Monday 29 January 2018

A "Burns Night" Tea, An Exhibition to Plan, and Furry Friends.

LIFE:  22-28th JANUARY 2018

A " Burns Night" tea, next Auld Earlston Exhibition, a busy time blogging before more computer hassles and a Visit from Furry Friends -  thank goodness I am getting back to normal after my bout of flu.

Monday 22nd January
A domestic duties morning.   Blogging afternoon, working on a profile of my great grandmother for this week's prompt in series  "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks", and for the Auld Earlston blog, childhood memories of John Moffat whose father opened the first garage in the village c. 1920,  John was an adventurous little lad who got into all kinds of scrapes, so it was an entertaining article to pull together.


Great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe with her youngest of her nine surviving children  - only daughter Jennie (at the back) and her little granddaughter Annie Maria. 

Tuesday 23rd January 
Auld Earlston meeting in the evening  where we decided our next exhibition in October will be on the theme of "Earlston in War and Peace - 1914-1949."  My head is buzzing with ideas  but plenty of time  to bring it all together.   


The 2017 Exhibition on the theme of Travel  - "Horses to Horse Power" proved 
a popular draw. so we have a reputation to keep up!


Wednesday 24th January 
Wednesday Club meeting.  In honour of "Burns Night",  we had a change from our usual afternoon tea, by serving Scottish fayre.   I had the easiest task, in my catering group, as I only had to buy, slice and butter   three Selkirk bannocks, whilst others  prepared oatcakes  with  cheese, haggis (sausage) rolls, sandwiches, scones and shortbread biscuits. 

"Some hae meat and canna eat, and some hae meat and want it
But we hae meat and we can eat, and sae the Lord be thankit." 

Robert Burns, Statue, Burns, Robert
Robbie Burns  (1749-1796) - Scotland's national poet 
Image from www.pixabay.com 

Before the tea, we had an excellent talk on the "Street Pastor" Project across the Borders,  whereby  volunteers go out and about in the main towns  on a Saturday night (10pn-3.30am), providing a listening ear and practical support to the clubbers e.g. offering flip flops to girls who could hardly walk in their 6 inch high heels, beanie hats to counteract the cold, and lollies to diffuse any tricky situation - yes lollies!  The scheme began in Brixton, London where gang culture  and knife crime were the chief concerns,   but here in the Borders the issues are more anti-social behavior and drunkenness.   The talk stimulated a lot of discussion afterwards. 

Thursday 25th January 
Joined the "Walk It" group  for the first time for weeks. 

 Computer panic stations in the evening when on my I Pad I could not access blogger.com, the programme I   use to write my blogs.   A dash to the main computer - and ditto. What on earth had I done?  Eventually an Error 503 message came up  which I googled - much relief it was a server issue.  I had three options, two of which I did not udnerstand to I opted for the third - "Try again later" - and yes within the hour I was back on line with Blogger.   Phew! 

Friday 26th January 
The bus into Galashiels for odds and ends shopping.  In a charity shop I picked up to lovely furry friends for the African KAS (Knit a Square) charity who are looking to provide each child with a soft toy.  

Back home, the sun was streaming through the house and it was relatively mild, so  I ventured into the garden  and did some tidying up.  Perhaps Spring is round the corner! 

More computer disasters in the evening - could not access Adobe Photoshop or open any web pages and the Shut Down button was not working.  Why do these problems always happen at the weekend?  

Saturday  January 27th 

After yesterday's high activity, I was a zombie today.  Computer still not working.

We had unexpected visitor in the afternoon - G. and Nh called round, with Nh carrying a plastic basket - she thought we might like to see Chocolate and Marshmallow, her two guinea pigs. 



Sunday 28th January
Tried the computer in the morning but still not working.  

In the afternoon  went to Galahiels with a friend  to visit another friend and former work colleague who is unfortunately  suffering from dementia and has recently moved into a care home.  Her spirit is still as lively as ever, but she is living in the 1950's, reminiscing about her life in London when she was working for the Civil Service  in Whitehall at the time of the death of King George VI and the coronation of the Queen -  fascinating memories and we all enjoyed chatting.

Back home to hear that N. had gone on the computer and it was working perfectly and seemed to have unscrambled itself!  Much relief! 

TV - my usual programmes  - all very enjoyable.
  • University Challenge
  • Michael Portillo's  Great Railway Train Journey across  New England which brought back memories of my year there 1965-66 and visits 30 years later with G.    
  • Art, Passion and Power - the story of the Royal Collection 
  • A House in Time  brought this Liverpool house history  up to 1945 - an impressive new series, with its emphasis on the archive material that tells the house's story and that of its residents.  
  • Mastermind where the general knowledge questions seemed easier and I could answer more of them.  
  •  Dragons Den,  where budding entrepreneurs state their case for investment from business millionaires - the setting is false, but I enjoy listening to the presentations and the discussions afterwards - with financial projections the biggest downfall of unsuccessful constants, plus arguing with the panel - not a good move!   





  • ************
    Journal Jottings   
    Recording my everyday life for future family historians 

  • 4 comments:

    1. Fascinating to me to read about life in the antipodes:) Best wishes Anne from Ballarat, Australia

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Thank you, Anne. I very much appreciate your interest.

        Delete
    2. Fantastic work Sue! Wonder what people will think of it in 100 years time. All credit for your enthusiasm! Maybe we should all keep a journal...

      ReplyDelete
    3. Fantastic work Sue! Wonder what people will think of it in 100 years time. All credit for your enthusiasm! Maybe we should all keep a journal...

      ReplyDelete