Searching For Peace in Scottish Meanderings

I’ve been allocating Monday afternoon after table tennis for an hour or two of writing finding it much more productive if I’m somewhere away from the house where there aren’t a hundred things staring at me needing done! I realised I had been thinking in a very old-fashioned way about free wi-fi - that it was only available in cafés and the like thereby requiring a purchase of some kind to use it.

Which of course is not the case. It finally struck me that there must be many more places with free wi-fi for the public nowadays - and there are - but getting somewhere without background noise of some kind is proving somewhat of a challenge. Even hotel lobbies - well the ones I’ve tried so far - have a stream of continuous music being piped in. We seem incapable of enjoying ourselves without constant stimulation.

I was in Smyths toy shop in September looking for ideas for Lily’s birthday and I had to leave after a short while because the sensory overload was so overpowering! As well as a local radio station blaring out there were infomercials blasting in my ear at every corner and that, coupled with the toys stacked so high I couldn’t reach half of them, was just too much - I just couldn’t think properly.

So they lost my sale to Amazon unfortunately. I’m sure they’re very upset at that.

Being out of the house is working though. It concentrates my mind to just do the job in hand and not get distracted by anything else. I’m hoping to do something similar with knitting. I’ve never been successful in completing anything for the girls and part of the problem is because I don’t really have an allocated ‘slot’ for knitting. I find it impossible to do it just on its own - I used to do it while watching telly but I only really do that when I’m having my tea in the evening and only for about an hour - maybe two max.

I’d like to try knitting something for the impending arrival though and when Polly (Gypsy Spirit) uploaded what looked like a fairly easy little jumper which she'd knitted recently I was inspired. This one might just have a chance of seeing the light of day.

So it struck me that a local knitting group might be a good idea - and it would also hopefully be a bit of social company as well enabling friendships to form. The nearest one is in the morning though so that’s out - I may have to go much further afield to get an afternoon one but I’ll keep looking.


There were a couple of very scary witches going about Pitmedden on Hallowe'en.


And last Hallowe'en I was barely up for an hour a day at that point so still unable to go to the shops for any proper shopping and realised when I got to the 31st October that I had nothing in for the neighbouring kids coming round. I literally scrabbled around in the kitchen for anything and got so desperate in the end that I was dishing out chocolate biscuits which were only just in date!! So this year I was totally organised and had a veritable stash of lollipops, mini choccy treats and sweets - and had a grand total of 2 kids ring the doorbell - and even they looked like they'd literally speckled their school uniform shirts with red pen, done a bit of face makeup and called it a day! So now I could open a sweet shop with what's left in my kitchen. Sod's Law.


I had another dreadful week after the last one I wrote about - it was even worse than that one and I was brought to my knees and beyond. I’m glad to say last week was better. I’ve managed to pick up a cold over the weekend so feel a bit grotty today but I’m hoping it’s not going to have me out of commission for long.

And because I had been feeling better I was able to have a couple of hours shopping in the town last week and was chuffed that I managed to get 4 jumpers/tops in TK Maxx for £75. On Saturday I was back in the same shopping centre because Janice and I were in Cineworld seeing Bohemian Rhapsody (great film) and after I saw her off on the bus home, I went back into TK Maxx for another browse. This time I procured another two jumpers but the process in getting them involved trying on no less than 16 of the blasted things (too much great choice in there) so I was pretty puggled at the end of that.

I popped into Deichmann afterwards and was trying on a pair of boots when an assistant told me they were just closing. Must be 6 o’clock I thought. I had to go through the station to get to the car park and glanced at the clock. 7 o’clock. I smiled to myself because that meant I’d been active for a total of 6 hours which was a result for me. The smile was wiped off my face when I got to the car though and saw a familiar yellow sticky packet on the window - I’d only paid until 6 not thinking I’d last any longer than that! So that's 30 quid for a parking ticket (if I pay it in the next fortnight - full price is 60 quid) down the drain and effectively wipes out my wonderful bargains!

I’m still losing weight slowly but steadily which I’m glad about because I’m having to forego my daily walks now that the weather has changed and the afternoons are dark as soon as 3/4 o’clock. It’s just not safe to walk anywhere after that or at least that's how it feels to me - I have been very aware of my status as a single, older lady walking in the dark and have had a few heart-stopping moments when I’ve gone out a bit too late in the day.

If the weather’s really dismal and wet it sometimes hardly gets light at all and I was noticing that that was really doing a number on my mood. Luckily with Christmas coming up I’ve had a good excuse to get out in the afternoons because I can’t do a couple of big shopping sprees and get it all done at once - I need to divide it up into numerous smaller ones and (scream) pace myself - but I’m just glad to be able to do that this year as last year at this time was spent almost entirely in bed - I was only able to be up for a short while in the afternoon and still wasn’t able to drive.

So anything’s going to be an improvement on that.

I’m quite organised so far though. My niece, Caroline, is coming down from Inverness this Saturday to a place about an hour’s drive away from here and has asked if any of us here in Aberdeen are free to meet up for lunch. The poor soul’s had to postpone this trip twice already due to all our illnesses - Nikki, Lilah, Cat (another niece), Cat's husband and son, myself and a combination thereof have all been ill when she’s been due to come previously so we’re hoping it’s third time lucky for her!

Nikki and the girls can’t go as Lily has a birthday party that day so I’m hoping I have a good day and will be able to make the drive because I’ve got Caroline’s kids’ Christmas presents and also her sister, Marina’s, kids' presents and a December birthday present (she also lives in Inverness) so it would be great to offload them to her and save me a shitload of postage - or, alternatively, having to make a trip up to Inverness before Christmas.

It’s also the anniversary of Mam’s death on Saturday so that’ll be nice because I know Caroline still misses her a lot and Catriona who is planning going as well, also misses her, so I know they’ll think about her. Mam was big on family so a mini get together will be a good way of marking the occasion.


I'm really really trying not to google Steven Avery because the very popular Netflix documentary Making A Murderer has new episodes out which I've been desperately trying not to binge-watch! It scares me how easily someone can be wrongfully convicted in the States and how terribly harsh their sentences are. I'm very intrigued as to the outcome of this one though.


And I saw this in TESCO the other day.


I don't know if it's obvious but the poppies on the grid below the picture are crocheted which I'm quite sure is nothing new but I was very taken with the idea because it looked quite easy to do. I thought they were for sale but there appeared to be no price on any of them.

Maybe if going to a knitting group ever comes to fruition I'll make an attempt at one.