Can Spring Be Far Behind?

We were driving home from the Post Office the other day, because whatever the Post Office says, thee is not a Post Office branch within walking distance of every home in the British Isles and that applies particularly in rural areas, and we saw some of these on the shore.

 

Oystercatchers. They were the first ones of the year. They're always the earliest retuning migrants that I'm aware of and they generally fetch up in February. I'm always pleased to see them because it means that winter is coming to an end (well in theory anyway). They're so cheerful looking and they have a very distinctive call. I smile to see them. And things that make you smile are things to be cherished.

The Glums Revisited

 

 

Yesterday we went to see Les Miserables. No, not the film, once in a lifetime was enough for that! This was the version done by the  local amateur operatic society (acronym, occasionally I'm told very apt, KAOS).

 

When Son No 2 was still living at home we went to see KAOS regularly because he was a member and took part in the annual production, but since he left we've rather fallen out of the habit. But I've felt for a while that really we ought to make the effort to support them again, and although we almost missed it this year I remembered just in time and bought tickets last Friday.

 

It was the first night last evening and at times it showed but really it would be unfair to be critical. It's quite amazing to me that a community as small as Orkney can take on a huge thing like Les Miserables and really make a very god job of it. Some of the singing was a bit lacking, and there were a couple of times when the prompter was needed, but apart from that it was really good. The Eponine was excellent, but the star of the show was undoubtedly my dentist who played Madame Thenardier. The OH has another dentist at the same practice and said that after last night he'd be scared to have Lorraine, but that just goes to show what a good actress she is, since she is the loveliest dentist you can imagine.

 

Anyway we really enjoyed it, and I must make a note to ensure we go again next year.

 

 



2015 - Mostly about the socks

I have a large number of sock wool skeins living in my house. I also have large amounts of other wool, but lets not go there. I have therefore decreed that 2015 is The Year of the Sock, in an attempt to get some of it used up. So far, so good....

 

These two pairs were made of a couple of balls of random sock yarn I bought last year sometime at a café cum craft centre near Perth. I bought them because I liked the colours of the top one, and knew the OH would be delighted with socks made from the bottom one. This was before I forced myself to realise that just because you are walking past a shelf of attractive sock yarn you do not actually have to buy from it.

 

Funnily enough I had never made myself a pair of stripy socks from a self striping sock yarn before but I have now. Plain vanilla sock pattern with self striping yarn from The Yarn Café, especially dyed for them by The Knitting Goddess. The yarn is called Mint Cream, for obvious reasons.

 

And the piece de resistance for January - Firenze socks designed by Rachel Coopey, yarn by The Knitting Goddess. This is the June yarn and pattern from the KG 2013 Sock Club; my cunning plan is to complete this by the end of the year. I've done Jan-March and now June  so a third down. Then of course I can get started on the 2014 Club. Having learned my lesson I have not signed up for 2015.

 

I do love these Firenze socks although they were a bit of a piglet to knit tbh. However the pattern is lovely and the best thing about them is that, like all Rachel's patterns, these are a really good fit on me.

 

Four skeins down - can't be bad . OK the bright yellow ones I did in fact finish before Christmas, so that the OH could have them as a present and wear them in Canada, but it was the beginning of my drive to use up a lot of the sock wool so I think it's allowable to include them here. And they do cheer the page up!

Rant.

This is a rant, so don't say you haven't been warned.

It's about my Gaelic course. This is advertised as a course for complete beginners. For people who know no Gaelic at all. Well maybe they can murmur My name is, but basically you're in the starting blocks of ignorance, working towards a finishing tape where in six months time you can chat about the weather without making a total twit of yourself.  All in it together, all exploring and hopefully overcoming, the difficulties together, taking heart from the fact that you're not the only one who wonders why a language would change the first letter of a woman's name from M to V, if you should happen to be looking her in the eye and saying something directly to her, rather than standing at the other side of the room, digging your mate in the ribs with your elbow and pointing her out.

 

This is important because language learning is about trial and error, it's about confidence and its about not feeling an idiot when you make a mistake or don't understand; and you don't feel an idiot if it turns out that the person next to you doesn't understand either. Sigh of relief: no you are not as thick as a brick, the topic is challenging.

 

This course being distance learning we have a 'virtual' place of communication and I wandered onto it last Tuesday to see if anyone had put up a chat thread for our tutorial group. They had, and I opened it up. I don't know what I was expecting; a welcome from the eager beaver student who had done it I suppose, maybe an invitation for us all to say why we wanted to learn Gaelic, how we'd found the experience of a telephone tutorial, that sort of thing.

 

What I was not expecting to see was a long message from said eager beaver  fellow student written in Gaelic (but then thoughtfully translated into English) saying, 'This is the place to leave your contact details if your're interested in communicating and working together by e-mail, phone, facebook, snapchat, meeting up for a cup of coffee or anything else'

 

(Snapchat? What the heck is Snapchat?)

 

Anyway Henry in Texas replied in English but was soon coaxed into a weather report in Gaelic; it was hot apparently and he'd like to be colder. Originator of thread, living in Edinburgh countered with how it was cold and wet in Edinburgh, she preferred the warmth. I know this because they continued to translate this fascinating exchange for the benefit of the rest of us. Or maybe just for me. Maybe I am really the only person in the class who doesn't speak a word of Gaelic beyond My name is....

 

So Henry is far from a complete beginner and the Edinburgh lady is obviously fairly competent already. So my question is, what are they doing on a beginners course, a course for people who know no Gaelic.

 

Apart that is from intimidating the rest of us into inadequacy?

Run That Past Me Again?

