One week down – one to go!
I have reached the mid-point of Staycation 2014 and no tempers have been lost and no blood has been spilled – yet! Not a bad achievement even if I do say so myself! 🙂
The thought of removing Boy Child and Girl Child from their respective bat caves, taking them out with WiFi range or their usual time zone didn’t bear contemplating so we are holidaying at home.
Here’s a brief rundown of Week One.
Saturday – I followed my usual shopping and coffee routine then rushed home to watch the MotoGP from Assen. The remainder of the afternoon was spent sitting in the sun reading my kindle, photographing the bees in my geraniums and dealing with the laundry schedule. My evening was music filled much to my delight and the groans of the rest of the household. I banished myself to the kitchen. By chance I found a livestream link to the Graspop Festival in Belgium in time to watch Alter Bridge take to the stage. They played a fabulous set which when it ended gave me just enough time to refill my wine glass before Metallica took to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Awesome! I crept up to the bed just before midnight (the rest of the household had sloped off to bed hours earlier) buzzing as though I’d just come home from a gig and with a smile on my wee face.
Sunday – again the weather in the morning was kind to me and I spent it sitting out in the sun with my coffee and toasted cinnamon raisin bagel reading my kindle. (I was devouring Nicky Wells rock romance trilogy) As the clouds gathered in the afternoon, the ironing mountain beckoned so I spent a few hours tackling that before driving Boy Child to and from the cinema. Again Glastonbury provided my musical entertainment for the day. Dinner was cooked while watching Dolly Parton and the ironing was finished off while I watched The Black Keys. I had been eagerly awaiting their set all day but was left a little disappointed and mentally crossed them off my list of “need to go and see live” bands.
Monday- the day dawned gloriously hot and sunny. After a productive morning sitting out in the sun with my laptop (I wrote up one album review and the lastblog post – ok I also read more of my kindle/book)I went for a walk with Girl Child and my camera. We headed along the beach path not far from the house and enjoyed a leisurely hour meandering with fields on one side and the beach on the other. Bliss!
Tuesday – cue more glorious sunshine! I spent the morning doing a little emergency food shopping in town and enjoyed a strong black coffee and a fruit scone in the company of Boy Child and my parents. (Girl child had refused to crawl out from under the duvet and was duly left at home) As I drove home I was full of good intentions to sit in the sun and work on my “bigger creative writing project”. I managed to partially achieve the objective – I did sit in the sun but that rock romance trilogy was calling on me again! I sat out in the sun until I had finished it. 🙂
Wednesday – no sun! This was probably not a bad thing as by now I was a tad pink and burnt around the edges after four days of Vitamin D overdosing. The morning was spent in a mad frenzy of “Oor Wullie” cleaning (where everything gets flung away out of sight under the metaphoric “bucket”) and vacuuming before a friend ( yet another of my friends’ who is allergic to cats) came over for lunch. Lunch was a simple laid back three hour affair involving coffee and empire biscuits among other simple pleasures. After waving goodbye to my lunch guest mid -afternoon I finally settled down to do a few hour’s work on my “bigger creative writing project”.
I also purchased some concert tickets for a friend and I. Watch out Blackberry Smoke, we’re coming to see you in Glasgow in October. 😉
Thursday – a bit of a mixed day weather wise. First on the agenda was coffee and a fruit scone with one of my fellow rock chick friends (the same friend who gave me the Slash photo for my birthday). This time it was my turn to give her a birthday gift albeit a day early. With the world suitably put to rights we went our separate ways. The sun came out during the afternoon and I headed off to the garden centre, armed with my camera, on a mission to purchase a butterfly bush (otherwise known as a buddleja). I got some strange looks from the elderly clientele as I took photos of the beautiful blooms on display, especially the ones occupied by busy buzzy bees. It took me a while to decide on what colour of butterfly bush I wanted but eventually I selected a dark fuschia pink one. Here’s hoping it attracts some butterflies who are willing to pose for photos.
My evening’s online chat was rudely interrupted by more Mum’s taxi runs (Sorry, girls. We will get that three way blether yet!)
Friday- plans had already been made to meet fellow rock chick writer friend, Karen Soutar, in Glasgow for lunch. I had planned to head into the city early with my camera. When I opened the curtains first thing, I was met with a grey dreich morning. Not to be thwarted, I set off as planned and managed to get a few photographs of some of the beautiful architecture in the city centre and the Commonwealth Games preparations. After a short while the rain sent me scurrying in search of a hand drier in a ladies room to dry the raindrops off my camera lens! Cue more odd looks from a couple of elderly patrons. I had arranged to meet Karen at noon at the Hard Rock Café. Lunch was filled with girlie chat as we caught up with each other’s news, compared notes on a certain Mr Kennedy and generally put the world to rights over a burger washed down with a Corona complete with lime. Due to a lack of Corona (yes – they ran out and we only had one each I promise!) we moved on and wandered through a few shops. The rain quickly drove us to seek sanctuary- we just happened to retreat to another pub where we continued our catch up armed with another beer. (Yeah- Waxy O’Connor’s had Corona). We ended our afternoon in a rather more civilised coffee shop in Frasers department store. Cue more blethering over coffee and shortbread then we went our separate ways to catch our trains home. The rain chose this moment to pour its heaviest drenching both of us.
Despite the soggy end to a lovely chilled week I now feel ready to tackle Week 2 of Staycation 2014. Wish me luck!
Coral McCallum 