Mid Winter and there is snow is all around

Ponies are OK though as I moved them to one of sections around the holiday houses I look after. Plenty grass (prairie grass) which is long enough to poke through the snow. The frosts have been pretty good too. They are not interested in any hay so their pukus must be feeling full :)
Finally managed to get a pic off the camera.

Update 8 July: many days of grey sky coming in with the dawn whilst there has been a hard frost overnight. Cold and depressing :(
Fighting off the lurg - massive doses of Vit C seem to be working. Girls are back in their home nest, with hopefully a visit from the farrier tomorrow (definitely weather dependent, that task). Then they will be going around to chew out the long grass in sis's goat's paddock while I am away in ChCh for the weekend

Some pics are up

If you flick over to photos you can see what I have put up already. About half way through I think.


Bridgie and Isla are both home again. Isla put herself on the float while I was still tying up Bridgie. Smart tart, she is, but rather have that than something with a 'nuh' attitude... Picked them up today, so now back on the daily water carting ritual.

Back to the trip. Glenda and I stayed in Dufftown for the Keith festival. Dufftown is approx 10 miles away from Keith and part of the road runs through some 'woods'. On the first trip to Keith there was some road kill on the road in the woods. I said to Glenda that I thought that it was/had been a badger but without actually stopping and closely investigating (and that would not have been wise as I would have had a chance of also ending up as road kill) it was just a 'guess'.

Anyway that night as Glenda drove home (well after midnight I might add) low and behold a badger ran across the road in front of us, not far from his flattened friend. That really excited the both of us, to see a badger (live).

We nearly went into paroxysms of delight when suddenly there were two more badgers crossing the road in front of us. They run sort of like possums, but more smoothly, and of course are much bigger than pesky possums. That sighting confirmed the provenance of the furry patch of tar seal the next day, as the facial stripes showed up quite clearly. Glenda wanted to see squirrels but that didn't happen.

I saw two foxes round Edinburgh. One was dead on the side of the road and the other ran across the road not far from one of the big round-a-bouts where the by-passes all pass each other. The mobile one was surprisingly big; suspect that it was a dog-fox.
While I was in Edinburgh a fox went into one of the banks. Cause quite a commotion, as you can understand. Of course the problem is the automatic doors opened for the fox which was probably looking for food, and it marched straight into the bank. There are whole colonies of urban foxes now. You get stories about (sadly usually misguided, middle aged women) feeding the foxes. Trouble is you feed one and 6 move in. They can get quite aggressive evidently, to the point of banging on the back doors of the houses where 'their' food comes from.

To continue the bank story, 'they' (whoever 'they' may be) closed the bank as in no business, and then over rode the auto doors to keep them open and proceeded to try and 'coax' the fox out with food. I know what I would have been tempted to do, but that would have been so frowned upon....

In Inverness there was a market on the Friday. One of the stalls was fundraiser for 'birds of prey rescue'. They had two big barn owls (I think that this is what they were - definitely owls) sitting on perches. Glenda took pics of them so I will see whether I can get copies of the pics to put up, when she gets home.

Enough of a ramble, will write more as I remember it.

Yeah I am HOME

Flew into AK at 4.45am, caught a connection to Dunners at 7.30 and then completed the journey on the Taieri Gorge train. Irene picked me up from Pukerangi.

Priorities of course, mean that the first thing I had to do when I walked in the door was boot up the puta and check my emails. And update the blog. Unpacking? What is that??

Quite a difference to fly in on a 747 and finish the journey on a train, vintage 1931. Janice (my bus boss) picked me up from the airport and took me to the train. (Thanks Janice :) ) This was a fallback position organised via Irene because my expected ride has a family infested with norovirus (there being yet another outbreak in Dunners) and there seemed little point in uneccessarily exposing myself to contagion. Quite apart from the consideration that said intended driver wouldn't be feeling up to driving anyway....

I will bung this up for now, so you know that I am back.

