Category: Journal
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Baby photos
I started this blog because of the Christchurch earthquakes but many women start blogs as a way to record images of their children. My blog has certainly morphed into that over the years but there’s nothing of my children from before the earthquakes. I realised this yesterday when I went searching for a baby photo…
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Real neat blog award
I don’t usually participate in blog awards but I was described as a “young Australian” (note the young) by the person who nominated me. Since flattery will get you everywhere, I thought I’d participate. However, I’m not going to nominate anyone else. Not because I don’t think there are some fab blogs out there, there are, but…
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Feeling sorry for myself and more writing from Elizabeth
After I posted my last post I looked at the image of myself and thought I looked ill in it. I didn’t think anything of it until later that night when I woke up feeling very ill and then spent much of the night in the bathroom. I picked up a stomach bug in Pitlochry…
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Black Spout Waterfall and Blair Athol Distillery
We enjoyed our last day in Pitlochry and are all very sad to be leaving. I highly recommend this little village as a place for an enjoyable family break. This morning we went for a short walk to Black Spout waterfall. It’s a 60 m high waterfall just next to the village of Pitlochry and…
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Squirrel Nutkin and a fish ladder
I saw not one Squirrel Nutkin but two Squirrel Nutkins this morning (and by Squirrel Nutkin I’m referring to the very elusive red squirrel). I went out by myself just after breakfast and it didn’t take very long to spot them. They’re much smaller than I thought and very, very cute. They’re incredibly agile and…
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Pitlochry
We are in Pitlochry in Perthshire, which is in the middle of Scotland. We caught the train from Aberdeen yesterday and plan to spend two nights here. We thought about booking one of the Co-wheels cars but it actually worked out to be the same price, if not cheaper, to catch the train. That’s including the…
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Creeper family
Elizabeth drew this picture of Creeper’s family (I especially love “bruver”. She still pronounces “th” like a “v”): I’ve eaten too much chocolate this past week. I’m never eating any chocolate ever again. I just have to finish my Easter Eggs first, though 🙂 Ben has a tradition of hiding Easter Eggs around the house…
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Litter bugs and pissing in the street
Ever since I read Gemma’s post about her Bishop’s Meadow litter pick, I have been thinking I should do the same. There are some lovely rose gardens and a small field of daffodils very close to our home and both seem to be permanently spoilt with litter. One afternoon this week as I was cycling…
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Hunter or bully?
I saw this photo of Donald Trump’s son this week and want to write about it: There’s nothing more attractive in a man, in my view anyway, than kindness and cleverness. Any man with these traits will send women weak at the knees. Ok, so if men want something more than weak knees they may also need…
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Easter, ethics, and Debussy
As usual I fell for all the April Fools’ Day jokes yesterday including the one about Jeremy Clarkson joining the fossil fuel divestment movement. I guess I was just feeling hopeful 🙂 The kids have been asking me lots of questions about Easter that I’m having problems answering like “How does the Easter Bunny travel?” and…
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Job losses at the University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen University are calling for voluntary redundancies in a bid to save money. At this stage it is just voluntary but typically in these situations, if enough people don’t volunteer, they progress to forced redundancies. The physical sciences and mathematics are usually fairly safe so I think the chances of Ben losing his job are quite small,…
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Platonic solids
Last night, just as I was about to hop into bed, I was forced to endure a lesson on platonic solids. And no, unfortunately platonic solids have nothing to do with sex or lack of. They’re far less exciting. This is one of the side-effects of being married to a mathematician: I get lessons. He’s…
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Running in the rain, bras, husbands, and apocalyptic sex
I’m just back from a run in the rain and sleet and it was glorious; the best run I’ve had for ages. I felt wonderfully alive. It’s good to suffer a little bit every now and again. Although someone living in a rich country with a warm home, running for half an hour in the…
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Explaining charity to kids
The schools here have regular fundraising for various different charities. I quite like this as I think it’s good for children to learn about donating to those in need. This week they’ve been asked to donate a pound to a charity in Africa but Daniel questioned this. “I don’t want to give them something if…
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Celebrating small boobs
I recently watched a couple of BBC documentaries: My Small Boobs and I and My Big Breasts and Me. Both were good but the small boobs one was quite sad. It followed three beautiful young women who were deeply unhappy with their appearance. As a small breasted woman myself I thought I would write about how…
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Aberdeen Jazz Festival
We spent a couple of hours at the Aberdeen Jazz Festival this afternoon. It was terrific. I love jazz. Especially live jazz. We used to go to the Christchurch Jazz Festival every year which was at a similar time of year; April I think. I wonder whether it still runs? The Aberdeen Festival was just…
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The solar eclipse and a space diary
There was a solar eclipse this morning and just as it went noticeably darker I glanced out my window and inadvertently looked right at the sun. How bad is my luck? All week I’ve been desperately hoping to see the aurora borealis only to be disappointed by cloud and fog. The minute there’s a solar…
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It is people! It is people! It is people!
I’ve just come home from collecting my kids from school to a lovely surprise that I want to share. I’m ashamed to say that I never learnt very much about about Māori culture when I lived in New Zealand, but aside from knowing only a couple of cool words (like puku and whanau) I do quite like this proverb:…
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The dentist and playing dress-ups
I took Elizabeth to the dentist this morning and everything is fine which is a big relief after the shock we had last year. We’ve found a terrific dentist here. He told me that what Elizabeth had done, with the stainless steel crowns on her back molars, is the best treatment she could possibly have…
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Pine martens, red squirrels, and aurora borealis
The Northern Lights were on display across British skies last night but I didn’t see them. I looked out many times before bed, I woke at 3am to have another look, and then again at 5:30am but there was nothing. Only clouds 😦 Here’s what I might have seen: Stunning Northern Lights displays lit up…
