A Day in Edinburgh

 

So while we were down in Glasgow I went over to Edinburgh to meet up with my friends V and D. We always find something to go and see or do, a  hook to hang our get togethers on, and this time it was the 'display', they didn't call it an exhibition which was just as well as it was only one room (sometimes I despair of our so called national institutions)  of Scottish Art 1870-1920.

Not only was t just one rom but one artist was over represented big time, and there were quite a lot of landscapes which don't particularly float my boat. I recognise others feel differently, in fact V and D themselves seemed to enjoy the landscapes more than anything else.

My own 'if you could take one picture home with you, which one would it be?' is the one above, John Duncan's St Bride. That image pays it much less than justice. The colours are lighter, brighter and glow, and he amazing detail that Duncan puts into his paintings is lost in the reproduction. And there's a lot of Celtic symbolism in there too, which  takes some time  to tease out. I loved it, and however much I might deplore the fact that they could only be bothered to use one room, it as worth going just to see that. And there were some other lovely pictures  on display too.

We did less well with our lunch experience. We had booked at Contini which is a well known restaurant n Edinburgh with several branches including this one at the National Gallery. We had eaten there before and enjoyed it. Our experience this time was not so good. My lunch looked as though it had been thrown onto the plate, and the promised accompanying salad never appeared. V's beef and horseradish lacked the horseradish. The bill came to a tad over £75 which is a lot to pay when two of you have only enjoyed the glass of wine and the coffee, so we did that most unbritish of things and complained. We cringed inwardly as we did it, but we did it nonetheless. V and I were relieved of the necessity of  paying for our main courses which was good, but really - we'd rather have had a nice lunch. We won't be going back there again. 

Books to Read Poster No 37

 

It's been a while, which would be down to my not being able to see really. But I have been listening to a few things on Audible and I finished this one today. It comes as part of Audible Extra which means that  I didn't have to pay for it, and as it turned out that was a good thing.

I'm not sure that the person who designed the little pictures didn't get a bit confused with this one, because if you looked at it and guessed the book was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, I would perfectly understand why you had said that, but you would be wrong, because the book was actually The Adventures of Hucklebery Finn. Tom Sawyer I remember being a class read when I was ten and possibly we should have read Finn then too, because it might be appealing to a  child but I didn't find it that appealing as an adult. 

To wit, the first third was moderately interesting, the second third was tedious and the final third was just plain stupid. 

Of course  I could be  missing something.

But I'm chalking it up as a total fail regardless. 

So apparently Scrappy Socks are A Thing

I don't know that they are my thing exactly, but the OH has hankered after a pair for a while (or at least he's talked about them a lot) and when I saw that Laura from The Lonely Knitter had a scrappy club set called The Mandalorian it seemed like fate, since the OH had taken out a subscription to Disney+ in order to view that very thing. Also a series called Boba Fett. Tangentially, it also meant we could while away two hours of our lives yesterday watching  the first two episodes of a new series  called Obi Wan. Rater than give that its own post I shall just say here that I expect we will also watch the remaining four episodes, but that if it had been me and not Obi-Wan tasked with rescuing the obnoxious young Leia, I would have left her to her fate about half way through our first encounter. 

Anyway the scrappy socks are made and here they are 

For the benefit of any geek readers the colours are as follows:- 

top sock  cuff down -  Jawas in the Desert, Whistling Birds and Boba Fett

bottom sock cuff down - Sunrise on Tattoine, Moff Gideon and Ahsako Tano

Heels and Toes on both are Carbonite.

Ad there are three untouched minis from the set that I can do something else with.

I'm not saying  wouldn't do any for myself if there was a set I fancied, but I would make them matching - although that would be incredibly fiddly to manage.

Currently on the needles are two boring scarves, a difficult pair of socks and a resurrected jumper that I need to alter. Since none of these currently appeal but need to be done, I am fighting hard against the impulse just to cast on another pair of simple socks. 

Tomorrow I might return to the subject of our recent trip south - more than time I got that written up before I go off on travels further afield. 

Good News Bears Time

I have absolutely no idea where the bears come into it. Good news bears was a phrase my elder son used to use when he was about 10 and it has stuck, as these things do. 

Anyway the good news is that I had some laser treatment on my eye when I went to the hospital on Wednesday.  All the good vibes, crossed fingers etc obviously worked because it made a huge difference. I had thought, once the optometrist had detected the partial thickness hole  in my macular that a lot of my visual problems were down to that but it turns out not to be the case since the laser was for the clouded capsule. 