Pics will follow over the next couple of days :)

The rest of the story (I hope)

Well Keith Music Festival was quite an eye opener. It is run on a completely different system to that which we are used to in NZ. The system works in a little place well but not likely to in spread out NZ. You buy a ticket for an evening concert (£6) and the acts move from venue to venue while the audience stays put. The turn around time for the acts to set up and knock down is phenomenal. The organisers in NZ could surely learn from it.

So the punters have a list of who is playing at what venue and you choose accordingly.
Also there are Trad music competitions run with an awful lot of silver ware handed out. They have big classes too.

One of the comments which we fielded in Inverness, which we din'ae oonderstand at t' time was that we would not be able to understand the lingo in Keith. This area does not have the soft Highland accent which is associated with Inverness and the Western Isles but still use Doric which is the dialect in which Rabbie Burns writes. There were a number of poets who recited in Doric - some of which I could pick up but some was well beyond me. It was totally beyond Glenda, needless to say. So we started her a phonetic 'dictionary' on the back of one of the concert sheets. It was getting mighty full by the time we left.

If you heard the words 'quine' and 'loon', what you think they meant? Answer at the end of the post (haha).

But this is the sort of thing I am meaning about the dialect. There is a push for it to be taught in the schools, so that it does not get lost. It is different from the Gaelic and would be the Scottish equivalent of speaking 'Irish' as opposed to Irish Gaelic.

During the day there were sessions going on all over the village. The musicians moved around from one pub to the next so you could either follow the musos that you liked or you could just stay where you were to wait and see who turned up next.

Accordions and fiddles ruled supreme. The accordions players were mostly all young guys, and boy could they really make the music bounce. The tradition is a live, well and assured of success in this area at least. The fiddlers were from the very young to antique and everywhere in between. The were great and enough to make you spit, so to speak. Only one melodeon player and he came from above Newcastle. Guitarists of course, a couple of banjos and one mandola. Two of the groups had keyboard players. They were doing the trad piano accompaniment found with Scots ceilidh music. They were both good, but one guy was truly excellent - and his claim to fame is that he is actually last year's winner of the Glennfiddich Fiddler of the Year. If his keyboard skills are only his 'second fiddle' so to speak then his fiddle playing must be totally awesome.

There was also a harper there who also sang as she played. She did quite a few songs in Gaelic. Interestingly enough she spent several seasons singing with Scottish National Opera, so she has a beautiful, trained voice. After her family left home she went back to Uni (she already had a music degree) to do a one year course in Gaelic, so that she could understand what she was actually singing about. Instead of just doing the one year her arm was twisted and she stayed on to do a Masters for which she translated/wrote current music theory into Gaelic. Sadly she does/did not have a CD :( She performed an absolutely stunning rendition of 'Call the Ewes'. Oh, but to dream....

On the Sunday there was an outside concert in the village square. Fortunately for all, not only did the rain stop but the sun came out and helped the sales of the ice cream van.

By the last night Glenda and I were absolutely tired out. It was so worth the effort of going. We created quite a stir - being the first people to ever go to the Keith Festival from NZ. Indeed I suspect that we were the first people to ever attend outside of the UK.

As one of the organisers said the festival tends to be a little incestuous in so far that the performers are all very local to the venue and they all front up each year. The performer from furthest away is the guy with the melodeon. AND they do not get paid. They do get free accommodation and food but that is is.

So we were asked many times 'have you really just come to Keith for the festival?' The answer to which was 'yes'. This really gobsmacked quite a few.

On the Sunday afternoon there was after the outdoor concert, a session which was a Chorus Competition. It was really neat fun, something which I am going to suggest would be worth looking at in NZ. The 'judging' is on the level of audience participation in the choruses as opposed to the actual performance quality. The guy who 'won' it sang a song to the tune of John Brown's Body, the chorus went:

I am a week end caravanner
I am a week end caravanner
I am a week end caravanner
And I am driving on a road near you

The verses were really funny and very relevant to the chorus.

