The central heating has been just a bit over excited since we got the new boiler. There are outbreaks of wild whooshing and occasionally, a sort of explosion, quite alarming, really. We came to the conclusion that there are interface issues of some kind, and so today I rang the intelligent lady who mans the […]
We came home in the dark on Friday, and at the end of the evening, I took Miss Cat out for her ablutions. I was not a little surprised to get to the end of my garden and find myself stumbling into what appeared to be a ploughed field — I do of course take […]
We are basking in vicarious glory. Today our friend the Opera Singer received an honorary degree, — Mus. D. gowns being what they are this now entitles him to dress up as a Christmas cracker if he ever feels the need, though since his work permits him to dress up in every known variety […]
I was at home today with Barry the Great, who is in love. He wasn’t with us last week, because he was going to Ireland to pick up a new puppy: he is an aficionado of an exotic breed called the soft-coated wheaten terrier which I must say I hadn’t heard of — his adult […]
A friend of ours wanted trusty native guides to Auldearn, so, since we didn’t have to go in today, we agreed a trip up Speyside. We left the general zone of Turriff in grey dribbling rain, which slackened as we went west and morphed into into a pellucid, clean-rinsed autumn day, the sort of day […]
I’ve been off line for a while. We were down in Edinburgh from Monday afternoon to Wednesday, then catching up like mad, then the blog site was down. Why we were in Edinburgh was to witness the civil partnership of the erstwhile Tropical, now Edinburgh, Godparents. It was a terrific day from start to finish, […]
It is easy to feel that in this world of tears, toast inevitably lands butter side down, Sod jeers at us, shaking his cap and bells, as his Law is implemented, and so forth. Some time ago I bought, for really not very much at all, a valueless Indian brass ring, which for some wholly […]
Our University has built a fine new library, now open. The main move took place over the summer, but the Special Collections moved only over the last month — after everyone was quite sure the environment was stable. This move is now complete, and so I think I can share my amusement, observing the process. […]
When we got back from Saturday’s expedition, there was the unmistakable tinge of frost in the air. Though it was pitch dark by the time we came home, the Professor went out with a torch and picked every dahlia he could see. Just as well, because when I took Miss Cat out later the grass […]
It was rather a long week, what with one thing and another, and we had hatched plans to lie in & not do anything very much. But the best laid plans are apt to gang agley, and agley is where this one ganged, since we had an early visit from the Laird of the Pink […]