Return to the Blog

Should I give this blogging malarky another go?  I kind of forgot all about it (for almost 2 years?).  Maybe I should try again.

Since I will be getting my bus pass next month, maybe I should write a travel blog - Travels with my Bus Pass - or something like that.  If only I was getting my pension too - then I could retire and have the time to travel with my bus pass.

What's happened since I last posted here?

Well, my daughter got married last year so we now have a great son-in-law.

I no longer go to dance classes (although that could change soon - watch this space).  I really miss my tap class and I should do something to try and keep get fitness levels up a bit.

I still go to art classes - mostly just for fun. 

I've also joined a traditional music club - but traditional in a very loose way - just good tunes/songs.

I'm really gearing up for retirement - it's just too bad it is officially so far away!

Life seems to be getting in the way of blogging. Didn't realise it was so long since I last added to this blog.

Nothing much has changed.(Apart from the look of the Blogger site - completely different and I feel a bit lost). I'm still going to dance class, still going to art class and enjoying both of them. Long may it continue. 

Thursdays come round very quickly. It seems the week just disappears in a flash. Roll on retirement.

Regarding retirement, I'm a bit peeved that instead of getting my state pension at the age of 64 and x days I will be forced to wait until I'm 66! Really not fair!  20 years ago I expected I would retire and get my pension at 60;  possibly 10 years ago (not sure the exact timescale) I learned I would be one of these women who wouldn't get my pension at 60 and that I would have to wait until I was just past my 64th birthday. I wasn't too happy but accepted it.  Then of course the evil Tories got in and changed things again without much warning.  It's a bit too late for me to add to any private pension (not enough in the pot to make it worth my while adding to it - when I retire it will be a tiny pension).

Ach well, as long as the Scottish Government don't change the rules, it won't be too long until I get my bus pass.  With my luck - they'll probably change the rules just before I'm due to get mine!

Hello Again

I know, it's March already and it's been a while since I wrote anything here. I'm just full of excuses though.

My son and grandson came for a visit in February and we had a lovely time. William will be 3 later this month and he got to visit his great gran and granda at the same time as his cousins aged 4 and 2. The three of them had a ball and I hope it won't be too long until he comes back for a visit. We are of course going down to East Yorkshire for his birthday.

Last week I had art class on Monday; dance class on Thursday; I took a turn stewarding at the Embroiderers Guild stall at the craft show at the SECC on Friday; Embroiderers Guild meeting on Saturday; Knit and Natter on Sunday morning following by a family birthday tea in the afternoon.... and then we were back to Monday again and art class!

Next week is also the last week of my art course. The weeks have just flown by but I'm pleased to say my landscape painting is just about finished (maybe even as finished as it will ever be). We've been working on it for a few weeks in class although I haven't had the time to do any further work on it at home. I am however seriously considering signing up for another short course to start after the easter holidays.

More Art

Help! In next week's class we are going to paint a landscape from a photograph. We can sketch it on A3 paper before the class but we've not to paint it yet. I had to take three photographs into class and the tutor picked one of them for me to paint. The one he picked is a picture of a small bay, shingle beach, drystone wall, a couple of houses and outbuildings and of course hills and sky. Oh and there are a couple of small boats pulled up onto the beach.


I knew the photograph was taken in Shetland a few years ago and I suspected it was Hillswick. I emailed the photo to my mother and she confirmed it is a picture of a house at the end of the beach and it is Hillswick.



I spent ages last night trying to sketch it. I just couldn't get it at all. I managed to sketch it on smaller A4 paper but my attempts to sketch it out on the larger sheet were absymal. I just couldn't get it right.

I suppose that's what the class is for - to learn how to do something!

New Pastime

It's not really a new year resolution but I'm trying to be a bit more active and join 'things'.

I've been going to a dance class for about 18 months and still enjoy it. I take every week as it comes - I don't believe in 'no pain, no gain' - but so far so good.


Towards the end of last year I signed up for a 10 week art class. (Learn to paint with acrylics). I hadn't painted since high school days but I thought I would give it a go. I loved it! I hadn't used acrylics before - we didn't have them in school in the olden days. The 10 weeks passed too quickly and the class finished just before Christmas.


After the new year break I signed up for another 10 week class. I've now been to three classes. I really feel I am learning something and I look forward to going to class. It's only a two hour class and the tutor talks for 20 - 30 mins so we don't get a lot of time to paint but it's amazing what we are all achieving.



That is the beauty of painting. . It's creative; it's subjective - does it really matter what someone else thinks - for me the main thing is the enjoyment of doing it; your focus is on the painting activity and other problems and worries just disappear for a while. You don't have to be a genius to enjoy it.


And you never know.... you could end up with a work of art to hang on the wall.

Went to the Danny Kyle Open Stage at Celtic connections last night. Being the first open stage of this year's festival it featured last year's winners. Really good show. It makes me wish I had stuck in at music lessons when I was younger - but alas I didn't.


I'm really looking forward to seeing a few open stages this year. It's always very enjoyable. If you can't make it in to the Concert Hall you can listen online at http://www.celticmusicradio.net/ between 5 and 7 pm every night.

Return to Normality

Well, it's the last night of the holidays. We are into the new year. Resolutions have been made and some broken already. I really should eat less chocolate. Too many truffles have passed these lips in the past fortnight.

There has been too much sitting about; too much snow, too much ice; too much sleeping.

After all the stress of the last minute Christmas shopping, Christmas Day has been and gone; presents exchanged; two weeks gone in a flash.

It has been so cold I feel I should hibernate. We have had snow and ice for more than two weeks and there's more to come if the weather forecasters are to be believed.

Footpaths and roads are still covered in snow and ungritted. The loch is frozen. The birds flock to our snow covered garden every day in search of food.

Back to work tomorrow.

Back to normality?