As for the partial thickness hole it is going to be left in peace. Apparently they 'sometimes resolve spontaneously' (to which my unspoken reaction was the dry Scottish 'Aye right') , or 'they stabilise' or 'people learn to love them, give them names and adopt them as pets'. No he didn't actually say that last one, what he said was that people learn to live with them for years, which I accept is a bit of a different thing.

Anyway, check up in two months, the hole gets kept under review but they're going nowhere near it with a scalpel for the foreseeable (huge relief). This makes life a lot easer, not only because I can see a lot more, but because the uncertainty of surgery/no surgery, timing, recovery etc is all lifted and we can plan a bit more of the year out, although with the caveat that we still have to keep in mind that I am supposed to be having the galll bladder out at some stage. 

I've aid it before, and I'll say it again, people who work in ophthalmology are lovely. Every time I say that I think I'm jinxing it and the next time I go I will meet A Nasty Ophthalmologist but it hasn't happened yet. I think it might be because it's a specialty where they can do a lot of things yo make people's lives  a lot better. That must be a good way for your work to pan out. 

I spent some time yesterday with a new jigsaw puzzle and  also read for a while (although that said it was a large print book. not sure how normal size print will go. Today I look at how easy or otherwise it now is to cross stitch. All the things I couldn't do for months, and which I promised myself I would get on to and mindfully enjoy if my eyes could only be put right.

It has lifted my mood immensely too; I hadn't realised quite how down I was about my difficulties. And glory glory, when I go to Prague next month I'll be able to see it properly, rater than as just a fuzzy blur. Good news times, bears or otherwise, indeed. 

Baking Subscription April

 

This was salted caramel loaf cake. It had to be made by the OH as my right arm can't cope with holding a food mixer just now. He made a good of of it, and it was delicious.

We'd been putting off making it since I'm supposed to be eating low-to-no fat and he isn't supposed to eat very much sweet stuff, but we used the excuse of some Very Special Visitors to make it. And I had a friend round this morning for coffee and cake which also helped to save us from ourselves.

Interestingly this should have had some buttercream rosettes piped on the top before being drizzled with caramel and dusted with walnut brittle That was a step too far for the OH who skipped it. You see, it's not only me that thinks sometimes the suggested decoration is just far too much of a faff. 

Tomorrow  (fnally) I get my ophthalmology consult. Pleased it has arrived, but nervous about the outcome. No doubt I will report back in due course. Meanwhile any crossed fingers, held thumbs, good vibes etc  much appreciated. 

Never Consult Dr Google

 Which is a thing I would normally never dream of doing anyway. That way madness truly lies. 

That said I was concerned about what seemed to be my non-healing wrist. It had had a good long rest n Glasgow but didn't really seem to be getting any better, and the OH thought I should consult the doctor, just in case. And actually it hurt so much I wasn't averse to doing that. But I thought I would just check out healing times for wrist sprains to see if I should be worried or not. 

Gordon Bennett. I looked at various sites and they all had the same bad news for me Sprained wrists, depending on how bad the sprain was, and I knew mine was bad because the A and E doctor had said so, took anything between 3 weeks and 3 months to heal. And naturally he older you are the longer it takes, generally speaking. 

So the good news was that I didn't need to bother the GP. The bad news is I have at least one more week and probably more like nine to go. It is improving, in the sense that I am getting more movement with it, but on the other hand (Ha! totally unintentional) it is still very painful. Ah well, more lessons in patience. 

Dear Universe. I learned a lot of patience during lockdown. I really didn't think I needed any more lessons in it.  Thank you for nothing. 

New Nails

 Well, I had hoped to nurse my lacy pastel nails until just before getting them done again for Prague but that was obviously several weeks too much to hope for. They were in a sad state when we got back from Glasgow so I contacted the lovely Laura and asked when she could fit me in and she said 'Come tomorrow morning', which is now yesterday of course, so off I went. 

Since I hadn't been expecting to have them done again just now I had given no thought to what I wanted so had to browse her stickers and stamps for inspiration. I was really  pleased when I saw she had some Alice in Wonderland themed ones and I went for those. 

As always click to enlarge if you want to see them more clearly. It's a shame they are Disney rather than Tenniel inspired but you can;t have everything. 

