us through the Abbey, she found the doors barred and whoever was in the vestry studiously ignoring our presence outside.
Far be it from me to Anglosplain to a Scot but shouldn't that be the 'Kingdom of Fife'?
Fifedom, surely? It sounds exciting, @Piglet , and you have nothing to lose by applying.
We had a wonderful afternoon and evening yesterday with Nenlet1 and son in law, went for a lovely walk and managed not to get wet, and Nenlet1 cooked delicious paella for tea. Today we're planning coffee on the patio with friends and it would be nice if the weather obliged, but the gardens are so grateful for the alternating rain and sunshine.
A day of dedicated rain by the looks of it. I foresee knitting, and some mask sewing - agin the possibility of Mr F driving me to an Aldi later in the week.
Tribute to Škoda btw - when the chap came to collect it for its annual service, car started instantly despite not having been driven since early March.
The hip a bit better today: I can walk without whimpering. Much.
I'm not so sure about Fife, Piglet. It's a wild and dangerous place full of barbarians (except for St Andrew's) over there in the north, furth of the Firth of Forth, and a lot of them don't speak the kind of English (or Scots) you might recognise.
Aye, we had an English teacher from Fife for a while. Nice lass but she spoke the braidest Scots I've ever encountered.
No apostrophe in St. Andrews please, @Stercus Tauri! I speak as a native.
Fife is lovely, and the people the salt of the earth once you get beneath the salt crust. Seriously, @Piglet you could do a lot worse, though I can never understand why people should want to be anywhere near Edinburgh, even though I lived there happily for a few years myself. If you were about an hour from Edinburgh you must have been near Cupar, a really nice town, nestling in the hollow of the hills.
Will send some prayer with your job application.
Edited to add that it is indeed the Kingdom (never Fifedom, that is just so wrong) and that in my youth as a pre-teen I joined the “Fight for Fife” when it was proposed that under regionalisation it be divided half to Tayside and half to Lothian (I think: I was in the half for Tayside). We wrote letters in our shaky script and we got the outcome we desired! It taks a long spoon tae sup wi’ a Fifer.
What are you growing, Boogie? And how is the family in German Lands? Mr Boogie still over there, helping out?
I am growing lettuce and spinach - lots of it!
Mr Boogs is back but we are both going back out there on the 3rd of July for a month.
My son is still recovering from the two viruses (not Covid19) that he suffered really badly from. His liver has taken a battering so no alcohol until his blood tests come clear. But he’s back at work and doing fine. Our little Enkelin (granddaughter) is a star and six months old already, she’s crawling all over the place - I can’t wait to see her!
I think it's a case of "as you were" - once I clicked a bit further into the job description it turned out it's only half-time, and I couldn't afford to live on half the salary.
However, I've just put in an application for yet another one, this time in Dunfermline, which is a bit closer, has some equally affordable places to live, but gives the impression of being Quaite Naice.
@Barnabas_Aus - my old music teacher used to be the organist at Dunfermline Abbey (I think he retired about five years ago).
After all the Interesting Weather yesterday, it looks somewhat blustrous today, but I think I ought to go and amble anyway, as I've been very remiss lately - apart from a few minutes in Leven yesterday, I haven't ambled since Thursday, and I'm missing it.
No apostrophe in St. Andrews please, @Stercus Tauri! I speak as a native.
There are quite a few St. Andrews Presbyterian Churches in these parts. Indeed, St. Andrews seems to be more common than St. Andrew’s as a Presbyterian church name. I’ve been told that if there’s no apostrophe, it means the name of the church refers to the town and/or university, not to the brother of Peter. No idea how reliable that is, though.
Something rather pleasing happened in Tesco this morning, when the lady checking-out my shopping was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of her daughter, carrying her brand-new baby.
This was the FIRST TIME check-out lady had seen/met her new grandchild, so much emotion ensued...
