Burns Supper We had a charged Saturday. Started with blueberry pancakes for breakfast, then some dance lessons for our 2 primadonnas. Sharon made some salmon mousse for the supper. We went to the Royal concert hall for some free music where Ailsa and Heather put their dance skills to good use - Ailsa's been learning some eastern moves to the song 'Spirit in the sky'. Then we were at the Clarks for another superb Burns supper. I did the immortal memory to Rabbie and highlighted his only poem about his first-born child. (http://www.robertburns.org/works/43.shtml). Neil Q and Sharon battled it out in the address to the lads and lasses (gender warfare). Leo's elegant friend from Jamaica entertained us with Jamaican poems and some dulcet tones. Sunday is for laying low. We forgot our camera but here is the evidence that we got all tartaned out. Even Claire had a sprig tied to her dress.
JR

Birthday Friends

Here is my friend Gbemisola with her 2 children and a couple of mine, celebrating her 30th birthday yesterday. Kids love birthdays. They love you when you have a birthday. I am going to rent mine out for people's birthdays.

A long disembarking process

Heather: "Now I know Oma and Opa are off the plane because they sent me mail!"

Sweet Baby Pictures

Just some lovely pictures of the lovely Claire.

Fair Trade Everything

Many of you know that I am a big supporter of Fairtrade shopping. Here in Britain, I can buy fairtrade coffee, tea, sugar, bananas, mangoes, roses, avocados, chocolate, tshirts and wine. But you can get a lot more online.

Disclaimer: I was not LOOKING for such items, nor had it ever occurred to me to wonder if such items were available. But they are. Go to www.frenchlettercondoms.com. And carry your ethical shopping practices right into the bedroom. Or wherever else.

Sweeter, Smoother, Hotter

In the last week, my tea has been sweeter, my coffee has been smoother and my hot water bottle hotter. It's all down to our sleek new kettle (can you see the elongated me reflected off its surface).

Thank you to the house guests who broke the dodgy plastic one which underboiled half the time anyway. Next time you come, feel free to break (and then feel guilty enough to replace) any of the following:
The bed, with it's toe-breaking footboard
The sofa with its stained arms and cigarette burnhole
The bulky, non-flat-screen computer monitor
The drafty front or back doors
The double glaze windows with trapped condensation

See you soon!

Not doing things by halves


Why wear one ribbon when you can wear 32? You can tie them around your upper arms, wrists, waist, over the shoulder, ankles, in your hair, and then tie ribbons to other ribbons.

Why wear one hair clip when there is room for nineteen? While Mum is feeding Claire, you just fill the sink with water, dip your comb in, slick back your hair and put a clip in. Repeat as necessary.

Don't leave anyone out

There have been quite a few occasions with friends where we have simply forgotten our camera, or did not get a good photo. Viewers of this blog might think we only take pictures if there is someone under 3 feet high in sight.

Well, I wanted to include a nice picture of the morning we had with Neil and Anita last week, but forgot to take a picture of them. So I have had to recreate the scene here. Below are the lovely Anita and the grinning Neil shaing a small cup of tea.


We did have a lengthy conversation about blog/facebook/internet security that morning, so perhaps these recreated scenes are appropriate to maintain their privacy. I am sure they would not appreciate their work colleagues seeing what other antics they got up to after a bit of champagne at 11 in the morning.

The visitors have gone

It was a 3 week Canadian visitor exctravaganza, but now sadly, they've all gone and it's back to the routine and New year resolutions. First of all Rita and Aubrey turned up, then they went to Belgium and brought back Bethanne and Bruno - meanwhile we were in Aberdeen for Christmas.

There was a visit from Allen Youn g too with his Irish wisdom. Then we had Rita, Aubrey B+B at our house for New Year - with some ceilidhing and champagne

Anita and Neil Clark were over for some brunch and ballet lessons.

then it was off to Aberdeen for Gibby (my dad's 70th B-day). There was lots of snow and we climbed the great Scolty hill and frolicked in thew snow. This could have turned into several blogs.

Heather eating snow

Happy New Year