Not Quite the trip we were expecting ...

 

...or, the best laid plans etc etc

We were getting ready to drive over to Stromness on Sunday to spend the night on the boat, catch the early sailing and be in Strathpeffer, where the Opera Highlights was on, in time to have lunch on Monday with the lovely Lea, our emerging artist at Scottish Opera.  And then we had a message to say she was sorry but she had lost her voice and was being bundled back to Glasgow on the train by the tour manager so we couldn't meet and she would be missing the next two performance and maybe more. 

Oh dear! More for her than us, although we were disappointed on our own account as well. It was one of those times when, if you had had just 12 more hours notice you could have rejigged your plans totally, rather than continuing with the existing framework and wondering what to do with the huge hole that had just been blown in them. 

However, as I said, we had got be positive and make something of what we had rather than repine over what we didn't have, so that's what we did. Rather than stopping at Strathpeffer we carried on to Inverness where we did some 'nice' rather than 'necessary' shopping. So a new shirt and a jigsaw puzzle for me, a book each, half our younger grandson's birthday present and, after a bit of havering over a cup of coffee and a bun, a 'velvetiser' from Hotel Chocolat, which is   for making hot chocolate,   We've been havering about this for much longer than the time it takes to have a cup of coffee - several years in fact, and this was the occasion we cracked. Possibly something to do with the horrible winter weather we have had, which has meant  we have ben drinking more hot chocolate than usual, and possibly also something to do with the £30 off if you bought it and signed up for the loyalty scheme. 

Even with all the lovely shopping we still arrived in Strathpeffer somewhat before checking in time at the hotel, so we had a walk around the 'town' (it's a village really, it's tiny) and then walked part way up one of the hills to see the Pictish Eagle Stone.

Horseshoe on top, eagle below. Two things surprised me about this; one was how well preserved the carving was, and the other was the fact that it hadn't been nabbed long ago by the National Museum and stuffed away in one of its dungeons , sorry, storerooms. 

We'd had a great offer from the hotel which included dinner on our first night, which was very nice. A restricted menu, and we both accurately predicted the others choices for all three courses! And then it was time for bed because it had been a long day - not to mention that spending money makes me very tired indeed. 

 

A Grand Day Out.

 And totally unexpected too. 

The weather was lovely yesterday. A bit brisk and with the occasional short and gentle shower, but  in general the sun was shining, the sky was blue  and it was a day for being outside. Well some of the time. 

When I suggested to the OH that we go out he ran through our usual gamut of local walks but I said, No it's lovely why don;t we drive over to Birsay? So we did. 

On the way we saw three hares in a filed and a white rabbit with very short ears (which I think must have been an escaped pet) and we parked in Birsay village where the council recently provided a small car park, and walked along to the mainland end of the causeway over to the Brough. The tide was out and we could have gone over but we hadn't checked the times because we weren't really expecting them to be right, and we had no idea where it was in relation to its turn. We certainly didn't want to be trapped on the Brough - the weather wasn't that nice. We walked back  to the village where we saw, much to our surprise, a sign saying that what we persist in thinking of as Bob Nelson's tearoom, although Bob Nelson sold it many moons ago, was open. In Orkney, and in  February. A huge but welcome surprise. So we had lunch out. Readers with good memories may remember we were less than thrilled when we visited this place last summer, when scouting out a route for our American friends who were visiting for a day. Glad to say this was a much happier experience. I wouldn't go back in the summer when it will be totally rammed and very noisy, but at least at this time of the year there's nothing on the menu  threatening you with removal after 45 minutes. 

A few photos. 

We are catching the boat tonight to have a couple of days in the Highland Spa town of Strathpeffer, mainly to see Scottish Opera's Opera Highlights 2024 spring tour, but also to catch up with 'our' SO  emerging artist, the amazing Lea Shaw.  There seems to be plenty to do in the area if the weather is good; what we'll do if it rains is anyone's guess.

Charity Shop Rant

With apologies to a couple of people who will already have seen this on Facebook

Taking stuff to charity shops.

How it should go.

Us: we've got a couple of boxes of stuff for you here.

Them: oh thank you so much. By the way there isn't anything electrical in there is there? because we can't take that.

Us: no, nothing electrical. We know you can't take them.

Them: oh great. I have to ask. Anyway again, thank you

Us: it's our pleasure.

We leave feeling good. We have given away some nice things they can use to fundraise and we have cleared some space in the house.

How it actually went.

Us: we've got a couple of boxes of stuff for you here.

Them: (aggressively) Nothing electrical I hope. We can't take electrical stuff.

Us: No, nothing electrical. We know we can't bring you electrical things.

Them: Only we have to spend time sorting it out and then getting rid of it ourselves. It's a waste of our time.

Us: yes we know. It must be very frustrating. That's why we never bring electrical items to charity shops.