The 'judges' were also open to 'bribes'. It made for a great, fun afternoon. Most of the singers were unaccompanied. In fact all of the real trad 'Bothy Ballad' singers sang unaccompanied as is traditional. Heard some exceptional singing. Just reinforces the level of crap in the media.

Headed back to Inverness on Monday morning as we had to get the car back for 2pm and to the bus station by 3. Inverness was really, really busy so I drove to that car hire firm and their driver took us and our bags to the bus station.

The bus station was absolutely packed to the gunwales. Rockness had been on the previous 3 days (an outdoor Rock Concert at the top end of Loch Ness) so there were people everywhere with their packs and camping gear all trying to get buses back to where ever. The cafe obviously didn't see the influx coming as there was no food left by the time we got there. I had to make do with a packet of crisps and a twix bar.

The bus trip down was great as the road travels much higher than the train lines so I was able to see much more of the countryside. There is also a big road works happening on the A9 so the driver took us on a diversion which took us through some very narrow winding roads which I would not have wanted to try taking a bus through. I found out when we got off in Edinburgh that the bus also had back wheel steering, which explained everything.

Glenda went off to her hostel for the night and I made my way back to Bonnyrigg to Cousin Drew's place.


Yesterday I met up with Glenda and we went on the free walking tour of Edinburgh. Very interesting and extremely entertaining. Our guide was a young guy from Melbourne. It would appear that all the guides are from 'other countries'. Job doesn't pay enough for a Scot to do it I suspect. I don't know whether the guides are out of work actors, or just excellent performers, but great, great fun.

Glenda is now on her way to Glasgow. This will be my last post until I reach home, when I will be able to put my pics up, unless there is free Internet access at the various airports I transit. Somehow I doubt very, very much that LAX is likely to have any Internet access in the transit lounge - after all there could be a conspiracy afoot....

Quine is a female (girl or young woman)
Loon is a male (boy or young man) and has nothing to do with being 'looney' as in madly influenced by lunar aspect, although I have no doubt that looney loons are a regular occurence.

BTW they have boy racers in Inverness as well.

Long time no post, and my legs are aching

Too much walking on hard pavement does that to one...

now back in Bonnyrigg at the library. Have not long finished a three hour walking tour of Edinburgh with Glenda. It was fun and well worth the time and effort. The guide comes from Melbourne quite funny really.

Glenda is back off to Glasgow tomorrow, she is over here for another 10 days or so, so we parted company on the Waverley Bridge (very significant, that). Anyway to return to the saga in the right order :)

The castle at which we did not get to stay at is Carbisdale and is near Bonar Bridge.

We headed back to Inverness and booked into the Youth Hostel there. No way were going to go back to the grotty place we had been at before. Went back into town after having something to eat but the music which was on was all head banging stuff so decided to head back to the hostel for a relatively early night.

Next morning we prowled around the book and music shops in Inverness before heading off in the general direction of the Keith festival. I insisted that I wanted to visit Culloden, not quiite sure what was actually going to be there. Thanks to Glenda's Historic Places Trust membership (mine has expired but I still have the card which looks OK if not peered at too closely) we both got in to the actual National Trust building where there is an interactive museum. You also get handed a PDA which is hooked into GPS so that you can walk about Drumossie Moor and get told what happened where. There is also audio re-enactments from letter written by various people. It was very interesting and well done BUT I have to say that I would not have paid £40 for the experience. That is more or less $120/person!!!!!!

Glenda's membership and my expired card quickly flashed also got us into quite a few other things for nix. Remember all who venture over here join the NZ Historic Places Trust and the YHA - it will save you heaps of dosh.

From Culloden via a Tesco's in nairn we headed to Morven B&B in Dufftown to meet our hosts Glo and Rene Ramon. We were welcomed at the door by a very hearty 'Kia Ora' which was a surprise, but a very welcome one.

We dropped off our bags and headed off to Keith to suss out the music situation.

