Bridges and trees

Yesterday's attempt at erecting our Christmas tree fell sadly by the wayside, I nodded off in the late afternoon and awoke to find said tree, that had been languishing on our balcony, had been rained upon. Bah!

The thought of electric lights coupled with wet tree did nothing for my feeling of personal safety, I did briefly consider, in my impatience to get to the job, giving it a quick blow dry with the hair dryer but a modicum of common sense prevailed and I abandoned the task until today. That's the theory at any rate, assuming I can get it dry at some point!

On an entirely different subject I did discover last night some photographs I took on my visit to the hairdresser last week.

Berwick upon Tweed is famed for it's three bridges all standing side by side, an old road bridge, a new road bridge and the Royal Border rail bridge which once it has spanned the river Tweed carries on for maybe another quarter mile over the town and carries the East coast main line. Had I been a little more adventurous I might have waded into the Tweed estuary at the point it meets the North sea to picture all three in a row, as it was I wasn't and I didn't!

For now you will have to imagine.....one day I will attempt to find a spot to take all three that won't necessitate calling out the lifeboat!

To take the first of these pics I was stood with my back to the second pic.... the railbridge.

(click to enlarge)

Road bridges, toward the North Sea


The Royal Border Bridge.


Big!

He may not be..........

.........my favourite individual but having just watched Paul Burrell struggling to eat a kangaroo testicle on 'I'm a celebrity', I have to have a tiny bit of respect for the man.........rarely have I seen such an impressive display of mind over matter! He may be many things, none of them good, but I couldn't do it!

Bleughhh!

Oh, and in my defence I have to say this is the only episode I have watched! heh.

It ain't like this in the movies!

I have somewhat of a penchant for taking baths in the winter, a situation that PG thinks is a waste of money.....we have a perfectly good shower he reasons, that doesn't use world resources to such extreme and doesn't require a mortgage to pay the fuel bill in spring!

Not to be deterred I still prefer to have a bath, somehow standing butt naked in the shower on a cold morning or evening isn't such an attractive prospect.

And so it was, that submerged in my un-eco friendly bath today, I pondered how like many things the thought is good but in practice the experience is not always quite what we would like.

Have you ever noticed how, in the movies, in romantic novels and in a plethora of advice on relaxation techniques etc. those doing the 'submerged in the bath thing', are calm, elegant and relaxed in a haven of sweet smelling, steamless pleasure? Not for them is there a neighbour incessently knocking on the door while you stumble, dripping all over the floor reaching for a towel and a robe shouting 'I'm in the bloody bath'! In the movies they don't run out of hot water, sit on the soap, sliding sideways risking life and limb and nor have I ever seen a 'bathing beauty' emerge from the water crinkled like a prune, overly pink and with hair in a tangled wet mess! Oh no....in the movies they are serene, beautiful, perfectly made up and with not a hair out of place!

So while I mused on this my mind wandered further into the 'it ain't like this in the movies' thing......... to watery romantic encounters. We have all seen it, the romantic couple, playfully making out in the bath, probably all tried it.... but how in Gods name does that work? From the outset its not good news, two adults in a normal bath? No chance, well not with any degree of comfort or romance.

In the movies no one has the 'tap end' burning hole in their spine or the plug located in a most uncomfortable spot. Far from the erotic and elegant encounters portrayed on video tape, in reality those attempting this feat, for a feat it is, become more akin to foundering whales vying for the tiny space and getting for the most part cold! The water displacement threatens to cause a flood Noah would be proud of and most certainly, never in the movies, have I seen a cat precariously attempting to walk along the slippery edge of said bath, about to slip in and cause mortal damage to tender parts!

Did I say I liked to have a bath?..........I think I'll consider showering more often!

A manic weekend

Good grief......almost 36 hours have passed and not one word have I posted here! How remiss of me.

I will endeavour to rectify the situation in the next few day and make up for lost time, I have however very little of any interest to blight your day with. The weekend was spent at work.....and what a weekend, probably one of the toughest I recall. The few of us present, with the odd exception, gave an effort nearing gargantuan for the whole of both days. Utter madness descended on the place as Joe Public rummaged maniacally, for 48 hours, through all things offered for sale remotely pertaining to Christmas!