Them: X takes them. And possibly Y. But we don't.

Us: Well we don't have any. Shall we just put these boxes on your counter?

Them: oh well yes

We leave feeling irritated and that we've been got at for no good reason, and determined that, however handy this shop is for a car park, we will never darken its door again. Also, that a thank you wouldn't have gone amiss.

I haven't named the guilty premises on FB because it would upset some of my local FB friends. But it was the Salvation Army shop.

Shopping in Proper Shops

So here's my fairly modest haul from a morning's shopping in Glasgow. We only went to a couple of places in the West End; the Yarn Cake and the top end of Byres Road, we weren't anywhere near the centre of the city. But the top end of Byres Road is very nice, as far as the sort of shops I want to see goes. 

So in The Yarn Cake I bought a small bottle of Eucalan for washing hand knitted things and these -

which for anyone who doesn't know are crochet stitch markers. I got them because I was planning a large crochet project and knew these would be useful and I don't have any, never having been what you would call a prolific crocheter. I'm now on the verge of changing my mind about the project and knitting it instead, but we'll see. Meanwhile please note, I did not buy yarn. 

And the rest was books. In the excellent Oxfam bookshop I bought these:

and realised that in future if I want art books I should definitely burrow about in charity bookshops for them. Otherwise they are shockingly expensive. I have had a quick look through the Kahlo book and I know it's going to be a painful read. I am amazed by the fact that I never came across Susan Cooper and her The Dark is Rising books when I was younger; so many people have sung their praises to me in recent years that I couldn't resist this opportunity to buy them all in one volume for the princely sum of £3.99. And they will keep me going for a while once I get started on them, that's not a thin book! 

And in Waterstones I got these:

In Ascension is the Waterstone's February SciFi/Fantasy book of the month and I topped it up with the Clytemnestra so that I qualified for a stamp on my card. After less than stellar experiences with Jennifer Saint's Ariadne and the even less satisfactory Daughters of Sparta by Clare Heywood I was a bit leary of this but thought I would give it a go, especially as it was on the Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price table, as was In Ascension. Reports on all in due course. 

A Good Read

 

I get a lot of e-mails from Waterstones. This is because I have a loyalty card which is not very much use to me as my nearest branches are in Aberdeen or Inverness. If I ever go to Aberdeen I'm only ever swapping from ferry to train so I'm never near any shops and Inverness is where we refuel the car on our way south in an out of town place and again, nowhere near the Waterstones. On the other hand I do religiously visit Waterstones when I'm away and there are several branches in Glasgow, so it's worth keeping the card  and putting up with the e-mails.

Anyway a recent e-mail informed me that in addition to their monthly fiction, non-fiction and possibly crime/thriller(? you can see how much I focus on these things)  selections each month in 2024 they were going to be doing a Sci-Fi/Fantasy choice and I thought, because I am prone to such thoughts as anyone who has ever spent any time on these pages will know, wouldn't it be a good idea to buy that every month and acquaint myself with some authors I haven't previously encountered? My resolution wavered when I discovered that the January choice couldn't be mail ordered - what?????; you could just do a click and collect from your nearest branch. However I double checked with son no 2, who was more than willing to go and collect it for me so I ordered it and there it was, waiting for me in the flat on our recent trip to Glasgow. Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

I loved it. It has an original premise and some wonderful central characters and I am impatient to read  Book 2 which is now out and called Sunbringer. However as that is currently only available  in hardback and the paperback isn't due until January 2025 I will have to conserve my soul in patience.

Meanwhile I have the February choice and several other books bought on my recent trip to get stuck into. Of which more anon. 

Nature Pix

oops - I hit a wrong key there when I was typing in the heading. Good thing I caught it, or anyone clicking through for some 'mature' pictures would have been well disappointed. 

Scotland is beautiful and one small consolation about living in Orkney is that we get to drive most of its length on a regular basis. Not much consolation in the rain and the fog but more than wonderful if the sun is shining. With that in mind, here are a few photographs I took on our recent trip when the weather was kind in both directions. 

and that last one surely says that spring is on the way - hurrah! 

Half Marx

 

Did you see what I did there? It was literally half marks from us as we left at the interval. It was such a disappointment. Technically it was great; the singing was wonderful, the set was fun, the costumes were fine, everything was good, except the music, which was nice in places but didn't flow, and the plot was thin and silly. The production has had rave reviews and I can quite see why; it just wasn't our cup of tea. Seat prices being what they are these days I shall think twice before committing to anything so unknown to us again. It's not just the ticket prices but the travel, and of course all the general weather related worry about whether you will actually get away, and back, that makes the whole thing seem a bit of  an expensive drag. 

Not all bad though; we saw son no 2 who was well and enjoying his new job and I got to browse some real shops and buy a few bits and pieces. Mainly books, of which more anon.