Challenges Accepted And New Ones Incorporated in Scottish Meanderings

Although it doesn’t feel like it a lot of the time, I can see I’m actually making good progress when I read my last entry before writing a new one (because I can never remember what I was woffling on about last time!). I honestly thought it had been a good few weeks since I’d been in town that first time but I see it was just at the start of last month and I’ve been in twice more since then. Last Monday’s visit was pretty harrowing though.

(Can I just say I’m writing this in the lovely sunshine in the front garden which is very pleasant apart from the fact I have to constantly look at my grumpy face in the reflection off the iPad which is a tad offputting).

For months now my phone hasn’t been holding a charge - about 10-20 minutes after it’s unplugged from the charger it cuts out and goes dead. I guessed the battery was knackered but it appeared extremely complicated to put in a new one and the advice was to take it into the Apple shop. Which was in the centre of town. Meaning it may as well have been in Timbuctoo as far as getting there under my own steam was concerned.

I attempted it the Friday before last but lost my nerve when I was almost there and then had the horror of having to drive home in rush hour traffic which was pretty horrible. Undaunted, I deliberately made an appointment at the Genius bar for the Monday afternoon to force me to try again. This time I made it! They confirmed it was the battery but didn’t advise a new one as it would cost me £80 - a new phone would be a better investment. I quickly explained my situation and said I would normally agree with them but wasn’t well enough to do the research needed for a new phone and also spend the required time with the paperwork for the contract so in this instance, I’d prefer to just get a new battery so that the phone would last for a few more months.

No problem. Happy to do it. If I could just call back in 2 hours’ time it’ll be ready.

TWO HOURS??!

The look of horror on my face must have been a picture. Apparently it just goes into the normal repair queue instead of what I was thinking - that they would just pop one in there and then. I could tell the young whippersnapper informing me of this couldn’t have cared less about my distress so I agreed to have it done then went away and stressed for the next 2 hours in a very busy shopping centre while the sun blazed away outside :(

I knew fine if I went home I’d never make the return journey and I now had no phone to contact anyone who might have gone in for me. I also knew if I could stick it out until 4.45, I wouldn’t be able to leave because I’d get caught up in the rush hour traffic so that would make me stay until 6. So that’s what I did. Believe me there was a lot of very slow walking and internal self talk went on in those 2 hours!

Back I went at 6 only to have to wait another 15 minutes and then to be told they had problems getting the battery in and the ‘tabs’ had snapped. What the tabs are I have no idea - I was more concerned that the next sentence was going to be ‘so unfortunately we haven’t been able to put the new battery in’ but instead he said ‘so we decided to just give you a new phone for the price of the battery’. Result! All that stress was worth it after all. Thinking I’d got a bargain I went home chuffed to bits - only to find my phone is so ancient that it’s retailing at around £70 new!! So I could have bought one myself online, saved money in TopCashBack, a lot of faffing around, a lot of stress and more importantly, been out all afternoon sitting in the gorgeous sunshine!

Never mind - at least it showed that I can get into town as long as I plan the route carefully and have the stamina to stay there for a couple of hours if need be so I suppose it was worth it in that respect. And I have a properly working phone again which should last another couple of years. I can’t tell you what a luxury it is to actually be able to DO stuff on the phone after I’ve been out for half an hour.


I also made it out to Banchory (where the writing group meets) in the middle of last month. Again - uncomfortable and not too enjoyable but at least I know I can get there so that once I’m able to stay out in the evenings again I can maybe make it out to a meeting. I went out on a lovely sunny afternoon and as the place where we meet has changed since I’ve last been, I checked that out first. Then I decided to go back home a different way and was delighted to find around the first corner, the wonderful Falls of Feugh. These are famous falls in the River Feugh (pronounced ‘few’ then the sound you’d make at the end of ‘loch’) where the salmon leap during the spawning season around August - November. There’s a lovely little stone bridge with a walkway where you can watch them and a quaint little tearoom and restaurant nearby as well as a picnic area.