I don't ever recall being so tired both physically and mentally, hence in the main, the reason for my absence from the blogosphere the last day or two. Despite all that it was fun, yes, work was fun, amazing I grant you but a strange sense of camaraderie occurs when the going gets as tough as it did yesterday and if you didn't laugh you'd cry!

The remainder of my waking hours were been spent template fiddling in various corners of the blogosphere until I all but fell asleep with my nose squashed firmly into my keyboard last night.

And what of today?........a bit more fiddling, maybe a small 'siesta' and I think I will succumb to the temptation to put up our Christmas tree way too early!

Zzzzzzzzz

This is going to be short and sweet, unlike myself who is just short, Lol, yeah I said it myself before you had the chance! :o)

Up at 5 for work this morning...........that was the easy part.

Retail + Christmas = UGH!

I need to sleep,

Good night, sweet dreams.......

zzzzzzzzz..............

Friday's feast (26)

Appetizer
Tell about a toy you remember from your childhood.

My teddy, I was given it by my Aunt the day I was born and I still have it....a bit threadbare but still alive!

Soup
If you could make one thing in the world absolutely free for everyone, what would it be?

Food.

Salad
Approximately how many times per day do you think about your significant other?

Hell...I have no idea, depends on the day but lots probably!

Main Course
Name something you believe in 100%.

Cognitive behavioural therapy

Dessert
List 3 things you did this year that you would consider a "good deed."

Walked that damn dog! lol
Allowed someone to use me as 'cover'
Eeekkkk...I must have been horrid this year, I can't think of a 3rd!

Microsoft jump on the bandwagon

I read this with some amusement!

A special gift

Whilst I was braving an unavoidable trip to the hairdressers yesterday morning (trim only, the growing process is still underway!)I received a call from PG telling me to hurry up home, I had a big parcel delivered from the US and he wanted to see what it was!

I forbade him from further 'investigation' until I arrived home and full of excitement prodded the hairdresser in quicker action.

Once back home I was presented with a big brown box that, at extortionate cost I might add, had flown it's way from the US to Scotland. I had kinda expected 'something' to arrive but nothing of this magnitude. I fervently unpacked it's contents to find two beautiful gifts, a CD of 'electrically modified' Christmas music and a limited edition porcelain plate depicting a Christmas scene.

The gifts where accompanied by a letter explaining that the sender has become tired of the commercialism surrounding the festive season and so was gifting me two things that were important to them, kinda like passing on the pleasure these items had already afforded themselves.

I was so touched, the ethos is wonderful and makes the gift so much more precious. There was of course no need for a gift at all, it was from someone in the blogosphere as thanks for some help I gave, I will not identify this person for fear of causing embarrassment, if they wish to identify themselves in comments then that is their choice.

However, you know who you are, I have thanked you personally but I just have to say publicly the BIGGEST THANK YOU ever to you.......the fact that anyone even thought to do such a kind and thoughtful thing for me is one of those few instances in life that has renewed my faith in human nature ............you have 'made' my Christmas!!

THANK YOU :o)

'Murder in paradise' ~ update

Regular readers may recall that in June I posted under the heading 'murder in paradise' about an incident, where even in this remote rural spot, we had woken one morning to the news of a murder in the village.

The perpetrators had their day in court this week, one pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of assault and was release from court having spent six months on remand. His accomplice, who beat the victim to death causing an horrific array of injuries was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he not be allowed to apply for parole for 10 years.

The real deal

Yesterday PG and I headed off to Edinburgh for the inevitable 'real' Christmas shop, this was to be our one foray into a shopping mall to gather together the remaining items that I had not been able to secure via the internet. It of course did not work out quite like that and I have to admit that my well laid plans failed....another trip will be required! Bah!

In the event we had an enjoyable day for the most part. The shops where not as crowded as I had expected, perhaps indicative of the poor retail Christmas forecast by economists and we sauntered around looking for gifts in a reasonably relaxed fashion. In fact if I'm honest we seemed to spend most of the day going from one 'eatery' to the next, well you gotta eat lunch, partake of coffee breaks to keep one's strength up and then of course mid evening requires dinner!

