time-travelling tuesday (part 21)

Stovies!  We always had them with beetroot and oatcakes too, but I never realised that was a "thing".  I think I might make stovies tonight.  Yum.  Once I made stovies before a dance class and everyone I danced with complained they could smell soup.  How embarrassing...

6th June 1988

Went to beach in Cullen because it is very very hot.

7th June 1988

Extra dancing.  Singing today.

8th June 1988

Granny Arrived Today.  I Meant Tonight.  Islay Granny not Huntly Granny.

9th June 1988

B

r

o

w

n

i

e

s

10th June 1988 Julia coming over/Stovie Dance

Today Kerry got a brace (of pheasants).

[Comedy genius at the age of 8.  Wow.]

11th June 1988 Dad's birthday

Today I went to see Barry and Mark and Mathew.  I went with Huntly Granny.

12th June 1988

Went to church.  Won pound.  Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very hot.

[I wonder what I won the pound for...]

comets and co

I am loving this website of pictures of comets, meteorites and shooting stars in chronological order.  Beautiful.

dildo noise

I'm working this weekend and churlishly resenting it, but there are upsides to my work.  This morning I found this scribbled note left lying on my desk -  a record of a typical working day in the life of a subtitler and the things we have to think about.  Yes, that does read "dildo noise"...

no (no! no! no!)

 I haven't been around the old blog much lately even though I feel like so much has been going on.  Of course, the biggest news in Scotland is last week's referendum.  I know I had been quite public about my yes stance, but I had no idea how much I had wanted independence until we didn't get it.  Honestly, I've been absolutely gutted all week.  What a wasted opportunity.  I keep imagining this parallel universe where the vote went the other way and every day that inaccessible parallel universe keeps moving further and further away from the real universe, getting better and better and better.  Gah, I guess it was not to be.  Look at wee Dulcie up there.  I'm so mad on her behalf, not at individuals who voted no for reasons they really believed were good, but at people who were sucked in or scared or stuck in their ways (or, while we're on an S theme, sectarian).

The atmosphere on the day of the vote was so positive and buzzy and amazing and it really felt like something good was going to happen.  Look how hopeful we were back then.  Sigh...

I guess we all just have to pick ourselves up and move on and think of the positives, of which there are some.  The run-up to the vote got nearly everyone thinking and talking and engaging in ways they never really had before, myself included.  I'm hoping that won't stop now and that maybe we'll all feel change is possible and worth striving for, that we'll be willing and able to protest if things in the UK go in directions we feel are wrong.  It's not everything I hoped for, but hopefully it will be better than it would have been had we not had the referendum at all.  I guess there are other parallel universes worse than the real one, as well as the one that's so much better.  Onwards and upwards?

Anyway, other than the referendum, September has mostly involved germs - multiple stomach bugs, one of them seriously hardcore and more public than I would have liked (picture me covered in Dulcie's vomit two miles from home one day, puking my own guts up at a bus stop the next) as well as a pesky cold that is lingering on almost a month after the fact.  It's been one of those spells where you lose all your mojo and routines, forget how you normally live and have empty cupboards and a messy house and a general lack of get-up-and-go.  I haven't been swimming in ages (stomach bugs and swimming pools do not mix) and am way behind in my Channel challenge, but am hoping to rectify that soon.  We've had lots of visitors (from Graham's side of the family), been to Berlin (amazing, but more on that in a separate post) and spent almost all our free time in soft play at Dulcie's request.  I've been taking driving lessons and discovering that nine years away from the wheel is not long enough to forget how to drive - hooray!

So, I think that takes us kind of up to date.  Hopefully I'll be back in the bloggy game (and all the other day-to-day games) from now on.

time-travelling tuesday (part 20)

As far as I know, Kerry did not get her hair cut in Asda on June 3rd, but I googled "Asda Dyce 1988" and found this on the first page of images, weirdly!

30th May 1988

Went swimming.  Lyndsey and I made a play.

31st May 1988

Today I wrote about snails.  I went over to Julias house.

was was e OR run run 1st June 1988

Today I was outside playing because it was very hot.

2nd June 1988

Today I woke up as usual got washed and dressed as usual went downstairs and had breakfast as usual.  Then I went to school as usual.  At school I worked as usual made a pom-pom not usual.  In the afternoon we sang with the big ones not as usual.  When I got home I made a spiders web not as usual.  Tonight I went to Rosalynde's birthday party at the Station Hotel.  [I imagine this was not usual, but I don't specify!]

3rd June 1988

I am brainy, I am brainy, I am brainy all the time.  Today we went to Asda.  Kerry got her hair cut again.

THE

END.

4th June 1988

I made a jumping spider.

[There's a picture drawn on this day.  It might be a person in a bed with two blobs floating above them, I'm not exactly sure.]