Similar scenes (not necessarily at supermarket tills!) are doubtless being enacted across the country, as lockdown restrictions are eased.
(BTW, the Manager herself took over the check-out, to allow Grandma a few minutes' quality time with her new Granddaughter...).
I've had the first two lines of Sir Patrick Spens running through my head for the last couple of days too. I have no memory of ever having been in Dunfermline - it's always just been a road-sign on the way to or from Edinburgh - but if I can get someone there to employ me ...
I very much doubt that there'll be any amblage today: it's blowing a hoolie and p*ssing with rain, presumably because it's the first Monday of the school holidays.
As the nail polish I ordered from Am*z*n arrived this morning, my nails have now been painted for the first time in about four months. Before lockdown happened, I'd planned to get them done properly, but when that went by the board, I decided that I'd give them a rest from being painted, and it seems to have done them good - I'm quite pleased with the results.
A few weeks ago, toilet paper was like gold dust. I went into a well known supermarket today and was confronted with two pallets stacked high with toilet rolls and labelled "Clearance Sale" !
I've had the first two lines of Sir Patrick Spens running through my head for the last couple of days too.
I read Piglet's post and my mind went back over 50 years to reading this poem for English Literature GCE 'O' level. Those first two lines came into my head, and when I looked up-thread to find the exact quote discovered I'd only misremembered a couple of dialect words. It's Amazing the things that stick in our brains.
Dunfermline? Reminds me of the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens:
The King sits in Dunfermline toun,
Drinkin the blude-reid wine
‘O whaur will A get a skeely skipper
Tae sail this new ship o mine?’
and a favourite* of Mr S' and mine, especially on sailing holidays. We especially favoured
'Forty miles off Aberdeen
the water's fifty fathoms deep;
there lies good Sir Patrick Spens
with the Scots lords at his feet'
Singing that as we drifted down the Nile on a felucca started a few days of folk song and general good cheer, but we were embarrassed to discover that two of our companions regularly sang in folk clubs and (gasp!) even harmonised! If we were in the same key we thought it a triumph...
* though from the Fairport Convention version rather than anything more erudite
... my mind went back over 50 years to reading this poem for English Literature GCE 'O' level ..
Just over 40 years in my case - O Grade - and I can still hear it in Mr. Francis's rather dull, boring voice ...
As it's a considerably less dreich day today than it was yesterday (not that that would be hard), I'm going to amble before it changes its mind.
Supper this evening will be posh* sausages in mushroom and tomato sauce with pasta.
* S. bought some high-class pork over the interweb, including some Mangalitsa sausages
I have had a fuzzy head all day and can’t concentrate so haven’t got any work done. A de-briefing meeting to go to this evening though.
Dinner is paprika chicken with leftover spicy veg and kidney beans from yesterday‘s fajitas, with rice.
The sausages and pasta turned out really rather well; they were slightly spicy, so it's as well I didn't add any heat apart from a few twists of pepper.
My niece turned up with Larry the Labradoodle just after we'd finished eating, and we all had a lovely amble in the evening sunshine, which more than made up for the lack of amblage yesterday.
I don't post about cooking usually, because I consider my culinary efforts to be pretty mundane. However yesterday the Giraffe asked for Samosas for tea, and since the local Coop did not have any (they often do) I thought "How hard can it be?!" I have never deep fried pastry before! But they came out pretty well, with a filling of onion, potato, sweetcorn and chicken (no chicken but some cheese for my veggie daughter) and wrapped in very thinly rolled puff pastry. They did not, as I had feared, come apart in the wok. Whether an Indian would have recognised them I do not know...
She's adorable, Boogie! Safe travels later in the week.
I've been a domestic goddess this morning and got our meal for later into the slow cooker. My garden's been loving the recent combination of rain and sunshine; the high winds not so much.
I am currently breaking-in a pair of very comfortable (so far!) new Shoes, bought online from Asda-George (thank you to IIRC @Boogie for the suggestion to use Asda's online facility).