And that is where I am going to leave you for now, before my time on the computer runs out.

Will update tomorrow, which will be my last full day in Scotland. Only two more sleeps to go before head back. From what I have been told, I am heading into a hell of a lot of snow. :(

Now in Dufftown

Dufftown is in the northeast, the nearest place with accommodation to Keith which is where the music festival is.

It has been a busy last couple of days...
Thursday we headed off towards Ullapool. There are main roads which are green on the map. These are for the most part either motorway or at least dual carriage, so having decided that one motorway is very much like another we decided to head off 'cross country', or at least on the lesser roads.

The journey took us up around the western seaboard and into country which is far more like that of Central - except for all the lochs that is. But the area is remote and empty compared to what we had seen before.

Of course when on the lesser travelled road, comfort stops do become a concern :) Glenda was at the wheel and I was becoming somewhat desperate when we came across a wee place next to Loch Bran so a rapid stop was called for. There is also a craft shop (with a jewelry workshop) and Post Office there.
We both had a pokey nose - and I had walked out to the car when Glenda called me back to have a look at some 'heelan' coo' stuffed toys. They being so ugly that they were cute. Well I did something very uncharacteristic for me and bought a heelan' coo to bring back. He has been named 'Bran' and has now had his pic taken at a number of locations. Sadly Bran was made in China (cannot escape that invidious situation here either) rather than being a genuine inhabitant and I probably will find that his herdmates are cheaper somewhere else.... However I have to pull in my discretionary spending now; just goes to show what spontaneity does (haha).

The weather was alternately sunny and absolutely chucking it down with a light smir of drizzle in between. The road was very narrow - single lane with frequent passing places. Also lots of tight bends with restricted visibility. Not exactly what one would call relaxing driving.

We also stopped at Gairloch (pics to come). There was no option about going to Gairloch as that is where the one and only road took one, but we chose to stop and have a look about the harbour. This used to be a be a big fishing port, but like so many other livings this too has disappeared.

Ullapool was much smaller than what we both expected it to be. Believe it or not - we couldn't - there are two really high class, non aligned to chain stores book shops, in Ullapool. The place is very tourist orientated but not crass or twee in anyway. The ferry to Stornoway came in while we were there. There was a horse float (with horses aboard,) waiting to load as well as some B trains and private vehicles. The ferry was smaller than the Cook strait ones, but not a small boat by any means.

We headed off from Ullapool to what we hoped to be an experience of a night in a castle. There is a Youth Hostel (name I will have to look up) which is in a real castle. Glenda had rung ahead and left a message on the answerphone. We finally made it (took some interesting navigational detours in the process) to find out that the whole castle had been rented out for a wedding and there was no 'room at the inn'. However we were invited in to have a look about and take some pics.

Anyway I am using the computer in the office of the B&B and feel I need to knock off for the moment. I will continue the tale later.

Up in Inverness

Came up yesterday on the late train. Found the hostel (which is a private one and a real dive, sadly), found some food, and THEN found a pub which has sessions (Scot's Trad) every night.

Got to bed rather later - slept well. Glenda and I went out this morning and bought some food and then picked up the rental car and headed down to Aviemore, because that is what Glenda wanted to see. From there we went 'cross-country' to Fort William.
Saw Ben Nevis - the mountain - and the ski area. In the summer it is a mountain biking track. The bikes go up on racks on the back of each gondola. This is serious rough mountain biking stuff. The part of the track visible from the car park was \ as. Have pics but they do not really show what I mean.
Went slightly the wrong way and on retracing our steps came across (literally) the Caledonian Canal. So we went in to have a look at Neptune's Staircase which is a series of 9 locks. Takes one and half hours to get through. While we were there there was a trailer sailor coming through so we waited because the road bridge and the rail bridge both had to be closed and swung from over the canal to let the boat through. All very interesting and I have lots of boring video to prove it. Road barrier come down to stop the traffic. In the time it took for the bridge to swing in, the boat to go through and the bridge to get back into position there was a back up of in excess of 60 cars and 6 motorbikes (Glenda counted them). This was not on a 'busy' road.....