I had my iPad with me so took some pics but none of them give you a sense of the sheer noise of the roaring of the water or the exquisite calm at the other side of the bridge just a few feet away. I felt quite dizzy looking at the rushing torrent!




And here’s the other side as calm as can be.


So that was nice. It was a favourite place of Boyd’s (my ex) being a true fisherman - he loved going there for a drive in the season and watching the salmon.


I made some new challenges a week or two ago to add to the existing ones and decided it was time to try planning stuff again as I haven’t cancelled anything for a while now. However that was daunting because it would involve me making the first move. The universe must have been listening for once because after plucking up courage and contacting my friend, Joan, to make a date for a catch up, another friend, Lorna, e-mailed that same night right out of the blue and asked if I fancied going to a book launch event at the Aberdeen May Festival!

This was wonderful on two counts. First of all it took away the stress of me having to reach out to someone but also I’d forgotten all about the Festival - I’d seen a flyer months ago and had hoped I’d be well enough by then to go but forgot to put the dates (26th/27th) in my phone. The local university - our oldest one - puts it on every May and there are a mixture of events - science, music, arts, drama, writing, books, health, kids stuff - something for everyone. It’s really well organised and most of the events are free.

Part of the lovely old buildings of the University.


Lorna had got 2 tickets for a book launch event on the Saturday at 12.30 so it was easy enough to fire off an e-mail saying yes I’d love to go and would see her there. The other great thing was that it’s only about 15 minutes’ drive from my house and there’s plenty of parking on campus so I didn’t have to get ready until 11.30 in the morning - the difficult bit was convincing my body there was nothing to stress about the night before! My nervous system is still slightly damaged so it imagines stress where none exists and whenever there’s something planned the next day, I hardly sleep the night before. So I woke on Saturday feeling pretty rough, made worse by also feeling sick - not nervous sick - more like I’d eaten something which had disagreed with me. That didn’t help.

Anyway I stuck it out, met Lorna and had a good catch up. The nausea had abated slightly by 4.30 so I was able to go to one other event before heading home and I’d also got hold of a programme by then so decided to go back on Sunday if I felt better. There was another book launch which looked interesting so I got a ticket for it and thankfully on Sunday I woke with the nausea pretty much gone. But then I got a text from Nikki asking me to look after the girls for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I explained about the Festival and it turned out she just wanted me to meet her new boyfriend and thought a drop off and pick up would be less pressurised than going out somewhere! (They’ve been going out for about 3 weeks and are talking marriage and another baby already - insert several eyerolls if you haven’t already raised your eyebrows to a significant level).

The whole thing was a bit vague - Nikki told me to go to my thing and then go home and she would let me know if they were coming in. Em - don’t think so! So I ignored the second bit and just texted when I got out of the book launch and asked where they were. They’d ended up going to a local beach and said they wouldn’t be in until teatime by which time I would really be flagging so I said I’d head out and meet them instead and that would save them moving. The only trouble was it was a popular beach spot and with the weather being glorious and sunny all weekend, lots of other families had the same idea! So they were going to be difficult to find.

But of course we’ve got mobile phones for that sort of situation haven’t we? Except mine didn’t have its shiny new battery in by that time so was dead in the water at the bottom of my bag at this point. I decided to chance it and, luckily, Nikki stood at the top of a nearby sand dune just as I hove into view at the bottom although all I could see was a girl in a flowery top who could have been anybody to be honest. She was waving though so, hoping it was her and she was waving to me, I made my way over and arrived sweaty and puffing, having climbed up this.


Which felt like climbing Ben Nevis. Soft sand is a bugger for trying to get up. It doesn't look that steep here but if you look at the size of the kids at the bottom that might give you a better idea. Even Lily & Lilah couldn't get up it and had to be helped by Duncan as you can see (he went back for Lilah!).

Anyway we had a good afternoon. The sea was beautiful and calm although some haar was coming in off the sea around teatime but we were able to stay out until well after 6 before it rolled right in.


