Thankful Thursday

I am not a Grumpy Old Man.  I'm not old yet for a start.  However this evening whilst trying to log into a bank account I received the following (amongst many other) message:

I have no need of an overdraft nor any loans and the account is not a premier one with benefits related to income so why do I need to tell them my income?  The problem is that if you don't answer the questions you can't access your accounts.  Whyyyyyy? 

The last few days I have felt overwhelmed.  So many emotions have been churning around.  The number of things which need attention, the amount of clutter to be sorted, the things I want to achieve and the planning for the summer have all seemed to be much bigger tasks than they are in reality.  And I've been visiting friends and none is as fit as when I left 6 months ago.  

I need to change my house insurance.  I have been with the same insurer for years.  I am, as a consequence, paying over twice as much as quotes I have had from other reputable companies and nearly £1000 more than a friend with a larger house in an urban area is paying with an equally reputable company.  Now I haven't checked the wording of all the policies.  Have you?  Of course you haven't.  Why?  Well one reason could be that if your car is insured with Endsleigh the policy will run to 37,674 words.  That is more than Orwell's classic novel Animal Farm.  Apparently 73% of people do not read their car insurance policies.

On the bright side Nissan is trialling a new 'self-cleaning' paint that's resistant to rain and dirt.  That should cheer us all up no end.

Oh yes.  It's Thursday.  I should be thankful.  I am.  There is an hour and forty minutes (BST) to go until it's tomorrow.  There is a sporting chance that I will have survived another day.

0444 - Again?

Twice this week I have woken with 0444 showing on the bedside digital clock.  That's the trouble with digital clocks:  it's never 'a quarter to five' or 'half past six' any more.  It's time accurate to a minute.  Assuming, that is, that the clock is accurate.  Mine tend to be.  I'm just like that.  An accurate clock person.   My main clock in the house is one of those clocks controlled by the radio time signal from Rugby and, of course, all the internet devices automatically correct themselves.

Sometimes this accuracy causes me problems.  When I drove one of The Family's cars in New Zealand the time was never accurate so it would throw me because I automatically made the basic assumption that it was.

It's all part of the Edwards Family need to be on time for appointments or at least not to be late.

What I was really thinking when I started this was just how coincidental it was to wake twice at the same time within three days given that my bedtimes vary within a three hour time gap.

Each year when I return I forget just how much catching up there is to do and how much adjusting.  Whilst I am away Pat aka Spesh looks after my affairs and without that my stay away would be, if not impossible, certainly very much harder.  Thank you Pat.  

David and Molly leave tomorrow.  Where did the week go?

 Molly looks rather sinister don't you think?  She's not.  She has a lovely nature (unless you're a cat!)

The RNLI Stornoway Lifeboat has a new home since I left last October.

What a Difference a Day Makes

I know most of you will have seen this view before but I thought that, after yesterday's dreich photo, I would show the view from my kitchen window in a more favourable light as it was this morning.  It really is a beautiful place.

This afternoon David and I went to see how Gaz was spending his few days of leave.  He was playing with his big boy's toy and digging a trench from the house to the road for the mains services.  I really would like one of those to dig the trenches for the proposed polytunnel I'm hoping to put in this summer.

Home and Dry

I arrived home on Lewis yesterday (Sunday) afternoon.  So home, yes but dry? Who am I kidding?  

There is a good Old Scots* word, dreich.  There is no finer word for describing a particular Scottish weather: the type of Scottish weather that we have been having since I returned to Scotland last Tuesday.  The type of weather seen from my kitchen window at 0630 this morning:

It's cold.  It's wet.  It's miserable.  It's misty.  It's dreary.  It's dreich!   It's my Scottish HOME!

It is one week ago New Zealand time that I left my New Zealand home for my Scottish one.  Where did that week go?  Well apart from spending about 30 hours in the air and what seemed like the same amount in airports I spent a lovely few days with a friend in Glasgow catching up and having a rest.  I'm fortunate in not suffering from the ill effects of jet lag and, on this occasion, despite sitting next to a couple snorting and spluttering with cold (there would appear to be cultures where the handkerchief is considered bad manners but spreading germs isn't)  on the leg from Auckland to Brisbane I haven't got a cold either.

A bonus is that David and Molly arrived last night.  I'm sure there will be photos for Molly's adoring public.  David is good company because there are lots of jobs to be done and David loves doing jobs! It must be something about the name because Pat's Dave has been keeping my grass cut.  Thanks Dave!  Gaz arrived back on the Island the day before me for a short break.  So that'll be more catching up.

Anyway I thought that I'd let you know that I have arrived and that this is going to be a busy and wonderful week.

* There seems to be considerable debate as to its origin and a trawl of the different dictionaries this morning would seem to indicate anything from Greek through Scandinavian and Norse to Middle English.