Things I Will Miss

I have been back in Scotland for 10 days.  So what am I missing and what will I miss for the next six months?

Wendy and Martin and the children, of course.  Although I’ll be seeing Wendy, Catriona and Fraser here is a few weeks.  I will be meeting them in Glasgow and bringing them to Lewis where Wendy, Martin and I first met.

Croquet and my croquet companions: the perfect way to spend a day (sometimes!):

 

 

 

 

 

 

TV’s One News.  Why?  Because it is an anchor point in the day.  Unlike the UK where the weekend TV News appears to be almost randomly timed, One News is on at 1800 every day of the week. There is a certain comfort in that.

The chap in the centre of the first photo is not the Prime Minister.  The one in the centre of the second photo is!

The Puzzles Page of the Dominion Post and especially the Two-Speed crossword which has clues in both simple and cryptic format for the same word.  An excellent way to learn to do cryptic crosswords (if that happens to be one of your aims in life).

Having the ranch sliders open and sitting in the sun even on an autumn day.

The song of the elusive Bellbird round the Cottage, the twittering, flitting, friendly Fantails and the bird and insect noises that are my countryside companions.

Food in a Minute.  This one will need explanation.  Watties (owned by Heinz) have an advert every day immediately before the Six O’clock One News with a ‘quick' recipe – hence, food in a minute. It’s an institution.  It’s not exactly Delia Smith and certainly not Nigella Lawson (despite Lana Garland apparently trying to look seductive) but it’s good everyday quick food.

Staying with TV (I really watch very little but this is all around The News which I do try to watch) there is the weather.  I shall miss the glorious Hawkes Bay weather.  You wouldn’t think so from some of the posts I’ve done this last summer but I couldn’t drive round in the Mazda with the roof off for most of the summer in Scotland. You’ll notice that Hawkes Bay has two sun signs over it where the rest of the country (almost) has cloud.  That’s Hawkes Bay for you.

Mind you the days are gone when weather presenters were serious ‘academic’ types on UK TV (with the exception of Michael Fish) and it was always very noticeable that they were dressed so as to ensure that they appeared flat chested.  That is definitely not the case today.

I shall definitely miss the simplicity of my life in New Zealand.  It may be hectic but it has a certain predictable simplicity which life in Scotland certainly does not have.  Having said that I’ll miss it that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy the more involved Scottish existence.  They are just different.

I give up.  I’m sure that I could go on.  There are many more thing’s I’ll miss but I shall call it a day.

Matakana Market Band

When Pauline, Twink and I went to the Matakana Farmers’ Market there was a band.  It was a most interesting band.  Apart from being very competent musicians playing appropriately good music, I found the characters themselves of considerable interest.  I just love faces of character:

Contemplation

A man at peace with himself

And suddenly alive (Oddly I found his electric guitar rather at odds with his apparent persona)

In full swing

And a smiling Twink looks on.

Thanks Twink for your hospitality and introducing me to the Garage Sale and the Matakana market scene!

In Memory of Mates

What a beautiful tribute.

A Vital Message

On the road through Clive in Hawkes Bay is a serious message that many would be wise to heed:

It Was A Week Ago!!

I left Napier a week ago!  I cannot believe it.  I cannot believe that it is eight days since I took the photo of my stuff on the bed being packed.  It seems like a few days ago.  It seems as though I have only just arrived in Eagleton.  But it’s not.  A whole week has gone by since I stepped on the plane and spent all those hours in the air and airports before eventually ending up back on Lewis.

It’s a week ago since I once more packed my belongings into The Cupboard.  This included the gift from Friend Who Knows Too Much when I came to stay in New Zealand.  Once again it’s gone away to await my return later in the year.

A New Header

Thanks to Heather I have a new banner heading for the blog.  I’m really delighted.  My header has always been rather boring: an appropriate sort of header for me I thought.  Now that I’ve decided that I might be a tad less boring (if a tad more eccentric) I thought it was time for a change of blog image too.  All I have to do now is learn how to add more pictures.  I’m sure it’ll be within my competence.  Hmm.  We’ll see.  Anyway I hope that you like it too.  Thanks Heather.

My Last Drive

The afternoon of the day I left The Cottage was beautiful and as I drove up the drive to The Cottage for the last time this stay I realised that I was leaving a beautiful, hot, New Zealand Autumn for a cold Scottish Spring.

I’m There

I do choose original titles don’t I?

I arrived back on the Island on Saturday afternoon to be met at the Airport by a long huge hug from Pat.  At the risk of repeating myself (why should I suddenly worry about that?!) I can think of few things more calculated to make me feel alone and lonely than arriving at the airport with no-one to welcome me. 

