The Power of Family Ties

Whew!  Alan and I have just experienced the most intense and entertaining weekend we could possibly have imagined!  And to think that on Thursday, we were both in bed with the flu. And really with flu, not just being tired and lazy, but honestly ILL!

I thought I had paid my dues illness-wise by having that stupid coughing virus for over 4 weeks and sacrificing my sense of smell. So when Alan was totally felled by this flu (and just so you know - this man does not do "man-flu", he is never noticably ill) I was not overly concerned.  Ok, I was concerned, but not about me, and to be honest, not really about him......I was watching the countdown to my cousin,Desiree and her friend, Jane arriving in Glasgow expecting us to collect them for a wondrous weekend on the West Coast of Scotland.  Days were going by and Alan was not improving.  I even gave him a deadline to get better by.  

Not only did he miss this deadline, but on Wednesday night, I woke up with total chills.  I was so cold and nothing could help.  So I knew I had not been immune after all. 

I had the good sense to phone in sick on Thursday and Alan and I divided our territories in the house so we would not disturb each other.  I don't think it would have made much difference where I was though - I slept the whole day.  No reading, no watching tv, not even checking my messages for work or personal.  I was sick!   And the clock was ticking away..........

Prior to being felled by Alan's flu, I had generously offered to go collect our visitors in Glasgow on my own.  Well, this offer was rescinded and we both struggled on.  (ok, there was the obligatory stop at the Guide shop - I needed new uniform shirts since mine are now 2 sizes too big!)  Got to the train station, where I found the nearest bench to try to rest a bit and Alan wandered around taking pictures.  (he was obviously feeling better!)

And the most wonderful thing happened - I saw Desiree walking toward us and suddenly I forgot I was ill.  Her friend, Jane, was right behind her and the weekend had begun!!!

Alan and I were so looking forward to this weekend and had planned to cover alot of ground, which was why we collected them instead of waiting for them to arrive in Ayr by train.  We took them to Glasgow Cathedral, drove by Glasgow University and then I called time. We really needed to get to Ayr and see that. At that point in time, Friday afternoon would have been their only chance to see Ayr.

~And this was a whistle stop tour, just drove by the beach, Burns Cottage, and a few other things before going home so Desiree could see Aunt Emmy. 

Aunt Emmy and Desiree

Our evening plans were to go out to eat with Whitney and it looked as if they would not meet Corbyn, since he is with his daddy on Fridays, but he was allowed to come with us! And Corbyn was a total gem the whole time.  We ended up eating at The Old Loans Inn.  Mom and I had eaten there years ago, but it looked completely different, I felt like I had stumbled onto Twilight Zone, not that it was bad, but entering a familiar door and nothing was at all what it had been, including the location of the restaurant!  I had to ask how to get out of the building to go back to the car and let everyone know we had a table!

Dinner was great, a bit crowded - a 6 person booth with the 7th person (although small, Corbyn has alot of presence) crammed in. Following dinner, Desiree had discovered a playground, this made Corbyn's night and he demonstrated the correct way to go down a slide "on your bum"!

I was just delighted that Whitney and Corbyn got to see Desiree.  We have virtually no family over here so family ties are incredibly precious. 

Getting home, my body remembered it was not well and it felt as if my batteries had been removed.  I did remain downstairs and not comatose, but it was a struggle.  Dont' get me wrong, the entertainment value of staying downstairs made any discomfort or exhaustion well worth it.  These girls are fun and I enjoyed every second we had together.

We were scheduled to be on the 7am ferry to the Isle of Arran, and I was much more excited about this than I was aware of.  Hence, I did not sleep - like the night before going away on vacation....just could not keep my eyes shut in case we missed the ferry.  Which we didn't! 

Arriving on Arran before anything opened had its advantages - no traffic, no people.  But nothing was open either.  We meandered around the edge of Arran and it was beautiful, we never got rained on and had sun with us most of the time.

