Thought it was time for a makeover – of the blog. I did like Dusk but Girl in Green is actually quite appropriate.
Anyway, you know when you have time off work and you mean to get everything done that you usually don’t have time to do? And you end up not doing anything you planned? That’s exactly what I’m like at the moment although I’m actually really enjoying not having to do anything. Back to work on Monday so better make the most of it while it lasts.
Found some great food blogs while surfing the web. Simply Recipes is one I like to browse through occasionally, although I have now found another, Something in Season. With Christmas just around the corner, food and feasting are in mind.
No turkey this year. Not one of my favourite meats, it has to be said, but I like it well enough. What I like better are the trimmings that go with it – roast potatoes, stuffing, bread sauce…mmm! I think the trimmings will still be there but with something like lamb instead. Other favourite Christmas foods/drinks – mince pies and mulled wine.
I’ve never actually tried to roast an entire turkey. There are never enough people to eat it and I really don’t want to be eating turkey sandwiches for the next week or so. I’m quite sure Husband doesn’t either.
The amount of people who don’t understand the concept of a library always amazes me, although maybe it shouldn’t. I’ve lost count of the number of people who treat the books in our library as their own personal copies. In a college library, there is a heavy demand on certain books. We do have multiple copies of core texts but never enough to satisfy everyone. When you tell someone that they need to return overdue books, they often argue that they need the books until the end of term. Pointing out that other people may need to borrow those books doesn’t make any difference in the slightest. As far as they are concerned those books belong to them and they are holding on to them for as long as possible. If you insist that they bring them back, they look at you as if you’re being unreasonable, as if you’re doing everything in your power to make their life difficult. Sometimes I want to say, ‘Go on then, keep the books. Pay for them and you can keep them’. I’m sure other libraries have the same problems. Of course, the majority of our library users do bring their books back on time. At the moment, however, it just seems as if people don’t bother.
Anyway, rant over now. Until the next time.
…since I last posted. I seem to be averaging one post a month now – must do better. Anyway, back to work and reality after our holiday in Fort Augustus a couple of weeks ago. The weather wasn’t great (it rained a lot) but the opportunity to get away from everything was much needed. I love Fort Augustus and the surrounding area. It is absolutely beautiful especially in Autumn with the colours changing. The drive up via Loch Lomond then through Glencoe is amazing. We stayed at the Inchnacardoch Lodge Hotel and I would definitely recommend it. We stayed there six years ago and although it has changed ownership it is still a great place to stay with good food and good whisky.
Work has been a little less stressful lately. Reading Group has started again. Our first book, Welcome to the Great Mysterious by Lorna Landvik, did not go down well. I thought it was okay but I didn’t love or hate it. Most of the group disliked it. We still had quite a good discussion although not necessarily about the book! Hopefully our next book, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, will produce a good discussion.
My brother and I held our usual Halloween tradition of watching scary movies and eating too much chocolate. This year’s choices – Candyman (very scary) and The Dollmaster (very silly). I was expecting Candyman (his choice) to be really gory but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I like scary movies but I hate gore. Put it this way, the chances of me watching something like Saw III are nil.
…is now – autumn. Okay, so I know you get days like today – dull, grey, rainy. Especially when you live in Scotland. However, you also get wonderful bright, sunny days when you just want to be outside. I’m not a fan of summer (sunburn, overheating at work, dehydration) as I don’t like the heat. Autumn is definitely my favourite season.
…another round of DIY. Husband and I are very far from being DIY experts but we have spent the past few weekends redecorating our hall. Yes, I admit it was all my idea and we have shared most of the work but Husband has taken on the job of laying the laminate flooring. He has done a brilliant job but, as we have both found, it is not easy despite claims from certain DIY places. We should get it all finished today, hopefully. I don’t think we’ll be doing anymore DIY for quite a while.
Oh yes, he most definitely has. I could not believe what I was reading when Husband showed me this article on the BBC News website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5301824.stm
To suggest that a child born into a so-called ‘dysfunctional family’ will ultimately become a menace to society before that child has even been born is completely beyond the pale. While it may be possible to predict that a child could develop behavioural problems as a result of their family circumstances, it is by no means certain that they will do so. I agree that help and support should be offered to families with problems but I believe that it is wrong to sanction people for refusing to accept that support. People have to take responsibility for their own lives. Are we to live our own lives or is the government to do that for us?
Tonight, after 42 years, the BBC broadcast the last edition of Top of the Pops and I must admit there was a wee tear in my eye at the end when the lights went down on the Top of the Pops studio. I remember sitting down every Thursday night at 7 pm to find out what was at number one. I think I started watching it in the late eighties but didn’t watch it religiously until the nineties – I remember the Blur vs. Oasis battle for number one (always preferred Blur although not that particular song, Country House). Funnily enough, although I’d not seen it for years, I had watched it a few times in the past couple of months. Always seemed to watch it when a song was at number one for a ridiculously long time – first Bryan Adams, then Wet Wet Wet, and this year Gnarls Barkley (mercifully that was only about nine weeks). It’s a shame that it’s all over – it was a part of growing up. Thank goodness McFly weren’t the last number one of Top of the Pops, I would have had to throw something at the telly.
…from my last post that I’m not feeling my best at the moment. Narky Moo is definitely the right name for me and I can’t be much fun to live with at the moment. Poor Husband.
Anyway, I am on holiday next week and I cannot wait. We’re going to visit our friends, Jen and Ben, in Reading for a few days. We haven’t seen them since the end of May and that was a fleeting visit on their part so it’s great to be able to spend more time with them. A few weeks ago, I met up with Clare – I hadn’t seen her since she left the library. We had a great evening, catching up and exchanging gossip. It’s still a wee bit strange at work without her. We went to Tchai-ovna in Otago Lane. I had forgotten how much I like it, especially the yogi-yogi tchai. The food is also very good. I will have to go back far more often. Other plans for next week include painting our hallway, visiting Kelvingrove Museum and Art Galleries now it is back open and hopefully some retail therapy in between.
Enjoyed the finale to Doctor Who on Saturday, especially the exchange between the Cybermen and the Daleks which degenerated into a slanging match. The best bit:
Cyberman: We are five million Cybermen. How many are you?
Dalek: Four.
Cyberman: You would defeat five million Cybermen with four Daleks?
Dalek: We would defeat five million Cybermen with one Dalek.
Brilliant! There were other great bits of dialogue but too many to mention here.
Very busy last week. Went to see Mum’s the Word 2: The Teenage Years at the King’s on Monday. Really funny, just as good as the original but a bit darker. I think my Mum enjoyed it too – she certainly seemed to appreciate it.
On Wednesday Husband and I attended one of the events for the West Dunbartonshire Literature Festival, the Return of the Femmes Fatales – a talk by three female crime writers, Lin Anderson, Alex Gray and Alanna Knight. They talked about their different experiences of writing: how they got started, dealings with publishers, the characters in their novels. It was a great event. Bought a couple of books after the talk, Driftnet by Lin Anderson and Never Somewhere Else by Alex Gray, so my summer reading is all sorted out. I’d been meaning to buy Driftnet for ages after reading Blood Red Roses, a prequel to Driftnet which we have at work. However, hearing Lin Anderson talk at the event made me even more keen to read her novels because she came across as a very interesting and likeable person and I like her sense of humour.
On Friday we saw Dylan Moran at Perth Concert Hall. He had been in Glasgow, at the Pavilion, but we didn’t manage to get tickets for that. My brother and my uncle went to see that show and really enjoyed it. The show at Perth was brilliant, he was really funny – he really is Bernard Black. If you ever get the chance to see him on stage, go! The funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.
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