The replacement mica board for the Episcopal Microwave has arrived, and been safely installed. I have also paid for my online Pilates session yesterday, and done a bit of 'real' shopping at the Co-Op.
O what a Busy Bee I am...
Lunch is called for, I think. Lasagne, a green Salad, and some red Wine, are all to hand.
We actually drove to a Big Shop this morning. Well, Mr F drove and then sat reading a book on military history, while I wheeched a trolley round Aldi. Prime objectives were high end chocolate and mini fondues.
Just had a decadent lunch of bacon, avocado and tomato sarnies and half a bar of Moser Roth Sour Cherry-Chilli 85%.
I've had a very sleepy morning (don't really know why - no excuse!).
I'm definitely going to have to fork out for Microsoft Office for the laptop - there's a job come up at George Watson's College which I'd really rather like, and the application form is in docx format, which won't open at the moment.
After such a lovely evening last night, the weather's gone back to the default "dreich", so I'm not missing much by not being outdoors. If it improves, I'll amble later.
No of course not. I didn’t use flour at all, personally. Pre-bought puff pastry. Life is too short.....
I make samosas using bought filo pastry (as per Meera Sodha's recipe from Made in India) and they always turn out well. I tend to bake mine for health reasons.
Woke with a stonking headache, dizziness and nausea, just like a hangover but without the joy of drinking the alcohol. It appears to be the side effect of an improving pulse rate. Sigh. Lots of fluids and I need to regularly walk around to get the blood flowing.
Today's the day we would have been going to Japan for a 2 week holiday - given how I feel I'm glad I'm not spending day on an airplane!
Decided to catch up with mandatory training today so I've done online courses in GDPR, Information Security, Prevent (anti-terrorism), Equality and Unconscious bias, and an extra module in student employability.
We’re having potato, onion, bacon and spinach bake, topped with cheese. Alas, I cannot tolerate wine at present. I might have an alcohol free beer or a non-gin and tonic (Cedars’ classic, the only gin substitute I’ve found that actually tastes like gin, rather than almost, but not quite, entirely unlike gin).
Lunch is called for, I think. Lasagne, a green Salad, and some red Wine, are all to hand.
Lunchtime wine ... on a Wednesday? Is Outrage!
Wednesdays always require wine.
And in a like manner, Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The same reasoning applies to real ales too, of course, but not together.
I'm definitely going to have to fork out for Microsoft Office for the laptop - there's a job come up at George Watson's College which I'd really rather like, and the application form is in docx format, which won't open at the moment.
Have you tried LibreOffice? I find that it is adequate in handling docx files without the cost of Microsoft.
Comments
NOT the sort of weather in which to go pooing on beaches...
🌹🌳🍀🌱🌴🌷🌻
Husband and eldest have driven up to York to clear son’s uni accommodation (they were given an appointed time). I’ve just pottered about in the house and garden.
Slept through some stotting rainfall.
Have put some gigot chops in white wine in the oven. Currently switching between hot and cold compresses to see if that helps.
So glad that I only had to make a short trip out today. It's positively chilly and so changeable. Better to be indoors watching other people in a muddy field (the Glastonbury coverage).
Dinner was scallops topped with bread crumbs and gruyère and grilled, followed by prawn pasta. There are both advantages and disadvantages with a menu like that to the Dragonlets eating just about anything (we had to give them some scallop pieces).
Now it has stopped raining and the sun is out, the weather here is pleasant.
Not until July 14th, but got the first appointment of the day. Could have had one a week earlier, but not until late morning and I prefer to be back indoors by then.
I've had a rather interesting day: I saw a job advertised that looks like almost exactly what I did at Orkney Health Board thirty-mumble years ago, and I think I'd love it. The thing is, it's in an area of Fife that I don't know, and when I mentioned it to my brother and sister-in-law yesterday, they said why don't we take a run out there today and have a look at the place, so we did. The rain came down in stair-rods, but no matter ...