 Desiree and me on the ferry to Arran

We discovered seals, red deer, pheasants, craft shops, the perfect fish and chips and our main goal - the Mackrie Moor standing stones.  I had visited these years ago with a friend and remembered what an amazing experience it had been.  It is about a 2 mile walk into a valley, but Desiree, Jane and I felt it was well worth it. Alan took one look and went back to the car with his dog!  Maybe it is a girl thing?  The only people I know who enjoyed visiting these stones are women!  Interesting.  We agreed that it is a very spiritual and peaceful place. No drama and not alot of colour (this would have been the issue with Alan, not a great place to photograph).



Ultimately we ended up in Brodick with time to shop and over 3 hours til the last ferry. But the sky was darkening and the ferry was on its way, so we went back early enough to have dinner with Mom. Much better - and I heard later that the storm caused a 3 hour blackout, from 7 - 10 pm.  Now I wonder if our planned last ferry would have even run or would we have been stuck on Arran!!

a natural pose for Alan!

On Sunday, I could not face doing another long drive. We had planned on going to visit the Highlands and I feel bad that we did not do this. However, there would have been no quality to the visit if we had not decided to stay home and have an easier day.  (don't get me wrong, our Arran visit was as high quality as you could imagine, but we needed a slow day) 

Desiree wanted to get some gifts so we went to Dobbies, where they sell absolutely everything and then other shops. Alan realized this was more of a girl thing, so he went home and the three of us  went out and explored the local sites of Ayr - ending up parking in Rozelle Park eating Cadbury's chocolate and enjoying every bite!!!  What is a visit to the UK, without pigging out on exquisite chocolate!!! 

Desiree and Jane on the Brig o Doon

Our Ayr day ended up in a pub crawl, starting at Smiths, where I ordered Haggis so Jane and Desiree could taste it.  Good thing I like haggis since they didn't seem to!  We peeked into the West Kirk, but there was no life there, on to Billy Bridges - a very traditional pub.  The only person drinking was Alan, the rest of us were on water, diet coke or ginger beer!  That didn't stop us laughing just like we did the whole visit, and getting evil looks from other customers.  I think they thought we had been boozing all afternoon.  What a way to end the weekend!





Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~Albert Einstein

Easter in Burns Country

When I previewed this blog, I noticed that there are no paragraphs and I am not writing it like that. The last blog ended up all together too. Not sure what I can do to fix this and I apologize if these are hard to read. ah ha, fixed it already!

Here is a picture of purple heather in bloom on Easter Sunday. I am not used to seeing heather in bloom til later in the year.

I am still suffering from anosmia, apparently that is what the loss of smell is officially called. Very strange sensation and I also keep forgetting that I cannot smell!! It must be so ingrained as a habit, and why shouldn't it be? Such a normal movement to bring a thing to your nose and see what it smells like! I did notice it affects my cooking though, I burned a few things that I never burned before. I always thought I depended on the oven timer, but now I realize I also depend on how something smells as it is cooking. I made soup last night and this is the first thing that didn't even taste right. (apparently that is the one thing most people notice is lack of taste. this has not been the case for me until last night)

We had a lovely Easter though, regardless of my problem! Martin came up from London and most of his friends were away for a birthday celebration, so we got a massive amount of quality time with him!  With the very lucky timing of Corbyn not having nursery school on Good Friday and that he spent the night with us on Thursday, Martin had the benefit of waking up to his best fan!  I really don't know who enjoys their company the most. All I do know is once Martin was awake, they both disappeared and you could hear laughter throughout the whole house! 

White Heather

After Corbyn left for his daddy's, as he does every Friday, Alan, Martin and I went to the Chestnutshttp://www.chestnutshotel.com/restaurant.php for dinner.  This is one of our favourite restaurants, not because we have known the owners for years (Whitney and their daughter were best friends in primary school) but because it is a really nice place to go and the food is excellent!

