Post Surgery

So Madeleine had her 2nd hip op on Monday just over two weeks ago, and came home last Monday. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as they might have, but in and out of hospital in 8 days for a fairly invasive surgical procedure is still pretty good going!

Anyway, progress is made every day; yesterday was her first outing beyond practicing going up and down the stairwell – we went over to the Metropole for breakfast!
Today she’s out again, hospital visiting, but in theory that involves no more walking than yesterday’s expedition…

Not sure how far we’ll get on Sunday (it’s dark too early on other days to do much outside) but if the weather’s ok we should get a few yards at least! Maybe even to Peter’s Yard for coffee and cardamom buns! Bit doubtful about that, though, come to think of the distances involved.

Mark Eitzel plays at the Cabaret Voltaire on Saturday; pretty certain Madeleine won’t manage along, but I might!

Events and Happenings!

Last night I went to a discussion chaired by Ken McLeod, in his capacity as writer-in-residence at the Genomics Dept. of the university, down at Moray House.

Interesting stuff, about the perception of scientists as promulgated by works of written sf. And he had asked if I could sell some books during the intervals, so I made some money as well! And got free drink.

But the big news is that Madeleine got a phone call about her operation offering her a cancellation spot – which, after due consultation with her boss, she accepted.
So her 2nd hip op will be on Monday.

This Monday! 19th October, and we expect that she’ll be home by the weekend and the recovery process will start all over again! But this time she’ll have two good hips, not a replacement and one that has been becoming increasingly painful as the other side improved…

Madeleine’s Hippy Hippy Slice

Tomorrow morning Madeleine is admitted to the Royal for a much needed replacement hip operation.

This goes some way to explaining the lack of wonderfully exciting posts about trips and events we might have gone to; as her mobility decreased and her pain increased, non-essential trips, etc. have fallen by the wayside.

This also means that our Festival & Fringe expeditions will probably be greatly curtailed this year as recovery can take quite a long time.
We will make it along to some events, though, I’m sure!

And in the meantime the garden’s getting more attention than usual this year!

Sunny Weekend…

Saturday evening was Madeleine’s aunt Sylvia’s Seventieth Birthday, so the occasion was celebrated in a private dining room at the Sheraton.

Drink, buffet, cake, etc.  -who could complain!?
Flickr photo

Sunday was nice and sunny, so we went down to Madeleine’s studio and rearranged it, with some new shelving, etc. Still some different tables etc. needed to replace the existing hodge-podge, but that’s for another day! After that, we actually got some sun, having a very late brunch at a nearby Turkish cafe called Cafe Truva. Meze for 2, very nice, and filling!
Then up to the National Galleries to squeeze in a second look at a couple of small exhibitions, only to discover that they both finished last week! Grr! Took a quick look at the new art replacing them – some of it was very good, but I resisted (fairly easily) giving much thought to a little piece I liked a lot which was only (!) £300…  Up to the Meadows and Peter’s Yard, where we sat and had icecream – vanilla & blueberry for me, hazlenut & raspberry (or maybe strawberry) for Madeleine.
Then home for a quiet evening…

Prehistoric Creature Day (again!)

So it’s a Friday the 13th again already! Seems like only a few weeks since the last one! And unlike some people expecting bad luck on Friday the 13th, we look forward to it as another Prehistoric Creature Day!
I’ve still not put up photos of last month’s PCDay – they’re awfully shy sometimes, but that’s not very surprising for critters thought to be extinct! – but today they should be getting cake for tea! There might also be some wine, so who knows what poses we might see them in!

previous PCDay post (June 2008)
Previous PCDay post (February 2009)

Busy Weekends…

and exiting, in some ways, but sometimes not really very interesting!

Three weeks ago we spent most of Sunday packing up all of Madeleine’s accumulated arts & crafts material, etc. in her basement studio in Jamaica Street – that was fun! Well, not really…

And two weeks ago we spent most of Sunday moving  and installing it all in her new studio space down in Leith, at an artists studio complex called Coburg House almost on the Water of Leith near the bridge at Sandport Place. And then we made two or three other visits in the evenings to sort stuff out and prepare for the Open Studios weekend that’s just finished!

This was all rather hurried in order to be ready for the open weekend but everything got done in time, at least as far as I know; maybe Madeleine meant to have a lot more done, I’m not sure. Anyway, a champagne opening on the Friday evening, with Madeleine’s own Coburg Cake being made and distributed around all the other artists yesterday! (It’s a traditional cake whose name suits the venue perfectly!). Very good!

So, quite a lot accomplished, but no photos to show for it! Except this tiny aerial shot:

Which is actually frosty moss & lichen on Sandport Bridge…

My mum’s on the left!

Aunt Jessie's Bridesmaids

My mum is on the left, and my Aunt Jean on the right… I should probably have added this to the post about my aunt below. Assuming I’ve got the right wedding, it’s August 27th 1949.

Flickr ‘family’ can see more old family photos in my Flickr stream. E-mail me to get access if you’re not on the list.

