My brother, CJ, is staying with me. His wife, Jo, arrives a few days into August. After a week of distinctly un-summery weather we've had a few beautiful days. CJ was up for some reason or other at 4.58am on Friday. This was the view from my kitchen window:
I'm away from home. I came down to Glasgow and The Beatson for a review of the drugs trial from which I am benefitting. It's also been a very good opportunity to catch up with some of my friends down in this neck of the woods. I've been staying with Anna (whom I first met in New Zealand in 2006).
I passed my 'service' and the car has had its service too and new rear tyres.
Tomorrow I shall drive to Penrith and meet my brother and sister-in-law. My sister-in-law will then hand over her husband into my care and I will return with him to Anna's.
Monday should be a good day for visiting a couple of Glasgow's museums and art galleries.
On Tuesday we will return to Lewis.
At some stage before this crazy week started someone mentioned names and how given names often differ from what one is called.
My Mother was supposed to have been Christened Flora Irene. Unfortunately her Godmother Edith was so miffed at her not being named after her that she added it when asked "How do you name this child?" It, needless to say, caused a bit of a family tiff.
My father was Morris Thompson-Edwards. However my mother refused to marry a double-barrelled name so he appeared on the Marriage certificate as Morris Thompson Edwards sans hyphen.
I was named Graham Barry Edwards. My parents called me Barry but Barry Graham Edwards didn't scan. Since I was 16 I've been known by both fore-names. One of the reasons for my names was that they were not easily shortened. So my parents thought. At school I was usually Bas and in our road simply Ba. Today I'm also known as GB, Geeb and various other things some of which are completely unrelated to my given names and which I shall ignore (as I usually do).
My brother was named Clive John Edwards and to our parents and some people from his youth, he was and is Clive. Everyone else including me and his wife and offspring only use John or CJ (so far as I know!).
The husband of one of my brother's daughters took her surname on marriage.
My son Gaz was named Gareth Vernon Spencer Edwards and called Gareth or Gaz. Virtually no one knew his full name until he got married. In Scotland you have to recite your full given name when getting married. His contempt for his chosen names was shown when on signing the register he then signed a deed changing his name to Gareth Macrae Edwards.
His wife was, and remains, Carol Macrae although uses the title Mrs. In Scotland the taking of the husband's surname only came into general use in the 19th Century.
Their son is Brodie Edwards Macrae.
I'm glad that I will never have to be researching the family history.
However if they do then this public record, boring though it might have been to you, will be of considerable interest to the researchers.
After the restrictions of the last 15 months my life is returning to normal in many ways: the old normal. Of course in many ways, such as travel abroad, it's a different story but then I have no desire to travel abroad now.
After my Goddaughter and her family left I had a wee period of 'Island life' and gardening. A week ago Anna arrived. We've been coffeeing, walking, visiting friends and their gardens, having friends to dinner and going to friends for dinner. It's been a wonderful week of complete contrast to the lockdown. There are reminders every so often about mask wearing (I think I shall continue to wear one in shops for the foreseeable future regardless of the rules) and social distancing but little else. On the Island almost everyone has been vaccinated and the cases are few are far between.
I ran Anna to the airport a couple of hours ago and within 39 minutes from take-off in Stornoway she was ready to disembark in Glasgow. It will take her longer to get the final stretch from the airport home. Well, I thought it would be she is already on the motorway on the Airport Bus. I shall speed up my typing and thought process.
I could not have enjoyed the week more.
Now for some time gathering my thoughts, gardening, coffeeing, having new brakes put on the car and visiting Blogland before I go to Anna's for my drugs trial review at the Beatson in Glasgow and collect my brother, CJ, from Penrith (to where his wife will bring him) and we'll come back to Lewis (via a couple of nights at Anna's in Bishopbriggs).