It's in a medium-sized village about an hour from Edinburgh, and there are one or two houses on the market there that I could easily afford (you can get much more house for your money there than in town).
I think I'll apply for the job: as my s-i-l said, I've got nothing to lose, and there probably won't be anything like the competition there would be for a city job. I don't know how well I'd cope with being that far from Edinburgh, but the houses are cheap enough that I might be able to afford a car (a Whole Nother Thing, as I haven't driven in years).
And of job hunting, a rejection isn't always a bad thing if it saves you from a bad fit. I once took an aggressive stance with a company that I thought needed me, and convinced them that they should hire me. I lasted three days and was glad to go.
(my friend's gran was from Fife and would rise from the grave to haunt me if I didn't mention it)
Fifedom, surely? It sounds exciting, @Piglet , and you have nothing to lose by applying.
We had a wonderful afternoon and evening yesterday with Nenlet1 and son in law, went for a lovely walk and managed not to get wet, and Nenlet1 cooked delicious paella for tea. Today we're planning coffee on the patio with friends and it would be nice if the weather obliged, but the gardens are so grateful for the alternating rain and sunshine.
Tribute to Škoda btw - when the chap came to collect it for its annual service, car started instantly despite not having been driven since early March.
The hip a bit better today: I can walk without whimpering. Much.
Aye, we had an English teacher from Fife for a while. Nice lass but she spoke the braidest Scots I've ever encountered.
Fife is lovely, and the people the salt of the earth once you get beneath the salt crust. Seriously, @Piglet you could do a lot worse, though I can never understand why people should want to be anywhere near Edinburgh, even though I lived there happily for a few years myself. If you were about an hour from Edinburgh you must have been near Cupar, a really nice town, nestling in the hollow of the hills.
Will send some prayer with your job application.
Edited to add that it is indeed the Kingdom (never Fifedom, that is just so wrong) and that in my youth as a pre-teen I joined the “Fight for Fife” when it was proposed that under regionalisation it be divided half to Tayside and half to Lothian (I think: I was in the half for Tayside). We wrote letters in our shaky script and we got the outcome we desired! It taks a long spoon tae sup wi’ a Fifer.
I am growing lettuce and spinach - lots of it!
Mr Boogs is back but we are both going back out there on the 3rd of July for a month.
My son is still recovering from the two viruses (not Covid19) that he suffered really badly from. His liver has taken a battering so no alcohol until his blood tests come clear. But he’s back at work and doing fine. Our little Enkelin (granddaughter) is a star and six months old already, she’s crawling all over the place - I can’t wait to see her!
Here she is being cheeky on the train! https://youtu.be/r8217yiZWy4
Thank you for asking @Wesley J
I can't believe I did that, having known the place almost all my life. Sackcloth and ashes!
However, I've just put in an application for yet another one, this time in Dunfermline, which is a bit closer, has some equally affordable places to live, but gives the impression of being Quaite Naice.
@Barnabas_Aus - my old music teacher used to be the organist at Dunfermline Abbey (I think he retired about five years ago).
After all the Interesting Weather yesterday, it looks somewhat blustrous today, but I think I ought to go and amble anyway, as I've been very remiss lately - apart from a few minutes in Leven yesterday, I haven't ambled since Thursday, and I'm missing it.
*Ahem* (assumes special voice for reciting of Peotry)
The King sits in Dunfermline toun,
Drinkin the blude-reid wine
‘O whaur will A get a skeely skipper
Tae sail this new ship o mine?’
So yes - a place with Royal connections...quaite naice, indeed.
This was the FIRST TIME check-out lady had seen/met her new grandchild, so much emotion ensued...
Similar scenes (not necessarily at supermarket tills!) are doubtless being enacted across the country, as lockdown restrictions are eased.
(BTW, the Manager herself took over the check-out, to allow Grandma a few minutes' quality time with her new Granddaughter...).