Jean Prattis; my Godmother

On thursday I attended the cremation service for my favourite aunt*. She died shortly after suffering a major stroke the previous week. The service was across at Dunfermline in an idyllic setting with a huge window overlooking lawns and trees, with a small river running through the grounds.

The minister was from her own congregation and gave a very touching eulogy. I had meant to use the bible she gave me at my baptism for the hymns, but I realised the numbers might all be different and I might not find the words, so I just used the songbook provided.
Afterwards we retired to a light lunch at the King Malcolm, close to the crematorium, and also not far from Aunt Jean & Uncle Bill’s home for the past 20+ years or so. We caught up with some family, failed to catch up with others, and eventually came home and Madeleine & I took a brief walk down through some fields, etc. I’ve known since I was a child and enjoyed the burgeoning crops and hedgerows bursting with butterflies and bees…

Back when I was growing up, we (my family) used to visit Jean & Bill fairly regularly and I used to really like their house – it was an upper flat of and end of terrace with a door at the side and an internal stair up to all the rooms. It was quite snug, really, when 7 people were in the lounge! When I got bored with the adults (or after Uncle Bill’s slide shows!) I used to wander through to the front dining room and admire/play with carefully(!) her collection of little glass animals, etc. which were laid out on a sideboard; other times I would be allowed out the kitchen door (one flight up!). Fortunately, it had a little landing and steps down to their garden at the back – and it had a stream at the bottom of it! Great fun, and sometimes we got access to the golf course on the other side, so long as we kept off the fairways, greens, etc.

A few years ago I walked up through the golf course and looked over – and their old flat was there, looking just as I remembered it, beyond a little stream, and a tidy back garden… Not sure the new owners still grew vegetables, though!

* really a 3-way tie with Auntie Rachel and Auntie Jessie, although I didn’t see so much of Aunt Jessie as she’s lived in Manchester all my life…

Weekend flight of fancy!

On Saturday I didn’t open the shop. Fortunately, I had arranged for someone else to!

The reason being that earlier in the year my brother had given me a birthday present of a helicopter flight for two and our slot had finally arrived!

The helipad was tucked away in a corner of Ingliston near the airport and not that easy to track down, but at around 11.00 or so we finally took off for a tour up the river Forth and the towns and villages on the southern shore up to about Linlithgow and back down to the two bridges, Cramond and views of Edinburgh and the Pentlands. I let Madeleine sit in the front beside the pilot because I knew sh’ed make good use of the photographic opportunities from the better frontal views it provided. I had a left side window seat beside the other 4 passengers in the rear compartment. I had great views, even though the weather was a bit overcast, and took a bunch of pretty average pictures. Which is why M got the good seat! I haven’t really used a camera for years and had been practising a bit beforehand so I knew which buttons to press but the practice pictures turned out a lot better than the ones taken on the day…

Later we had coffee with our chaffeur for the day, M’s aunt Audrey who we then treated to lunch up at Greens Hotel in Kinross, which was a bit disappointing, and after a drive north through the autumnal trees of Glen Farg – decades since I’ve been through the Glen, rather than sticking to the motorway – we strolled round Branklyn Gardens and then had coffee and cake at a small French (well, Breton, actually, I’m told) restaurant in central Perth.

Audrey bid us farewell and we checked into the New County Hotel for the night, which was fine but not outstanding… the evening was occupied having a drink or two and going to see Stardust. Very enjoyable, but a bit too long.

On Sunday morning my sister met us as we read the papers in the hotel lounge and we drove up to the Hermitage just beyond Dunkeld and strolled about there, seeing the refurbished Ossian’s Folly – a little building with a balcony jutting out over the river just where salmon try to leap upstream at some very frothy waterfalls. It was the season for them to try to jump, but the river was pretty full and I think most of them had sensibly figured it wasn’t a good day to try. Oh, well. One of my earlier skirmishes with photography produced a picture of a leaping salmon right here, taken from the balcony; maybe I should did it out of wherever it might be…

On then, to the Loch of the Lowes – very scenic but the viewing centre and hides all seemed locked up – and back to Dunkeld & Birnam to the Beatrix Potter Center for a very light lunch, a look at an exhibition (nothing to do with BP), and a look around the shop, where I bought myself a smart little bag!

Then back to Perth via some very nice backroads near the Tay, going via Caputh, Stanley and Luncarty and back to my sister’s for coffee! Then a disasterous attempt to get a bus back to Edinburgh resulting in failing to get a bus, going for a meal with my sister while we waited for a direct train due quite a bit later, and then being put on a bus anyway at the station because of unannounced reasons…grrr. I had checked earlier in the week and there weren’t meant to be any problems affecting this train. Anyway, the bus left Perth about 15 minutes after the train it replaced should have, hared down the M80 and got to Waverley just when the train would have been due in! A local bus straight home, some wine to help unwind, and so finished a fairly fun-filled, hectic (in a mellow sort of way) weekend.

And the shop had a fairly good day, too!