So, while I was waiting for my op last week I fell into desultory conversation with a woman who was there supporting a family member who was about to have the op too. She was bemoaning the general lack of good stuff to watch on TV at present and how, to find anything worth watching, she had to fall back on repeats of Midsomer Murders and Wycliffe. I wasn't up for an argument, partly because I am too polite and too sensible to argue with strangers over something as ephemeral and generally trivial as TV schedules, and partly because my mind was focussed on what was to come and how I'd cope.

 

But really, nothing worth watching? Between New Year and Easter is generally when you get the best of evening television and this year is no exception. I find some good drama to watch nearly every day of the week.

 

Sunday - Last Tango in Halifax

Monday - Broadchurch

Tuesday - 

Wednesday - Wolf Hall

Thursday - Death in Paradise and Fortitude

Friday - NCIS

 

OK there's a drama gap on Tuesdays, which fills quite nicely with new series of a couple of property programs I watch and Thursday also has new Location Location Location. episodes. And this week sees the return of The Great British Sewing Bee.

 

I've got quibbles. Last Tango fell back on a bit of melodrama mid-series, which I forgave, mostly, because the rest of it is so good. I'm not feeling the love for Broadchurch 2 that I felt for the original but that doesn't  mean it's not good, and in fact it's getting better week on week. Death in Paradise is formulaic and feel good TV and has never been the same since the great Ben Miller left, but it's still an enjoyable, well acted, well scripted ensemble piece of escapism in a beautiful setting. (Every week I say to the OH 'This is filmed in Guadeloupe you know' and every week he manages to ignore the hint and not say back  'I think  we should go there for some winter sunshine this year'.) Fortitude I'm not sure about, as we've only had episode one, but I'll be sticking with it for now; great cast, great location and interesting premise.

 

Wolf Hall is, with one teensy weensy exception, quite brilliant. The exception? I'll save that for another day.

 

As for Wycliffe I've never managed to stay with a complete episode. I think they only make it for insomniacs, to help them sleep. Do you know when someone mentions it I sort of think of it in black and white! And yet, as you see, they do make it in colour.

 

And Another Reason to Dread Monday...

Have I mentioned that the poet who is the subject of my Ph D was a Gaelic speaker? and wrote lots of his poetry in Gaelic? And that as a result I am going to have to learn Gaelic myself?

I have tried before. Years ago, under the mistaken impression that the Northern Isles, like the Western Isles, was a Gaelic region, my brother in law bought me a Teach Yourself Gaelic course, with tapes. The tapes will tell you how long ago that was!! When I started thinking about this Ph D I hunted the course out and had a go. Epic Fail.

 

About a year ago, thinking I ought to give it another try, perhaps with a more up to date course, I bought one from Mr Amazon. It came highly recommended and had CDs with it. Progress. On the technology front at least. I got very little further than I had with the tapes.

 

Now this is worrying. Languages are my thing. In my time I have learned seven, two of which had non Latin alphabets. If there's one thing that I should be able to do, especially with huge motivation, it's learn another one. But I have an awful feeling that Gaelic might just be beyond me.

 

Let's hope not because I'm about to embark on my third attempt. I'm doing a Gaelic Entry distance learning course via Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic medium college on Skye. This consists of lots of work on your own, which is fine, and an hours telephone tutorial every week with a native speaker, which is not. It's scary scary stuff, especially when you're not convinced you can learn the language and yet it's very important that you should.

 

I don't know why I am so certain that I will find it difficult to impossible, although I have come up with some reasons.

 

It's partly the  sound it makes. Listen to BBC Alba and any notion you may have of Gaelic being a soft  romantic language is swept away. To the uninitiated it sounds like a series of harsh consonants, interspersed with wavering vowels and a lot, and I mean a lot, of shs and chs, most of them made in the back of the throat.  It sounds not very nice, and quite a lot of it is hard to say.

 

It's partly the disconnect between the spelling and pronunciation. What sort of language spells a word leabhar and pronounces it 'yower' (to rhyme with our)? A difficult one, say I. At least when you learn Russian, once you're over the hurdle of the new alphabet it's basically phonetic. With Gaelic, well...

 

And of course it's partly the fact that I've already tried twice without success. And however often I say 'third time's a charm' ,  lets be honest,  that's just a stupid thing people say. It has neither meaning nor effect.

 

Anyway, we have had induction week. I have sent messages, I have recorded an MP3 file, I have done a quiz, answered a questionnaire and stated my time and day preferences for my telephone tutorial. I have downloaded the material for Unit 1. I am as ready as I will ever be, but that doesn't stop me dreading Monday morning. Because that dear friends, is telephone tutorial 1 time.

 

As that other mindless phrase goes 'Wish Me Luck'.

 

 

Back in the Land of the Living!

Yay! I'm back.

 

As far as I can tell my eye is healing well, I'm down from 10 drops a day to 6 (which isn't that much of an improvement really, because fitting in six sets of drops a day is quite difficult) I'm reading a bit, visiting Facebook, knitting, doing the washing....almost normal life again. Hurrah!

 

Rather worried about Monday though as the joiners will be back working in the hall, which will make for  a lot of dust. Since if you do a dusty job (? I know, but that's what it said on the leaflet) you have to get separate advice about when you can resume work although the standard advice is 2 weeks off, I'm thinking lots of dust will not be ideal. I may need to take refuge while they're here in Son No 2's bedroom which will be difficult as quite a lot of it is taken up with books from the bookshelves that normally live in the hall....

 

Such are the joys of house renovation. But, altogether now, It Will All Be Worth It In The End.