I'm happy with these, and I know what I want for Prague, so as the man used to say in W1A 'so that's all good, then'. 

Oooo look, a shiny thing

 

Our trip to Glasgow was largely opera related, as they so often are, but we had other things planned as well and one of them was a visit to Chisolm Hunter the Jeweller. Thjs was largely so that I could choose and we could order a special sparkly thing, which will no doubt make an appearance here in due course, but  I decided that if we were going to be in a nice jewellers I would look for some pearl ear rings. 

This wasn't just random, there were two reasons for it. One is that I inherited a pair of small pearl studs from my mother but even for everyday wear* they are very small, although a very beautiful colour. So  I have been thinking vaguely of getting some slightly larger ones for a wee while. 

* when I say everyday wear, do not run away with the idea that I wander around the wilds of Orkney weighed down with precious gems on a regular basis. . Nothing could be further from the truth. But if we do go out for something more exciting than a trip to the post office I generally wear something in my ears and pearls are a good choice as they go with everything. 

The second reasons is rather ore complex, and perhaps more compelling. When I finally achieved my Ph D I wanted to buy myself a remembrance piece of jewellery to mark it. After the trials and tribulations I felt in a way it was the least I deserved, because it was a long road and there were a few bumps along the way, and even though on some days I just think 'Well, I did that, and so do hundreds of others' on other days I think, 'I did that and it was a real achievement'. What I had in mind was a ring and we took a day to go over to Dounby to the shop and workshop of Alison Moore, whose work I love, to choose something. After a long time looing I saw it. THE ring. It had her Storybook finish to the band, and was set with a garnet which was embellished on one side  with a group of small, half melted gold beads. I had never seen anything like it and I fell in love with it. Of course it was't my size but the woman in the shop assured me she could see no problem with having one made in my size, she would check with  Alison and get back to me after the weekend. 

Well she got back to me and the answer was that No Alison wouldn't make it in my size. There was no explanation as to why she wouldn't, it was just a No. I was really disappointed. Well, gutted might be a better word. I'd selected a 'back -up' on the off chance that I  couldn't have The One Ring, but when this was mentioned I just couldn't bring myself to order it. This wasn't going to be a cheap piece of jewellery and I  realised that I couldn't have the back up one because every time I looked at it, it was going to say Second Best to me. And when you're lookng for something to mark an achievement, something that says second best just doesn't cut it. 

I love her jewellery and prior to this had bought or been given several pieces of it  And I had anticipated buying/being given more. I have a generous husband  who likes to buy me jewellery But after this  casual 'No I can't be bothered'  I vowed we would never give her another penny of our money and  we haven't. Her loss has been other Orkney jewellers gain. 

Anyway the net result was that  I never did get around to buying myself a Ph D reward and it occurred to me that it was probably time I made that omission good and that some  pearl ear rings  would fit the bill. Not as exciting or as exclusive  as the AM ring would have been, but there again as it turned out not nearly as expensive as it would have been either. 

More on our Glasgow trip to come, although not necessarily with pictures. Took the camera, never got it out! 

Going Dark

No, not my eyes thank goodness, but the  blog. We go away tomorrow for what promises to be an exciting trip to Glasgow with lots of lovely things lined up to do It's just a shame that I'll be doing most of them with a badly bruised face and a painful arm, At least the stitches are out and the dressing on my face is gone; also my glasses, which did the damage there in the first place, hide the scabs!

I hope it's gong to be an enjoyable trip because heaven knows  I could do with a bit of cheering up. This is weak of me I know. Nobody died, I just fell over. There just seems to be a lot of hassle just now (a statement not totally unconnected with an e-mail this morning from the insurance company from whom we are trying to get our Oz deposit back. When you paid a deposit in 2019 it's a bit difficult to be precise about exactly when, and the idea that I might have a letter with a date on it for an eye op. is totally laughable in the context of ophthalmology services in Orkney - and for all I knew many other places too. 

It will be good to leave all that behind for a few days. And in some good news the new Mick Herron Slough House book is out in a couple of days - it's called Bad Actors and I can hardly wait. 

Farewell to the Fitbit

I've been wearing a Fitbit watch for several years now, and before that I had one of those clip on ones, that somehow ended up in the washing machine and was never the same again, by which I mean  it never worked again which I suppose isn't really surprising. 