5th June 1988

I was outside playing all day.  I did not go to church today because mum and dad did not want to go today.  It was very hot today.  I was wearing my cat socks that yuckypoo Garry Niccol gave me.  Islay granny is coming for a week but papa isn't.  I invited Julia over to play.  Her hair is very nice.

time-travelling tuesday (part 19)

I know I have one somewhere, but I can't lay my hands on a picture of poor Percy right now.  Here's a picture of a GOAL KEEPER (GK) netball vest instead.  I was so excited to play on the netball team - my only ever sporting achievement experience.  Despite the relatively few words this week, there are lots of things here that have stayed as very strong memories to me.

23rd May 1988

I didn't want to go swimming today so I didn't go.

24th May 1988

Today I got singing with the big ones.  I am one of one Joseph's brothers.  Maybey.  Maybe.

[THE DATE IS SCRIBBLED OUT CENSOR STYLE]

Today is the twenty fifth of May as Rigadon would say.  Emma and I were are netball substatutes.  Julia came over to play we played witches.

26th May 1988

Today I went to brownies.  Mr Scott was babysitting Kerry and I.

27th May 1988

Today I went to the netball tourniment tournament.  Emma and I were both put on for the last game.  I was GOAL KEEPER (GK).  Emma was WING DEFENCE (WD).  In my beetle story Lyndsey got squashed.  In Garry's story Mr Scott gets squashed.

THE END.

28th May 1988 Mum and dad are stupid.

                                                  1 Percy

                                                  2           was

                                                  3                  run

                                                  4                       over.

                                                  5 He die

                                                  6       died

                                                  7              straight

                                                  8                         away.

                                                  9 It

                                                  10  is

                                                  11     a

                                                  12        lovely

                                                  13                 day.

                                                  14 I

                                                  15   got

                                                  16        a

                                                  17           mouse

                                                  18 with lavender in it.

29th May 1988

KERRY and I were bored so we went on a bike ride.  Mum was going to come but she discovered she had a flat tyre.  Well she had a puncher really.  We went up to the mudheaps.  The hill is quite steep so we had to walk up and we went down very quickly.  In the morning we went to church.  I made a picture with sticky shapes.  Granny and Frances came to visit us.  They stayed from 2.00 until 5.00.

freebies!

Have you noticed how shops are going wild for reward cards and for giving rewards that customers might actually want?  I signed up for a Paperchase Treat Me card this week.  As well as various benefits online and 15% off your first purchase, you get £10 to spend on your birthday (what a treat!) and a free coffee every week, or at least you do in the Glasgow store, where the coffee is delicious.  What's not to love about that?

 Moments after signing up for this card in Paperchase, I went to John Lewis to claim my once-monthly free hot drink AND CAKE, courtesy of my new John Lewis card.  I went for hot chocolate (controversial) and victoria sponge (yum) this time, which should have cost £5.85 apparently, but cost me absolutely nothing, nada, zilcho.

My Waitrose loyalty card (separate from the John Lewis card for some reason) gives me a free tea or coffee every single day.  With these three cards combined, I could be getting approximately 36 coffees and one cake each month for free!

Oh, I do love freebies.  And coffee and cake.

EDITED TO ADD:  I forgot about our IKEA family card!  My free coffee supply is pretty much limitless, certainly more caffeine than my body can handle :)

time-travelling tuesday (part 18)

Celebrity sighting!

16th of May 1988

Today I went swmmy (swimming) at school.  I have locked mum and dad out of the bedroom.

17th of May 1988

Music at school today.

qui quite queen 18th of May 1988

Today Mrs Smith said that my writing was getting better.  Kerry and I tidied our bedroom.

19th of May 1988

Today I went to brownies.  We played long jumps.  Diane and Laura were jumping over five foot.  Tomorrow Kerry and I are going to stay the night with Finlay and Flora.

20th of May 1988

I am staying the night with Finlay and Flora.  Linsay is very good.

21st of May 1988

Today I went to Haddo house because there was a craft fair.  I saw prince Edward.

22nd of May 1988

Today I went to castle Fraser.  I went up on the roof of it.  It was about 100 [drawing of a foot] feet high.

yes

I'm not really one for political discussions, not even with my nearest and dearest, and this blog certainly isn't a political hotbed by any stretch of the imagination, but I guess all of us in Scotland are thinking and talking about politics a little more than usual in the current pre-referendum climate.  I hope you'll excuse this uninformed and vague political interjection, I know it is slightly out of character, but this is a really prominent feature of my daily thoughts at the moment and I wanted to declare my allegiance before the event so I'll be able to say (or not say) how happy/disappointed I am come the results.