While waiting for the lock to fill a woman came along on a pony so I went over and asked whether it was a Highland (and also got a little animal/pony fix). Yes - true 'mouse dun' - even has the primitive markings - I have pics. 7 yr mare Moshy (phonetic there) of Burnham. I gave the lady one of my spunk cards so hopefully she will email me and I will be able to get the pony's proper name ;)

Right fed and watered, off to the pub for more music.

Dear ol' Glasgae toon

Feeling somewhat knackered - that is what being a tourist does to one. Came through to Glasgae yesterday afternoon and met up with Glenda. We then found and lost our way, a couple of times to the Youth Hostel in Park Terrace which is on the hill above the Kelvingrove Gardens.

Across the park is the University buildings and the Kelvingrove Museum.

The lovely receptionist in the YH showed us on the map where there was a pub which on Sun and Thurs has live Folk Music. The pub is called Uisge Beath (the water of life - ie whisky). So if any of you get to Glasgae toon this is the place to go on a Sunday night. It was PACKED.

Today Glenda and I hopped on the double decker tourist bus and took a tour of the city - including going down to where the docks used to be. The guy giving the commentary said that the popn of Glasgow used to be 1 & 1/2 million but is now down to 600,000 as the closing of the shipyards, and hence the steel mills and the mines which fired them all led to people moving away in an effort to find work and/or a better lifestyle.

Where the docks used to be is now being built on. There are still a few high rise housing estates rearing their heads above the sky scape. Evidently these building have a multitude of problems to do with air circulation (lack of) and condensation because of the moist air here. The councils have now declared that no buildings over 4 stories are to be built and as the new housing is built to replace the tower blocks, the people in the towers move out and they are demolished.

WELL, ACTUALLY THEY GET BLOWN UP! The same things is also happening in Edinburgh. Cousin Drew knows a guy who was the first person to move into his tower block and the last person to move out. This guy was given the 'honour' of pushing the button on the charges which then demolished the building by controlled explosion. Evidently these explosions have become something of a crowd puller - better entertainment than the last public hanging in Glasgow which attracted an 'audience' of 60,000 people. Doubt most of them would have seen anything anyway, but rather gruesome when you think about it......

So back to the bus ride. It was good, worth the £8 as we learned a lot more than what we would have wandering around on our own. Like about the new bridge across the Clyde, which about 3 months after it was opened, there was a loud bang and the metal supports had exploded. The bridge was then closed for a year and a half while all the Chinese steel was replaced with British steel. The Chinese steel was not sufficient quality to withstand the stresses. Luckily this happened late at night and no one was on the bridge at the time.

We got off the bus at the Kelvingrove Musuem and had a good look through - but not nearly long enough - however the museum closes at 5pm so there was not option.
There was an exhibition on a guy called ? Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret. Art Noveau Glasgow style. I recognised some of the work from books but had not connected it with anything in particular.

Glenda found the Dali but I was wandering about looking at other stuff and the close up came while I was tracking Glenda down. Close up consititutes staff walking through the galleries shepherding people out - bit like herding cats..

We also visited the 'Tenement House'. This is an 1890's tenement which although it had been modified through to the 1950's the original fabric of the place had not been altered. It was donated to the National trust and so has been preserved.

Last night (Sun) we went to the local Sainsbury's to get food to last us until tomorow. That was a laugh in itself as we tried to find some fresh, unadulterated, unprocesed food! Also had a real laugh when we asked the security guard why there was a security guard in a supermarket. Understandably he could not comprehend why we thought that it was so funny. He is there 'to keep the customers safe'. Rather like a Tui Ad - I really doubt this guy would be able to do much to keep the customers safe, but he was nice and friendly and also very helpful. Actually have to say that I have found the people here much more helpful and friendly than in Edinburgh. The whole city is more 'something'.