I am starting this post at 0723 on Tuesday 27 April.  I’ve been up for quite a while after my first good night’s sleep since I set foot on Scottish soil.  Although the *** nightmares (well they were only ponies I suppose) are back.   Sibelius’s First Symphony is pounding out.  There is a vibrant urgency in this symphony combining the last throws of the great Romantic Symphonies with a push into the music of the Twentieth Century (In which, I think, it was written.  Having said that although Sibelius died in, again I think, 1957 he wrote little or nothing of consequence in the last 30 years of his life and I can’t recall how old he was when he died.  I must go and look it all up – sometime.)  Back to the vibrant urgency!   That is how I have felt since I returned.  There is so so much to be done.  there always is, of course, but, whether it’s my imagination or I just have a short memory, I feel more than ever that there is so much to be done and so little time in which to do it.  Which is odd if you think about it.  Perhaps that’s one for A Life in The Day Of. 

Then there are the silly things.  Where do I keep the saucepans? (The same place I’ve kept them for the last 15 years since I built this kitchen!).  Why have the saucepans moved around (Friends have been staying).  In fact so much seems to have moved but, when I think about it, I realise that I moved quite a lot of things last summer and my recollection just hasn’t caught up.  There are the missing things.  Well, not actually, they are things I take for granted in one life and suddenly realise that I’m in the wrong life to find that particular thing. 

By now it’s nearly midday.

I started making a list on Saturday evening.  I was on the second A 4 page by Sunday.  Now I’ve edited the three pages into lists: communicate, indoors, outdoors, plan.  Then there’s the URGENT list.  Then there’s the I can’t cope I’m going to have another coffee/pour a glass of wine response.

I spent much of Monday shopping and sorting things in Town (I even had my eyes tested).  Today I decided I wasn’t leaving the house.  Blogland beckoned.  However, this morning was spent on the phone and ‘sorting’ problems.  After two years I now have online access to my cell phone account!   At one stage I was on the phone to New Zealand when my other phone rang with a call from New Zealand!  I have made three appointments and ordered my prescriptions from the Docs.

Have you ever sat somewhere with a drip?  The water sort!  The roof of the Study is a double skinned polycarbonate lined internally with wood.  Onto the lead flashing was falling a drip of water from the gutter about 2 feet above.  It sounded, like, a hammer each time a drop fell.  Despite the rain I got the ladder out and scaled the dizzy heights up to the gutter.  It was blocked.  Now it isn’t.  Whilst the ladder was out I put up my wireless weather station.  Oh yes.  Things were getting done.  Now for Blogland.

Why does this wireless keyboard and the previous one which it replaced (both being used here with Palin my laptop) keep missing out letters – and failing to register the shift key - whilst my wireless keyboard in New Zealand works perfectly?  I think CJ has the same problem.  Answers on a post card, please, to…. 

Right.  I’m resolved.  I shall now do some blog posts.

By the way.  In case any of this sounded like a complaint please let me assure you that I’ve enjoyed every minute of the last 71 1/2 hours since I arrived back on the Island.

You may be wondering why this post is here as well as on Eagleton Notes.  It’s just in case you don’t read Eagleton Notes.

I should say, too that, there are still a few posts to come on this Blog.  So please don’t go away just yet.

Back In Eagleton

I had coffee and scones at The House For An Art Lover in Glasgow this morning with Anna who took me to the Airport.  Gaz was being the great son that he is and had gone to get his Mum from the bus station and take her away for the weekend – it is her Birthday today.   I arrived in Stornoway to be collected by Pat at the Airport.  I think one of the really sad things would be to arrive at an Airport after a long journey or a long time away and not have anyone to meet one.  I’ve not really done very much since I got home apart from rejuvenate my body in the spa bath whilst catching up with John and Sue on the ‘phone.  I have some more calls to make and a friend is popping in and then it’ll be an early night for me – yes really, it has to be.  Over the next few days I’ll be doing a few more posts on this blog and then a few on Eagleton Notes where I will spend the next few months!  Go well.

Not Quite Home

I arrived in Glasgow this afternoon to find that Stornoway Airport had been closed because of the ash situation. I could have got home later this evening but I was very tired and the idea of spending an evening catching up with Gaz was very appealing.  It is now after 11pm and I've had a lovely Moroccan dinner cooked by Gaz, lots of chat, the odd glass of wine and some things to blog about too. I've now been awake over 50 hours apart from a few dozy hours on the flight from Auckland to Los Angeles so I'm a bit tired.  Hopefully I'll be home mid afternoon tomorrow.