We managed to purchase most of what we required in the gift line, found a new cell phone to replace the one PG 'blew up' last week and remarkably I came home with nothing for me....quite a feat if I say so myself, Christmas shopping has a bad habit of turning into expensive 'me' shopping way too often!

En route I took a few pictures, the journey is boringly long when you have stuff to get done but it is none the less beautiful when the weather allows. Strangely, within literally 2 minutes of these pictures being shot we were enveloped in thick, blinding fog that lasted then until this morning!!

(click to enlarge)

Lookout


Over the hill



In sun


3pm sunset

Winter woolies

Believe me, not all Scottish skies are beautiful hues of pink and blue and the designer fashions sported by the locals leave a little to be desired at times!

(click for the big one)

Winter woolies. 01.12.04

'Blog' at the top!

The word 'blog' has apparently landed itself in the top 10 words searched on the internet this year!

The top 10 words of the year based on searches of Merriam-Webster Web sites.

1. Blog
2. Incumbent
3. Electoral
4. Insurgent
5. Hurricane
6. Cicada
7. Platoon
8. Partisan
9. Sovereignty
10.Defenestration

Read more here.

Thanks to Lisa for finding this snippet and apologies for thievery!

Hark the Herald Angels....

Christmas shopping used to be something I looked forward to with glee, it was the beginning of the festivities for me and part and parcel (no pun intended) of the run up to the big day.

12 years in retail have somewhat eroded that. I have been listening to 'Jingle Bells' and 'Hark the bloody Herald Angels Sing, for weeks now. Christmas started in gemmaks-ville in mid September, lugging Christmas trees about and packing tinsel, lights and all the other paraphernalia for weeks has worn a little thin now and Christmas cheer among Joe Public, is as ever, in short supply.

It is thus that the thought of getting my own shopping done and dusted did not fill me with ecstasy, add to that PG and I don't have many days off together and it always requires a few trips to get it all done and that each trip is 150 miles.

How the answer never hit me before amazes me, I spend a large proportion of my time sat infront of this infernal machine and yet it took me until this year to realise the solution to the Christmas shopping horror was staring me in the face! Doh!

Shop on the internet, obvious really. Strange how one gets a mind set about a particular activity, most other things I buy off the internet and yet Christmas gifts I had never thought of!

And so one day last week I logged onto johnlewis.com, charge card gripped firmly in hand and set about virtual shopping. What a delight, two hours later, no crowds, no Hark the bloody Herald Angels and no fuss, it was done.....90% of what I needed was purchased leaving only a few odds and sods left to be found.

The down side of course was that given recent experiences I was not entirely convinced that my order would be delivered without fuss or on time. 3-7 working days was quoted, it arrived in 4! How impressed am I? I know, John lewis of all retailers were going to get it right if anyone was but 'Ms Sceptical' here still harboured doubts! Not only did said parcel arrive within the specified period but also, on finding no one at home, the delivery driver, proving to have an IQ above that of a peanut used his nouse and left it with a neighbour!

Christmas shopping 21st century style, it may be cheating not to suffer the crowds etc. but it's the way to go for me.

All I have to do now is the wrapping and distribution. That involves a 600 mile round trip to my sisters in the Midlands a day or two before Christmas if PG and I have a day off together, I can't say I fancy the drive alone. The one thing I overlooked in my excitement at finding a route out of the shopping nightmare was to buy gifts of a 'postable' size! At least I get to see my nieces for a few hours near to Christmas this way..... we might be shattered after the journey but it will be happy shattered.

"Haaark the herald angels siiiing, glooory tooo the new born King"............

Comment-less

Having worked the last four days I finally get time to sit and have a good read through my regulars only to find that the illustrious Blogger is at it again.....I can't post comments anywhere!

So....if you notice I have hit you and haven't left a comment, almost certainly it's not because I have suddenly become dumb-struck (as if, this is me, I say stuff) it's because the Blogger gremlins are at it again.

Oh....and having just hit the button to spell check, it seems that is dysfunctional too so forgive me any great faux pas :o)