While I was waiting for Glenda's bus to get in I sat in a big concourse which is part of the Buchanan Galleries - which is nothing more than a giant shopping mall/complex - all pedestrian. There was a piper busking there. He was playing the Galacian pipes (in the key of C) and came from Portugal. He was really HOT too. His English was much easier to understand than the people born and or brought up here, I tell you. He didn't have any trouble understanding me either - something which cannot be said for some of the natives.

Forgot to mention in context, that after we left the Kelvingrove we walked back through the gardens and came across the most amazing skateboard park. It made all the ones I have sen in NZ pretty pathetic. It was just great sitting there and watching what ALL ages were getting upto on their bikes, skateboards and rollerblades. A real eyeopener. Some of the manouvres that were being down were amazing. Blooming camera batteries faded out so have no pics :(

Ok off to book some accommodation for tomorrow night up in Inverness. Catching the bus back to Drew's collect some stuff and then to catch the train north. Glenda and I have decided to do things in somewhat reverse order to what we had originally planned. So will be back in Edinburgh from Monday 15th which will give me 2 days to do family stuff and walk Glenda around Edinburgh.

Off tae Glasgae tha morrow

to meet up with Glenda. So so not expect much of an update for a bit. Glenda has booked us into the Youth Hostel there for a couple of nights.

The Ramsay hooley is tonight - kick off 6.30pm. I hope that Drew has a pair of vice grips or a small socket set because the borrowed harp did nae coom wi' a tuning peg. Aye, 'tis a problem that...

Not much else to report - life has been very quiet. Thank goodness for the library :)

I missed the Library yesterday as it closed at 1pm

Do not have that much to report. The weather has cooled off and the natives are all now quite happy, but it is a bit parky for me.

Went up to Edinburgh on Tuesday afternoon/evening looking for the sessions which were listed on a the local website. To say that the webiste needs updating would be an understatement. I resigned myself to just heading back to suburbia unfullfilled and then noticed that at one of the bus stops out on the way back to Bonnyrigg that there was a notice for 'live folk music tonight' in a pub window, so quickly leaped off the bus. Scottish session music is not played at 90 miles an hour like what happens in Ire. I know what I prefer :).

I now have a harp to play thanks to Marian Sargison. It is one of the local high school student instruments so is a little battered but plays all right though. A pilgrim, it seems very small and I am reaching too far but I will get there. It is tuned in E flat and the sharpening levers are set in the opposite way to those on Roselind, however just having something to play for a week will do wonders for my composure :)

Sue has sent me some pics so I have uploaded them for your edification (haha) The first one is of me taking a photo of the pub where we had lunch, The Duck Inn. I didn't realise that Sue had taken that one. I have my own pics of the Duck Inn but you will have to wait until I get home before I bore you with them. Oh, how I will bore you all :)....








The second pic is om me and and the lady from the long boat coming through the lock. She was on a canal holiday and is from Ireland. You can see the second longboat in the canal behind the one in the lock. I will be boring you with video of all that!!















This one is at Bicester (Bisster) hopping on the bus to go to Milton Keynes where I then joined the national Express bus to Edinburgh

The library didn't open today until 1.pm

and the computers are running slow...

Still warm but the high cloud has come in - or rather I should say that there was high cloud which has now, to some extent, burnt off. Locals are still complaining about it being too hot.

Haven't been doing much of anything - have finished all my books and returned them. Tomorrow I hopefully will have a harp to play and the withdrawals will subside (haha).

Sue Gillingham's Spinway Worth Waiting had a filly (buckskin and will probably grey) on Sunday night. Both are well. Pity that hse hadn't gone of a little earlier - as it was she went off early anyway as I would liked to have seen he. Sue was talking about naming a filly 'Sheila' - hoping for the sake of the filly that she finds a better name for her :)

Not much other news to relate - how sad is that?

