Yum and Yuk

Last night I went to Steve's for dinner. His partner, Suz, is up from Edinburgh 'enjoying' the dark, dreary, days that have followed the hottest, driest and probably sunniest April on record here on Lewis.  It's a strange old world.  But then I expect people have been saying that for centuries.  Suz did the cooking and after green pea and mint soup which was absolutely delicious she produce loin of lamb cooked so perfectly - just so that there was no blood (neither Steve nor I are too keen on blood oozing out of our meal) but still pink enough to satisfy a Frenchman.  It was accompanied by, amongst other vegetables, roasted beetroot.  It's the first time I can recall having roasted beetroot in this country although it's a common dish in New Zealand.  Steve keeps a substantial cellar of very passable wines.  'Nuff said.  We eventually got to bed.  A most enjoyable evening.  Yum.

I travelled home mid-morning with my wipers and headlights on.  I've been doing odds and ends in the house all afternoon with the most dreary weather imaginable engulfing the house.  It feels like the winter and I've had the central heating on since I got home.  Yuk.

Ah well.   I'm being picked up by Pat and Dave in under an hour and we're going to friends' for dinner. 

Tomorrow it's the Grand Prix from Barcelona.  I think I'll have a nice easy day and do some blogging and chill.  

It's a hard life.

I Knew It Would Happen!

Actually if I'd really known it instead of suspecting it I wouldn't have put all the washing on the line 10 minutes ago!  The sun was shining.  The wind was blowing.  If it had been a bit warmer the conditions would have been ideal.  I live under big skies and can see weather coming - usually.  When the washing went out there were squall clouds around as there have been for days now as the heavy showers sweep through.  So here I was in the Study facing the sea with the sun streaming in when suddenly the squall hit from behind.  Result?  60 seconds of torrential rain and thus soaked sheets and shirts.  And in the time it's taken to type this the clouds have swept through and the sun is out again as I watch the squall move out over the Minch.  Ah well.  If it's still wet by this afternoon I'll just have to spin it again and use the tumble drier.  So much for being eco friendly.

Thankful Thursday

Where do I start today?

Nearly a couple of hours ago I received an email from an old friend (that is to say we've known each other for more years than either of us would care to count and she bears goes by the sobriquet of She To Whom I'd Entrust My Life) asking if I was ok because I hadn't blogged for several days.  That was notwithstanding that she's at their house in France and we'd spoken yesterday!   Leastways I think it was yesterday.  I wasn't wearing a watch this afternoon and eventually realised that I'd had my afternoon coffee at what I though was mid afternoon but must have been about 5 o'clock and nearly wine time!

I'm certainly not thankful for this week's weather!  But I am thankful that it showed my beloved Island in a Good Light to my visitor last week.

What else am I thankful for today?  I'm thinking hard.  It's not that I don't have things about which I'm thankful but it's not so easy to enunciate them each week.

I've been trying to sort out my summer: visits and visitors;  me to friends' and friends here to me.  It's really hard trying to organise a whole summer with so much happening.  

When I see that in print in front of my eyes I realise just how much I have to be thankful for when my biggest problem is how to organise my summer.

Two Lives

As a general rule my New Zealand life and my Scottish life manage to separate themselves in my brain emotionally.  I am frequently asked (usually in the UK) where I would wish to settle if I had to make a choice.  That's a question I always avoid answering.  

After The News this evening I happened to notice that The Phantom of The Opera was on the box and decided to put it on whilst I was finishing organising the Study (which I've been doing all afternoon) and writing my Thankful Thursday post.  Wow.  I hadn't allowed for what happened after I'd been listening (and partly watching) it for a short while.

I occasionally have the DVD on in the evening when I'm alone in The Cottage - my New Zealand home. My brain has obviously indellibly associated it with my New Zealand life.  Suddenly I was an alien in my own land.  I looked out over a familiar and loved land and seascape and experienced another life: a life from which I am, at this moment, detached.  It's an experience I will never be able to explain adequately but it is undoubtedly one of the most emotionally harrowing experiences I've had.

I suppose it's not one helped by the fact that the music and words of the work are also so emotionally charged.

Phew.