Duncan, the new boyfriend, seems very nice and is very comfortable with the kids - the girls love him cos he’s ‘silly’ :) At the moment him and Nikki both seem very happy together -


- but I’m not sure how Joel will take to the news - he’s been working away for 6 weeks so hasn’t been around and isn’t aware of recent developments. Nikki isn't talking to him just now so hasn't been in touch with him at all. He has a serious girlfriend himself so I don’t think that aspect will bother him - but just in terms of the girls’ affections it might be awkward. Hopefully they can all be mature about the whole thing.

Hah! With my daughter at the helm that’s as likely as a flying pig.


So as part of the ‘planned events’ challenge, I took a run into our Sports Village building which is around 15 minutes’ drive from my house as I’d heard great things about their Evergreens programme - activities and exercise for older folk or for people recovering from illness/injury. One of my friends goes with her Dad and says they’re all really friendly and it’s almost like more of a social thing.

There was a table tennis class on a Monday afternoon from 2.15 to 3.45 which sounded ideal - gentle, relaxed ping pong - just what I needed to start off with. Took courage in both hands, donned my trainers and off I went. On arriving nobody seemed to be in charge from what I could see so I went up to the nearest woman who, luckily, was new as well - well newish - she’d started last week on Thursday. But she was in the same boat in that she hadn’t played for over 40 years which was exactly the same as me. Apparently the coaches were away for a couple of weeks and there didn’t seem to be anyone taking the class as such so after we’d had a bit of practice bunging the ball back and fore, we teamed up with another couple of women and had a few games.

I’ve never played an actual game before so had no idea of the rules or anything and had to rely on my partner to tell me when to swap sides and keep score and all that but despite that, we won so I was quite chuffed! I was looking forward to a rest after that but this guy came over and offered to give both of us some coaching and practice in turn if we wanted. He took me first and we did loads of lobbying back and fore plus he gave me a few useful tips. It was a real ego booster for me because he was very complimentary - said I had a natural eye for the ball and couldn’t believe I hadn’t played for donkeys years! It was lovely to hear because it was a ‘normal’ activity and I felt I was back in the real world for a while :). Sometimes it’s hard to get excited about driving into town or walking for half an hour because they’re such ordinary things and you naturally expect your body to be doing that anyway.

The only downside was he didn’t stop for the other woman, Maureen, which was a real bummer. I saw her look over after a while and asked him if he wanted to swap over but he just said no and carried on. I couldn’t see the clock from where I was playing so had no idea of the time and next thing I looked over and she was gone. I hope it hasn’t put her off and she comes back. The thing which really annoyed me though was that this guy was complaining that someone should have come up to us at the start and offered to practise with us so there he was doing exactly the thing he was moaning about by ignoring Maureen!

So much for gentle, relaxed exercise though! My God I was completely knackered after an hour and a half! Having said that I was delighted I lasted out and I really enjoyed it so will definitely be back next week. My niece’s husband, Stephen, is a well known table tennis coach and apparently he runs training weekends so I told her to put my name down for 5 years’ time - I might be ready by then!

The Evergreens programme has a couple of swimming sessions I wouldn’t mind joining as well but I need to get a new swimsuit before I do that. I would have liked to try on my old one to see if it still fitted but I can’t find it anywhere which is strange. It’s not like me to chuck something even if it didn’t fit - I mean you’re talking to the woman who still has her size 10 polka dot pink dress which she wore on her honeymoon in 1984!! (I’ve still got the dress but not the husband anymore :) )

So that was today’s plan - to go shopping for a new cozzie - but I seem to have had some sort of delayed reaction to Monday’s exertions because I feel completely exhausted and could hardly keep my eyes open this morning. I didn’t do anything more than normal yesterday so I’m hoping it’s just the extra activity but will take it easy today and do stuff inside just in case - the world won’t end if I delay the swimming another week and in fact that might be useful because I noticed the classes on the website differed quite a bit from the ones given on the downloaded programme so that’ll give me time to check out the correct version.

So things are coming along swimmingly if you’ll pardon the pun.


Does anyone manage to upload photos from their phone or iPad to Imgur by any chance? I only seem to be able to upload pics from the desktop computer and I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if it’s just something you can’t do?