Will head into Edinbugh tonight and sample the experiences of 'The Tron'. It is singer songwriter night. Tomorrow night is Edinburgh Folk Club night..

The Heatwave is still going

It has been decent weather since I arrived in the north last Wed. 5 days of glorious sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. The locals are all starting to melt. Am sitting here in the library and they have all the fans going - it is not THAT hot. However I bought myself a pair of sandals this morning because that is one thing that I did not pack as I really did not think that I would need them.

Walked down to Dalkeith with Vivien this AM as she had to go pay the mortgage. Caught the bus back as it is a reasonably steady up hill walk and V does not walk up hills. I went on the top deck of the bus because I like travelling up high but I was on my own up there.

I find the lack of 'can do' outlook in a lot (certainly not all) of the people extremely stultifying - lots of moaning about what needs doing but it seems that it is up to someone else to make it happen, any suggestions are met with multitudinous reasons as to why not. Some are undoubtably valid but some totally bemuse me. And the kids are scared of all sorts of ordinary life experiences; sad, sad.

Anyway enough of social commentary.

Saturday we went to Galashiels which is down on the borders. Interesting driving. most of the way there is an abandoned railway line - as in ripped up 40 odd years ago but the rights of way and the viaducts, bridges etc all still there and complete. It would be a really superb place to get the likes of a Rail Trail going but I doubt that it will ever happen because the will to do something just a little different just isn't there. Whoops back into the social commentary - again.

Trip a round Galashiels was a real un Sheila like afternoon, as I really, really do NOT DO SHOPS. However even in Scotland amongst the suburbs, shopping would appear to be the recreation of choice :( Guess that is not so different from suburban NZ.

I went to buy some stuff at Tescos (food of choice) and not so surprisingly I guess, things which I consider to be basics do not even register here. Something as normal as Balsamic vinegar - no idea as to what it is. In Sainsbury's they have a Balsamic Vinigraitte made by Paul Newman's outfit but that is full of crap. It would seem that the basic building blocks of cooking are just about non existant in the supermarkets and to get stuff like balsamic you have to go to specialty shops which are needless to say, expensive. Everything (and I mean everything) is prepackaged, pretreated, or pre cooked. Buying loose fruit and vege? Forget it.

You would be pretty hard pressed to cook what could be loosely called Pacific Rim cuisine here...

Yesterday afternoon we went to a 'barbeque' at Drew and Vivien's daughter's place. Please note the 's' around the barbeque. All the kids and adults thought that it was really good and enjoyed being outside - things which we so take for granted.

In the morning V went to visit her mum in a nursing home down at Leith so Drew and I went to look at the Britannia which is now permanently moored there as a tourist attraction. Of course is cost lots of ££s to go ont he boat and the whole thing is set up that you cannot get to the wharf etc to have a closer look. However we went up onto a balcony (which one has to go through a shopping mall to reach) and therefore were able to look up the Firth and across to Fife on the other side. At least I was able to stretch my perceptions and have an infusion of 'space' which i I badly need. I am really hoping that when Glenda and I get up to the Highlands next week that there will be enough space and few enough people for me to be able to really enjoy.

Vivien has given me a couple of pairs of summer trousers which are now to big for her, for which I am very grateful, as I packed one light pair of tidy and one pair of casual and with the lovely weather my wardrobe has been somewhat lacking.

I see from 'Stuff' that the weather back home is really crap. Hope you are all OK.

Marian Sargison has managed to borrow a Clarsarch for me (Scottish harp) to play on Sat. (From the music dept of one of the schools where she teaches) so I get to try it out on Wed. I think that in return I get to go along to the school and give a wee talk on NZ :)

Not much else happening today - am going to now do some research on the internet for D&V and then walk back to their house.

BTW the sun is rising here about 4am and it is still light at 10pm. Neil said that up in Keith when the sky is clear it does not actually go totally dark at all at this time of year. This will be an interesting experience - not quite light all night as in the Antarctic but getting there.