Fish and chips.

Dusk toward Scotland. 31.08.04


Dusk toward England. 31.08.04

Yesterday evening PG and I had arranged to visit a colleague of mine to fix her computer. I add hastily here that in the main it is PG who does the hardware fixing, he is good at it, where as I fumble around in a none too confident manner. If only I could grasp the intricacies of the software aspect more fully we would make a good team! He should in my opinion and that of many others be working in the field but that's another story and I digress.

So having made this appointment we decided we would leave a little early and have fish and chips on the beach for supper. I wanted all my life to live by the sea and whilst we are in fact 12 miles away it is a damn sight closer than my previous places of residence, both of which were in the region of 80 miles from anything large and saline.

We duly made our way to the best fish and chip emporium in the town and then to the beach. I am, as they say here, a 'soft southerner' and so, the by then temperature of 6 degrees dictated that we sit in the car for this feast rather than actually venture onto the sand!

I could sit watching the waves, listening to the sound they make as they break onto the beach mingled with the call of seagulls overhead and looking into the massive expanse of horizon forever. Seagulls chattering away will always evoke in me an immediate feeling of happiness and of wonderful childhood holidays. They are considered vermin here, to the point that a professional bird handler is employed to fly his birds of prey among them on a daily basis. Apparently seagulls are fearful of hawks and it successfully keeps their numbers down!

Berwick upon Tweed is the northernmost town in England and has been variously 'owned' by Scotland and England over the centuries. In fact the most recent squabble for ownership was officially only resolved a few years ago though raging battles long since ceased! It still always amuses me as a newcomer that from where we where parked, in one direction is Scotland and in the other is England and that I 'cross the border' every day remains a source of strange fascination!

So, blissful reverie over we made tracks to the ailing computer. A pleasant evening of gossip, over cups of good coffee, was had by my colleague and myself and PG did his stuff over a bottle of wine.

Job done and it was home to a rather disgruntled Ditto who had been under house arrest all evening. We don't allow her out if we aren't in, she is not overly savvy and I fear for her taking on a badger or fox or some other inappropriate sparring partner and requiring rescue and medical attention, as has been the case on one or two occasions!

It was a good evening, made a nice change, I did of course park myself infront of this machine within minutes of arriving home and stayed put until the wee small hours. We had planned a visit to Ikea this afternoon but I feel a small siesta is now more likely and Ikea can wait until tomorrow! :o)