Goodness - I got quite moisty-eyed myself...
I've had the first two lines of Sir Patrick Spens running through my head for the last couple of days too. I have no memory of ever having been in Dunfermline - it's always just been a road-sign on the way to or from Edinburgh - but if I can get someone there to employ me ...
I very much doubt that there'll be any amblage today: it's blowing a hoolie and p*ssing with rain, presumably because it's the first Monday of the school holidays.
As the nail polish I ordered from Am*z*n arrived this morning, my nails have now been painted for the first time in about four months. Before lockdown happened, I'd planned to get them done properly, but when that went by the board, I decided that I'd give them a rest from being painted, and it seems to have done them good - I'm quite pleased with the results.
What have the Romans ever done for us? - They did crucify people, yes, but they let them choose the colour of their nails. Or something.
(I clearly have too much time on my hands coming up with this.
Moving swiftly on...
If not, go back, and buy the lot, ready for the next wave and lockdown!
and a favourite* of Mr S' and mine, especially on sailing holidays. We especially favoured
'Forty miles off Aberdeen
the water's fifty fathoms deep;
there lies good Sir Patrick Spens
with the Scots lords at his feet'
Singing that as we drifted down the Nile on a felucca started a few days of folk song and general good cheer, but we were embarrassed to discover that two of our companions regularly sang in folk clubs and (gasp!) even harmonised! If we were in the same key we thought it a triumph...
* though from the Fairport Convention version rather than anything more erudite
Half o'wer, half o'wer from Aberdour
'Tis fifty fathoms deep
There lies guid Sir Patrick Spens
Wi' the Scots lairds at his feet
As it's a considerably less dreich day today than it was yesterday (not that that would be hard), I'm going to amble before it changes its mind.
Supper this evening will be posh* sausages in mushroom and tomato sauce with pasta.
* S. bought some high-class pork over the interweb, including some Mangalitsa sausages
I told you - Fairport! Blame them...
Dinner is paprika chicken with leftover spicy veg and kidney beans from yesterday‘s fajitas, with rice.
My niece turned up with Larry the Labradoodle just after we'd finished eating, and we all had a lovely amble in the evening sunshine, which more than made up for the lack of amblage yesterday.
She's adorable, Boogie! Safe travels later in the week.
I've been a domestic goddess this morning and got our meal for later into the slow cooker. My garden's been loving the recent combination of rain and sunshine; the high winds not so much.
The replacement mica board for the Episcopal Microwave has arrived, and been safely installed. I have also paid for my online Pilates session yesterday, and done a bit of 'real' shopping at the Co-Op.
O what a Busy Bee I am...
Lunch is called for, I think. Lasagne, a green Salad, and some red Wine, are all to hand.
Just had a decadent lunch of bacon, avocado and tomato sarnies and half a bar of Moser Roth Sour Cherry-Chilli 85%.
I'm definitely going to have to fork out for Microsoft Office for the laptop - there's a job come up at George Watson's College which I'd really rather like, and the application form is in docx format, which won't open at the moment.
After such a lovely evening last night, the weather's gone back to the default "dreich", so I'm not missing much by not being outdoors. If it improves, I'll amble later.
Woke with a stonking headache, dizziness and nausea, just like a hangover but without the joy of drinking the alcohol. It appears to be the side effect of an improving pulse rate. Sigh. Lots of fluids and I need to regularly walk around to get the blood flowing.
Today's the day we would have been going to Japan for a 2 week holiday - given how I feel I'm glad I'm not spending day on an airplane!
Decided to catch up with mandatory training today so I've done online courses in GDPR, Information Security, Prevent (anti-terrorism), Equality and Unconscious bias, and an extra module in student employability.
Wednesdays always require wine.
Speaking whereof, a Happy Canada Day/Dominion Day to all!
Goodness, I’m jealous - what an ideal lunch!
Have you tried LibreOffice? I find that it is adequate in handling docx files without the cost of Microsoft.