Definitely time to post again.  As you can see, regular postings are not my style – like a lot of other things in life, I guess.  Off work at the moment, and very glad about it too.  It’s really nice to have a bit of time to myself and husband although at the moment we still seem to be suffering the after-effects of celebrating the New Year.  The consequences of family dinners, I guess.

No resolutions as such this year, I only end up breaking them.   Having said that, for the third year running, I’m going to try to learn to drive – or at least apply for my provisional licence.

Looking forward to Celtic Connections again.  We’re going to see Capercaillie this year and I’m hoping to get tickets for a few other things.  Also looking forward to Terry Moore’s new series, after reading Strangers in Paradise.

Anyway, off to drag husband out for a walk while there’s still a little bit of daylight.

More than ever, now.  Only another week or so until the end of term, then the library should be a student-free zone for at least six weeks!  Working in a college reminds me of being at school/uni when you get near the end of the year and you just want everything to be finished.  Summer can’t come soon enough! 

So I think I’m getting a lot grumpier as I get older.  I’m only 27 now so I hate to think what I’ll be like in 10 years time.  I wish I could be more laid-back but narkiness prevails, as does stress and anxiety.  Being forced to listen to triple-the-normal-volume ringtones on the bus home does not promote well-being! 

Or maybe it’s just the mood I’m in right now.  Husband and I seem to be suffering from the winter blues, especially as the seasons are all out of kilter.   Talking to friends and colleagues at work however, there seems to be a general feeling of tiredness and low energy.  Probably all the rain and crap weather we’ve experienced lately.  Although today is lovely – all clear, blue sky and cold, crisp air.

Despite the low moods, we’ve been quite busy recently.  Last week we went to two Celtic Connections concerts.  The first, the Showcase Scotland concert was a little unnerving for me as I used to go to school with one of the people performing, Roddy Hart.  So it was a bit weird watching him perform at Celtic Connections although he was really good.   The concert was also broadcast live on Radio Scotland so that, for some reason, added to the weirdness especially as the audienced was sometimes signalled when to clap.  All the same, it was a great concert.  The second concert, Karine Polwart and Seth Lakeman, was amazing.  They were both brilliant.  It was at the Old Fruitmarket which is a great venue – it always has a really good atmosphere.  One more concert to go to on Sunday afternoon and that’s it for another year.  My Dad’s been taking full advantage of the programme, I don’t know how he manages to go to so many things.

…until January!

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.

…Christmas is almost here.  Only 5 days (of madness?) to go.  The supermarket was busy enough yesterday, I can’t imagine how bad it will be this weekend.  I don’t feel very Christmassy yet – I don’t know why.  Up until the weekend I was still worrying about what to get people for Christmas.  Husband finished his shopping a couple of weeks ago and he is quite smug about that.  I had most of my shopping done, there were just the difficult people to buy for i.e. the ones that you have no idea what they would like.  Anyway, it’s almost finished now.  Just a couple of small things to get and I can breathe a sigh of relief.  I think we get far too stressed about this time of year.  I know I do but then I get far too stressed about a lot of things.  There we go, New Year’s Resolution #1: Try not to stress.  Failed to keep my one resolution this year: learn to drive.  So Resolution #2: learn to drive; Resolution #3: keep New Year’s resolutions. 

We’re spending Christmas in Perth this year but we’ll be back in Glasgow for Hogmanay.  I’m one of the lucky people who is off work for a week-and-a-half (one advantage to working in a college library).  I’m looking forward to spending time with family and friends, especially people we don’t see that often.

…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. 

…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.

Riverside Museum, Reading

Originally uploaded by cosmicsmudge.

Back at work after a week’s holiday. I’m now starting to plan another holiday in my head but I’ll have to wait until October. There’s far too much to do at work at the moment, making sure the entire library collection is recorded on the new Library Management System before the students start back at College. Just being able to plan a holiday is enough for the moment. Thinking longingly of going back to Dublin or maybe Fort Augustus.

I was off work for a week but it was very busy. We started redecorating our hall (my idea) but we haven’t finished yet so we’ll be doing more this weekend. Mid-week we travelled down to Reading to stay with friends. We made the mistake of travelling on, not only the hottest day of the year, but the hottest day in July since 1911 or something like that. Anyway, the journey was fine until we got to Birmingham where we had to change trains. Unfortunately the rail tracks had buckled due to the ‘extreme heat’ and practically every train was delayed. We finally arrived at our destination 2 1/2 hours later than we were supposed to but we could have been delayed for much longer so it wasn’t too bad. My friend had been for a job interview in London (she got the job) and had been delayed too. We were all shattered that night.