I'm going to be voting yes on September 18th.  I was undecided for a long time and, now that I'm firmly settled on the yes side of the fence, can't understand why it took me so long to get here.  It seems obvious.  UK politics is not representative of Scotland and definitely not representative of me.  We're very limited north of the border in what we can do to change things in Westminster, our votes will never have enough influence.  And if we have a chance to do things differently (something I'm sure many of my friends in England would love the chance to do too) then I think we have to take it.  Of course there are stumbling blocks and issues to be overcome and I'm not belittling those arguments, but all those issues can (and will, I'm sure) be overcome.  Ultimately I'm looking at the big picture and the long game, and I have much more faith in Scotland than I do in the UK to create the sort of society that I want to be part of - open, inclusive, fair, forward-thinking, proactive.  I think an independent Scotland is the best way to protect the services and values I hold dear and the only way that vulnerable members of society will be protected and given at least some of the chances they deserve.  I also think that independence would enable us to find a position in Europe and the wider world that we'd be more comfortable with - a positive position.

I'm not one of these "I'm Scottish, not British" types and I'm sure I'll always feel affiliated with the rest of the UK, whatever the outcome of the referendum.  To me, this is not a them-and-us type of debate, just the chance to make some changes and do things differently and better, to create something new rather than destroy something old.  I can't see the changes I want happening through a UK government any time soon, maybe not ever, but I can definitely see the possibility of a fairer and happier future in an independent Scotland and this referendum is our chance to achieve that.  I just hope enough of the population are thinking along the same lines as me...

find of the season century

 Look what I got in a charity shop this week!  It's only an original plate by one of my favourite artists,  Lindsay Grime!  I spotted it in the window of Shelter after closing time on the way home from nursery on Monday evening and recognised it instantly.  I was busily exclaiming to Dulcie when two women stopped to browse the window display.  They noticed it too, but their only comment was, "What an odd plate!"  I felt a) superior and b) slightly reassured that it was unlikely to sell to someone else before I could get back there the following morning.  That said, I was still so relieved to see it there the next day!

It was super satisfying to turn the plate over and see the signature on the back, not that I had any doubt who the artist was.

I think this plate was part of an exhibition I saw called Home Sweet Home that was held in the tiny gallery (former changing cubicle!) in Made In The Shade.  I coveted many of Lindsay's items at the time, but my budget couldn't stretch to a plate.  It's so nice that one of them found its way to me after all this time.  I'm embarrassed to say that I only paid £3.50 for it.  The old "one man's trash..." adage seems disrespectful in this instance, this is just out-and-out treasure!

I'm not sure where I'm going to hang this yet.  I'm actually building quite a collection of plates (mostly trashy but lovely souvenir sort of things) and I'm hoping to persuade Graham to let me hang them somewhere in our kitchen once we do it up.  This is a long way off though, so I may need to find a temporary home for them in the meantime.  I'd feel bad to let such a lucky find gather dust.

sights of the underground

 Dulcie really likes getting the underground - swiping my smartcard, riding the escalators, waiting on the platform, making new aquaintances on the train...  It's probably faster than walking, on balance, but there's always plenty of distractions and things to look at to slow us down.  At the moment, this poster of my celebrity lookalike is a big draw.  "It's Mum with Happy Birthday on her hair!"

 It always takes us at least ten minutes to exit Hillhead Station because Dulcie likes to have a good look at Alasdair Gray's mural.  I'm always pretty happy to stop and look at it, too, to be honest.  I think it's great.

"Do not let daily to-ing and fro-ing

To earn what we need to keep going

Prevent what you once felt when wee,

Hopeful and free."

time-travelling tuesday (part 17)

I never got my "cycling proffishoncy".

9th May 1988

8 today.  Yippee.  My birthday.  I am 8.  Goody Goody Gum drops.

It is my birthday today.  This is is is my fountain pen.  I got a lot of things.  I got thrown in at the swiming pool.

10.5.88 10.5.88 10th of 10.5.88

10.5.'88.

Today I went to school as usal usa usual.  I got a toy mouse from Mrs Scott.

11th of May 1988

Today is today.  Julia had to come over until cycling proffishoncy was fineshed.

12th May 1988

Tonight I went to brownies.  At brownies we made our diary's for brownie camp.  We sang who stole the cookie from the cookie jar.

13th May 1988

Arrived at brownie camp.

I'm forever blowing blowoffs.  Stinky blowoffs in the air.  They get around.  Silent but violent then like my dreams they fade and die.  Blowoffs always hiding, don't look everywhere.  I'm forever blowing blowoffs stinky blowoffs in the air.

14th May 1988

Went on long walk.

[I remember this Brownie camp being really exciting to me and lots of little details have stayed with me, despite my recording NONE of them in my diary for some reason...]

15th of May 1988

Today I arrived home from pack holiday.  I slept in a top bunk.  Its really hot today.