Saturday was a typical day spent doing chores, banking, going to the post office, a bit of shopping and the guys went to see Ayr Unitedhttp://www.ayrunitedfc.co.uk/ play. 

In the evening, friends had invited us for drinks and nibbles so we had the benefit of Martin dropping us off, just like days gone by!  We had a wonderful time! 

Whitney and Corbyn arrived late morning, after he had eaten all of his chocolate eggs while his Mum was in the shower!  Everyone, except Grandma Simmons who has ruptured her ankle ligaments due to a fall, then trooped to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museumburnsmuseum for an Easter Treasure Hunt!  Up until the end, this was fantastic. Corbyn was really excited and loves maps anyway. He held onto the treasure map we were given through all the wind and walking that we did. 

(forgive me again,  I am continually learning how to do these blogs and am trying to figure out how to do the links!  that might be why there are so many this time!)

Corbyn enjoying mine and Alan's Burns portrait

So many beautiful flowers during our Treasure Hunt!

View from the Brig o Doon

(the family photo at the top of this blog was taken on the bridge)

neither one is a "wee sleekit, timorous beastie"

The little map reader, comparing his treasure map with this big official map

Yes, this was a wonderful way to spend Easter morning, but there was a valuable lesson to be learned at the end. Once we found all the clues and went back to the starting place to get Corbyn's prize, he was in tears and inconsolable.  We all assumed he was merely tired. But looking back, I think he was confused and disappointed that we never got the "treasure".  I hope we have the chance to do this next year, and believe me, there will be a treasure waiting for him then!







wake up and smell the roses

I had a respiratory virus now for 4 weeks and am still coughing and getting a bit breathless every so often. It is getting boring! Apparently this has been going the rounds and so many people are suffering from this virus that it seems like it is more normal to cough and splutter than not! The nurse I spoke to from my doctor's surgery said she should have just taped a message about this since those were about the only people phoning her for medical information! Living with a virus is not a big deal, anyone knows it usually goes away - eventually anyway. But what I had not factored in was the loss of my sense of smell. I cannot remember exactly when I realized I could not smell. At one point, I was cleaning out some things of Whitney's and found some old perfume, with no smell - so I threw it away. (I had cleared throwing away stuff with Whitney - I am not the kind of mother that throws their kids' stuff away on a whim!) A few days later, I noticed I could not smell anything at all....so I realized Whitney's old perfume was probably not that old and was able to retrieve all those poor unloved bottles!! It is odd and unexpectedly upsetting not to be able to smell anything! And it can be a bit dangerous! I bought some mentol crystals to help clear my head after a friend suggested this. I had used these with my kids years ago and know the vapour is really potent and can irritate your eyes and respiratory system if you use too much. I put in two almost microscopic particles with the boiling water, got my towel and began to steam my head! I did notice there was no vapour and was surprised. Then I wondered if I had not used enough....almost went to get more, but asked Alan to smell it. He didn't have to - sitting across the room, he could smell it fine. Going to a perfume counter, I have begun trying to smell the samples. I look like a regular customer, but I am not. There has been no result of smells with anything I have tried. I even got excited one time at work, when I thought my hair smelled bad! Not because I would like to smell bad, but because I thought I could smell it. That must have been some sort of phantom smell because I asked Alan when I got home and he said my hair smelled nice. (Ok, he is my husband, but he would have told me if it really didn't smell right!) They say your sense of taste is tied into your sense of smell. Maybe it is because I enjoy food so much, but I have not noticed less enjoyment of eating! Not being able to smell may not be alerting me to thinking I need to eat if someone is cooking or eating something I like close to me, so that might be what the experts meant about lack of smell affecting how a person eats. I know I am safe walking by a bakery or a steak restaurant - that would not even register! Maybe that is a benefit. Even walking by someone smoking - can't smell anything.....not all bad then!

You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way. - Walter Hagen