But a couple of weeks ago I suddenly asked myself why I was bothering to wear the Fitbit. I rarely made my step goal, the weather having been fairly horrible for the first three months of the year and I could never get it to sync; with my ,account, on the Fitbit website. Added to which it would occasionally go dark and then start up again for no apparent reason  and occasionally my wrist would buzz and I would be commanded to 'Exercise'. I wasn't feeling the love. 

And I have some lovely watches that  are a lot more pleasing to wear then the black blank face of the Fitbit. So a couple of weeks ago I took one of them into the local jeweller, had a new battery fitted and am now wearing this on my wrist

Rotary with a gold plated strap and a dark green face. Oddly enough I can see the time on this much better than I could see it on the Fitbit screen, witch is doubtless due to some technicality to do with glare or contrast.  Anyway it's nice to be wearing a pretty watch again and when the battery on this one runs out I'll pick out one of the others. (It sounds like I have dozens, I don't, just four and one of those is missing a strap pin so may well not be wearable again. We'll see. 

So yeah, about the No Socks in 2022 thing ....

 

Just off the needles two days ago. Pattern is Oh Hello Sock which I've used a couple of times before and the yarn is from Giddy Yarns, I bought this at the Glasgow School of Yarn last autumn so I'm glad I've used it up. Funnily enough it was one of Helen's Fairy Tale Club yarns but it came out after I stopped buying that because well, because I didn't need more sock yarn, but I fell in love with this one at the show and bought it. And now I have a cosy pair of socks. 

As for not knitting socks I think I've just got  to have a pair on the needles whatever else I might be working on. Because sometimes you just want something fairly easy which  grows quickly to pick up  rather than something that takes 100% concentration. For me that's hats, but I'm over hats for a while, and socks. And there is a very special pair of socks under construction jus now, pics to come when they're done. 

And a peedie health update = I have finally got an appointment with the ophthalmology people  which is later this month. This should include a small procedure which will help my vision, plus tests to establish whether surgery is indicated or not. We're crossing fingers for  yes on the latter, whilst bearing n mind that a) it might not be and b) if it is, the recovery is a bit on the challenging side. As for my fall, I still can;t show myself outside the house as the bruising is, if anything, a lot worse than when I first fell. My lip is getting better but is still very sore and my arm just aches all the time. I have rested it A LOT today, in the hope that it will stop hurting soon.  I tell myself I am getting a little bit better every day: whether that is true or not I don't know. But the stitches come out on Monday morning so that's got to be a good thing. 

Ouch! That was so NOT Supposed to Happen

 So Monday morning I had an outpatients appointment at the hospital which was fine, and then we'd decided to take the opportunity to go to a mid day screening of Operation Mincemeat. I hadn't anticipated that the film would turn out to be the filling in a hospital visit sandwich, but it was. As we walked back to the car I tripped over the curb and fell. I was all for hobbling to the caf and going home, but the OH had taken one look at the amount of blood I was staining the pavement with and called an ambulance. It arrived about three minutes later, complete with blues and twos,  which was exciting but seemed a bit OTT to me. 

They took me off to A and E while the OH was despatched to the optometrist to see if he could make my glasses actually stay on my head,  which they were outright refusing to do at that point, and collect the car. Everyone at A and E was very nice, they took great care of me, and I was examined, observed X-rayed and stitched. At no time in all of this was I asked if I knew who the Prime Minister was. Where I was, yes. What the day of the week was, yes. Name of the Prime Mi ister, no. So the next time you see that on a medical drama, know that it does not happen IRL When I mentioned it, one of the staff said 'Well really, who cares?'. Which is a point of view I suppose. 

Obviously they didn't keep me in and I'm recovering at home, mainly by taking painkillers and resting. J have a very badly sprained arm and wrist, my right arm, and as I'm right handed that's a bit of a problem. Badly bruised face, dressing over the four stitches near my eye where my glasses gouged a lump out of my face, and an unsightly but healing lip where my tooth went through it. 

Since I feel fairly fragile and resemble Quasimodo's twin sister we cancelled our trip to Glasgow today  for a reception at Scottish Opera featuring not only Dame Janet Bakef but also Sir Thomas Allen, which was gutting, but it couldn't be helped, We are crossing our fingers I will look and feel better enough to go to Glasgow next week, when we have lots of nice things lined up. 

On the upside Operation Mincemeat was very good.